18 May 2012
Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 publications. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.
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Tracks the critics are loving: hear them now
" The finest jangle pop this side of the Rockies" The Digital Fix
Listen on SpotifyListen on grooveshark
" Highlights include DJ Ease My Mind which is sure to become a club anthem" The Line Of Best Fit
" Simply put, it’s one of the singles of the year" music OMH
" Metamorphoses commence in unison on the mighty creepiness of the album’s near-seven-minute centerpiece, Simmer. And does it ever" Pop Matters
" When they hit full, throat-ripping, riff-driven throttle, such as on Gebbie Street, they sound superbly riotous" The Fly
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The first UK band signed to Jagjaguwar with their second album blending psychedelic and classic blues rock
7.3
If you can handle being spirited back [in] time, in brief bursts at least, this might be one of your towering highlights of 2010 Read Review
It’s the funky flute riff of Tiny Circles ... which makes the album, an unlikely but astounding addition to their arsenal Read Review
Print edition only
An exciting evocative album. Print edition only
A big, old, hairy beast. Print edition only
Rock 'n' roll, when performed properly, has limitless potential as a genre that can excite, uplift and reflect. Wolf People, with its dedication to history and multiple facets, has managed to do all those things with the utmost efficiency Read Review
Steeple is competent and very obviously displays hard-earned skill, but it’s a little sad to think about all the directions they didn’t go, all the roads they didn’t take Read Review
If you want to thrash around your bedroom playing air guitar, pretending to be the rock star which you’re never going to quite be, stick Steeple on and let the air guitar sessions begin Read Review
Akin to a UK version of White Denim. Print edition only
A fully formed statement of principles from a band that’s taking all that baggage — of all the riff-heavy rock that came before them — and proving they have their own firm, fresh grip on the genre Read Review
Steeple is filled with dirty psych grooves and echoes of heroes like Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page Read Review
There are certainly things to enjoy here, but too often Steeple is searching for its soul Read Review
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Wolf People: Steeple
Squarepusher Ufabulum
In the form of his life. Print edition only Uncut
The Magnetic North Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North
Majestic yet frustratingly aloof. Print edition only Uncut
The windswept islands captured in music. Print edition only Mojo
No, Squarepusher doesn’t seem to give a damn, but he does want to smoosh eardrums with whacky stuff. More power to him The Arts Desk
Some of the tracks are over-arranged which gives the album, overall, a bit of an identity crisis Bowlegs
An evocative, indelible, and utterly majestic ode to Orkney AU Magazine
Ultimately Ufabulum’s jarring stylistic schism may make the album tough to digest for many people, but the quality of Jenkinson’s craftsmanship remains constant throughout The Skinny
These are timeless songs which rather than being of any genre - not even the hard-to-define 'folk' - seem to spring from the bare open horizons, low-lying islands and sea of Orkney, creating a unique bleak and windswept aesthetic The Quietus
Funky as he wants to be — EPCOT-rocking splatterjazz, rainbow-tasting ravewave, Inspector Gadget ringtone funk Spin
Each track is rich with strings and woodwind, but all with an unavoidable folky edge. It’s a formula that works, and works to the extent that sets it aside in terms of originality music OMH
A truly beguiling record Drowned In Sound
A bit cold, clinical and repetitive NME
Hugely impressive, technically, but too cold and forbidding for many tastes BBC
Public Image Ltd This Is PiL
It may not be of the calibre of Metal Box, but it finds its maker firmly in 2012, not 1979, and with plenty still to grouse about Uncut
Saint Etienne Words And Music By Saint Etienne
These songs are their sharpest in over a decade. Print edition only NME
What's finding favour with bloggers & other review sites
The Mars Volta Noctourniquet
Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball
Andrew Bird Break It Yourself
Following up the highly-acclaimed Teen Dream album was never going to be an easy feat but Beach House appear to have succeeded with Bloom. It has 10s from two sources and a 9.1 from Pitchfork, while FasterLouder see it as a "transportive journey"
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past three and a half years or so
Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Ry Cooder Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down
Arcade Fire The Suburbs
Tom Waits Bad As Me
Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid
Joanna Newsom Have One On Me
Gillian Welch The Harrow & The Harvest
Burial Kindred