20 August 2025
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 of alternative indie pop from the Sheffield-born guitarist and vocalist
7.6
There's great strength in the delicate beauty of this album Read Review
Shines with pure passion and soul Read Review
Worth every second of the wait. Print edition only
Delving deeper beneath his own anxieties that only increase the older one gets Read Review
The 11-track collection of lugubrious love songs shows Hawley returning to his smooth ice-cream ad soundtracking roots Read Review
The production is warm and luxurious Read Review
Finds the crooner at his most affecting and fragile Read Review
Richard Hawley: troubadour in chief for this generation Read Review
Hollow Meadows is yet another impossibly accomplished record from one of our national treasures Read Review
For those who made his acquaintance on the Mute albums -- Cole's Corner, Lady's Bridge, Truelove's Gutter -- or even Standing At The Sky's Edge, this loose-knit set just might be revelatory Read Review
Nitpickers may argue that it’s not a huge departure for Hawley – but when it’s this good, it doesn’t need to be Read Review
Richly, alluringly detailed yet, somehow, simultaneously hushed and minimalist, these tracks seem to breath freely and float along weightlessly Read Review
Hollow Meadows may be Richard Hawley’s most personal album yet Read Review
A warm home full of terrifically sad songs Read Review
A welcome addition to his formidable catalogue Read Review
It carries his usual songwriting quality but it feels more like a retrenchment. Print edition only
Mostly he’s back in easy listening territory Read Review
It’s perhaps not as melodically sharp as his best work, but reacquainting yourself with that rich croon is always a pleasure Read Review
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Richard Hawley: Hollow Meadows
Conan Gray Wishbone
It’s exceptionally sharp emotional writing, making ‘Wishbone’ some of his most affecting work yet Dork
His not-quite-angst meets its musical equivalent in its not-quite-alternative sound DIY
The singer’s new album Wishbone mixes slow intimate moments with hit-worthy pop-rock cuts Rolling Stone
‘Wishbone’ stands as a confident pop statement, pairing Gray’s impressive vocal prowess with sleek, polished production. In a female-dominated landscape, and during a noticeable drought of male pop stars, Conan Gray’s return is a genuine breath of fresh air Clash
Wishbone is a complete arc, capturing both the elated, tidal-wave euphoria of falling in love and the bittersweet comedown off that wave. And it's not just the feelings of love, but the tastes, the smells, and the thrilling sweaty intimacy of being close to another person in every sense that Gray embodies All Music
Dijon Baby
The Baltimore singer-songwriter and producer returns from hiatus in some style with an album captures the chaos and beauty of newfound fatherhood NME
Refusing to surrender the emotional core of his songwriting against the dazzling array of studio fireworks, this is Dijon at his strongest – an artist stretching his discipline into evocative new shapes Clash
The Los Angeles singer’s second album is a spectacular new vision of soul, pop, and R&B. His surrealist, collagist approach to songwriting stretches the bounds of sound and feeling Pitchfork
The singer-producer’s second album isn’t a breakthrough or a comeback, but meteoric proof that his debut was star-making and his sound will command the genre’s next destiny without leaving any of its ancestry behind Paste Magazine
Dijon’s best material used to feel like it could fall apart at the seams, delicately constructed with the loving touch of a careful auteur – now, it sounds like ancestries of R&B and pop being shot through the stratosphere Northern Transmissions
With a willingness to push boundaries and lean into the unconventional with his sonics, without ever compromising on the always-stunning nature of his songwriting, ‘Baby’ is hypnotically brilliant Dork
Alison Goldfrapp Flux
The album may not offer the radical reinventions of Goldfrapp's duo work, but it doesn't need to - Alison Goldfrapp pioneered these sounds, and on Flux, she's still doing them with effortless elegance All Music
Marissa Nadler New Radiations
Sonic and atmospheric retreads aside, Nadler has conjured an impressive 10th LP effort that whisks away the listener to a plane far removed from the choking contemporary, a place both trepidatious and eerily comforting Far Out
Cass McCombs Interior Live Oak
The Bay Area-born troubadour’s 11th album treats memory as malleable, letting roots and self entwine in wry, unpredictable ways Paste Magazine
As a statement of McCombs' range and artistic prowess, it’s an impressive collection. As a singular listening experience, it tends to be a bit much Spectrum Culture
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
Spiritbox Tsunami Sea
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