28 July 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
5 Seconds of Summer 5 Seconds of Summer
What we have here is earnest, by-the-numbers pop-punk music The Music
Yes Heaven & Earth
Eight new tunes containing striking melodic ideas. Print edition only Mojo
The Raveonettes Pe'ahi
An atmospheric sound. Print edition only Mojo
Andrew Bird Things Are Really Great Here, Sort of...
He brings an easy empathy to these songs. Print edition only Mojo
Jungle Jungle
Moody funk troop's inscrutable debut. Print edition only Mojo
Eno & Hyde High Life
An unfinished, scrapbook feel that's far from unbecoming. Print edition only Mojo
Alvvays Alvvays
Charming and cherishable. Print edition only Mojo
Luluc Passerby
Quietly seductive second album. Print edition only Mojo
Lana Del Rey Ultraviolence
Pop's Ms Darkside shows that she packs a punch. Print edition only Mojo
Lawrence English Wilderness of Mirrors
Electronic composer eschews sonic rapture for feedback and melancholy. Print edition only Mojo
Common Nobody's Smiling
A deep treat almost on a par with Common's mid-'90s prime. Print edition only Mojo
Sébastien Tellier L'Aventura
Could well be his best album. Print edition only Uncut
Slow Club Complete Surrender
Heartfelt and easily wounded love songs. Print edition only Uncut
Old Crow Medicine Show Remedy
Louder than any string band has a right to be. Print edition only Uncut
Eugene McGuinness Chroma
Vocal that's more often irksome than endearing. Print edition only Uncut
A couple of 9s amongst the reviews for the 3rd solo album from the former Rilo Kiley frontwoman. LoBF say "there isn’t a weak track on the album" while The 405 praise "positivity and glorious pop songwriting"
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