7 August 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 album from the Libertines and Babyshambles leader's new band recorded live in France
6.4
Pete's latest is an album of serene folk songs. The former kid in the riot now seems more at home as the old man by the sea Read Review
As Doherty once sang, “Let’s get straight to the heart of the matter”, and the heart of the matter on this record carries so much weight and substance, but it is presented in light playful ways and therein lies its appeal and beauty Read Review
A deeper dive into the grooves pays substantial dividends, not just with Doherty's impermeable gift for melody and neat turns of phrase but the intriguing torrent of witty self-examination. Print edition only
Great for the die-hards, fairly inconsequential for everyone else Read Review
This sensitive, late-Dexys style psych-Celt outfit mould Doherty’s numb-tongued half-songs into evocative reflections of their pastoral surroundings, but the album is backloaded with meandering, semi-bothered filler Read Review
Doherty still brazenly peddles this mediocre drivel, an overflowing Keep Calm And Carry On ashtray blight on our culture that’s bizarrely still admired, and his beloved Good Ship Albion sails merrily on. Please God, someone send a U-Boat Read Review
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The Strokes Reality Awaits
The Strokes’ Reality Awaits doesn’t deliver the same charm or hit with the same immediacy fans have come to expect from them PopMatters
Ariana Grande petal
The sophisticated pop artist is in total command of her sound, albeit coming from a troubled place lyrically No Ripcord
Arca XXXXX
The Venezuelan artist’s latest LP harks back to her experimental mixtapes &&&&& and @@@@@, trading the KiCK series’ pop and reggaeton impulses for confrontational, uncompromising electronic sounds Pitchfork
The album may be a tad amorphous, but it’s never dull Slant Magazine
The Venezuela-born, Barcelona-based polymath is at home in distortion on her most probing project in years NME
A return to form, on par with the brilliance of her early mixtapes Clash
In the follow-up to her Kick series, Arca jumbles the building blocks of electronic music to create a beautiful, disorienting sound world The Guardian
Despite some minor sonic surprises, the pop superstar’s latest offering is strangely dull and muted, lacking the personality, sensuality, and energy of her previous work Paste Magazine
The Durutti Column Renascent
Renascent offers newcomers to Vini Reilly’s work the chance to experience pretty much every aspect of what he does in one relatively short album. It’s beautiful, atmospheric and accomplished, but perhaps just a little too eclectic for its own good Spectrum Culture
This return is graceful and emotionally resonant in very turbulent times The Line Of Best Fit
Shania Twain Little Miss Twain
More than anything, Little Miss Twain is a love letter to Shania Twain’s late mother, who acted as something of a manager when she first began performing PopMatters
Even the instrumentation is ghostly, soaked in reverb and with Grande’s vocals layered and echoing across each song. You desperately want something substantial to cling onto, but it’s always out of reach The Independent
Grande reaches for darker, more experimental territory, but uneven writing and restrained vocals prevent it from fulfilling its promise Consequence Of Sound
Grande withdraws inwards on uneasy, distant eighth studio album, amid intense tabloid and social media scrutiny NME
Rage is all over the pop superstar’s eighth LP, Petal — and it suits her Rolling Stone
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