The Telegraph (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 1,238 reviews, this publication has graded:
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63% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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33% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 77
Highest review score: | Hit Me Hard and Soft | |
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Lowest review score: | Killer Sounds |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 882 out of 1238
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Mixed: 354 out of 1238
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Negative: 2 out of 1238
1238
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
As a follow-up to What’s Your Pleasure?, it’s inevitably a little doomed, lacking that record’s magical conditions: the unexpectedly fresh energy amid the lethargy of lockdown. Still, after Pleasure’s anticipatory teasing, That! Feels Good! offers a perfectly competent climax.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 28, 2023
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- Critic Score
While the tricksy chord changes upon which most tracks are founded may be clever, or possibly ground-breaking, these recordings seriously lack oomph.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 21, 2023
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- Critic Score
These are songs rich in detail, soul deep, often burdened with worry and a lifetime’s baggage, yet it’s the hazy sense of a drifter’s freedom in New Magic II which wins through, lifting your spirits time and again.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 21, 2023
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- Critic Score
The 60-year-old producer has clearly been keeping an aficionado’s ear on developments in digital electronica, and there is nothing particularly retro or dated about this comeback. Thorn’s voice has a timelessness that will always sound contemporary. She never strains or overemotes but lets her instinct for elegant melody and the understated intelligence of her lyrics carry the dramatic weight.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 21, 2023
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You can get lost in the whole EP, which possesses all the quality and thought of a full-formed album, but flickers by like the yellow windows of a train in the dark, travelling on to somewhere new.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 17, 2023
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With the jolly, moreish melodies in other songs including Danae there is much to enjoy in Mythologies. But it’s also a 23-track album that commands attention, sonically speaking, for only a fraction of its duration. A seat at the ballet itself is needed to best marry the music, stories and movement.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 14, 2023
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The timeless appeal of Carnival is echoed in Keep Your Courage, which speaks volumes for the cohesive, eternal quality of Merchant's ability to weave romantic, folk-rock ballads rich with organ, brass, and tidal waves of strings all anchored to simple piano melodies.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 14, 2023
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Multitudes is a perfect assertion of that power, by turns reflective and commanding.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 14, 2023
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- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 14, 2023
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- Critic Score
A confident, interesting and accomplished album. But Marten is operating in a crowded field. Weyes Blood, Nina Nastasia, Lana Del Rey and Marling all plough similar furrows.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 7, 2023
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As a 40-minute listening experience, it’s equal parts eccentric and impassioned, thought-provoking and out-there – if not exactly fun, given the mental-health issues, then certainly liberating, nourishing and thoroughly memorable.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 7, 2023
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Goulding’s spectacularly tremulous vibrato, raw mid-range and fluttery high notes imprint unique character on everything she sings. It’s a voice that can make even her “least personal” record sound very personal indeed.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Apr 7, 2023
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This is stand-up-and-listen music, commanding attention in surprising ways. Being suggests that far from mellowing with age, Maal – who turns 70 in June – remains as eager and excited to explore new frontiers as he ever was.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 31, 2023
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More than half a century later, those youthful ambitions are herein fulfilled, in 10 tracks of maturity and majesty.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 31, 2023
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The album sounds like something knocked out almost live in a spirit of excitement, rather than with objective vision or commercial muscle. I’d be hard pressed to assert that this (unlike CS&N) amounts to more than the sum of its parts, rather than a celebration of great parts. But it is impossible to argue that as a group, Boygenius are pretty super.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 31, 2023
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They have conjured a collection of really strong songs about big subjects, delivered with sensitivity and conviction. Memento Mori stands with the best of their career.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 24, 2023
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- Critic Score
When Fall Out Boy are in top gear, they’re timeless: if only this whole album had cut some of the filler, it could have been a stellar return to form.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 24, 2023
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The crooning, woozy indie-pop of So Hard To Tell is reassurance Friday has a full spectrum of emotional arrows in her quiver and she’s going to hit all her targets.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 24, 2023
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It is either the sound of someone who has begun to believe her own publicity, or who has stopped caring what anyone else thinks and is determined to follow her muse wherever it wanders. There’s a fine album lurking amidst the indulgence but listeners have their work cut out trying to locate it.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 24, 2023
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Like Paramore Lite, the first half of this album bubbles and fizzes in a pleasing sugar-hit without delivering true satiety. ... If only the band had dared to follow this direction more consistently and thoroughly, it could have been stellar.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 17, 2023
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100 gecs can also be (perhaps willfully) irritating. ... At their strongest, though – as on punky standout Doritos And Fritos – 10,000 gecs is a wonderful exercise in letting creativity run amok with no rules at all and carefully catching the resultant gold.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 17, 2023
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- Critic Score
Erasing the muscular power of an amplified rock combo, Edge explores ways to let other elements shine. In particular, the focus is on Bono’s older yet still powerful voice, devoid of posturing and mannerisms, really digging into meaning and melody. The subtle rumble of Adam Clayton’s bass and tastefully executed percussion from Larry Mullen Jr make themselves felt in all the right places, with full band arrangements breathing new life into a smattering of undernourished songs.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Her vocals remain powerful: from soaring operatic drama to persuasive pop melody and an ominous snarl; it doesn’t sound like she’ll take “nein” for an answer on the spacey synths of Gib Mir Deine Liebe. On the English-language tracks, her lyrics sometimes sound gauche, but the sentiments ring true, and her guest-list is enjoyably far-ranging.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Sleaford Mods have lost none of their political bite, humour, and astute observational skill. UK Grim will cement their place as one of Britain’s most influential – and successful – UK bands.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 10, 2023
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- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Indeed, for all the slick but formulaic pleasures of the album’s mainstream pop push, it is arguably that Cyrus is at her most compelling when she dances like no one is watching.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 10, 2023
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- Critic Score
All 12 tracks are undeniably well-made and catchy songs, but it veers into all-too predictable territory in places.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 3, 2023
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From the opening chimes and birdsong to her sultry vocals, the album cocoons you entirely in its plush, sensuous world.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 3, 2023
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Ugly makes for difficult listening in places, but that’s not to say it isn’t often brilliant. Experimental, disarmingly honest and conceptually tight, blending rap, alt-rock and electronica, there’s no denying that Frampton is putting in the work.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Mar 3, 2023
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Brimming with both spiritual depth and astonishing musical dexterity, Shook feels contemporary and important, reflecting America’s present-day diversity and letting the disenfranchised speak.- The Telegraph (UK)
- Posted Feb 24, 2023
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