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
" Simply put, it’s one of the singles of the year" music OMH
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" 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
" The finest jangle pop this side of the Rockies" The Digital Fix
" When they hit full, throat-ripping, riff-driven throttle, such as on Gebbie Street, they sound superbly riotous" The Fly
The ADM newsletter lets you hear the tracks reviewers are rating as the stand-out songs from the best new albums. Sign up in that box on the top right.
Sophomore effort of alternative post-hardcore from the Leeds quartet
6.9
An album jam-packed with songs – proper, festival slaying, career-making songs Read Review
It’s obvious that the focus of the band is to climb to the top, but without compromising on the sound Read Review
They've matured into a muscular, malevolent beast. Print edition only
Ensures that Pulled Apart By Horses have cemented themselves as one of the most exciting punk bands in the contemporary UK scene Read Review
11 brutal songs that you could work your way through on the most meagre of lunch breaks – go back to your desk feeling like Clark Kent on a Ritalin overdose Read Review
Exactly the kind of second album you would want from Pulled Apart By Horses Read Review
It's effortlessly thrilling, but perhaps not for the faint of heart Read Review
This is a record you'll be revisiting for years to come. Print edition only
A relentless and ridiculous - but occasionally repetitive - record of raucous rowdiness Read Review
Pulled Apart By Horses continue to be a devastating whirlwind of energy and it looks like they have plenty of that energy left to continue for a while yet Read Review
Tough Love is swagger and bile in the main, but it’s certainly not executed with knuckleheaded abandon Read Review
Tough Love doesn’t just pack a punch, but suggests a serious face/mirrorball encounter that will leave many a listener reeling Read Review
An album will stay ringing in your ears long afterwards Read Review
Pulled Apart By Horses play a vein of alt-rock/post-hardcore that recalls a porridge of influences including early Deftones, Fugazi and Biffy Clyro Read Review
An album that hasn’t just improved on their debut, it’s completely surpassed it Read Review
Light-hearted screamo, somewhere between Black Flag and Black Lace. Print edition only
A dismal, unnecessarily turgid trudge back through the early ’90s with only a sarcastic grin for company Read Review
A potentially propulsive album that simply doesn’t know when to pull back and allow some breathing space Read Review
Nearly always dull, bland, and very hard to be interested in Read Review
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Pulled Apart By Horses: Tough Love
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