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
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
" 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.
Folktronica, indie pop and psychedelic electronica on the first full length release from former Tunng singer and producer Sam Genders
7.1
The combination of absurdity and accessibility makes Black Light a fascinating debut, and it marks Genders out as a solo talent to keep tabs on Read Review
A collection of the kind of earworms you find yourself humming absent-mindedly for days. Print edition only
A bold and inventive album, if a touch schematic at times Read Review
The sound is precision-tooled – all brittle beats and loping basslines – with Genders's sweet, multi-layered vocals imparting the human touch Read Review
A delightful and thoroughly rewarding piece of work Read Review
All clean lines and precise, metropolitan pop angles - Hot Chip, Metronomy, even Can, spring to mind. Print edition only
Diagrams has diversified his sound while maintaining the quirks that define him Read Review
As much bucolic electronica as rustic pop, Black Light will have you aimlessly humming for the right reasons Read Review
Black Light constitutes a great debut and an impressive start to 2012’s release schedule Read Review
This playful album for dreamers is serious business – alternating between soft, emotional arrangements and bouncy syncopation Read Review
Besides all its thematic misfires, Black Light is an all-around patchwork of brainy arrangements and palatable textural work Read Review
The most obvious analogy is to think of him as an English Sufjan Stevens. Print edition only
A brief fling at a crossroads of twinkling electronica, introspective folk-pop and optimism – warm, full of character, but likely to set only a few hearts racing Read Review
Abandons any pretence towards the rustic and embraces gleaning, airbrushed pop moves Read Review
He plants his feet firmly inside his comfort zone preferring to photocopy the Tunng template and serve up a blend of English folk and gentle electronic Read Review
Stuffed with luminous instrumentations, caressing guitars, warm vocals and drum beats bouncing against funky bass Read Review
There are plus-points, such as Genders’ still-gorgeous, conversational, colloquial singing voice, but too often the compositions are clogged Read Review
Roll over video for more options
Diagrams: Black Light
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