9 November 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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Belfast quartet's fourth album of indie surf rock
6.4
If Girls Names relied more on their melodic instincts, Stains on Silence would be their best record yet Read Review
This one takes a few listens, but in aiming for less, Girls Names have easily achieved as much as they have in previous albums, if not more Read Review
At eight songs, it’s easy to go through Stains on Silence multiple times. Each time you come back with a different stain left by one of the songs. But don’t try to wash it off; it’s permanent Read Review
It's tough for a band to reshape themselves drastically without losing the best parts of what came before, but Girls Names do a very good job of keeping the drama, intensity, and twisted emotion in place while taking the music into darker, odder realms Read Review
Singer Cathal Cully’s voice is the perfect epitome of the genre’s requirements, as are the piercing synths, the vintage drum machines and the occasional metallic/industrial sounds that act as a constant wink to the ’80s and eventually threaten to overshadow the band’s own progression Read Review
There’s too little that hits home, and too much that feels like Girls Names being experimental for experimental’s sake Read Review
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Django Django Doveland
Django Django would appear to have refreshed their approach and challenged themselves to try out previously unconsidered melodic avenues The Arts Desk
Print edition only Uncut
Gilla Band Pugnello
Somewhere amidst the anarchy of Pugnello, there are gems waiting to be found. Unearthing them is well worth your time Still Listening
Greg Freeman All Set The Bone
Existentialism has a sound (and it’s hard to ignore) with Greg Freeman’s introspective All Set The Bone Still Listening
U2 Carnaval de Luz
Carnaval De Luz finds U2 50 years after their formation with the same four members and the same desire to shake things up. The album provides a convincing answer to the question of why they keep doing what they do XS Noize
Fontaines D.C. Dopamine Chamber
Fontaines D.C. push deeper into synthetic territory on Dopamine Chamber, balancing stadium-sized melodies with restless experimentation and darker texture Record Collector
They sound ambitious and engaged in their 50th year, swinging for the fences and hitting more targets than not. There’s still some gas in the tank Record Collector
La Roux Old Flames
Print edition only Record Collector
Back with her first new music in six years, La Roux's new sound explores facets of R'n'B and Europop to varying degrees of success The Skinny
La Roux turns to 90s R&B on a fourth album shaped by the end of a 17-year relationship, finding room for new beginnings beneath its layered production Still Listening
Print edition only Rolling Stone UK
Devastating moments are dressed up with warm production and kinetic 00s R&B in the now quiff-less singer’s grownup fourth album The Guardian
Elly Jackson returns with heartfelt pop songs about breaking up, resentment, vulnerability and all that entails musicOMH
Ditching erratic experimentation for an ambient concept, the indie shapeshifters' sixth album is their most coherent in years musicOMH
Doveland sounds less like a reduction of Django Django’s musical vocabulary than a more relaxed demonstration of how much they possess PopMatters
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