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
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    If you’re a fan of the band’s stoner charm and enjoy guessing lyrics to songs as they meander from your speakers, there’s fun to be had here.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Overall, Shulamith is a record that takes on serious issues but always feels engagingly personal, with ideas set to the kind of alt.pop melodies you couldn’t forget even if you wanted to.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On the whole, Red Hot + Fela works both as an introduction to Afrobeat, and as a reworking of the genre, making it a fitting tribute not just to Fela’s music but also his indomitable spirit.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sheffield's ever-progressive 65daysofstatic have outdone themselves here, loading their fifth album of megaton guitar instrumentals with electronic styles.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    BOATS II is your standard 2013 Southern hip-hop record, complete with ticking beats (‘Extra’), Auto-Tune (‘So We Can Live’) and eye-rollingly explicit lyrics (‘Where U Been?’).
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    It’s not awful, just bland, and lacks the bite that electro-pop records need to be lifted out of the purgatory that is mediocrity.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Across is nonetheless a very fond retread around the outskirts of a dank, delectable career.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A rush job, perhaps, but it’s still the sound of three guys having the time of their lives.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    He’s mastered this stylistic skittishness and you’ll do well to find much dispute about his talent.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Although not as immediate as his collaborators’ work, his introversion pulls you into his unique soundscape.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Drizzy’s candid lyrics about battered egos and insecure relationships were refreshing early on in his career, but the persona is wearing thin as he recalls how rich his melancholy has made.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    As a whole, it’s winningly Lynchian, and ballsy enough to open with an 11-minute song.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Two properly good moments out of five isn’t a great ratio, but at least it’s telling us that The Men’s wagon is still rollin’ steady.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    He flirts with past glories on the throbbing ‘I Am Dust’, but Splinter never sounds ahead of the curve he created.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It’s fun, but not the comeback it could have been.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Turn it off halfway through and it’s brilliant.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    New
    New is the sound of an old dog having fun with some old tricks.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    There’s something very ‘mopey American teenager’ about Lightning Bolt.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A whiff of unoriginality aside, what this EP offers Parquet Courts addicts is fresh meat to chew on, signs of innovation and further evidence that these New Yorkers are one of the world’s most essential new bands.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s minimal without being clinical, catchy without being clichéd and, thanks to the influence of MBV and Neu!, full of sonic left turns.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    the promised sense of youth and experimentation rarely surfaces. If anything, Feel Good goes too far the other way, sounding insipid and polished in comparison to The Internet’s debut.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While it doesn’t reach the impossibly high standards of their back catalogue, there’s enough promise to suggest there are good times ahead.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Somewhere beneath the unconvincing sheen of these songs there’s a great band trying to break out. Maybe next time.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yet as her sounds grow bolder, her lyrics become more intimate. Mesirow is in confident control of an inviting world that’s all her own.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bitter Rivals is their toughest and most focused work yet. It’s also their poppiest, which is very much a good thing.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There’s new confidence here, and a sense that she’s stretching herself musically and lyrically.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    If only the rest of the album was as inventive [as 'Spend Some Money'], instead of a derivative box-ticking exercise that features Dizzee going on about his "willy" a lot.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Old
    Tracks like 'Torture' borrow far too liberally from A$AP Rocky's cloud-rap aesthetic to be considered original. But otherwise, Old is a perfect example of why 2013 is a very exciting time for hip-hop.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There is an admirable consistency to the production, and at its best Event II is touched by greatness.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There's a strange disconnect here, one that might be ironed out by facing the past head-on rather than treating it as a concept.