musicOMH.com's Scores

  • Music
For 5,846 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 60% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: 100 Everything's The Rush
Lowest review score: 0 Fortune
Score distribution:
5846 music reviews
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    At times, it’s so honest that you may feel like you’re prying into someone’s diary, but it will be a major surprise if this funny, clever, heartbreaking record isn’t nestling at the top of the Album Of The Year polls come December.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Anyone interested in music of whatever form, the work of any of the contributors who are present here, film scores, or Tiersen’s early work specifically, will surely find Portrait to be quite the perfect picture.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Like low hanging fruit plucked fresh from the vine, the bacchanalian temptations Daniel and collaborators such as Angel Deradoorian, husband MC Schmidt and John Wiese offer are a scrumptious treat in which to indulge.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    trip9love…??? is what happens when brilliant artists navigate their way around self-imposed limitations: most music doesn’t sound like this, but perhaps it should.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Shunning a tried-and-tested formula to focus on evolution and experimentation is always a massive risk. But by choosing to embrace their calmer, and often much darker side, the Dubliners could well have given us their masterpiece.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    While it’s a stretch to describe the record as ‘poppy’, it’s certainly their most accessible material to date, with songs like The Arbor, Videograms and Let’s Get Lost taking up residence in the head long after the record has stopped playing. ... It may be only January, but there’s already been a place filled on that Best Albums Of 2019 list.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is sensitive, heartfelt and resolute rock music that shuffles its feet while looking at the stars.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Their previous albums were exercises in fuzzed up, energised sonic assault, and whilst Fantasy Empire is no different in terms of attack and intent, there’s a clarity to it that makes it more effective.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Recent years have seen outstanding releases by people like Claud, Chloe Moriondo and, on an even more successful level, Maggie Rogers. Jordana is firmly in this lineage, and Face The Wall is an outstanding realisation of a prime talent.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Voices also feels like a celebration and validation of music itself – its capacity for profundity and to be a conduit for ideas. The world may be going through an unprecedented period of difficulty, but Voices is an album that will no doubt prove a worthy, supportive companion throughout.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Looking back on traditions of the distant past and moulding them within a modern sound and context, it marks a striking release from an artist that is still surprising and innovating deep into their career.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Former Pulp bassist Steve Mackey eventually ended up producing the record, and he gives Pierce’s various sonic wanderings space to roam, but sadly it’s an amble of a circular nature.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    As Days Get Dark is a remarkable return, a new Arab Strap that updates, deepens and re-energises their sound.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Listening to Meshes Of Voice is somewhere between a terrifying hallucination and a relaxing daydream. It makes it a memorable, and strangely enjoyable, experience.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As the title of the opening song goes, Parquet Courts are swiftly becoming masters of their craft on an assured debut album brimming with unimpeachably great songs.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For the most part, though, Morby is refashioning his admiration for canonical songwriters through a closer attention to mood, atmosphere and the evocative potential of sound.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Chaos For The Fly is a captivating debut that showcases his artistic evolution outside of the post-punk bombast of Fontaines DC. These songs bleed through in their honesty and lack of over-thinking to demand active engagement, to explore their intricacies and contemplate their themes.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It’s a record that follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, offering up melodic psyche-pop numbers in which walls of sound are daubed with deceptively dark lyrics.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Listening to the music in the knowledge of its back story makes for a poignant experience, a reminder of how music can be an incredibly cathartic means of expression for both listener and artist.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    These intense, dramatic songs are the perfect companion to these times – at long last, The Anchoress is stepping out of the shadow of her famous friends to show that she’s an almighty talent in her own right.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On Love’s Crushing Diamond, Lee offers seven immaculately composed tracks, all of which feature his refreshingly optimistic ruminations on love and life in today’s world.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With this record Teebs continues his reputation for immersive, sophisticated instrumentals.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The friends have created something memorable here – not just to bring attention to serious causes, but to captivate and delight all those who stop to listen.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Overall, The Ballad of Darren is a captivating sonic journey that goes to great lengths to ignore much of Blur’s rich legacy, but it shows that bands – even those long in the tooth – can still continue their musical growth without sacrificing quality.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stars is simply a wonderful work by a wonderful artist, which can be enjoyed with or without the contextual groundwork of its sister album. Enjoy liberally and often.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cancer For Cure is a dependably bold, powerful statement, perhaps not quite as masterful as its predecessors, but still overflowing with ideas and innovation.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Despite the album’s central concept and expansive nature, it is in fact a tight and cohesive work. There’s rarely any self-indulgence, making these songs in total Ufomammut’s most direct and accessible work to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Vynehall’s potential has always been apparent, but Rare, Forever is a truly beguiling record – equal parts poignant and hedonistic – which allows his vast array of talents to shine.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is an album that demands to be properly listened to though, not reduced to background music – properly immerse yourself in Villagers’ Fever Dreams and it’s an experience you won’t want to wake up from.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Horace Andy is clearly an artist not content to rest on his laurels, and with this album he strengthens his position as a bona fide reggae legend.