New Musical Express (NME)'s Scores

  • Music
For 5,983 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 41% 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 to hell with it [Mixtape]
Lowest review score: 0 Maroon
Score distribution:
5983 music reviews
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Even more subdued than usual. [12 Aug 2006, p.32]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    His choices are faultless and his sense of fun is very apparent.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hazy, dark, The Cure-ish dreampop with a Lynchian vibe.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Given what we know about Cuomo’s eccentric inner world, it’s hard not to find those dazzlingly perfect melodies kind of hollow.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They have the relentless persistence needed to stick to the wall long enough (this is their third self-released album), but despite their striving for the grandiose (Kings producer Ethan Johns provides the country-ish bluster) and breaks (a spot in rom-com Going The Distance for last album "Union"), there's still that dark sparkle missing.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unfortunately, in trying to take on all comers at once, there are parts of Queen that feel like an overreach. There is a better ten track effort hiding in Queen, but you get the impression Nicki kept tracks like ‘Miami’ to hedge her bets in a bid for streaming success. The Queen is back, but only just.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hushed vocals, strummed guitars, creeping cello, and an all-encompassing sense of politeness are the order of the day. [19 Jun 2004, p.57]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    We find exquisite Beatles-indebted pop, moments of effortless lyrical and melodic brilliance and a few tunes which drift dangerously close to easy listening.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Where it works best is that clear marriage of anger and aspiration, interwoven with Furman’s melodic drawl, musical tenderness and reverb. In parts, though, ‘All of Us Flames’ is an example that sometimes less is more.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This ain’t ‘Chinese Democracy’. ‘Still Sucks’ doesn’t feel laboured or overthought and never overstays its welcome.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The result is a soothing, slow-burning collection which reflects on times and friends gone by.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In parts Riz's flow is slightly awkward, but his rhymes are tight and full of razor-sharp quips, and the production is slick and energetic.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    For all its prettiness, though, Passerby is a record that boasts about as much excitement as a gentle breeze, and its rewards are too few and far between.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    If there’s a criticism of Broken Politics, it perhaps that the record doesn’t broadcast this voice often enough.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    For all Hemerlein’s prodigious talents, you can only have your heartstrings tugged for so long before it all gets a bit wearing.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    [Shonen Knife's] 13 Ramones covers sound exactly like you'd expect.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Swirling synths abound, but remain encased in four-minute micro-epics which sometimes mine the icy ambition of pre-megastardom Simple Minds.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Spiky, occasionally over sugary. [14 May 2005, p.67]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Although clearly Canibus is undoubtedly one of the best freestyling lyricists of his generation, he's still to find the right production team to match his vocabulary.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Twist[s] both the ultra-familiar and the obscure into awkward new shapes. [21 Jan 2006, p.35]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A little shade among the sugary rays might not go astray, but maybe that's just the goth in me talking.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's not without charm--the needle-jump static of 'Dolly And Porter' gently drives a sweet melody; stroboscopic flickers of synth make a gripping arrangement for 'Closer To The Elderly'--but too often it's just Taylor's fragile voice cooing drab, introspective mantras over sparse electric piano.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    If you've ever wondered what growing up in middle-class 1970s America would have been like, these deeply personal revelations are for you. [30 Apr 2005, p.64]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Constant jangle blurs the songs, and a cover of Neil Young’s ‘Revolution Blues’ only emphasises Ranaldo’s newfound likeness to the Canadian in one of his dirgier moods.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The album could do with being at least half of its 70 minutes, to cut out the self-indulgent meandering.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Uncanny Valley is like listening to a latter-day Oasis album: too weakly reminiscent of past achievements to really satisfy.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sometimes, on Magick Songs, you may wish they would--there’s a little alienating insularity here, but it’s still inspiring to see the band follow their instincts.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ultimately, this is just a rock album that does exactly what it says on the tin. They are head-banging, pitch-altering rock songs that may not change the world right away, but they’ll give yer head a little wobble at the very least.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Presented as a 96-minute opera, his fourth studio album is a haughty gesture weighed down by its own folly, scanning instead as pathos.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The rough edges that gave them their early oddball indie pop character have been sanded off in favour of earnest but uninspiring anthemic rock.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    So one third's great and two thirds grate, which is an improvement at least.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ultimately, it lacks the variety or the startling sonic leaps that would make it essential. Interesting, but no cigar.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A good seven years out of date, Doom Abuse is pure synth-pop mania, frequently teetering between unadulterated Trent Reznor pop brilliance and impressions of Skrillex driving a monster truck through a Savages gig in a video arcade.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Duck is far from inventive, but there’s fun to be had.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This is, primarily, experiential music, meant to be enjoyed communally at their ear-splitting live shows.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's often hugely clever... but tends to forget that the best metaphors are the ones that make you crack involuntary smiles, not the ones that require five minutes and a dictionary. [26 Feb 2005, p.66]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor has his production paws all over San Franciscan quartet The Morning Benders’ second full-length effort, and while Big Echo has more than pastiche to offer, a great deal of it still sounds a bit too familiar.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shelter From The Ash is a more sedate affair, full of ghostly baroque folk stories that feel disappointingly ethereal.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Convocations’ is a mature work, but its length and intricate creation makes it difficult to get under its skin, the record’s wonderful honesty hidden behind layers that you wish could be peeled back.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As with everything The Indications do, ‘Private Space’ is incredibly listenable, yet for all their efforts to expand their sound, they still rest often on the formula of old.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In summary then, better than most if you like that sort of thing.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A few strokes of fortune might send this London quintet--or, say, Clock Opera or Fixers--towards stratospheric hugeness.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It’s ultimately toothless.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's those constant and predictable superstar interjections that prevent the album from standing out as much as it had potential to do.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    She’s as frustratingly twee as a hailstorm of cupcakes. Her second album’s adventures into electronica on the squelchy, sulky ‘Kill My Darling’ and the unsettling ‘Next Summer’ are more remarkable.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This may not be a groundbreaking record, but it’s definitely one that delivers bops befitting of a woman who keeps on performing even when she’s served with court papers on stage.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Though ‘shame’ is no wild departure, its voice feels stronger. Cutting loose clearly suits IDER – this independent follow-up finds them free to pick apart all the complicated facets of shame in a slow-burning, smouldering fashion.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It may not be the most exciting project to be released by the singer, but it’s complexity and composition make for a perfect power-down playlist.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The band batter you around the head with the kitchen sink in an attempt to get you to sit up and take notice, sometimes to the point where it simply gives you a headache.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As a platform for Taylor’s softer side, ‘Silence’ is a success, but it’s not the sound of him firing on every single cylinder.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ultimately Blake isn't yet the singer-songwriter to pull this album off.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Respectful enough to rouse any struggling family gathering but knowing enough to amuse those in on the joke, The Teal Album at once satirises the covers album and makes a decent stab at perfecting it.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    At points it gets too much, but Heavy Trash's steel-toed pillaging of the past still makes them a punk-rock Time Team.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Most of the time, though, Be Your Own King is so chipper and catchy it comes over like an indie version of Alphabeat.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    When the energy levels fall off entirely on the maudlin piano-powered closer ‘Never Again’, Idiots' early signs of promise seem a pleasant but distant memory.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bread And Circuses isn't bad enough to be s death knell, but neither is it good enough to be their commercial rebirth.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Though there is plenty of positive change across ‘Surviving’, it’s clear that their strengths still lie as a fists-in-the-air rock band; the monumental ‘One Mil’ shows this best.f hope and rebirth in their own way, digging as deep as Adkins himself is.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The blues kings show no signs of turning off their well-beaten path here, but they’re still capable of conjuring enough magic on the journey.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They tag-team across the record with a cheery glint, a self-deprecating wink and a boundless charm that's hard not to like.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There are sparks of brilliance on ‘Love, Death & Dancing’; Garratt’s multifaceted talent is undeniable and his honesty is admirable. But, please, less is more next time.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Overall there is a sense that this is the sound of a band brushing their hair and fixing their make-up, trying to convince the world they're OK while secretly crumbling on the inside.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Love For Sale’ is best when Bennett and Gaga playfully trade lines and sing in unison, with the veteran singer countering his collaborator’s belting vocal with artful restraint.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Though nothing is as memorable as Keys classics like ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ and ‘Fallin”, her melodies are undeniably lovely. ... ‘Unlocked’ isn’t strong enough to turn this into a top-tier Alicia Keys album, but it does make it a project worth investigating. With some judicious pruning and sharp sequencing, any Keys fan should be able to carve out a pretty satisfying playlist.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This is some of the most focused, ferocious rapping that Lil Wayne has achieved in ages. Yet this still doesn’t necessarily result in a great album.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All boxes ticked for hip retromaniacs, but certainly not “the next millennium”.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They've already featured on a multitude of soundtracks including Stealing Beauty, Shades and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Not to mention cinema ads for champagne and episodes of La Femme Nikita and er, Baywatch. That's pretty much all bases covered, then.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's a terrible pity: when she stops politicising like a councillor on a complementary therapy summer camp, there's music here that's full of the febrile commitment and unashamed passion that marked her out as a valid icon in 1975.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    it paints crudely and schematically a portrait of the artist as messed-up, disillusioned, self-indulgent twerp with an unhealthy appreciation of the mid-'80s US guitar underground, whose demo-quality doodlings (Graham plays, sings, produces and paints everything. And all to a rather average standard) should probably have never seen the light of day.