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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Second album of classic pop from Lebanese/American singer Michael Holbrook Penniman
6.1
Mika goes in joyful pursuit of big melodies and towering choruses. Read Review
He’s created the consummate pop album for 2009, seemingly on his own terms and devoid of tired formulas. Read Review
Print edition only
His songwriting craft and vocal dazzle may be flagrantly uncool, but they're also refreshingly unencumbered Read Review
Smart, thoughtful pop, flying in the face of his songs where pseudo-classical collides with West End musical foppery. Read Review
Contains far too much sugar to consume in one sitting Read Review
Unlikely to seduce the sceptical, and too equivocal for the evangelists, The Boy Who Knew Too Much is ultimately nowhere near as smart as it'd like to be. Read Review
At the core of these songs are gleaming melodies that rarely fail to hit the mark Read Review
He can’t rely on mere quirkiness to keep our attention. But he can still call on his sharp pop sensibility. Read Review
Even if people eventually grow tired of the jazz hands, he’ll be firing hits into the ether for as long as he cares to do so. Read Review
The Boy Who Knew Too Much's consistent hookiness means it can only be considered a success. Read Review
Mika is every bit as contrary and infuriating as he was two years ago. That lack of compromise could turn out to be one of his greatest strengths. Read Review
You only wish his maturing process would gather more speed. Read Review
Mika's faith in the campy excess of Freddie Mercury/Elton John-style pomp pop is bracing. But over the course of an album, the shtick's charm erodes. Read Review
There are enough irritations alongside the hooks to grate on even the most sainted of listeners Read Review
There's no denying Mika's technical prowess, but there's an increasing sense of it being frittered away on slim ideas tricked out with layers of interlocking vocals: froth and irritation in equal measure. Read Review
Mika: The Boy Who Knew Too Much
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