Clash Music's Scores

  • Music
For 3,837 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 57% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Dead Man's Pop [Box Set]
Lowest review score: 10 Wake Up!
Score distribution:
3837 music reviews
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While the playing is never less than exceptional – displaying Mark Knopfler’s assured rhythmic sensibility, and his lyrical lead styles – the arrangements on ‘One Deep River’ can sometimes falter.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    At times uneven, the project stands as testament to the unique bond between these two A-list rap talents.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Everything I Thought It Was’ can sometimes be forgettable across its 18-track largesse, while thematically it feels bunched around a cluster of feelings.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘COMING HOME’ competently portrays love as part Afrodisiac, part pulse-racing chase, part languorous and lived-in sensation. ‘COMING HOME’ is also tangential to the live spectacle, and that’s okay.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As with the twin EPs that preceded it, however, the glimpses of originality strewn across ‘Lovegaze’ are too often sparse islands in a sea of pleasant but generic etherea.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    With a 19-track span and a colossal guest cast, not everything on ‘BLOCKBUSTA’ lands. There’s a feeling sometimes that these collaborations were done separately and then spliced together, with some moments lacking cohesion, or a sense of chemistry. ‘HOMAGE’ with Kodak Black feels flat, for example, while the record’s eclecticism prevents ‘BLOCKBUSTA’ from truly coalescing. That said, there are moments of real bravery.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Its primary strength lies in the way Drake threads himself and finds pockets within the grooves and crevices, foregoing lustre and grandiosity in favour of an understated performance piece. .... There’s an existential paranoia about this recent iteration of Drake, however.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    This album is a step in the right direction in terms of mood, but it’s an overstep in terms of the emotional burden Brown is offering. The choruses are repetitive and don’t fit, and the take away should be focusing more on balance. However, it’s not a question of if he can get that balance right, but when.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ultimately, the Achilles heel of the whole project is how invested, how much fans will truly believe in this. To some, it’s a meme stretched to breaking point, the elasticity of his flute-playing hauled out to become an opaque sheet, void of detail. To others, it’s an excellent – almost unclassifiable – mood piece. Whether it’s the meanderings of an internet-savvy millionaire or the crucial work of a modern day ambient auteur is perhaps in the eye of the beholder.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The chilled, languorous template delivers on value, but offers little else and you can’t help but feel like these are unnecessary filler tracks. At its core, ‘Scarlet’ is an interesting exploration into the world of ego trips, the trappings of fame, escapism and novelty, a welcome deviation with a heightened sense of maturity and finesse.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In truth, the material does a decent enough job of filling the acerbic, punk shaped void left since their decade long absence.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Overall, a pleasantly harmless album with some clear highlights. However, it will be interesting to see how the US singer varies her work as she begins her solo career.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Packing so much in comes at the risk of a more diluted sound and an album which lacks a strong sense of cohesive unity. This is most apparent in the first two ‘planets’, where the result is a little muddled. When not biting off more than they can chew by integrating three entirely different featured artists within a five track part (see ‘Off Planet Part 1’), the album is a fresh and interesting take on experimental electronica.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    On occasion, the record feels quite lazy in its lyrical direction and yet too direct, falling into moments of cringe rather than what could have been perceived as powerful and fun.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Some moments are impressive, like the eight-minute epic of a title track ‘Take Me Back To Eden’, which sprawls and writhes between textures and knows just when to spotlight frontman Vessel’s holy outpourings. ... But the issue is, this opus comes over an hour into the album, and follows a number of lengthy tracks that seem to be trying to do the same thing, but less successfully.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Plays it safe, doubling down on the formula that made his debut so beloved by fans, while making only subtle changes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Driving Just to Drive’ drives safely. Perhaps too safely. We may yearn for Maltese to put his foot down, but it could be argued there is solace in safety. Not everything has to be hell for leather.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The result is a solid, if overly safe album that avoids some of the pitfalls of the past but fails to ignite the heart.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘The Price Of Progress’ is a perfectly functional Hold Steady record, no more and no less.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Courtesy of the blandly produced, overly-compressed vocal deliveries and guitar riffs from Jonas Brothers’ producer John Fields, the act all too easily fall into the inevitable trap of highly-structured song progressions backed by half-baked guitar solos on ‘Same Language’ and underwhelming chorus chants on ‘Kool’.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In her haste to tell her story, ‘My 21stCentury Blues’ suffers from a frenzied second half that cushions the gut-punch it could have been.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Five Easy Hot Dogs’ isn’t going to win DeMarco any more fans, nor will it distract from his past triumphs. ... This instrumental offering will, like most of his tunes, act as great company for those who just wanna lay back and disconnect from it all.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A record that feels very much like a side-step, ‘Me vs Myself’ contains little of the soul-searching that the title suggests.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    If anything, however, new album ‘Faith In The Future’ is simply too nice. The songwriting is sturdy and well-formed, leaning on his indie roots – you can hear ghosts of the Gallaghers, whispers of Chris Martin – without ever truly channelling something dangerous, or edgy. ... It just doesn’t raise the pulse, or quicken the blood-flow in a way you might long for.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This new album, then, is the perfect piece of fan service. It’s Aubrey on the mic, 21 Savage in full flow. The roll out – which pirated a Tiny Desk session and copied a Vogue cover – was pitch perfect, two artists subverting the expectations placed on them...It’s a shame, then, that ‘Her Loss’ often feels entirely predictable. The foes that punctuate their bars are well-worn – less talented adversaries trying to gain clout; love interests who leech on their wealth and prestige – and while it’s nice to hear Drake unleashed, at times 21 Savage can feel like a passenger.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘The Loneliest Time’ feels a far cry from the saccharine star that launched Jepsen’s career but proves her musical pliability.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This album is, to be clear, an ambitious, stylish, coherent work of fine art. ‘Tranquility Base…’ grew on me, this may too. But I can’t help but feel that with ‘The Car’, Arctic Monkeys have taken a wrong turn.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In spite of much of ‘CHARLIE’ missing complexity or a distinctive flair, the album remains punchy and bright and what Puth lacks in poetry, he makes up for with glimpses of pure pop excellence.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Doggerel’ isn’t a bad record, it’s just missing the audacious grit that is so entwined with the bizarre charm that makes the PIXIES so remarkable.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    ‘Curtain Call 2’ is at its most engaging when the Detroit figure simply cuts back on the Billboard tie-ins, and reminds us all why he became such a revered rapper in the first place. ... As a project, however, ‘Curtain Call 2’ is weighed down by its flaws. There’s no ignoring the wayward path Eminem has taken over the past two decades, and the tracklisting reflects this.