Drowned In Sound's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
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 1.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Parades
Lowest review score: 0 And Then Boom
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,477 out of 4812
  2. Mixed: 1,220 out of 4812
  3. Negative: 115 out of 4812
4812 music reviews
view
per page
    • 66 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    No Tourists
    ‘Timebomb Zone’s ugly rave onslaught strikes first – you feel the stretch of a wince appear. ‘Champions of London’ and ‘Boom Boom Tap’ follow up with a one-two punch; you never saw it coming. Maybe ‘Give Me A Signal’ would be a late highlight, and it is, unless you’ve heard ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’ more than once, or ‘Poison’, for that matter. You never stood a chance. The only reasons to recommend this record over its predecessor is that it’s shorter and doesn’t have Sleaford Mods on it.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Natural Rebel
    Ashcroft's vocal, which once soared and demanded your attention, sounds languid and forced to the point where one is left wondering if he can muster up any will power himself to sing what are by and large, trite soundbites that could have been written on any number of post-it notes.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Where Wilderness Grows
    Only ‘Carrion’ remotely rocks in any way, but only through a lukewarm shower wash.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Mania
    M A N I A won’t suddenly ignite a revisionist outlook of Fall Out Boy’s career, but it does leave you pining for the earnest giddiness of their pre-hiatus material. This is a feeble gesture of benign, stadium-sized pop that’s been cynically constructed, artificially beefed-up and saturated beyond the point of listenability.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The House
    The agony is there, but none of the nuance or substance that would make you empathise or relate with it.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Wrong Creatures
    Wrong Creatures is just disappointing.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Low in High School
    The saddest thing is that all the emotionally flat crooning and awkward lyricism is set to the most blandly serviceable of arena-rock backing tracks complete with by-numbers horn and string parts (the orchestra being the last refuge of the uninspired rockstar), performed by session musicians who’ve honed their craft from stints backing the likes of Alanis Morissette and Billy Corgan. The net result makes The Killers look like Throbbing Gristle.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Thrill of It All
    Nobody expected Smith to reinvent the wheel on his second album, but anything is better than limping along on a flat tyre.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Younger Now
    This is a thumpingly disappointing and consistently milquetoast set of songs riddled with lyrical banality, done-to-death melodies and wispily thin production.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Now
    What was promised to be Twain's 'very, very pure' album is anything but. ... A terrible album.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Hearts That Strain
    All in all, the album is unremarkable, showing only rare flashes of lyrical prowess, and melodically unadventurous. Bugg fails to push boundaries and flounders outside his recent comfort zone, resulting in a record that fails to impress, delivered without vigour.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Harry Styles
    In trying to be all things to all fans, all critics, all expectations, all click-bait corners, Harry Styles has failed to make a defining statement.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Black and White Rainbows
    Black and White Rainbows seems to have been produced by the committee who did the backing tracks for the original Guitar Hero--every edge sanded smooth, compliant and utterly indistinct. There are no dynamics to be found on this LP, only ‘on’ or ‘off’.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Divide
    He has made the most anodyne and bland pop album possible.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Lemon Memory
    It’s crushingly disappointing from a band that can sound so much better.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Hang
    The orchestra tries so desperately to stage this cool retro show, but there are so many glaring holes in the script.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    W:/2016ALBUM/
    Nothing goes anywhere, and yet every song is so long. It’s painful.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Hardwired...To Self-Destruct
    By track five Hardwired has already showed off all its tricks, and I find myself quite tempted to show my discontent by going to listen to Slayer instead.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Heavy Entertainment Show
    The feeling [is] that nothing here belongs to Robbie Williams, that he’s officially completely interchangeable, that he’s become trapped in a maze of his own making, and all of the noise seems so very quiet now.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Big Mess
    Big Mess is hardly much more than ten stabs at reclaiming a relevancy that was only marginally theirs to begin with.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    No Scare
    The all-over-the-place sounds don’t remotely go together, and not even in a good way.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    By Default
    Not everything on By Default is misogynistic, mind, it’s just that when the lyrics aren’t threatening or creepy, they make [any] sense.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    These People
    Perhaps the worst crime is that Ashcroft never even gives that wonderfully expressive voice of his a proper workout; he hasn’t written anything here that demands he really go for it. Instead, These People is an album that’s so safe, it’s almost dangerous.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Hymns
    In the end, Hymns is quite a listless journey.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    A Head Full of Dreams
    The head feels weighed down with unresolved torment, the smile forced and awkward, the colours garish and messily-applied.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Positive Songs for Negative People
    At his best Turner can be immensely charming and gloriously witty. Sadly, these facts only makes the dreary, alarmingly soulless retreads that populate most of Positive Songs for Negative People all the more depressing.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Bahdeni Nami
    Bahdeni Nami is nothing more than a dull and flat dance record, dressed in the trappings of the 'exotic' and 'worldly'.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Glitterbug
    In all of this, it's not that any one song is outright horrific (okay, 'Pink Lemonade' is pretty unbearable), more that the entire experience is a chore.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Day Is My Enemy
    Liam Howlett and the boys embrace their psycho circus schtick on The Day Is My Enemy to the point of suffocation.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Happy People
    The ten tracks here convey no pleasure, and lack any form of belief in their own urgency or desire to be adored.
prev
Page: