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
Fourth album of avant-garde indie pop from the Australian troupe
5.6
One of the most interesting and absorbing pop records of the decade thus far Read Review
Architecture in Helsinki remain a unique delicacy with a subtle piquancy that goes down a treat Read Review
The album’s let down factor lies in that it climaxes too early Read Review
They’re creating this bright cartoon world to block out the darker, sadder real one Read Review
Sounds listless compared to the excitement of the band's previous albums Read Review
There isn’t any real personality on show. It could be any musicians Read Review
Leaves you with the nagging feeling that this is Architecture In Helsinki with the edges taken off Read Review
Never afraid to cop a new style or try something that might not work, Architecture in Helsinki has thrown listeners for a loop yet again Read Review
The new record goes too far toward buffing out the quirks of its predecessor Read Review
A blend of unadulterated electro-pop, '80s air rock, New Age synths, and unapologetically romantic teen lyricism Read Review
A decent, but hardly essential record Read Review
Stranded between substandard teen pop and unsubversive '80s pastiches. Print edition only
Too many of their choruses aim high yet fall flat. Print edition only
Feels like some kind of sardonic spoof that the band fails to translate fully, or worse, that they aren’t aware of themselves Read Review
There isn’t enough variety here to keep the momentum going Read Review
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Architecture In Helsinki: Moment Bends
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