26 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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London indie pop / dream pop duo Greg Hughes and Tessa Murray expand into synthpop and disco territory on their 2nd album
7.2
A strikingly nostalgic and retro-futurist record Read Review
Strange Pleasures is a piece of great beauty—albeit, one that’s not for every occasion Read Review
There is nothing strange about the pleasures it offers; they are of the most immediate and rewarding variety Read Review
The London-based duo continue to bring their shadowy world into focus on their sophomore album Read Review
Hughes and Murray have pulled a stylistic U-turn and embraced pop, and the results are impressive Read Review
The feel is consistently of an eerie twilight, perched high above a near-future city Read Review
A welcome, and ultimately pleasurable return Read Review
A lush, intoxicating place to drift away in. Print edition only
There are so many musicians that take inspiration from the 80s that it’s hard to stand out. ‘Strange Pleasures’ is an album of cinematic charm Read Review
The shorthand key to their new sound is Cocteau Twins doing the soundtrack for Drive II, and if that sounds good to you, this album totally works Read Review
As luxurious as a silk nightie Read Review
A pleasant listen of selfless, opaque indie-pop that still feels indulgent Read Review
Transatlantic dreamers sleepwalk stylishly through second album. Print edition only
Consistently gentle, pretty dream-pop, but a collection of songs so equally brittle that they seem to merge into one almost amnesia-inducing haze Read Review
It’s so impossible to dodge the signposts of ‘Strange Pleasures’’s stylistic indebtedness that it comes off as forced, referential and, ultimately, empty Read Review
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Still Corners: Strange Pleasures
Blondshell Violins
This is an artist widening her frame without losing her bite. It’s confident, a little wistful, and often loud in all the right places Northern Transmissions
On her third album, Sabrina Teitelbaum fights to strike a balance between savage beauty and jagged home truths NME
Everything great about Blondshell is present on ‘Violins’, but it feels sharper, more adventurous and more assured then ever before Clash
LA alt-rock singer Blondshell trades plain-speaking lyricism for something more abstract, while Irish rock band Gurriers cut through the noise with their ambitious second album The Independent
While trying to find and assert herself, the song has her imagining walking down the aisle to Beethoven's Für Elise, even though no one, including her, would pick it as a wedding song All Music
An often-delicate inward vision that pairs frustration with beauty DIY
It's in her ability to take the everyday experience and turn it into an epic noise that Violins finds its sweet spot The Line Of Best Fit
It would be unfair to call Violins Blondshell’s finest work to date, given the strength of her previous albums. What’s clear, though, is that it’s every bit as good as what came before Under The Radar
Protomartyr Hotel Usona
The album is more eerie in tone than its predecessors, like a distant alarm sounding, trying to amplify the sounds we cannot hear Northern Transmissions
It’s a bleak listen, sure, but Protomartyr haven’t ever been the comforting types. In fact, they’ve chosen the perfect time to double down on their righteous anger and despair, and if everything were to come to a catastrophic end right now, you’ve got the perfect soundtrack for it Far Out
For newcomers, it's a perfectly moody entry point. Hotel Usona is the sound of a band settling into their own skin, creating a space that's uniquely theirs and generously sharing the key Exclaim
From singer Joe Casey’s handmade album artwork to drummer Alex Leonard’s impish, kinetic inversions of classic post-punk rhythm, the Detroit band crafts an austere, unflinching record as bleak as it is cathartic Paste Magazine
This is not a hotel you'd want to stay at any time soon, but it's a remarkable record to spend time with. Print edition only Uncut
Under dim hotel lights, Casey’s lyricism appears foreboding and alien in a way it never has before The Line Of Best Fit
Ezra Collective Here Because of Hope
Arguably the biggest jazz band in the country return with an album that shows off both their exuberant and more reflective sides 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