1 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 from Seattle indie rock five-piece
5.7
Now that they've rid themselves of their self-sabotaging musical instincts of their first album, they are only just beginning to discover their own voice on their second Read Review
Bands such as the exceptional Sleepy Sun and Seattle's MSHVB are giving up the clever-clever in favour of a rawer, rockier approach Read Review
Floats comfortably in the middle of the indie river, pulling from tributaries all around; pop, folk, Americana, math rock, and metal Read Review
For the four players, it’s a brilliant second record that’s a step in the right direction, but for us, it’s easy to place Messengers as just another fish in a crowded sea Read Review
Grand, pastoral soundscapes, which loosely recall the likes of Pink Floyd Read Review
Though not without ideas of their own, the Seattle five-piece spend too long tugging on the sleeves of pantheon-members like Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse to fulfil their potential Read Review
One can’t help but wonder whether the band is simply trying to emulate all of their favourite bands at once Read Review
There’s a sense of a band playing their heart out, and of untapped potential, but in an over- crowded landscape, they have to work a harder to stand out Read Review
Successfully re-routes their orchestrated rock sound back to the first wave of late 60s progressive bands Read Review
A lot of interesting-sounding songs that have almost nothing to catch your ear Read Review
It's almost like MSHVB are going out of their way to go unnoticed, as there's just so little to grab onto here, in terms of either hooks or texture Read Review
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: Where The Messengers Meet
Loyle Carner hopefully!
The sounds are slightly different here than on previous albums and his tentative sojourn into singing is a success because his voice connects as easily as his rapping does Albumism
Lorde Virgin
Lorde trades in her secrecy and mystique for a tremendously healing, desperately relatable record that cements her mark as her generation’s defining artist Northern Transmissions
On the uncomfortable paths of the 28-year-old’s fourth album, slam-dunk bangers are substituted with reinvention and restraint surrendered through hushed, reflective, and carnal synth-pop vestiges Paste Magazine
The New Zealand pop star chips away to reveal her purest self on her fourth album NME
For Lorde, it's an opportunity to reclaim something she thought she had lost long ago, but has always been within her: her true self Exclaim
Frankie Cosmos Different Talking
Different Talking introduces some novel elements to the Frankie Cosmos sound, but despite that, their core identity remains intact Spectrum Culture
U.S. Girls Scratch It
Musically Scratch It will probably be the least memorable in U.S Girls’ discography and aside from ‘Like James Said’ and ‘Bookends‘, the relatively thrill-less album does sort of fly by unnoticeably, made worse by the weak closing track No Fruit God Is In The TV
Lorde may not break entirely new ground on fourth album Virgin, but its warmth and texture make it consistently compelling and quietly brilliant The Skinny
yeule Evangelic Girl Is A Gun
A sun-drenched pop album — perhaps the pop record of the summer Under The Radar
The album is a hesitant step in the right direction for the singer Slant Magazine
Virgin is Lorde at her best yet as an affective poet and, frustratingly, at her most tamed as a digital sound designer The Line Of Best Fit
The New York band’s sixth LP feels like a scaled-up team effort. The newly expansive sound suits Greta Kline’s hard-won self-knowledge Pitchfork
Lorde’s fourth album returns to the digital, physical sound of Melodrama. While rooted somewhat in her past, it’s a gritty, tender, and often transcendent ode to freedom and transformation Pitchfork
Her fourth album celebrates the messiness of being human – and is also her most compelling and revealing musicOMH
BC Camplight A Sober Conversation
It’s perhaps the finest release of his career from start to finish, and that’s beating some stiff competition Far Out
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