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In short, it’s classic Eluvium and caps another special album, one that sparkles, soothes, and confirms him to be at the height of his creative powers.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Archangel Hill is another life-affirming encounter with a remarkable artist. Shirley Collins may be British folk music royalty, but this record once again shows her ability to communicate with her listeners as though they are the only people in the room.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The upshot is an album that is one of the year’s most significant and polished pop performances. There’s not a wasted moment on Something To Give Each Other.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This Is Happening suffers no shortage of really great songs. Each track is a well-executed study in the finer points of the long form, each thumping and building, wavering and shifting in the haze of its own self-contained ecosystem.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Final track Modern Love Stories plays out with acoustic guitar and strings in tandem, emphasising the new textures that Once Twice Melody has introduced, perhaps not with universal success, but nevertheless there are moments here that rank alongside Beach House’s finest work.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In short, it’s no puzzle to see that there’s no revolution here, and little is opposite to what you’d expect. It does, however, prove their sky remains far from blackened.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There may be no words, but their music speaks volumes--and is consistently rewarding and charming.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In this urgent, dense, ambient, technical music Three Trapped Tigers have produced something that is very much their own.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    There might be more anger, darkness and politics on this album but Giants Of All Sizes shows they are still fundamentally one of the best bands around at offering consolation and comfort when the surrounding turbulence threatens to get too much.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    He is now firmly established as one of the UK’s finest songwriters, making an album that should be treasured through the dark winter months. Sadness Sets Me Free offers hope and light for what’s ahead, in spite of the political slurry we find ourselves wading through.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    We find Omni changing the formula only slightly and having incredible success with it. Highly recommended. Underrate them at your peril.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Weighing in at just 32 minutes, Treats can hardly be accused of outstaying its welcome. In fact, its brevity is its strength - too much aural pummelling could be too much. As it is, as soon as the album finishes, you'll want to put it on again straight away.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blue Hearts finds him upping the ante yet again.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kids See Ghosts overall is a good album, and leaves the listener with a much better impression than last week’s Ye and 2016’s Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’, though it can be a frustrating listen.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    While catharsis never comes, there are glimpses of light coming through at the edges, and a sense of perfect order among the chaos.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    It’s a vital record that’s a blast of clarity in a muddy, chaotic world.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For all its heavy themes, Forward Constant Motion is an exciting, energetic, surprisingly accessible listen.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Beneath the corny flamboyance and exaggerated phrasing lies an album of killer tunes that may be mannered to within an inch of its life, but are crammed full of wit and bravado.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Shape is awkward, full of weird sounds that shouldn’t fit together but do.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This is an album that seeks to explore a shifting in spiritual planes, and the music reflects this by twisting its source material into something entirely other.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Overall The Book Of Traps And Lessons is best with a healthy dose of thoughtfulness and nuance, and while it falters on the occasions when these are disregarded, this album is another example of why Tempest’s spoken-word works now routinely amplify well beyond her poetic beginnings.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The production on Sugar Mountain is not as polished as Live At Massey Hall, which was recorded three years later as Young's career trajectory was reaching superstar status. As a result the atmosphere is electrically intimate, making the listener feel like they are actually at the gig - the true marker of a great live album.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Closing track Happy Now even dares to pick up the pace and is a reminder how good Uchis can sound when she mixes things up a bit. A few more moments like this to break the homogeneity of Uchis’ songs next time around would be most welcome.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    it. At times, this is probably easier to admire than to actually sit down and enjoy, but it’s an impressive achievement nonetheless.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Working best with eyes closed and a fertile imagination, Feels plays like a dreamscape of interconnected happenings, some coincidental, some intended, that's as dense as it is languid.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It Is What It Is sparkles with inventive songwriting, chunky production and pervasive good vibes, a worthwhile addition to any R&B or jazz fan’s collection.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Different Every Time succeeds, though, in illustrating just how versatile and original this creative spirit has been, and how he will no doubt cast a long shadow of influence in the future.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This enchanting and deeply felt piece of work marks Gwenno out once again as a unique artist with much to say.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Western Stars is, annoyingly, another fantastic album to add to your rotation. But then it is a Bruce Springsteen album. Of course it’s superb.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Yeezus is a divisive album, one that contains some of West’s most inspired samples, collaborations, and racial observations to date while at times being insufferably misogynistic and confoundingly lyrically lazy.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wildheart is a beautiful album from one of the most exciting and talented artists in music right now.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As with each album in the quartet’s canon, Re-Animator requires (and deserves) repeated listening. Once that is achieved then the dividends start to pay, and this darkly shaded album is revealed as a very different string to be added to the Everything Everything bow. The band continue to sound like nothing else around.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Countless Branches is just 27 minutes long, but it’s majestic. Its brevity allows the listener the chance to become immersed in Fay’s lyrical world of love, time and hope.