26 May 2026
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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Follow-up to the Vermont-born indie/folk singer-songwriter's highly acclaimed Hadestown
8.1
Deploys a quiet chamber-indie ensemble behind Mitchell's chirrup of a voice... Marvellous Read Review
With Young Man In America, Anaïs Mitchell has created her second consecutive masterpiece Read Review
A fierce, melodic affirmation of sadness and grief, love and lust, attachments formed both strong and precarious, Young Man in America is a marvel of a record from start to finish Read Review
A remarkable, genre-defying album. Print edition only
Powerful rituals smeared with blood and dirt Read Review
A subtle weave of fiddles, squeezeboxes and mandolins provides the backdrop for Mitchell's parables on a brilliant, highly original album Read Review
Marks her out as a true American original. Print edition only
A sorrowful, yet captivating collection of songs, ensuring that Ms. Mitchell continues to snap at the heels of PJ Harvey in the female singer songwriter stakes Read Review
You have to be in the mood for Young Man In America but, when you are, you'll be rewarded by an absorbing album Read Review
As freshly cathartic and comforting as the first rays of sunshine after a long, bleak winter Read Review
Mitchell has created a deeply affecting album which preserves everything that was so marvelous about her beloved folk-opera, and ultimately performs a very handsome job of keeping out of its vast shadow Read Review
Like her characters, Mitchell possesses a restless spirit, one that pulls from her musical predecessors and contemporaries but continues with each release to develop a way of looking at the world that's all her own Read Review
Decidedly more traditional than 2010’s Hadestown, but certainly no less accomplished Read Review
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Anaïs Mitchell: Young Man In America
Ed O’Brien Blue Morpho
‘Blue Morpho’ offers a reminder that, as he and his other bandmates have repeatedly proved, O’Brien boasts a wholly-uninhibited approach to how rock and pop music is arranged, resulting in works that move and grow like the building blocks of life itself Clash
Kevin Morby Little Wide Open
Represents a musical homecoming for Morby to the Americana that is central to much of his work No Ripcord
Lykke Li The Afterparty
On a purportedly final album, the Swedish electro-pop singer’s disenchantment takes shape around sparkling synth and light-touch disco beats Pitchfork
Paul McCartney The Boys of Dungeon Lane
A richly nostalgic trip that proves this legend is still as creative as ever Rolling Stone
Tori Amos In Times Of Dragons
Her vocals have rarely sounded better. A husky tone has slowly emerged, giving her a Patti Smith croon to her words of scorn. Anyone who has followed Amos’ career to date will relish this addition to her cannon. It might, hopefully, attract new fans too Under The Radar
Full of wonder, full of creativity, and possibility, fully realized and here for our delight. Like the album as a whole this is a truly excellent piece. It features lyrics full of thankfulness as we “feel the grace in all of life, thank you for this time.” What a great note to end a special album on Under The Radar
The Coral 388
By the time the rocksteady sway of “Spirit Catcher” and the effortless pop beauty of “Crossing The Sands” close the album, The Coral seem firmly back in the swing of creating music again. Hiatus done and dusted XS Noize
Every choppy guitar line and snaking Hammond or Farfisa lick form hooks in their own right The Arts Desk
By reconnecting with their past, The Coral have found the essence of who they are now - and it's pretty magical Mojo
It's an utter delight, an album that touches on all those influences [rocksteady, doo wop, soul, ska and 2-Tone] but still sounds like nothing but The Coral. Print edition only Record Collector
It’s a lucky number thirteen for fans – The Coral remain a band to cherish Clash
Despite an unorthodox release pattern that harks back to an era before streaming, the Wirral outfit's 13th album is one of their most accessibl musicOMH
Broken Social Scene Remember The Humans
While Remember the Humans aims to recapture something of vintage Broken Social Scene, the key aspects of their old sound simply can’t be reproduced by this version of the band Spectrum Culture
The singer/songwriter makes a valiant pivot into rock, though he lacks the backbone, grit and conviction to make it work Spectrum Culture
The guitarist’s second solo outing – but first under his actual name – offers mindfulness via a widescreen prog-folk trip NME
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
Rosalía Lux
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Hayley Williams Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways