26 September 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
Second album of psychedlic krautrock from Nottingham quartet
7.0
Celeste's groovy fug proves more enveloping with each listen. Print edition only
The arrangements are subtle and deceptively intricate. Print edition only
Print edition only
Whatever secret ingredient that made its predecessor (last year's debut, Harmonium) so captivating ultimately makes it a record layered with swirling intrigue Read Review
An album at once free-floating and tethered tight Read Review
While they may veer closer to contemporary easy listening than the shock of the truly avant-garde, this is a worthwhile addition to a still largely under-exposed and, despite everything, under-explored canon Read Review
The vast layers of the Nottingham band’s psychedelia-tinged sound ensure a fascinating musical landscape that rewards repeated listens Read Review
Most of the songs have a similar motif, usually beginning with some atmospheric lead-in, before working up an infectious stirring groove or hazy drifting sweep Read Review
It's far from a perfect album and it will probably lose it's lustre as the trees lose their leaves come autumn, but for one hour at least Celeste will send you off with the fairies Read Review
It’s a smart, well dressed record; there’s nothing wrong with the attire here. Yet it feels a little too smooth, a touch too clinical, a little too safe Read Review
With Celeste The Soundcarriers have woven together a sumptuous collection of songs, so turn out the lights, light one up and dream away Read Review
They claim not to be retro-modernist, in which case one can only admire them for their postmodernist attitude towards retrospection Read Review
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The Soundcarriers: Celeste
Blondshell Violins
This is an artist widening her frame without losing her bite. It’s confident, a little wistful, and often loud in all the right places Northern Transmissions
On her third album, Sabrina Teitelbaum fights to strike a balance between savage beauty and jagged home truths NME
Everything great about Blondshell is present on ‘Violins’, but it feels sharper, more adventurous and more assured then ever before Clash
LA alt-rock singer Blondshell trades plain-speaking lyricism for something more abstract, while Irish rock band Gurriers cut through the noise with their ambitious second album The Independent
While trying to find and assert herself, the song has her imagining walking down the aisle to Beethoven's Für Elise, even though no one, including her, would pick it as a wedding song All Music
An often-delicate inward vision that pairs frustration with beauty DIY
It's in her ability to take the everyday experience and turn it into an epic noise that Violins finds its sweet spot The Line Of Best Fit
It would be unfair to call Violins Blondshell’s finest work to date, given the strength of her previous albums. What’s clear, though, is that it’s every bit as good as what came before Under The Radar
Protomartyr Hotel Usona
The album is more eerie in tone than its predecessors, like a distant alarm sounding, trying to amplify the sounds we cannot hear Northern Transmissions
It’s a bleak listen, sure, but Protomartyr haven’t ever been the comforting types. In fact, they’ve chosen the perfect time to double down on their righteous anger and despair, and if everything were to come to a catastrophic end right now, you’ve got the perfect soundtrack for it Far Out
For newcomers, it's a perfectly moody entry point. Hotel Usona is the sound of a band settling into their own skin, creating a space that's uniquely theirs and generously sharing the key Exclaim
From singer Joe Casey’s handmade album artwork to drummer Alex Leonard’s impish, kinetic inversions of classic post-punk rhythm, the Detroit band crafts an austere, unflinching record as bleak as it is cathartic Paste Magazine
This is not a hotel you'd want to stay at any time soon, but it's a remarkable record to spend time with. Print edition only Uncut
Under dim hotel lights, Casey’s lyricism appears foreboding and alien in a way it never has before The Line Of Best Fit
Ezra Collective Here Because of Hope
Arguably the biggest jazz band in the country return with an album that shows off both their exuberant and more reflective sides 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
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