Q Magazine's Scores
- Music
For 8,545 reviews, this publication has graded:
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42% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5.7 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 67
| Highest review score: | A Hero's Death | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Gemstones |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 4,112 out of 8545
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Mixed: 4,355 out of 8545
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Negative: 78 out of 8545
8545
music
reviews
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- Critic Score
The studio out-takes are where the real action is: a strummy Julia sounds like it could have been on Rubber Soul, the Take 17 version of Helter Skelter is thrillingly raw and there's a spectral early take of While My Guitar... he Beatles were clearly having a ball here. [Dec 2018, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 8, 2018 -
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Familiarity hasn't taken all the shine off Led Zeppelin IV, because once you get past the aforementioned over-exposed "hits," there's still the frantic Four Sticks and When The Levee Break's big lumbering blues to knock you off your feet again. [Nov 2014, p.125]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 13, 2014 -
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28 [demos] are included in all their fascinating what-if promise, some heralds of later solo recording. ... This collection catches the band at their peak of their powers, the space between the tension and the tenderness still full of revelation. [Jan 2020, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 10, 2019 -
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Stick to the main text: until they invent time travel, there's no better way to inhale the decadent air of the early '70s. [Jun 210, p.137]- Q Magazine
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This remaster makes it glisten like the first time you heard it, while three unreleased tracks show that their vision didn't properly take shape until well into recording. [Aug 2017, p.113]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 22, 2017 -
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What burns from the music is The Clash's defining characteristic: the fact that they were insatiable omnivores. [Oct 2004, p.136]- Q Magazine
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George Martin's son Giles's work here is superb. It helps you hear an album you know inside-out as if for the first time. [Jul 2017, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted May 25, 2017 -
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It still sounds fabulous and relevant too, though this Super Deluxe Edition with lots of superfluous add-ons and a super £50-plus price tag to match is surely for completists only. [Aug 2011, p.133]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 9, 2011 -
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The world's finest rock'n'roll combo. [Jul 2015, p.119]- Q Magazine
Posted Jul 17, 2015 -
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This six-disc "Super Deluxe" edition rescues the treasure, including alternative mixes, a complete live concert and nearly two discs' worth of unheard brilliance. [Jan 2020, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 27, 2019 -
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Doolittle was a breakthrough.... The Peel Sessions and B-sides aren't essential, but the previously unreleased demos are fascinating. [Jan 2015, p.134]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 8, 2014 -
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The sheer variety of music is astounding. [Jan 2013, p.114]- Q Magazine
Posted Jan 3, 2013 -
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Beery, teary, rootsy and rollicking: it's singalong genius at play. [Dec 2014, p.122]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 13, 2014 -
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Everything you love about the band is here, along with anything you don't. ... The demos drive home just how beautifully The Smiths played together. [Nov 2017, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Oct 19, 2017 -
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The record's sexual frankness unfairly overshadowed the intricate songwriting idiosyncrasies or Phair's deadpan articulation of relationship dynamics. ... [The Girly-Sound tapes] provide a fascinating roadmap to her debut. [Jun 2018, p.119]- Q Magazine
Posted May 8, 2018 -
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Abbey Road showed The Beatles at the very peak of their collective powers. ... It's certainly not the sound of a band who were sick of the sight of one another. This is something echoed in the unreleased takes and demos included here. [Nov 2019, p.119]- Q Magazine
Posted Sep 26, 2019 -
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This willfully obscure yet eerily beautiful music sounds all the more absorbing in remastered form. [May 2014, p.124]- Q Magazine
Posted Apr 28, 2014 -
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One of the best yet: a sprawling 19-track min-movie, which takes in obscure left-field rock, creepy children's choirs, bucolic ambient and sombre Celtic poetry. [Dec 2016, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 17, 2016 -
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Reissued with a raft of extras, it remains a masterpiece of uneasy listening. [Dec 2016, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 7, 2016 -
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Blue Lines doesn't need [extras]. It was a classic in the truest sense, and unimprovable template that sound like it was recorded yesterday--or tomorrow. [Dec 2012, p.118]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 29, 2012 -
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Upgrading previous remasterings, Page's personal touch brings out even more detail.... Each album's companion disc supplies both pleasure and an education. [Jul 2014, p.120]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 19, 2014 -
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Led Zeepelin would get bigger, louder and very imperious very soon. But they'd rarely sound like they were having as much fun as they do here. [Nov 2014, p.125]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 13, 2014 -
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Sound System gives the full, eclectic picture. [Oct 2013, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 4, 2014 -
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The real revelation of this new Smile is its melodic depth, even if lyricist Van Dyke Parks's oblique ruminations seem unnecessarily flowery. [Nov 2004, p.114]- Q Magazine
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- Q Magazine
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- Critic Score
Upgrading previous remasterings, Page's personal touch brings out even more detail.... Each album's companion disc supplies both pleasure and an education. [Jul 2014, p.120]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 19, 2014 -
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Presents Led Zeppelin in all their ragged glory and heavy splendour. [Jul 2003, p.119]- Q Magazine
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It's a challenging, ambitious combination of words and music that becomes increasingly absorbing over time. [Jun 2015, p.103]- Q Magazine
Posted Apr 29, 2015 -
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Posted Oct 22, 2019 -
