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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Napalm
    Napalm is a long ass 18 track slog, and the pointless thug boasts scattered throughout the album.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Kasabian
    Sure this album may well sound awesome if you’ve just snorted a metre of charlie or recently breakfasted from a menu of ‘shrooms and LSD, but for sober ears it’s enough to drive anyone to drugs.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Hunting Party
    It screams often, confused, like the mess that it is.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Presidence
    Pursuing new directions and seeking out new sonic soundscapes is all very well, as is jamming and wailing for 30 minutes and holding 17 hour gigs. However to merely shove over two hours worth of randomly selected work onto two discs with no attempt at continuity or direction is lazy at best.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Konk
    These odd moments aside, it’s tempting to suggest that never before have a band--and a band who, let us remember, this writer awarded a generous 8/10 for their summery, tuneful debut--managed to nail mediocrity so definitely between its tired eyes.
    • Drowned In Sound
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    We Need Medicine
    It's completely inessential at best, or a cynical cash-grab at worst.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Cage The Elephant
    It’s a fatal flaw that rears itself again and again as a bastardised version of blue-collar Americana is force-fed a mass-produced strain of bland modern rock throughout all eleven tracks.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Snapshot
    Their debut is just minute after minute of hollow pandering.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Come Around Sundown
    Come Around Sundown is musical wallpaper for those who purchase such amenities from the likes of Tesco or Asda. It represents little more than a giant turd amidst a sea of mediocrity, several million of which will shortly be appearing in homes near you.
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Don't Believe The Truth
    A big stinking pile of rubbish.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Swoon
    Even a past-it Smashing Pumpkins ‘reunion’ with only Corgan remaining is more acceptable than this awful mimickery and that’s not a good place for a band to be.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Everything Is Borrowed
    The result is like a musical cab ride from hell, a forty-minute endurance test of half-baked cockney cod-philosophy.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    W:/2016ALBUM/
    Nothing goes anywhere, and yet every song is so long. It’s painful.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    All The Plans
    It’s a horribly calculated, horrible slice of anthemic horribleness. Throughout, dreadful lyrics are in abundance, pianos are thumped and drums are bashed.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Complete Me
    He's crafted a whole album so stagnantly repetitive that one listen gives the illusion of having already been subjected to the same song again and again and again and again.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Divide
    He has made the most anodyne and bland pop album possible.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Where Wilderness Grows
    Only ‘Carrion’ remotely rocks in any way, but only through a lukewarm shower wash.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Bittersweet World
    There’re dudes out there (Google them) who will try and tell you this album has some relevance, that it represents pop, that it’s important. That it’s good. They’re wrong.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    JackInABox
    There’s not one song on here worth releasing as a single. Only two or three are even remotely listenable.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Here We Stand
    Formula is strictly adhered to, and while pace may differ from one jolly strum-about to the next, the void where there should be a worthwhile tune remains.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Yours Truly, Angry Mob
    The sad thing is that while nobody expects Kaiser Chiefs to be re-inventing the wheel, we do expect a pretty rock-solid, perfect pop record. Yours Truly, Angry Mob most definitely isn't rock solid or perfect in any sense.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Fabled City
    Every song is predictable, workman-like, lacking invention.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2
    2 of 2, then, is an incredibly frustrating experience.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Listen
    Nothing, not even their own past as a middling indie-pop crossover act, is sacred, and it’s sad to see The Kooks attempt to conjure past glories and fall flat.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Folklore
    There's nothing on 'Folklore' that comes anywhere near the catchiness of anything off her debut.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Calling the World
    There’s just very so little of merit here--glazed pop-rock staggers into itself as the whole album washes past without you realising.
    • 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.
    • 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.
Page: