5 January 2024
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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Debut from London duo J Willgoose Esq and Wrigglesworth, blending old propoganda movie dialogue with electronica, krautrock and synthpop
7.5
Absolutely essential listening Read Review
Public Service Broadcasting may well be the UK's best new band. Your 2013 just won't be complete without them Read Review
A flawed but fascinating curiosity Read Review
The result, powerfully evocative of a disappearing Britain, is a sampladelic delight Read Review
File admiringly next to British Sea Power and the Hauntologist tendency. Print edition only
Though some may find it conceptually esoteric, PSB’s crazed union of history and pop music is a soaring success of the informative, the educational and the entertaining. Mission accomplished Read Review
It’s a unique record that takes you on a journey through the past while sounding fresh and innovative enough to place in firmly in the present Read Review
Avalanches-style musical collages. Print edition only
An absorbing, and at times mesmerising, album Read Review
The duo captures a truly euphoric sense of retro-futurist optimism Read Review
When they equal their best source material they're brilliant; but when the material is merely daft, they're less good. Print edition only
PBS steer a straight-enough course – odd enough not to be played on daytime radio, yet wholly accessible enough to wonder why ever not Read Review
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Public Service Broadcasting: Inform - Educate - Entertain
Sprints Letter To Self
Five days into 2024 and already the cobwebs have been blown away The Irish Times
The Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds
So, the Stones are still the Stones and sometimes on this album they are THE Stones. That’s pretty good for a late career, two decades in the works, LP Punk News
Letter To Self feels like the kind of showpiece debut release that could put them over the edge. It’s a thumping statement that can challenge and charm in equal measure The Line Of Best Fit
Sweeping Promises Good Living Is Coming for You
With their new second record, Sweeping Promises offer a colorful look into a branch of post- punk not typically observed by those with more affection for the greyness of Joy Division and the like Northern Transmissions
Neil Young Before And After
Young blends one reimagined song into the next without any pause, producing less of a medley than an epic, multipart ballad Record Collector
Chappell Roan The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
The pop star’s debut album is melodramatic, zany and relishes in poor taste Paste Magazine
Musical exorcism at its very best DIY
This memorable and arrestingly bleak debut LP feels like a loud announcement of a striking new band NME
Is it possible to have an album of the year contender on only the first week in? Of course it is Clash
An unaffected and exhilarating debut album Loud And Quiet
The National Laugh Track
Their polished and precise brand of contemporary new wave is some of the best out there and if you are a fan of the genre, stuck in the dusty confines of your old record collection, there will be so much here for you to never feel let down again Northern Transmissions
Nicki Minaj Pink Friday 2
Pink Friday 2 is a long album, and it’s going to get longer Rolling Stone
The pop-rap phenomenon is back with her first album in five years musicOMH
Tate McRae Think Later
The Calgary dancer and singer’s second album strikes a tough pose but offers mostly forgettable trap-pop ballads Pitchfork
The sound of Nicki Minaj cracking her knuckles and getting her hands dirty again. It’s the purest distillation of her uniquely feminine bravado PopMatters
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
Kendrick Lamar Damn.
D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
Frank Ocean Channel Orange
Dave We’re All Alone In This Together