25 June 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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Second studio album from the Australian power pop quartet
5.9
A spectacular second album that will keep you rocking all night Read Review
Overall, 5 Seconds Of Summer puts a contemporary spin on early-’00s mainstream pop-punk by avoiding the kind of self-pity, hopelessness, and subtle misogyny that sometimes dogged that nascent scene Read Review
Perhaps we shouldn't be too critical of the band's unabashed cut-and-paste sound, especially if the songs are as a catchy as they are here Read Review
There are signs of maturity, inspired by the pristine punk of Fall Out Boy and Good Charlotte (Joel and Benji Madden certainly make their co-writing presence known) Read Review
Much of their second studio album shuns the Busted-esque, cheeky pop moments of their debut in favour of a slightly more mature sound Read Review
Their second LP shows off their musical knowledge and ambition without getting in the way of their own preternatural adorableness Read Review
Ultimately the accurately titled Sounds Good Feels Good suggests there isn’t actually all that big of a gap between the boy band and pop-punk milieus, and probably never was Read Review
5SOS’ allegiance to emo feels strictly aesthetic Read Review
Within the first four songs, 5SOS shout out underachievers, college dropouts and kids battling low self-esteem. They do so with winning sincerity, but even that can’t quite make up for the record’s derivative sound Read Review
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5 Seconds of Summer: Sounds Good Feels Good
Haim I quit
It’s nice to have them back and even nicer to feel that they have our backs when we go through another break up Northern Transmissions
Hotline TNT Raspberry Moon
Will Anderson’s latest album is proof that things often end up better with some help from your friends. The resulting songs are startlingly optimistic, accessible, gritty, and warm Paste Magazine
Little Simz Lotus
Like the blooming lotus on the album’s cover, Little Simz appears to be emerging from dark waters Spectrum Culture
On their fourth album I quit, HAIM are all about reclaiming their space and striking out on their own The Skinny
Loyle Carner hopefully!
The influence of having children can be felt across Loyle Carner's beautiful and personal hopefully !, showing his progress not just as an artist but as a person too The Skinny
Pulp More
With a collection of memorable songs offering observations on life with both a singular wit and obvious care for its subjects, Pulp clearly still feel comfortable on More flourishing at the high bar they set for themselves long ago Under The Radar
In lesser hands it’d be a slog of a hodgepodge. But with musicians as accomplished, daring, and pop savvy as this (and let’s not forget their good taste in influences), I Quit hardly shows a seam. If anything, it’s further proof that HAIM is the most thrillingly versatile band working today Under The Radar
The trio seems torn between embracing mainstream pop or following their bolder instincts Slant Magazine
What Pulp haven’t lost is their innate Englishness: ballads recall grocery shops, summer festivals, and farmers’ markets, but the results are disappointing PopMatters
The mid-tempo results and on-the-nose lyrics can wear thin over 15 tracks, but Haim's melodic ease provides fitful featherweight uplift. Print edition only Record Collector
I Quit subtly pushes their boundaries. Print edition only Mojo
May not be the band at their peak, but it’s a necessary step to close one chapter of their career and find their way to the next. It leaves listeners with the sense that HAIM is going to rise from the ashes of what didn’t serve them, onto bigger and better things A.V. Club
On their first LP written as a full band, the New York shoegazers swing for the rafters. It’s their most polished and ambitious album yet, wielding a super-sized sound fit for super-sized feelings Pitchfork
Will Anderson’s New Yorkers have found glossier, cleaner ways to put old things together and make them work musicOMH
From the cathartic harmonies of ‘Julia’s War’ to the raw romance of ‘Candle’, there is a gritty optimism charging through the album, hitting you right in the gut and demanding you pull back the veil on past dread and expose a new outlook of forward-thinking hopefulness Clash
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