Playlouder's Scores

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For 823 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 43% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 An End Has A Start
Lowest review score: 0 D12 World
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 569 out of 823
  2. Mixed: 198 out of 823
  3. Negative: 56 out of 823
823 music reviews
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    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    I Created Disco
    The problem is that I Created Disco goes on for nearly an hour and barely changes tack once.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Goodbye
    It was possible to ignore Schnauss' new age leanings previously but they're rammed home mercilessly here making too much of this album sound like Enya-period Sigur Ros.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Astronomy For Dogs
    Disappointing, frustrating and exhausting, 'Astronomy For Dogs' finds a band trying too hard to cram too much into one sitting.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Era Vulgaris
    In isolation you can imagine any of these songs may have appeared over the last 10 years giving a warm comforting feel, but listened in its entirety the effect is strangely soporific, a steady morphine drip running from start to end.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Boxer
    A patchy, flawed effort.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Release The Stars
    As a whole, the album feels less definite, less driven, than the 'Want…' albums, which is both a strength and a weakness.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sky Blue Sky
    If 2004's 'A Ghost Is Born' was an experimental step too far then 'Sky Blue Sky' finds a band regressing tamely in to Dad-rock. Wilco need to rediscover that middle ground that suits them so well.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Everybody
    The Sea And Cake are ultimately an infuriatingly inoffensive band.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Send Away The Tigers
    They have made this album many times before and one assumes they will make it many times again.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Baby 81
    'Baby 81' sees a band lose focus from what made them tick in the first place.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cassadaga
    'Cassadaga' is much less of a draining emotional journey for both chief player and listener alike than Bright Eyes previous work.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn
    There is little to recommend here.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Part Two - The Endless Not
    Great album though this is in it's own right, the failing of 'The Endless Not' is that it just sounds like it's happy to play safe. No shocks, no surprises... and , sadly, none of what made TG arguably, together with the Sex Pistols, THEE most important force in the evolution of modern popular music.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters
    Despite occasional thrills, for all The Twilight Sad's epic ambition and admittedly accomplished sound, this is a hollow record that struggles to fully transcend its influences.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Brett Anderson
    Dubious lyrics notwithstanding, this is exactly the kind of album that a formerly drug-addled, ludicrously randy, city-dazzled English suburban boy ought to be making when he reaches the onset of middle age.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Octopus
    Staunch fans won't be disappointed, but it's hard to envisage new ears pricking up on hearing 'Octopus' woeful musings.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    If The Ocean Gets Rough
    Such is the reliance on his voice to provide resonance both melodically and lyrically, there isn't a great deal else to fall back on should the listener find it objectionable.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Turn The Lights Out
    The Ponys are the band Black Rebel Motorcycle tried so desperately hard to be.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pocket Symphony
    'Pocket Symphony' fails to grab in the same way that previous Air albums have and places too large an emphasis on mood, texture and composition to ever really be anything other than polite background music.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Neon Bible
    This veers between quite good and bloody rubbish with only a couple of flashes of brilliance here or there.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Weirdness
    It's a rather sad indictment that by the end of the album you almost forget its The Stooges gainfully toiling away.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Cost
    Alas, 'The Cost' is closer to the Noughties ipoddery of 'sensitive' folksters like Damien Rice or James Blunt than a Fleetwood Mac or a James Taylor.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Weekend In The City
    'A Weekend In The City'... fails because it tells us nothing new.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Loney, Noir
    These songs are full to the brim with ideas and a charming naivety - but there's a major hurdle that ultimately compromises the enjoyment: the vocals.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wincing The Night Away
    I usually find Shins albums grow on me slowly but surely yet after a good dozen plays I feel my faith isn't being repaid this time, and as a fan that's frustrating.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Destroyed Room: B-Sides And Rarities
    Some of this record is excellent and after all this time they can still sound like four teenagers kicking up a racket in a rehearsal room.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Love
    'Love' is trying to be all things to all people and suffers for its lack of ruthlessness and direction.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    So Divided
    It's hard to truly love a band that are so chameleonic that they sacrifice signature definition for adventurousness.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Public Warning
    'Public Warning' is a good record. It's just unfortunate that (no doubt at the behest of the major label moneymen) Sov's Stateside commitments have led to it emerging here rather bloated, feebly, and late.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Chops
    'Chops' isn't wholly disastrous, but it's all too often a reminder that, for roughly his first decade onstage, Childs was an infuriatingly insular and mildly indulgent performer, and it now appears that he was able to make such genuinely fantastic records in spite of that because of the healthy influence of his band-mates.
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