Drowned In Sound's Scores

  • Music
For 4,812 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 The Seer
Lowest review score: 0 And Then Boom
Score distribution:
4812 music reviews
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There is a beautiful, communal power in slow grooves like “Ya Habibti,” with its circling, mesmeric riffs and hand-clapped syncopations. “Asdikte Akal” moves a bit quicker, more of a trot than a shuffle, but also feels like a group endeavor.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The album has a conceptual and sonic unity that goes a long way to explaining its greatness: The Lioness isn’t a collection of songs, it’s a state of mind, or a state of the soul.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Put simply, CollectiV is a masterclass in supremely executed rock and roll.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Despite a miss or two, with Cows On Hourglass Pond Tare will likely appease even the most weary AnCo audiences, stringing together an album that is sonically ornate, scintillating, and poetically metaphysical.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s a piece of masterful craftsmanship tucked snugly into the singer-songwriter tradition, filled with country-soul ballads and grungy laments driven by jangly guitars, family band harmonies, rumbling pianos and cinematic string passages that should appeal broadly to fans of the genre without alienating his own die-hards.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The guitars and brass survive, but everything else is fresh.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is an album that is full of glorious melodies, harsh noise and field recordings. Agora is the strongest, and most cohesive, album that Fennesz has released in over a decade, and that is no mean feat.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Some listeners will have been craving something more alienating to sink their teeth into, but what we actually have is an appetising, confident statement of intent from a band that want us to know that they are still a force in contemporary music.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    LP5
    It’s not a game-changer of an album, but the game is certainly changing and Apparat is playing for the right team.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Halo expertly shuffles musical microclimates like a card shark elbow greasing a three card molly hustle.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Basinski is a true master in the way he can overlay true emotion onto his subject matter, and there’s a sense of sadness for these black holes in their destruction and rebirth and the fabric of spacetime they tear apart within that. To close out with that sense of wonder and discovery relieves the weight of his material.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On the Line is yet another beautifully-realised and impeccably-delivered effort from a songwriter who revels and beguiles us from floorboards and pavements that few other songwriters would dream to tread.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Overall, this album isn’t bad, it’s very easy to listen to and it’s quite likeable with some beautiful moments. However, it doesn’t bring with it the life-altering, head-over-heels feeling that I’ve had before with previous BFL albums. Perhaps my expectations are too high but it would be great to see a bit more grit and energy for the next release.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rather than thinking of Groove Denied as some form of outlier we should only be thinking of it for what it is: a delicious treat.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Topics like institutionalised evil, war and greed are always valid targets and The Coathangers go for the throat--and draw blood--pleasingly and memorably at every opportunity. This should be their moment of glory.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This is Foals at their best, and we're only seeing half of the picture.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The 19 songs form a 39-minute-long cohesive whole which looses its meaning once shuffled or reorganised. What could come across as a mash-up of jam sessions slowly reveals its internal coherence.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Imbued with a defiant refusal to succumb to external pressure or fall into the well-worn paths of similar artists who have trodden this road in the past, Sigrid has created a truly unique and recognisable debut record which I’m sure is a sign of spectacular things to come.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As a whole, perhaps unsurprising to those well-versed in the band’s skyscraping sonic feats, Electric Lady Sessions is an affecting appetiser with riveting moments strewn throughout the 12-song compilation.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    With Compliments Please, Taylor reclaims the path that the industry had laid out for a pretty girl in an indie band--and she proves, with ample sauciness and class, that strong independent women aren’t just riding trends to cash out. This is metaphorical gold.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Reinforced by the layered repetition that comes with recording on tape, this album finds its grace by turning heartache into cheeky, fork-tongued refrains.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When they do finally depart after a handful of shows later this month, Woman's Hour find themselves in the fairly unique position of having a small but well formed catalogue of work that's near flawless. As a result, Ephyra is a fitting epitaph.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    On Black they sound fully invested into exploring, and more than capable of handling, a new pop sound. This is a unique addition to Weezer’s discography that sees them preparing for the future, however bleak and overwhelming it might seem.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Occasionally, rarely, a record comes along that restores our faith. If this is the future of pop-music, then sign me up.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yorkston feels like a man who genuinely does this, not for fame or money or even to send a message, but simply as catharsis and because it means something to him. The Route to Harmonium is another chance for us to share that with him.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is a tremendously accomplished piece of work, but one lacking a little of the swagger of previous outings. Give it the time it deserves.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s hard to know whether he’s released the most cohesive, and immediate, collection of songs first, or as the series goes on it’ll get more abstract and ethereal. Either way this is an artist, and series of releases, to embrace and get excited about.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    ALL
    This is not background music to relax to, though there’s something undeniably calming in its beauty. It’s music to be consumed in, sink into its depths and float on its updrafts. To revel in its celebrations and mourn with its grief and feel all that it means to exist within universal existence. If that seems excessive, well sometimes hyperbole feels justified. Stop, listen and be in love with the world once again.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Abandoning the abstract art-rock ideals of experimentalism and pushing the rhythm section further out onto the dancefloor has resulted in a sweet spot for this type of storytelling. Still, this isn’t music to be taken in completely on the first listen. It’s eerie, complex, heart wrenching even.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    They are certainly light enough to float, and, if you will forgive one last crass metaphor, they may just provide a navigational guide to safety for anyone stranded in dangerous waters.