7 August 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.
Browse specific styles
Fourth album of dark, downtempo electronica and rock from the production and remix maestros featuring Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan
6.8
Another stellar album to add to their canon Read Review
It soon reveals itself to be a perfect pairing. ‘I Can’t Stay’, in particular, is absolutely beautiful Read Review
Gahan's brooding power is central to possibly his best work since Depeche's 1990 Violator: magnificent songs about demons and failings, morality and mortality, regret, faith and devotion Read Review
Not just an exciting meeting of troubled minds, but a well designed full-length, offering a persuasive rainy day soundtrack that works even when there's not a cloud in the sky Read Review
His trademark delivery brings gravitas to Machin's creeping, strings-swaddled, Morricone-like mood. Print edition only
With a dash of Nick Cave and a shade of Scott Walker, the disc is a reminder of why Soulsavers’ atmospheric hymns work so well and have earned spots in countless film and television scores Read Review
Gahan has never sounded better, his voice bringing power, purpose and unity to a project that's previously delivered less than thew sum of its parts. Print edition only
A barrel of laughs it ain't. Over sparse, semi-orchestral backing, Gahan tackles the big ones Read Review
Rolling revue gets into a groove with synth-pop icon. Print edition only
A good and, at times, even great album. It just ultimately fails to live up to the standard set by its predecessors Read Review
Despite a couple of rousing tunes (the bright Longest Day, the devotional Just Try), this is a pretty dull affair Read Review
Roll over video for more options
Soulsavers: The Light The Dead See
The Strokes Reality Awaits
The Strokes’ Reality Awaits doesn’t deliver the same charm or hit with the same immediacy fans have come to expect from them PopMatters
Ariana Grande petal
The sophisticated pop artist is in total command of her sound, albeit coming from a troubled place lyrically No Ripcord
Arca XXXXX
The Venezuelan artist’s latest LP harks back to her experimental mixtapes &&&&& and @@@@@, trading the KiCK series’ pop and reggaeton impulses for confrontational, uncompromising electronic sounds Pitchfork
The album may be a tad amorphous, but it’s never dull Slant Magazine
The Venezuela-born, Barcelona-based polymath is at home in distortion on her most probing project in years NME
A return to form, on par with the brilliance of her early mixtapes Clash
In the follow-up to her Kick series, Arca jumbles the building blocks of electronic music to create a beautiful, disorienting sound world The Guardian
Despite some minor sonic surprises, the pop superstar’s latest offering is strangely dull and muted, lacking the personality, sensuality, and energy of her previous work Paste Magazine
The Durutti Column Renascent
Renascent offers newcomers to Vini Reilly’s work the chance to experience pretty much every aspect of what he does in one relatively short album. It’s beautiful, atmospheric and accomplished, but perhaps just a little too eclectic for its own good Spectrum Culture
This return is graceful and emotionally resonant in very turbulent times The Line Of Best Fit
Shania Twain Little Miss Twain
More than anything, Little Miss Twain is a love letter to Shania Twain’s late mother, who acted as something of a manager when she first began performing PopMatters
Even the instrumentation is ghostly, soaked in reverb and with Grande’s vocals layered and echoing across each song. You desperately want something substantial to cling onto, but it’s always out of reach The Independent
Grande reaches for darker, more experimental territory, but uneven writing and restrained vocals prevent it from fulfilling its promise Consequence Of Sound
Grande withdraws inwards on uneasy, distant eighth studio album, amid intense tabloid and social media scrutiny NME
Rage is all over the pop superstar’s eighth LP, Petal — and it suits her Rolling Stone
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