21 April 2014
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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Second album of folk / indie pop from the North Carolina band led by Ari Picker
7.5
Draws heavily from his [Ari Picker] classical training, yet maintains a smart, accessible core that brings to mind Sufjan Stevens at his least quirky Read Review
Lost In The Trees has constructed a beautiful memorial for the soul of Ari Picker’s mother to rest in Read Review
This may be one of the best records of the year so far Read Review
The tracks on A Church are beatifically mournful, its orchestrations minor key, and its vocals sung by an author distinctly heavy of heart Read Review
The album is stirring without wallowing; it can move even the listener who knows nothing of the backstory Read Review
Too deep in its emotion to idly listen to, and too warm in its instrumentation to wear you down, this record proves a strange, incomplete comfort -- one that embraces loss as much as it tangles with it Read Review
The tragedy that inspired and plagues this album seems to be offered as a celebration rather than an exercise in mourning Read Review
A stirring coda that embraces the aftermath of despair, ringing with a resilience that's inspired, ambitious, mesmerizing and majestic Read Review
The album is as intricate and well-crafted as a Radiohead release, with highly emotional content that was inspired by the recent suicide of frontman Ari Picker’s mother Read Review
A mother’s suicide inspires moving orchestral folk, beauty and hope found amid grief Read Review
Over the course of a dozen songs, frontman Ari Picker tries to make sense of his mother's suicide against a backdrop of rich orchestration Read Review
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Lost In The Trees: A Church That Fits Our Needs
Mac DeMarco Salad Days
Rarely has a reflection on ageing and obsolescence sounded so untroubled The Observer
Eels The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett
A powerful and emotionally coherent set The Observer
Iggy Azalea The New Classic
Azalea's flow is both playful and authoritative, and above-par surprises unfurl on the productions The Observer
Ben Watt Hendra
Relates small pleasures in a drift of Knopfler-esque guitar licks and mellow folk-rock The FT
School of Language Old Fears
Nothing anxious about this release: in fact it’s a delight set against a theme of memory and time The FT
The songs are slight and structured with saccharine simplicity The FT
Reveals enough smarts and skills to sustain the Aussie rapper’s momentum The Independent
Wracked with recrimination, remorse and self-doubt The Independent
Pixies Indie Cindy
Some of these 12 songs favourably evoke previous work. Print edition only Mojo
It’s occasionally excellent, more often okay Clash
The whole thing sounds a lot like frontman Black Francis’s (aka Frank Black’s) solo albums Time Out
Thankfully, Pixies have remembered that madness, perversity and edginess are what made them great in the first place God Is In The TV
It’s no coincidence that Indie Cindy is at its best when Joey Santiago cuts loose with his guitar FasterLouder
The fire has been extinguished, most power diminished. It’s a damn shame The Line Of Best Fit
The skewed pop melodies and twisted riffs are there on Greens and Blues, Magdalena 318, Snakes and Blue Eyed Hexe The Irish Times
A decent response for Mark Oliver Everett's latest output. Uncut think it is "as frustratingly close to perfect as always" though Slant say it is "underwhelming"
Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past four years and a half or so. Rankings are calculated to two decimal places.
Frank Ocean Channel Orange
Anaïs Mitchell Hadestown
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Deafheaven Sunbather
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
My Bloody Valentine mbv
Ry Cooder Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down
St Vincent St Vincent
Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city
Arcade Fire The Suburbs