25 December 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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Debut album from Norwich-based electronic producer and musician
7.5
Holkham Drones should stand side-by-side with the masterpieces that Kieran Hebden and Dan Snaith have put out this year Read Review
Abbott’s endearing accessibility ensures that this collection will find friends from all walks, of all persuasions. And all are sure to be, one way or another, sufficiently moved Read Review
With a début as promising and assured as this, expect big things from Abbott in the future Read Review
This is a prime example in how to make machine music sound warm and human. Listening to it is like entering a lucid dream Read Review
A richly rewarding experience. Print edition only
Luke Abbott has risen to the top of the electronica pile, and while he may not have the hype of some of his contemporaries, he can be safe in the knowledge that 'Drones' is up there with the best of the year Read Review
Perhaps a touch overlong, Holkham Drones is nevertheless unsettling, otherworldly and oddly beautiful Read Review
Holkham Drones is modest and quick to reward Read Review
A man whose heart seems to send electro pulses beating through his veins. Print edition only
Draws more from minimalism and krautrock than grime, the clean lines of his analogue synth constructions employing steady pulses adorned with sparse bleeps and burring textures Read Review
Print edition only
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Luke Abbott: Holkham Drones
The Lemonheads Love Chant
The band’s first album of original music in 20 years is an undeniably self-conscious comeback, manifesting the existential angst of middle age in sludgier-than-usual riffs, sudden switchups, and some of Evan Dando’s most self-reflective lyrics to date A.V. Club
Dove Ellis Blizzard
Enigmatic Galway songwriter sounds like a storm-tossed mix of Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Jeff Buckley The Irish Times
This is Lorelei Holo Boy
Amos has been an expert popsmith for years; the world is finally catching up, and not a moment too soon All Music
One half of Water From Your Eyes re-records songs from the back catalogue of his other band, resulting in acoustic fare touched with regret and darkness The Guardian
Nate Amos’s latest solo album consists entirely of songs written in the years prior to 2024’s Box for Buddy, Box for Star. The music presents us with yet another robust block of material that allows his idiosyncratic songwriting to truly shine Paste Magazine
This Is Lorelei’s Holo Boy has the air of an artist taking stock, as he maps the route taken while checking which parts still line up now Spectrum Culture
Songwriter Nate Amos polishes up 10 tracks from his Bandcamp days and confronts humorous self-effacement with new confidence Pitchfork
A wonderfully enjoyable cycle of straight-down-the-line songwriting Clash
Oneohtrix Point Never Tranquilizer
It’s his best work since Replica, and the most complete realization of his long-running obsession with the imperfect persistence of time. Tranquilizer doesn’t just show you a world—it shows you how that world remembers itself Under The Radar
Melody’s Echo Chamber Unclouded
This is the epitome of a “vibes album,” and as a vibes album, Unclouded knocks it out of the park Spectrum Culture
Dove Ellis’ debut is remarkably assured, showcasing a new talent with strong potential Spectrum Culture
The Galway-born singer-songwriter takes Romantic yearning — for the pure, the mythical, the divine — and turns it gently earthward on Blizzard Paste Magazine
Despite its title, ‘Tranquilizer’ is deceptively mesmerizing, potently putting calm emotions into a frenzied state, and leaving you coming back for more Northern Transmissions
Little Simz Lotus
She’s a rapper who refuses to let up and keeps ensuring that her name is held aloft in the conversations of the best in the world Far Out
Dove Ellis breathes new life into the Irish folk-rock scene. The album is hopeful, complex and as a whole plays with the picturesque diction of a pastoral poem. Wondering what will follow this stunning debut makes the listening all the more enjoyable Hot Press
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.
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Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
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Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
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