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.
Browse specific styles
Debut album of dream pop from London-based Italian Alessio Natalizia
6.1
A thing of gorgeousness; tremolo guitars, unfolding drum patterns and dreamlike arrangements Read Review
It is not an album underpinned by hype – it is a finely tuned statement of intent from a young songwriter who, like very few others, has an incredibly patient yet potent Midas touch in his craft Read Review
Headphones donned and lights extinguished, each submersion is every bit as worthy as the last Read Review
Treads the impressive line between epic and restrained Read Review
Unsettling, weirdly compelling stuff Read Review
A big gooey feast of melancholy laptop pop, and it’s relatively lovely stuff Read Review
There are occasional flashes of creativity-stuffed aptitude - but this time around they're merely flashes Read Review
Softly burred guitar loops, Fripp-like trippiness and heavy psych/space-rock grooves. Print edition only
There are no weak links or moments which falter, yet neither does 'Banjo Or Freakout' do anything to really seize the listener's attention Read Review
Banjo Or Freakout? More of each please Read Review
An obvious enthusiast of lo-fi recordings, Natalizia is first and foremost a pop artist, and this is realized on the album’s more successful endeavors Read Review
Once Natalizia writes some songs better flattered by his sonic sense, I suspect he'll really have something here Read Review
Some of the worst offenders here feel like demos and, damn, they are tough to endure. Read Review
You will get some relaxed, passive listening from the record, but the overly hazed production makes for an aimless set of tracks Read Review
Roll over video for more options
Banjo or Freakout: Banjo or Freakout
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