15 July 2025
Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.
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Second album of updated age-old folk standards from the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
7.8
The marriage of ageless simplicity and avant-garde modernity ... is simply stunning. It’s creators are aware of where invention and understatement are best placed – the result is 42 transcendent minutes Read Review
It’s clear that this album is another complete success for the most interesting and promising folk musician in North America today Read Review
Much of I See the Sign's success can be chalked up to its arrangements, which are fractured and frequently off-kilter Read Review
An album that will reward the listener able to put aside preconceptions and admire its clever and successful fusion of styles, genres and musical traditions Read Review
The mostly traditional material covered here by Amidon is swathed in the string and horn arrangements of Nico Muhly and embellished with the worldly percussion and textural contributions of Shahzad Ismaily Read Review
A thing of beauty and a triumph of collaboration, its honesty and sincerity likely to thaw even the coldest of hearts Read Review
Moby reinvented vintage field recordings as space-age nightclub blues. Sam Amidon works similarly quirky alchemy here, reinventing public-domain songs as rustic mood music Read Review
Print edition only
A spiritual, and at times mournful, record with alluring tales of a man lost in the world Read Review
Overall, this at-first-shy but eventually overpowering record will make yer cheeks sting with wine and late-night gales Read Review
With the ability to integrate an R Kelly track into a record of traditional ballads, it’s quite clear that his imagination and confidence are growing with every record Read Review
It's somnambulistic stuff, with Amidon – his voice as gentle as a sigh – relishing his role as both saviour and slayer of songbooks past Read Review
While Amidon does add something new to the folk canon, perhaps it isn't quite enough Read Review
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Sam Amidon: I See The Sign
Wet Leg moisturizer
After the whirlwind of their debut album, the Isle Of Wight band could have capitulated to the pressure. Instead, they return smarter, sexier and altogether stronger NME
There’s also a fluidity to the entirety of Moisturizer that ventures beyond the limitations of the debut and everything Wet Leg signalled in their early stages Far Out
Barry Can’t Swim Loner
Loner is an easy improvement over Barry Can't Swim's debut album, and he retains his ability to craft reflective, sentimental material while strengthening his skills at making airtight tracks designed to ignite the dancefloor All Music
Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers double down on the weird energy of their debut The Independent
Rhian Teasdale and co’s second album brilliantly refines all that was great about their brash, bouncy debut The Irish Times
After winning multiple Grammys and Brits, the Isle of Wight band explore love and sexuality on their second LP – but there’s still room for some barbed put-downs The Guardian
Wet Leg’s balance of danger and relaxation pays off in this turbulently fun listen. Excitingly crafted and dangerously sharp, moisturizer is the sound of someone rolling their eyes at how lovesick they’ve become, then shrugging before seeing how far it’ll take them Northern Transmissions
Gwenno Utopia
Utopia is different from her previous work not just because of the language shift, but because of how it was made. Instead of starting electronically, Gwenno composed most of these songs on piano, recording live with her band in her living room. That choice gives Utopia organic warmth. The human touch is evident in how the instruments breathe together Northern Transmissions
Another that sounds like it will be blasted from windows of all kinds whenever the sun shines The Arts Desk
On his latest record, Barry Can’t Swim cements himself as a boundary-pushing voice in electronic music, one fluent in mood, movement, and meaningful reflection The Skinny
U.K. indie-rockers party hard and travel fast on their great second album Rolling Stone
Gwenno’s songwriting matures compellingly on Utopia The Line Of Best Fit
Kesha . [Period]
Kesha’s . is a mess of a statement The Line Of Best Fit
Pulp More
Far more than the themes of aging, sex, and loss, Pulp’s More straight-facedly spreads the word of love and it is the start of something new — a rebirth PopMatters
The Scottish producer trades sun-soaked bliss for emotional introspection – without losing the big drops musicOMH
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past twelve years or so. Rankings are calculated to two decimal places.
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly
Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange