10 July 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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Debut solo album of dreamy indie pop from the former S.C.U.M frontman
7.5
The album is surprisingly sunny: these are songs for festival picnic blankets as well as for holding on to your loved ones Read Review
The album's charm is that it manages to deal with first-hand melancholy so eloquently and so affectingly without centering itself entirely around it Read Review
From jazzy six-minute opener ‘Honeymoon’ (replete with sax solo) through the painful ‘Country Home’ and cathartic closer ‘Mother Mary’, this is the album Cohen simply needed to make Read Review
This is a sensitive and subtle response to living with grief Read Review
A heartfelt and healing solo effort Read Review
Cohen’s obvious enthusiasm for his music humanises the man behind the headlines. When he sings about drinking tap water on ‘Only Us’, he’s as relatable as the guy who once consented to making soup on camera Read Review
This is what Bloom Forever holds, even in its title: the blossom of a songwriter ready to open up to the light Read Review
By the culmination of these nine songs, it’s hard to not be left with the impression that Bloom Forever is an album that Thomas Cohen really needed to make, and make public Read Review
Exorcises his bereavement demons. Print edition only
His bold, distinctive debut album stands a million miles from the celebrity circus, and will endure far longer than mawkish titillation Read Review
Listen to it closely for lyrical confessions if you must, but the music beneath is better Read Review
Wielding watery vibrato guitars and lilting piano in an appealingly relaxed, retro style that recalls latterday Laurel Canyon laureate Jonathan Wilson Read Review
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Thomas Cohen: Bloom Forever
Wet Leg moisturizer
Moisturizer is a bold, confident blast fuelled by the security and invincibility of a deep love. Print edition only Uncut
Moisturizer shows, decisively, that while the metal gauntlets might be very much on, creatively, Wet leg's gloves are off. Print edition only Mojo
Gwenno Utopia
A reflective journey through memory and identity from an artist who proves that her music knows no boundaries, linguistic or otherwise musicOMH
Tinged with a sense of growth and resilience, Utopia is a work that spans 25 years. That surely deserves a celebration The Quietus
Gwenno roams the cities of her youth on her vivid fourth album, Utopia The Skinny
'Utopia' might be a result of employing a form of astral projection The Arts Desk
The band’s propensity for catchy, danceable garage-punk remains intact Slant Magazine
Kesha . [Period]
Following years of tumult, the newly-independent Kesha is ready for Top 40 glory. Her new album excels when she’s doing it on her own terms PopMatters
Kesha fills her first fully independent album with accordion disco, stadium-sized twang, and too many hooks to handle. It’s… confusing Pitchfork
Spikier, sleazier and sexier, the Isle of Wight duo defy second album syndrome musicOMH
U.S. Girls Scratch It
Though Scratch It is more low-key than one has come to expect of U.S. Girls as of late, it is undeniably a commanding statement that feels like a musical victory lap Beats Per Minute
Period is an album of lukewarm nostalgic bops, where the few moments of truly interesting artistry are left to languish alone in their respective corners Sputnik Music (staff)
A disappointing missed opportunityMaybe after this spell of touring, they need to go off and live their lives instead of rushing back to album number three. A disappointing missed opportunity God Is In The TV
There’s no sniff of second album syndrome here. moisturizer oozes confidence and Wet Leg continue to play to their strengths in style The Skinny
Lorde Virgin
The New Zealander sings dramatically about new selves, the body and gender fluidity on her fourth release The FT
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