Hot Press' Scores

  • Music
For 497 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 The Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972
Lowest review score: 10 Uncle Dysfunktional
Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 24 out of 497
497 music reviews
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Reformation Post TLC may lack a tune as monumental as, say, the unforgettable ‘Hip Priest’ from Hex Enduction Hour, but 30 years into his career, Smith is still making music with the kind of vitality and imagination that shame most musicians half his age.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Although the tunes have plenty of vigour and aggression, as with Employment, Britpop veterans will feel more than a little sense of deja vu.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    By eschewing the careworn vulnerability so favoured by many female artists, Veirs allows her remarkable songcraft and ornate use of language to shine.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Neither tearaway maverick nor irrelevant abdicator, Brett Anderson sounds like a man out of time in a time out of joint. No bad thing, necessarily.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The most extraordinary aspect of the album is that Murphy has managed to simultaneously make his music both more experimental and more thrillingly danceable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    There are some excellent moments.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Malin has seemingly adopted the persona and sound of his New Jersey counterpart Bruce Springsteen.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A record to cool the blood and quicken the pulse.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The record is low on saccharine balladry, high on rhythm protein.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Who needs love when heartbreak sounds this bloody good?
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pocket Symphony... contains more than its fair share of inspired moments.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    So, Funeral was by no means a fluke. The Arcade Fire are unquestionably the real deal. And to prove it they’ve now thrown in another contender for ‘best record of the decade’.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It’s a little long at 17 tracks, and hard to take in one sitting, but these songs present Americana in such an oddly compelling way that it’s almost impossible to ignore.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Calling will test your emotions, making you feel glowing and comfortable, then useless and helpless.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Think a more ragged Belle & Sebastian, and you’re not far off.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    West works because it juxtaposes a sense of vulnerability with a desire not to stay down for long, and is tinged with a sense of realism not always present in her rivals.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beautiful, but never callow, here is an album to fall slowly in love with.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    So once you get over the fact it’s farcically emo, this album turns out to be a decent enough record to get you in the mood for the Saturday night indie disco.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    A quantum leap in thought and execution from 2004 debut, These Were The Earlies.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This is a brilliantly buoyant and wonderfully charming record that’ll suit almost every mood.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The lyrics here are a lacerating mix of blue collar bile and blue language, little Lady Muck simultaneously waging class and crass warfare.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    An album as vital and as edgy as anything they’ve ever done.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Flaming Lips could've been forgiven for feeling usurped when their sister ship Mercury Rev steamed away with the garlands for Deserter's Songs last December, but in truth, both collectives are in competition with no-one but themselves and the gods.