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A good album, in a well-produced way, but it's not as good or as important as it thinks it is. [24 Jun 2006, p.43]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This formulaic approach lacks surprise – once you’re a few tracks in, you’ve heard it all. It might not be a total hot Gizz summer, but at least we’ve got a few extra bangers to bask in.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Thought Forms' side peaks with the driving Sonic Youth riffs of ‘Sound Of Violence’ and the dizzying My Bloody Valentine lurch of ‘For The Moving Stars’.... Having left their label, [Esben And The Witch] are using crowdfunding to record their next album with Steve Albini, for which these raw tracks offer great.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Head First, enjoyable though much of it is, is disappointingly determined to return the favour.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There are a few moments of elegant sensuality--like the tumbling, androgynous voices of 'He She'--but by and large it's like one of Jeff Koons' uber-kitsch sculptures: gleaming, opulent, but kinda hard to love.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Taylor's attraction lies in her ability to switch herself effortlessly between vastly different styles.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    After singing about so much Americana for the past decade, it seems that he’s now had to cross the Atlantic in search of fresh geography to mine.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Inevitably, the record descends into a series of multi-band cover-offs, the listener acting as Caesar, deciding which ‘winning’ version should really have made the cut. Half the time you feel like you’re doing the compiler’s job for them.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    True Meanings tends to blend into a lilting mush over the course of 14 tracks that rarely stray from the beige end of the sonic palette.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They wisely avoid toying with any Darkness-style irony, but the Keys' insistence on authenticity does leave the album a little flat and humourless. [2 Sep 2006, p.21]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This isn’t a bad or a lazy album, and Elbow are too good a band to ever be dismissed, yet one can’t help but feel they could push their envelope a bit further.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The result is an eccentric grab-bag of styles and influences, with enough harps on it to keep Joanna Newsom fans happy, and even a retro 4/4 beat dancing in on the aptly named ‘Disco Compilation’.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    With a swelling back catalogue, it’s becoming increasingly clear what does and doesn’t work for Yachty’s solo output: skippable braggadocious freestyles? No. Endearing and experimental takes on hip-hop that demonstrate his more individualistic approach to being a major rap artist? Yes please.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Mutator’ might well find favour with fans of his distant descendants like Squid, Perfume Genius, Sleaford Mods and Black Midi. A quarter of a century on, this lost rumble from post-punk vaults finds new context, as a lesson in uncompromising art from an old master.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sanchez’s gorgeous vocal is what truly stands out.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's far from bad, but if you're still waiting for a Clinic record as great as the utterly seminal Internal Wrangler, keep waiting, and probably don't hold your breath.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It’s not an easy listen and moments, notably the faux-soul of ‘Shame’, can grate, but this is a fascinating and rich record.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Life And Times is unchallenging pap. But it's furnished with the odd line of lyrical craftiness and melodies that, on the whole, manage to keep the stabilisers on his career because (as always) they make the seemingly untenable emotions of their writer sound tolerable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The nostalgic nods become wearier in the second half, but Beauty & Ruin is strong enough to add weight to the argument that alternative rock belongs to Bob Mould; everyone else is just borrowing it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It'll do for a fleeting one-night stand, but Mechanical Bull isn't the rekindling of a romance that we'd hoped for.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fever Dream is perfectly listenable, but missing the magic spark that made them smash successes when they first emerged.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There is a sense that Lifeguard will only kick on from here, finding greater balance between the competing elements in their music while also growing in confidence when it comes to taking creative leaps.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's no classic, but perhaps the surprise here is that Manson’s music can work without the shock shtick.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While there’s nothing quite as dynamic as the best work of Shelton’s labelmates Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, Cold World provides a rousing listen for fans of vintage soul.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lang struggles when he shoots for huge, belting rock’n’roll – most of the more conventional tracks fade into the background. ... Instead, Lang feels far more at home and intriguing with the intricate, slowly unfurling ‘Final Call’.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Needless to say, this is 45 minutes of Satanism, anti-capitalism, rebel protest, warfare and gore in which every form of sludge/speed/death/pop/goth/punk/armadillo metal is flung onto an increasingly gooey and formless pile, like a torture chamber’s heap of discarded body parts.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The messy trip-hop of 'If I Could' and screeching synth line of 'First Snow' mean Nausea lacks consistency, but it's a clever and rewarding record.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Even if it gets a bit bedroom experimentalist, POS is Buck 65 with balls, and has more ideas and soul in one cut than an entire Fiddy wet shit.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There's a certain lack of substance throughout the album which isn't fully covered up by Rose's elegant stoner shimmying.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Despite its dips, there are plenty of strong reasons here to keep Dinosaur Jr from extinction.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Free Love’ sounds like a tug of war exertion without the fun, satisfying results of albums past.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bad Vibes Forever is better than Skins, the first XXXTentacion album released after the rapper’s death, but all of his posthumous music to date has fallen short. Even if you do hate XXXTentacion, you cannot deny his influence on modern rap. But ‘Bad Vibes Forever’ is a serious case of over-embellishing thin material.