23 February 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: read then listen
" A rousing, pleasing stomp, comprising this album's answer to previous 'hits'" BBC
Listen on SpotifyListen on grooveshark
" It would be a hard heart indeed not to fall for music as lovely as this" This Is Fake DIY
" The title track is the undoubted highlight ... it sets the bar high" music OMH
" Standout track Blaze Up A Fire is an intense but understated response to the riots that rocked the UK " The Skinny
" Night in the Ocean is the fulcrum upon which the set rests, a great four minutes" BBC
" One of the album's obvious standouts, with beautifully harmonized vocals" Pitchfork
" Somebody I Used To Know is an infinitely relistenable ode" music OMH
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Third album from the London group, melding electronica, experimental jazz, dance and rock
7.3
A playful, daring and capricious listen, and one of the first truly remarkable records of 2012 Read Review
Portico Quartet is a superb release, each track roaming freely Read Review
Portico Quartet (the album) is a mazy, fluid, ethereal suite of chamber jazz to get properly lost in Read Review
Portico move even further away from conventional notions of jazz into full-on Ravey Davey Gravy-land. And it's great Read Review
These instrumental landscapes run the gamut from ECM-ish ambient to the heavy-duty electronica of Aphex Twin or Flying Lotus. Print edition only
It remains to be seen how their change of direction will sit with fans of their previous work, but based purely on its own merits it's a marvel Read Review
An exercise in sheer musical abandonment. Print edition only
It's great. Real-time playing is blended with loops and samples Read Review
If you have the time and the mind-set, and are prepared for the fact that it won’t always be an easy ride, Portico Quartet is a fascinatingly diverse piece of work Read Review
The former buskers continue their evolution with a more electronically inclined album. Print edition only
By treating most of the live instrumentation through pedals and computers and embracing, almost fully, their interest in electronic sounds, it’s left the album feeling a little lifeless Read Review
Portico have found a contemporary sound to thrill their fans and attract new listeners Read Review
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Portico Quartet: Portico Quartet
Windy and Carl We Will Always Be
Let the sparse waves wash over and the true soul of the music will slowly emerge The Digital Fix
Despite the familiarity of the sonic landscape explored here, however, Windy and Carl are evidently still excavating valuable finds The Skinny
Windy and Carl are the ambient music world's version of old bluesmen who have been masters of their craft for decades and refined it to a point of utmost precision Prefix
This is as impressive as any of their releases The 405
Executed with openness and sincerity, making it feel as if the usual barriers between audience and performer simply aren't there Pitchfork
There is a beauty to experiencing love that overwhelms the heart. Windy & Carl seem to aim to replicate that overwhelming sensation through their music Beats Per Minute
If you take an interest in ambient music, drone rock or related quasi-genres, it behoves you to own some of Windy and Carl’s catalogue; this is as useful and high quality a starting point as just about anything they’ve recorded Drowned In Sound
Seekae Dome
A semi-regulated torrent of live loops and samples. Print edition only NME
Skrillex Bangarang
Skrillex lacks anything beyond the bleeding obvious. Print edition only NME
Memoryhouse The Slideshow Effect
Mostly glowers in a dismally cloying, precious nostalgia. Print edition only NME
School of Seven Bells Ghostory
None of it even scratches the arse of 'euphoric' - once their forte. Print edition only NME
Fanfarlo Rooms Filled with Light
Large Hadron pop that'll frazzle yer neurons. Print edition only NME
Lambchop Mr M
If this really is to be Lambchop's final album, it's an undeniably lovely one. Print edition only NME
The Ting Tings Sounds From Nowheresville
It sounds a little bereft of ideas, and way too short. Print edition only NME
Nada Surf The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy
If you keep your expectations more fluid and enjoy it for what it is, rather than what you think it should be, then you may find enough to appreciate This Is Fake DIY
What's finding favour with bloggers & other review sites
The Twilight Sad No One Can Ever Know
Field Music Plumb
The Black Keys El Camino
First Aid Kit The Lion's Roar
Django Django Django Django
An impressive 7.6 rating for the 5th album of electronica-influenced pop from the Norwegian singer-songwriter. All but one review is an 8/10 rating, with The Fly calling it "a masterclass in sinister soundscapes"
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past three 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
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion