Mixmag's Scores
- Music
For 450 reviews, this publication has graded:
-
77% higher than the average critic
-
3% same as the average critic
-
20% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5.7 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 79
Highest review score: | Xen | |
---|---|---|
Lowest review score: | The Mountain Will Fall |
Score distribution:
-
Positive: 396 out of 450
-
Mixed: 54 out of 450
-
Negative: 0 out of 450
450
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
-
- Mixmag
Posted Jul 11, 2018 -
- Critic Score
[A] Collection of gorgeous, gossamer-light vignettes. [Jun 2018, p.114]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 10, 2018 -
- Critic Score
Fiskal takes bold, divisive ideas and makes us wonder why we’d ever question them in the first place--and that’s the highest compliment we can pay him. [Jun 2018, p.120]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
Textures plough and pound throughout the album, revealing yet another new, unclassifiable side of OPN's musical brain as he brings more disparate sounds to the fore. [Jun 2018, p.115]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
There are only nine tracks in all, with pieces such as the mesmerising ‘Boids’ and the blissful ‘Glider’ less focused on the floor. It ensures you never feel like the same tricks are being repeated, and the power of those mellifluous voices never wanes. [Jun 2018, p.114]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
Here, psychedelically hypnotic robot incantations weave through ambient soundscapes and piercing synths to brain-frying effect. [Jun 2018, p.113]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
It veers between intimate and expansive: the chugging rhythms replicate the hum of America’s love affair with the automobile, while majestic, sweeping strings evoke its grand, widescreen vistas. [Jun 2018, p.112]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
Hopkins uses his dancefloor nous, classical background and meditative training to beguile us. It's a beautiful bastard of a record. [May 2018, p.117]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
As you might guess, it’s not all fun and games, but there’s bone-dry lyrical wit and absolute clarity of voice (no guest spots!)--and its understanding of bleep and bass tonality gives it instant appeal. [May 2018, p.116]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
These 12 pieces of crackling, thrumming electro, dub, techno and other less-definable rhythms are held together by a certain warmth, a love of the crisp sounds that make them up, and by adherence to the groove. [Apr 2018, p.92]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
The emotional impact is concentrated in each and every tune, and the whole album manages to achieve a genuinely epic scope in under 40 minutes. [Apr 2018, p.92]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
A pretty heady blend of neo-soul, funk, jazz, boom bap and house, but overall things veer a little too close to the vanilla here. [Apr 2018, p.91]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
Occasionally it's awkward, but for the most part it shows there's still plenty of life in the old Head yet. [Apr 2018, p.91]- Mixmag
Posted Jul 6, 2018 -
- Critic Score
This is a strong, sometimes truly beautiful, maturation of Avery’s work as a producer.- Mixmag
- Posted Mar 20, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Who Are You? shuttles between Honolulu and Jamaica as he splices lap steel guitar and rim shots, before spinning off into Chris Brann-style deep house on ‘Endless Sundays’. Things get even more somnambulant on the dubby ‘Gravity Waves’, which threatens to keel over at any minute.- Mixmag
- Posted Mar 14, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The dark, incendiary electronica of Mr Dynamite harking back to the anything-goes post-punk aesthetic of the late 70s. The work of Benge, Tuung’s Phil Winter, Cabaret Voltaire frontman Stephen Mallinder and everyone’s favourite mellifluous alt-crooner, John Grant, they ensure the record never stands still.- Mixmag
- Posted Mar 2, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The music is more emotive, the confidence sharper, the production bolder. ... All That Must Be is going to be lodged into key craniums for the rest of 2018.- Mixmag
- Posted Mar 1, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Mar 1, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Too often--as on ‘The Last Of Goodbyes’, with its limp rap and doleful Burialisms--it sounds like Moby pastiching his old self. On the flip side, ‘Welcome To Hard Times’, a sunny Balearic soul shuffle, is lovely, and the ghostly piano haunting ‘The Tired And The Hurt’ contains the muscle memory of his masterpiece ‘Porcelain’, but they’re isolated sparkles.- Mixmag
- Posted Mar 1, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Millennial inertia is a target--see ‘It’s All Good’ and ‘Nobody Cares’--but their bite is balanced with blear and bounce in equal measure.- Mixmag
- Posted Mar 1, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Steffi appears totally in control on an album that’s an important milestone in her career: mature, emotive and imbued with a hint of futurism, it’s a delight.- Mixmag
- Posted Jan 9, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Jan 5, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Prins Thomas 5, however, feels like a soft launch for Prins Thomas 2.0. You can hear it from the off on the glam-tastic ‘Here Comes The Band’, said to be influenced by the veteran Glasgow melodic indie band, Teenage Fanclub.- Mixmag
- Posted Jan 5, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Brighton six-piece The Go Team! imbue Semicircle with the high-octane vibes of a marching band taking on block party jams, Northern Soul and cutesy indie pop. It might sound crazy, but it works beautifully.- Mixmag
- Posted Jan 5, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Zombie Zombie are clearly aiming for the lysergic head as well as the ecstatic feet and the end result is an organic concoction that doesn’t disappoint.- Mixmag
- Posted Jan 5, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Jan 5, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Peder Mannerfelt, Paula Temple and NÍDIA are among the producers who worked on ‘Plunge’, bringing 150bpm batida rhythms and searing rave stabs to one of 2017’s most thrilling LPs.- Mixmag
- Posted Jan 5, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The LP examines the traps of routine and the possibilities that dreaming and music offer to escape from them--and however distanced Iqbal might seem in her performance, as a listener you’ll quickly find both real connections to the album’s themes, and the variety of gorgeous sounds that she uses to express them.- Mixmag
- Posted Jan 5, 2018
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
My House From All Angles, comes some 27 years after his first effort. Almost nothing has changed in the interim: it’s all about drum machine, acid riff, repeated vocal, the odd disco loop--job’s a good ‘un. Kids a third of Dunn’s age go mad trying to create retro house, but he does it effortlessly, because it’s all he’s ever needed to do.- Mixmag
- Posted Dec 21, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Reminiscent of a clumsier kind of guitar-drums-bass (plus synths) arrangement, the only remnant of Hung’s Fuck Buttons days is the privileging of drums in the mix. The rest of this unexpected foray is a trip into a post-punk and synth-pop past that needs no repeating.- Mixmag
- Posted Dec 20, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
There’s a new-age wash to some tracks that’s a bit too Enya-like for comfort, but this is an emotionally resonant LP that speaks of artistic, as well as personal, development.- Mixmag
- Posted Dec 20, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
If ‘Safe’ was Visionist’s “personal portrait of anxiety”, then ‘Value’ is his awakening.- Mixmag
- Posted Nov 10, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Nov 10, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
While ‘Loving Life’ channels Jermaine Jackson’s ‘Do What You Do’ but takes it to church rather than the charts. 'Fast Lane’, meanwhile, drives straight to the pop pulpit with a chorus Jim Steinman would be proud of.- Mixmag
- Posted Nov 7, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Names like Underground Resistance, Moodymann, Ectomorph and Claude Young should be all you need to hear to assure you you’re in safe hands, and the results are stunning, as they twist the disco, funk and psychedelia into fresh and crisp patterns.- Mixmag
- Posted Nov 7, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
As the mix migrates to the dancefloor, Lone drops some smooth 90s techno with John Beltran’s ‘Placid Angles’ and the cyber-electro of Drexciya’s ‘Bubble Metropolis’, before signing off with Radiohead’s obscure and atmospheric mood sketch ‘Worrywort’.- Mixmag
- Posted Nov 7, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Bursts with textured atmospheres and danceable beats, all led by the unwavering might of Kelela’s lungs.- Mixmag
- Posted Nov 7, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
With a new band alongside him, he fills The Animal Spirits with haunting brain-melters that fuse modular synths, jazzy musicianship and trance-like rhythms.- Mixmag
- Posted Nov 7, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Belief System is not only Special Request’s most definitive piece of work, but it will also, probably, prove to be Paul Woolford’s magnum opus.- Mixmag
- Posted Nov 7, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
This is music born from information overload and the quick slide toward environmental and political chaos, but while Gamble threatens to leave you scarred, he also offers refuge, too, in the form of his signature styles.- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 19, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
This new album works hard to add several new jams to his inimitable canon.- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It’s not always entirely straightforward listening, but when it comes together--like on the military march-meets-indie/techno schaffel of ‘Selling The Shadow’--it’s a timely reminder of Weatherall’s knack for putting smiles on faces- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Zola Jesus’ distinctive, dramatic voice has always been the prime weapon in her arsenal, and on new album ‘Okovi’ it sounds more brooding than ever.- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It eventually drifts into spaced-out blissfulness on the final four tracks, bringing a melodic ear-trip to a close.- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It’s so absorbing that, by the end of the two-hour odyssey, you’ll be left wondering where the time went. Splendid stuff.- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The spirits of Vangelis, Wendy Carlos and John Carpenter permeate throughout, and it feels like no exaggeration to suggest that Lopatin could soon join them in the pantheon of great electronic soundtrack composers.- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
If you’re a little refreshed and in the midst of a heartfelt festival singalong, things might sound different. But it’s hard to get caught up in some of the grandiose gestures on offer here.- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
‘The Kid’ feels organic and human; you can hear it in ‘Who I Am Why I Am Where I Am’, where repetitive Steve Reich-style phrases are layered like filo pastry. Like much of this beautiful record, its hypnotic intensity is immensely comforting.- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It explores a plethora of bold sounds and styles with a distinctive ethereal edge--and just a touch of delectable curios- Mixmag
- Posted Oct 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Thankfully, it doesn’t veer too wildly from his solo work, as Man Duo dive into shuddering Krautrock rhythms, slow-burn electro and stoner synth-pop.- Mixmag
- Posted Sep 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Here, they sound comfortable as a band rather than an electronic duo who use guitars, with off-kilter songs that nod towards Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine and are full of fizzing synths and weeping accordions confirming their status as one of alternative pop’s finest acts.- Mixmag
- Posted Sep 1, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Like the sprawling city it celebrates, The Road: Part One is endlessly eclectic.- Mixmag
- Posted Sep 1, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Tension comes through not only in the album’s titles--‘Storms’, ‘Screens’ and ‘Eco Friend’--but in the tone of the tracks, where at one moment a song delves deep into an urgent, synthetic cadence, and then expands into an ambient sense of the vast beauty of the physical world.- Mixmag
- Posted Sep 1, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It’s surprisingly dreamy and thoughtful at times (see lead single ‘Aura’, which radiates pure white light) and full of the yearning and bittersweetness of the best post-rave sunrise moments. Most of all, it’s laser-focused in the pursuit of pleasure, and makes absolute sense as a complete album.- Mixmag
- Posted Sep 1, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
They haven’t lost the ability to party, as proven by the grinding disco-funk of ‘Rejoice’, but Omnion is a serious, grown-up dance record for serious times.- Mixmag
- Posted Sep 1, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Well, the good news is American Dream rocks, rolls, pops, fizzes and snaps. The energy is still there, no two songs sound the same and the ambition is somehow even more future-retro than before.- Mixmag
- Posted Sep 1, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It can be tough going, but it’s really worth getting your teeth into.- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 23, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The cuíca-driven balearica of ‘K16 del 1’ and avant-disco drive of ‘On U’ are standouts on an album of psychedelic grooves and tribal rhythms that unfurl with shimmering intensity.- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The bona-fide future-classic ‘Oh Woman Oh Man’, the soft-focused but laser-guided balladry of ‘Hell To The Liars’ and ‘Rooting For You’, and the title track are as good as anything on their debut--and in ‘Non Believer’, they may well have written their finest song yet.- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Bundick says the LP was born out of a growing discomfort with fame. If so, he masks it well--listening to its gorgeous, woozy pop is like lying in a Radox bath.- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Toddla T delves into new territory on his first release since 2012, fusing elements of gospel (‘Ungrateful’), funk (‘BlackJack21’), reggae (‘Foundation’), grime and dubstep (‘Foreign Light’). It’s a brave move to incorporate so many styles but, on the whole, it works.- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Olson’s approach is simple without being naive and challenging rather than wilfully artsy, switching from the menacing ‘Weight’ to the pared-back acid of ‘Pop’.- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
What it lacks in surprises it makes up for in quality music. The Toronto boys have done a great job of mixing relatively obvious tracks like ‘Home Is Where The Hatred Is’ and ‘Don’t Talk…’ by The Beach Boys with more obscure cuts that’ll send you down the rabbit hole on a Spotify listening session.- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Each track is forged and precision-engineered to bolt onto the next: there are times when Snaith takes you to dark places but then he clasps your hand tenderly, guiding you back to sunnier climes. Fabriclive 93 is an astonishing accomplishment.- Mixmag
- Posted Aug 4, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
At times the LP’s nostalgic outlook can be all-consuming, The likes of ‘Memory’ and ‘Vacuume’ do lighten the tone, but it would have been nice to see Haley also tackle darker timbres more often, as he does on ‘Syrthio’ and the title track.- Mixmag
- Posted Jul 10, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Distractions is modern club music that acknowledges its history while still moving it forward, courtesy of one of the best in the game.- Mixmag
- Posted Jul 10, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Jul 10, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Jul 7, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
All the samples and rhythms here you’ve heard a million times--but somehow, with this weirdness and his sheer panache as a producer, Vibert creates brand new rave dynamite, guaranteed to get dancefloors sweat-soaked and maniacal.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 30, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
This album, on Ninja Tune offshoot Technicolour, presents an idiosyncratic take on electronic music that’s imbued with deep emotional content, yet danceable. All the while his engineering capabilities shine through, giving the album a polished touch.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 30, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Not as immediately blissful as ‘Elaenia’, but a magical new direction nonetheless.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 30, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Ruinism isn’t a departure from the type of chopped foundations we’ve come to expect from Lapalux, it’s just less thick with haze: both onimous and gorgeous, it’s an album of two halves that tiptoes into a purgatory state.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 30, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 30, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It’s obvious he’s at the fore of UK rap. Lyrically, this LP hits the same themes as on his breakout 2015 mixtape.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 30, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
This is his first proper solo LP project since ‘Saturnz Return’, and it’s brilliantly, bloody-mindedly Goldie: a slew of deep d’n’b grooves offset by beatless lounge-blues arias and glamour-soaked jazz club noodlings.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 7, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
You may find it tough to get past the religiosity, but if you can, there’s real magic here.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Remastered for vinyl by Matt Colton (James Blake, Aphex Twin, Hot Chip), it still hits heavy. ... An accompanying remix album celebrates diversity with offerings from Zomby, Skream and Adrian Sherwood, but it’s Hodge & Peverelist’s jerky mix of ‘Afro Left’ that runs away with top honours. It’s a fitting tribute to the LP’s legacy.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Translating to ‘skin’ in English, its urgent, high-pitched signal follows the melancholy first-take of the artist’s vocal, who’s sung before but never with such vulnerability. It marks the start of a soaring new direction.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
If you’re a fan, you won’t be disappointed. ... If you’re new to the zoo, prepare for a 20-track musical trip you won’t forget in a hurry.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Sometimes the constant shifts can leave you reeling and wondering what Jlin is trying to get at, but it’s never long before they pick you up again and pull you back into it. This is the sound of a huge talent blossoming.- Mixmag
- Posted Jun 5, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Mixmag
- Posted May 18, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Iif you’ve got a predilection for Vampire Weekend’s baroque alt-pop, Tame Impala’s psychedelica or the hazy bombast of M83 you’ll find this a comforting, welcoming destination.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
An album full of gorgeous electronic folk and psych-pop, with Trogdon’s observations of the minutiae of life, love and nature (“the kindness of rain”; “everything on its way to being something else”) sitting perfectly in the mix. And it’s great.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
‘Superfresh’ is less than the sum of its disco parts, though, while the less said about ‘Hot Property’ the better. But it picks up with ‘Something About You’ and ‘Summer Girl’, while ‘Carla’ is an electro-funk classic.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Then there’s her voice, sweet and breathy, uttering lyrics that are always in Spanish, yet sometimes content just to form unfamiliar, onomatopoeic sounds. It’s endlessly bewitching.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Passages of pummeling grooves, emotional strings and delicate piano are impressively tied together by Craig’s dancefloor expertise.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Ultimately, the sincerity and craft of the composition and production make it much more emotionally satisfying than the untold PCO knock-offs out there.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Concrete Desert is a potent blend of cinematic music-for-outsiders and deep, drone-leaning sounds.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It’s full of church organs, hazy reverb, rippling synths and poetry about mortality and eternity, as well as Sakamoto’s distinctive piano, sonar bleeps and unforgettable melodies. It’s arguably the most beautiful record you’ll hear this year.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
[The first track, "Celebrate" is] a stunning start--and thankfully, the songs that follow are just as strong.- Mixmag
- Posted May 11, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
An album that’s underpinned by atmospherics that flicker between stalling and soaring, Abysma is blissfully evocative from start to finish.- Mixmag
- Posted Apr 26, 2017
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The best tracks are ‘In Paris’, a song which Lady Gaga would be proud of; the disco-tinged ‘Other Guys’, a brilliant coming together of her voice and former Ima Robot member Tim Anderson’s production; and the brooding ‘By Your Side’, which wouldn’t sound out of place on the new London Grammar album.- Mixmag
- Posted Apr 6, 2017
- Read full review