12 September 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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Seventh album from the US pop star who was in October awarded the McGovern Leadership Award for her contributions to the UN World Hunger Relief effort
5.8
A strong pop album, one that reconfirms her gifts as a singer and savviness as a pop star Read Review
The thing that made Aguilera so interesting, her artistic ambition, has been muted. There’s very little to complain about here, but very little to shout about either Read Review
If there is any victory to be claimed for Aguilera here, it is that at least she bludgeons the listener into submission with actual songs rather than the thinly veiled excuses of some of her peers Read Review
It’s not bad. But is it enough to make this fighter a contender again? Read Review
Lotus largely checks the attitude at the door and focuses instead on self-empowerment anthems Read Review
The dancefloor is her home now Read Review
One of the pleasures of Aguilera is that she can use polysyllables, even when talking the rot that fills women's mags Read Review
An unstoppable force when she pours her heart and soul into her music—and not as adept at dumbing down her voice or lyrics for the sake of lightweight tunes or prevailing trends Read Review
This vitriol-tsunami of a record misses a chance to connect Aguilera's music with her warm, empathetic TV presence Read Review
She's back with a generic new album. Print edition only
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Christina Aguilera: Lotus
Bonobo Distance in Static
For all its multi-locale sessions and noble attempts at breaking down categorisation, Distance in Static just never ventures anywhere too thrilling Bonobo’s worldly electronica flex would try to convince otherwise Far Out
On what he has hinted may be his final “traditional” LP as Bonobo, the UK producer cycles through moods and styles, with a particular focus on the clubby soundscapes of his DJ era Pitchfork
By turns studiedly moody and urgently intense, Simon Green's global outlook is at once reassuring and thought provoking musicOMH
Lush, immersive, and deeply physical, this is his best in a decade Clash
It's all so smooth that you rarely get a sense of who he is. Print edition only Uncut
Simon Green's eighth album as Bonobo feels like a celebration - few blend club-adjacent electronica with warm-hearted downtempo quite as adroitly as he does here. Print edition only Mojo
The Tubs Hard Life
There’s only so many jangly guitars, high-pitched vocals, and tales of moving to the big smoke that one needs in an album before it starts to grate Far Out
It’s a ludicrous, entirely unexpected occurrence when a band release a single album that sounds like a Greatest Hits collection, but track after track, hook after blinding hook, and line after wry line, that’s what we get – every song building on the glistening brilliance of the last God Is In The TV
Britain’s best indie-rockers hold fast to their defiantly old-school sound, slipping wry sideways looks at despair in among hooky melodies that always sound like a good time The Guardian
Their most fine-tuned and sonically rich album to date, with 12 more fantastically catchy and emotionally turbulent songs in the style they’ve been perfecting along the way All Music
The Welsh band's classic rock twisted indie folk on their third album demonstrates their earwormy ability to write a hook musicOMH
The band’s post-punk-infused songs sink in quickly and stand up to repeat listens Slant Magazine
A record that is a ridiculously hook-heavy collection of songs - and one that unquestionably positions Williams as one of our most unique and arresting contemporary songwriters. Print edition only Uncut
An album that consolidates and amplifies both 2023’s debut Dead Meat and last year’s Cotton Crown, transcending notions of what indie rock is supposed to be in the 21st century Mojo
Bloc Party Anatomy Of A Brief Romance
Kele Okereke and co have made a concept album and a break-up album all at once – and with Trevor Horn on production duties musicOMH
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