23 May 2013
Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 publications worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.
Browse specific styles
Debut album of alt.folk infused rock from the London five-piece produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol)
6.9
An extraordinary debut from a new British-based band who combine a gipsy swagger with tremulous sensitivity and gothic rock drama Read Review
An album that both plays to their strengths and showcases a diversity of modes, each sculpted authentically. An outstanding effort Read Review
This is a surefooted and uncompromising collection Read Review
The mix of craft and believability is irresistible. Print edition only
Dry The River have paved the way for their inevitable success in 2012, and ‘Shallow Bed’ is set to prove that the band’s incessant hard work will be completely worth the endeavour – and the wait Read Review
Full of passion. Print edition only
Catchy melodies, big choruses and emotive storytelling Read Review
The emo/hardcore elements mixed in are interesting, but they’re jarring shoved in amongst the record’s prettier, softer parts—perhaps next time they’ll settle for one approach or the other Read Review
They most evoke a Neon Bible-era Arcade Fire slightly shorn of the romance and nostalgia Read Review
An uplifting debut Read Review
It's accomplished, luxuriant, expertly crafted Read Review
Rich instrumentation, nimble lyrics and emotional gales of choruses Read Review
Instead of charm you’ve got big dramatic gestures at every turn Read Review
Schooled on U2/Snow Patrol, lofty Brits emit a church-friendly vibe that confuses uplifting and grandiose Read Review
Dry the River take their music so seriously, even Sting would giggle Read Review
A minor update of the already hackneyed blueprint for contemporary folk-rock that’s enjoyed chart success over the past few years: let’s call it Mumford 2.0 Read Review
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Dry The River: Shallow Bed
Laura Marling Once I Was An Eagle
Her best album yet; better individual songs may lie elsewhere, but her new record's cohesive nature makes it much more of an adventure than what came before The 405
Majical Cloudz Impersonator
A beautifully crafted album that teases at a big moment that never seems to come. The close of each song suggests that the following track will bear the climactic fruit Impersonator consistently promises Pretty Much Amazing
Mount Kimbie Cold Spring Fault Less Youth
One of the most engaging dance albums you're likely to hear this year This Is Fake DIY
Dirty Beaches Drifters/Love Is The Devil
It sounds intensely personal because it is — these are the kind of songs people record for themselves. Fortunately, Hungtai has let us into his world Consequence Of Sound
30 Seconds To Mars Love Lust Faith
Safe and samey and lacks the sense of drama upon which they've built their audience The Digital Fix
Ensemble Pearl Ensemble Pearl
A soundtrack for what sounds like the most melancholy, unsettling haunted house story ever Blurt
Primal Scream More Light
Primal Scream’s ninth studio album will probably do little more than enshrine them in the musical middle-ground State
Sam Amidon Bright Sunny South
A truly sincere and beautiful album The Line Of Best Fit
The Fall Re-Mit
As with nearly all of the Fall, this album does what it wants to do, forcing the listener to submit to its terms Pop Matters
Bright Sunny South is full of these unhurried, easy moments, and succeeds because of it Pop Matters
Flawed yet with some redemption, Love Lust Faith + Dreams is a mixed effort Pop Matters
More robust and eccentric than anything he's ever released before Pitchfork
The National Trouble Will Find Me
This is The National’s 4th or 5th comfortably strong album in a row, another slight variation on a tried-and-true theme No Ripcord
Majical Cloudz are far from the first to bring about a warming sense of humanity through electronic music, but rarely do you see a synth-based “singer-songwriter” album pulled off so convincingly No Ripcord
A masterpiece Daily Telegraph
The French duo's 4th album has picked up a good number of 10/10 and 9/10 ratings, but also a handful of 6/10s. Responses range from those who see it as an album that will still be being listened to a decade hence and others who are left thinking "is that it?"
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past four years or so
Frank Ocean Channel Orange
Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
My Bloody Valentine mbv
Ry Cooder Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down
Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city
Arcade Fire The Suburbs
Tom Waits Bad As Me
Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid