13 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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Album No2 from the Oklahoma indie rock / alt.folk five-piece
7.6
The most uniquely sublime, meticulous and heroic 40 minutes of 2011 Read Review
A must listen if you like musical journeys, and possibly the best thing to come out of this mid-west state since Rodgers and Hammerstein, or the Flaming Lips, or Woody Guthrie… Read Review
Exquisite Read Review
Their fondness for graceful orchestration adds a layer of sumptuous melancholy to the mix Read Review
This is sublime, transportive music to spend hours with Read Review
Melodrama hanging over every note, but in the most glorious of ways Read Review
Expect big things Read Review
An imaginative journey across the American west. Print edition only
There's not a single clunky or derivative note here. Print edition only
For 12 has the same jaw-dropping effect as the Foxes at their fleetiest. Print edition only
Tamer Animals feels organic and lovingly crafted, a record whose lushness often invites you to simply collapse into it Read Review
There is a lot to love about this album. As folk music goes, these guys have a nice original sound Read Review
Tabish's laid-back, borderline affectless voice can get tiresome, but layers of strings and piano or ghostly backing voices are usually enough to keep Tamer Animals from feeling too domesticated Read Review
Expect your hairs to stand on end or expect to shed a tear and not know why Read Review
Although this album isn’t instantly gratifying it’s definitely rewarding Read Review
It’s not that there is anything abrasive or unpleasant or wrong with these songs, it’s just that they all feel cut from the same pattern Read Review
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Other Lives: Tamer Animals
Wet Leg moisturizer
After the whirlwind of their debut album, the Isle Of Wight band could have capitulated to the pressure. Instead, they return smarter, sexier and altogether stronger NME
There’s also a fluidity to the entirety of Moisturizer that ventures beyond the limitations of the debut and everything Wet Leg signalled in their early stages Far Out
Barry Can’t Swim Loner
Loner is an easy improvement over Barry Can't Swim's debut album, and he retains his ability to craft reflective, sentimental material while strengthening his skills at making airtight tracks designed to ignite the dancefloor All Music
Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers double down on the weird energy of their debut The Independent
Rhian Teasdale and co’s second album brilliantly refines all that was great about their brash, bouncy debut The Irish Times
After winning multiple Grammys and Brits, the Isle of Wight band explore love and sexuality on their second LP – but there’s still room for some barbed put-downs The Guardian
Wet Leg’s balance of danger and relaxation pays off in this turbulently fun listen. Excitingly crafted and dangerously sharp, moisturizer is the sound of someone rolling their eyes at how lovesick they’ve become, then shrugging before seeing how far it’ll take them Northern Transmissions
Gwenno Utopia
Utopia is different from her previous work not just because of the language shift, but because of how it was made. Instead of starting electronically, Gwenno composed most of these songs on piano, recording live with her band in her living room. That choice gives Utopia organic warmth. The human touch is evident in how the instruments breathe together Northern Transmissions
Another that sounds like it will be blasted from windows of all kinds whenever the sun shines The Arts Desk
On his latest record, Barry Can’t Swim cements himself as a boundary-pushing voice in electronic music, one fluent in mood, movement, and meaningful reflection The Skinny
U.K. indie-rockers party hard and travel fast on their great second album Rolling Stone
Gwenno’s songwriting matures compellingly on Utopia The Line Of Best Fit
Kesha . [Period]
Kesha’s . is a mess of a statement The Line Of Best Fit
Pulp More
Far more than the themes of aging, sex, and loss, Pulp’s More straight-facedly spreads the word of love and it is the start of something new — a rebirth PopMatters
The Scottish producer trades sun-soaked bliss for emotional introspection – without losing the big drops musicOMH
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