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
" 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
" Simply put, it’s one of the singles of the year" music OMH
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Debut album from Toronto-based disco house quartet
7.4
An effortlessly exceptional album, one that any discerning clubhead should have no hesitation in surrendering to Read Review
It is the way this excellent debut matches sweat-glistening action with a dark, fruity class that ensures Azari & III will be one of the finest electronic pop record you’re likely to hear in 2011 Read Review
All diva froideur and drum machine snap, it nevertheless transcends pastiche via a pervasive air of murky ambiguity Read Review
From a purely musical perspective, it executes that very most rare form of retroism - the type that makes the tired, forgotten and domesticated once again radical Read Review
They’re still splendidly in thrall to the joys of the dance floor and wherever those nocturnal charms will take them Read Review
A mix of jackin instrumentals and intoxicating vocal tracks Read Review
The undeniable success of their debut album stems from a fearless and energising take on the usually unfuckwithable canonical peaks of classic house music Read Review
Whatever it is that motivates them to party, they make it sound good Read Review
Intelligently realised debut. Print edition only
They’re making music for people who love dance music, which makes them part of their own audience. If you fit the demographic, you’ll feel right at home Read Review
Massive tunes aside, it’s worth remarking how solid Azari & III is throughout. The record is refreshingly free of filler for a singles-led dance album Read Review
Mind-bending metal machine music. Print edition only
They may not be heralding the arrival of a brave new world of dance music but when the old one still manages to sound this inspiring and exhilarating it would be churlish not to reply with your feet and just enjoy the ride Read Review
About the dancefloor as an escape Read Review
The sense of tension in this album never quite goes away, and as the songs progress it becomes more apparent Read Review
Trim a few tracks and you’ve got a record that’s informed by the past, but not in thrall to it Read Review
What this bunch of house revivalists unquestionably hold is a barrel full of talent that many groups would murder for Read Review
With 11 tracks running to just over an hour, there is simply too much music here, or at least, not enough variety in their startlingly nostalgic house sound Read Review
Every song follows exactly the same blueprint of a monotonous 4/4 beat and a two bar synth line with occasional effects added, interchanged with a bass-driven breakdown Read Review
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Azari & III: Azari & III
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