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There are moments of sheer brilliance on Ga... and due to the band keeping things short and sweet (the album clocks in at about 36 minutes) those moments are rarely far apart.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Gibbons and Penderecki deserve enormous credit for their approach, which is at once determinedly studied but also gloriously instinctive, Gibbons getting to the very heart of the music and the way it is made with her whole heart.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is an album to sit with, to take in, and to fully appreciate its subtle and quiet beauty. It may not be her commercial breakthrough--someone as esoteric as Pratt could be waiting a while for that--but it’s certainly her best album to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The result is surely one of the best pop albums of 2020, and is possibly Ware’s finest to date. A sensual delight, What’s Your Pleasure? is the ultimate in post-disco gratification.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Widescreen ambitions should never be criticised, and as Prelude To Ecstasy ends with Mirror, a Cheryl Cole torch song with Nick Cave intensity and Bond-theme bombast, you have to conclude that this album is big, and it is clever.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Takk does what Agaetis Byrjun did by burrowing into the consciousness and snuggling down to bed there, purring. Each listen brings out another mood, another thought. It's gorgeous.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s a record that sees Mikal Cronin finding his way as a songwriter in his own right.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Overall, this is a highly enjoyable work packed with infectious licks and proves to be an easy album to get along with from the get-go.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    On The Worse Things Get, there’s not a weak song.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    You Belong There is a genuinely transporting, multi-dimensional song cycle and a glimpse into a fascinating musical mind that demands repeated plays. It’s destined to appear on album of the year lists but its depth and sense of ambition will ensure its treasures last well beyond 2022.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It’s Olsen’s willingness to develop her sound that is really the most gratifying aspect of Burn Your Fire For No Witness, enticingly hinting at much more to come in the future.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    May well be Tempest’s most enduring work to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Building on the innovations of previous album Immunity, it invests more emotionally and retains the primal physical stimulus behind Hopkins’ best music. He remains a wholly individual voice in a congested field, a single phrase played from his piano speaking volumes. And Singularity is his best album yet.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The music is plainly listenable, the progressions are often entertaining and the lyrics are intricate. For fans, the minor evolution and heavier sonic palette may whet their appetite, but for anyone in search of a new revolutionary energy in the realm of indie rock, steer clear of the throne room.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Taken on its own merits, this is life-enriching stuff.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Their best album to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A fine record.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Black To The Future is both musically and thematically bold and important. It is a major statement contextualising the present, aiming to better understand the past and, hopefully, providing a provocation for a better future.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The whole album is awash with reminders of not just how good The Breeders were, but how good The Breeders still are.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yesterday’s Gone is one of the finest debuts you’ll hear for quite some time.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Contemplative and unstable, the record is a 12-track paean to the benevolent act of taking domestic solace in retreating. ... William Basinski is back within his element, and we should take all comfort in that.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Its cumulative impact is immense, the singer giving everything she has to the music. Limbs may not be an easy listen, but Keeley Forsyth makes it an essential one, singing from the depths of her very bones.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s probably the most accessible Soccer Mommy album to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It is neither their most immediate nor their warmest album, yet its provocations are effective, and become curious and complex in light of the melody and harmony that sits above them.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s a beautiful, fitting send off to one of music’s finest lyricists and an excellent postscript to an incredible career.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Its author remains a restless creative spirit, but Paul Simon’s music feels as relevant now as it ever has done, his work reaching the very depths of the human soul.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Young Fathers are exactly as their name suggests: firstly young, but more noteworthy, brutally honest father-figures who show the music world that, when you take musical and topical risks, you get noticed.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Early fans may mourn the lack of edge that this major label debut may have smoothed out, but everyone else best get their “Lizzo 2020” signs on the lawn.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It is a pleasure to report that the latest SFA opus is a joy from start to finish.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    It’s a marvellously un-sobering boisterous beast of a record, and a sparkling début.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    And such are the music's joyous highs, subtle thrills and rich and deep layers, they can undoubtedly be judged one of the most worthwhile and special bands currently at large.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Vince Staples is a worthy continuation of his oeuvre, and proof if it were needed that his paradox of youthful energy and world-weary cynicism remains as captivating as ever.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The whole of Entomology should open new ears and eyes to Josef K's thrilling, scraping, clattering greatness.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    It’s a smart, attentive-demanding progression--within the song and throughout the album as a whole--that deftly captures various stages of love’s cycle. With added synths.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    For those that are willing to kiss goodbye to the guitars and join Parker on his latest detour, you’re likely to get swept away by the dreaminess of Currents. It’s just a shame that the undeniable majesty of opener Let It Happen sees the album peak at a high it can never hope to reach for the remainder of its existence.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Liars have not only been reborn creatively, they’ve emerged with by far the most accessible album of the band’s illustrious career to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Hadestown may have gained her success through her successful harnessing of external inspiration but by turning attention inwards on this occasion she’s delivered one of the quietly outstanding albums of the year.