25 March 2026
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.
Browse specific styles
Debut album of lo-fi country blues from duo comprising former Wars of 1812 member Peter Pisano and Brian Moen
6.5
Inter-Be is, in short, a success in every way Read Review
Pisano is a strong songwriter who skilfully layers his material to ensure its glory grows with repeated listens. At once haunting and comforting – Inter-Be heralds a major talent Read Review
Reflects the bold first steps of a band coming together out of the ashes of writers block and failed projects, while delivering a solid statement that their moment has indeed arrived Read Review
This is a unified set with a soul and a heart, which is not something you come across everyday Read Review
Ambient at times (Lion) and more bluesy (Saturday Night) at others, emphasized with the plucky guitar that gives the songs a bucolic element (Demo 01). But mostly it's a chord and a beat. And for the most part, they're all that's needed Read Review
M. Ward has long been a force in indie rock's old-timey lane, and Pisano and Moen reside very much in his spirit, using what sounds to be almost exclusively vintage gear Read Review
Working in the ambiguous "indie-folk" genre, comparisons to Bob Dylan or Iron and Wine would be expected, but with Moen’s additions, the album most resembles Justin Vernon’s Volcano Choir project Read Review
Print edition only
Starting by stripping Pisano’s songs back to the bark, the duo then painstakingly build the tunes out with fuzzy alt.folk and rootsy lo-fi embellishments Read Review
There’s not a great deal here to grab onto. It coasts by very amicably, and there are a few nice hooks to be found Read Review
There are definitely highlights to the album that make it somewhat worthwhile. The first three or four songs are pretty strong and catchy Read Review
Roll over video for more options
Peter Wolf Crier: Inter-Be
Underscores U
It’s a confident evolution from her 2020 EP Character Development!, with Grey producing an utterly refined sound that encapsulates the highs of the 2010 pop, bro-step and bubblegum bass eras The Quietus
Kim Gordon Play Me
She’s incorporating sounds and techniques that – and apologies for bringing age into it – most other septuagenarians would recoil from The Quietus
BTS ARIRANG
There’s a lot riding on the sensational K-pop group’s first album in four years, but its generic songs ring hollow and lack the vim and vigor of the band’s best work Pitchfork
It’s a scintillating experience, perhaps the moment where underscores fully out-strips her peers, and comes into her own Clash
Ladytron Paradises
Ladytron have produced an album that, from its inception, sought to invoke the same spirit that the band had 25 years ago Far Out
Gorillaz The Mountain
The strongest case in years that Gorillaz can still make records that matter as records Dork
'Play me' doesn’t try to comfort. It tries to provoke, energise and outlast the scroll Dork
The Orielles Only You Left
These songs come from months of demo-hoarding and forensic listening, the band archiving every practice-room spark before lovingly picking through the results Dork
James Blake Trying Times
Blake sounds energised by the room he has carved out for himself Dork
Harry Styles Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.
This isn’t an album built like a straight line from hook to hook. It moves in waves, often favouring texture and atmosphere over immediate release Dork
It’s technical excellence as a musical product cannot be overstated. For a pop album to be this busy yet possess a pocket as deep and rich as underscores displays here is simply amazing Sputnik Music (staff)
Indie rock icon Kim Gordon acerbically wrestles with the state of the world over hip-hop and industrial beats on Play Me PopMatters
The former electro-pop enfant terrible swings big on her latest album, compressing all her split personalities and eclectic tastes into a high-gloss, high-stakes gamble to remake pop on her own terms Pitchfork
On U, she finds a clearly-defined, rounded-out identity in her music for the first time, and she delivers the most immediate and the most robust work of her career The Line Of Best Fit
Performing, writing and producing everything herself, April Grey pares back her hyperpop electronics for an LP in thrall to 90s pop-R&B, with songs that big stars would die for The Guardian
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
Rosalía Lux
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Hayley Williams Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways