12 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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Debut release of alt-folk with bluegrass overtones from the London band
6.1
Soul-stirring and for much of the time uplifting, the bangs of their banjo and euphoric bluegrass beats make this lot’s trade seem untouchable Read Review
Print edition only
Mumford’s platitudes would normally grate on me, but they’re surprisingly easy to forgive when they’re being howled over the Sons’ locomotive folk-rock Read Review
‘Sigh No More’ is a fine debut from a band that’s patiently picked up the tools of its trade, and chosen the right moment to give them full rein Read Review
Mumford's desperation, elevated in TNT dynamics, can be thrilling Read Review
Even when the songs - as they invariably do - cut loose into the hoedown section, with bluegrass banjo underpinning acoustic guitars, strings and horns, there's the sense they are holding back. Read Review
What's missing here, apart from an antidotal dose of Dawkinism, is a modicum of self-restraint. Sigh No More is so earnest it weeps holy water, from theatrical drum rolls to jiggedy banjo riffs to trumpeting fanfares that are too bloody obvious to swallow. Read Review
...the disc’s melting pot of genres makes Sigh No More an album that’ll warrant multiple listens Read Review
Marcus Mumford thinks that if he sings about ""heart"", ""purity"" and ""passion"" enough, some of these may rub off. They don't Read Review
For music that ostensibly prizes the appearance of honesty and confession, Sigh No More sounds surprisingly anonymous, giving a sense of the band as engaged music listeners but not as real people Read Review
Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More
Bonobo Distance in Static
For all its multi-locale sessions and noble attempts at breaking down categorisation, Distance in Static just never ventures anywhere too thrilling Bonobo’s worldly electronica flex would try to convince otherwise Far Out
On what he has hinted may be his final “traditional” LP as Bonobo, the UK producer cycles through moods and styles, with a particular focus on the clubby soundscapes of his DJ era Pitchfork
By turns studiedly moody and urgently intense, Simon Green's global outlook is at once reassuring and thought provoking musicOMH
Lush, immersive, and deeply physical, this is his best in a decade Clash
It's all so smooth that you rarely get a sense of who he is. Print edition only Uncut
Simon Green's eighth album as Bonobo feels like a celebration - few blend club-adjacent electronica with warm-hearted downtempo quite as adroitly as he does here. Print edition only Mojo
The Tubs Hard Life
There’s only so many jangly guitars, high-pitched vocals, and tales of moving to the big smoke that one needs in an album before it starts to grate Far Out
It’s a ludicrous, entirely unexpected occurrence when a band release a single album that sounds like a Greatest Hits collection, but track after track, hook after blinding hook, and line after wry line, that’s what we get – every song building on the glistening brilliance of the last God Is In The TV
Britain’s best indie-rockers hold fast to their defiantly old-school sound, slipping wry sideways looks at despair in among hooky melodies that always sound like a good time The Guardian
Their most fine-tuned and sonically rich album to date, with 12 more fantastically catchy and emotionally turbulent songs in the style they’ve been perfecting along the way All Music
The Welsh band's classic rock twisted indie folk on their third album demonstrates their earwormy ability to write a hook musicOMH
The band’s post-punk-infused songs sink in quickly and stand up to repeat listens Slant Magazine
A record that is a ridiculously hook-heavy collection of songs - and one that unquestionably positions Williams as one of our most unique and arresting contemporary songwriters. Print edition only Uncut
An album that consolidates and amplifies both 2023’s debut Dead Meat and last year’s Cotton Crown, transcending notions of what indie rock is supposed to be in the 21st century Mojo
Bloc Party Anatomy Of A Brief Romance
Kele Okereke and co have made a concept album and a break-up album all at once – and with Trevor Horn on production duties 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