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This exemplary boxset tells the whole, rather sorry saga of how a band who seemingly had everything going for them ended up with precisely nothing. [Oct 2009, p.122]- Q Magazine
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This 25th anniversary deluxe edition includes a collection of curious demos and live takes. ... The record itself remains a masterpiece, a cross-generational smash hit from which they'd never truly recover. [Dec 2017, p.115]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 8, 2017 -
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The bonus material on both albums offer up further evidence that this was the Pumpkins' purple path. [Jan 2012, p.130]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 22, 2011 -
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Ultimately Smile is a case of what might have been, and after all this time that's probably only to be expected. [Dec. 2011 p. 140]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 15, 2011 -
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A snapshot of one of the most vital, intellectual, breathlessly thrilling bands Britain's ever produced. [Dec. 2011 p. 143]- Q Magazine
Posted Jan 3, 2012 -
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Essential not only for fans of roots music but anyone who cares about how it shaped rock. [Apr 2015, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Mar 20, 2015 -
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Dre and Big Boi (alias Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton) fill their technicolour vision with the ghosts of Sly Stone, James Brown and, most notably, Funkadelic-era George Clinton. Factor in some distinctly unorthodox production and you've rap at its risk-taking best...- Q Magazine
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- Critic Score
Damn. is an almost flawless hip-hop masterclass that crunches Kendrick's consuming concerns--life and death, pride and guilt, fate and freewill--into the tightest, most explosive package yet. [Jul 2017, p.102]- Q Magazine
Posted May 9, 2017 -
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Upgrading previous remasterings, Page's personal touch brings out even more detail.... Each album's companion disc supplies both pleasure and an education. [Jul 2014, p.120]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 19, 2014 -
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A new rock force was born. [Jan 2018, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 5, 2017 -
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Upon its release in 1994, Definitely Maybe sounded messy and thrilling. Now, of course, it sounds like a classic. [Jun 2014, p.127]- Q Magazine
Posted May 22, 2014 -
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Moral and financial considerations aside, this stands a monument to success and excess. [Summer 2018, p.118]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 25, 2018 -
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Posted Oct 19, 2016 -
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Sugar may have lacked the outsider appeal and cataclysmic cultural impact of Nirvana but he furnace-forged guitar pop of 1992 debut Copper Blue was a handsome match for Nevermind. [Aug 2012, p.114]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 3, 2012 -
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[Start Together] reveals a remarkable output across punk, pop and rock for a band that you can't help but feel still had much to do, As of now, they still may do it. [Dec 2014, p.124]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 13, 2014 -
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The Promise itself is a strange thing, less a companion to Darkness than the blueprint for a lost sequel to Born To Run. [Dec 2010, p.118]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 20, 2010 -
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Newly-remixed outtakes reveal Clark's progress and a posh limited-edition box set version gives this excellent album the treatment it deserves. [Dec 2019, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 15, 2019 -
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It's frequently unsettling listen, but never a joyless one. [Dec 2019, p.110]- Q Magazine
Posted Oct 23, 2019 -
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17 years on, Liquid Swords represents hard-nosed hip-hop at its peak. [Oct 2012, p.117- Q Magazine
Posted Sep 7, 2012 -
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- Critic Score
Before stardom, they stopped off to reinvent guitar rock. [Aug. 2011, p. 128]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 9, 2011 -
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A second disc continues the upbeat mood of the main album. [Jan 2012, p.135]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 22, 2011 -
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The fact that Grace Jones actually made a run of visionary '80s albums has long been rather overlooked, but this luxurious reissue goes a long way to righting that wrong. [Jun 2014, p.124]- Q Magazine
Posted May 22, 2014 -
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This is little short of a treat: a rambunctious dance through the more sepia-tinted corners of US musical history. [Oct 2001, p.122]- Q Magazine
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This reissue underlines how much Achtung Baby's high-wire triumph owed to an era in flux and it's as excessive as it needs to be. [Dec. 2011 p. 138]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 15, 2011 -
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The wild rhythms, unusual arrangements and often manic energy of the selections here still resonate. [Jan 2006, p.139]- Q Magazine
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How, exactly, do you follow an album like Loveless? It's a question that pop has yet to answer. [Jun 2012, p.119]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 22, 2012 -
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Posted Mar 21, 2012 -
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This first rate box-set shines a light on the bass magus's idiosyncratic solo output. [May 2018, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Apr 2, 2018 -
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In time, as this 2LP Best Of shows, they mellowed, eventually got political, then split up, leaving behind a perfectly formed legacy. [Apr 2020, p.118]- Q Magazine
Posted Mar 2, 2020 -
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As with the Beatles, the outtakes and rarities are the best place to appreciate the abundance of songwriting chops and interpersonal chemistry Blur had at their disposal. [Sep 2012, p.118]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 20, 2012 -
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Lemonade hits hard. Beyonce has chosen to portray herself like this, and those choices are bold, powerful and at times, properly shocking. [#361, p.110]- Q Magazine
Posted May 31, 2016 -
- Critic Score
The remaining selections cover Newport appearances from all the major phases of his career. [Sep 2015, p.119]- Q Magazine
Posted Jul 30, 2015 -
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The heartening sounds of an old master at work. [Oct 2011, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Sep 21, 2011 -
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They retained their best ideas for themselves though, since their debut album is striking escape from mere genre. [Review of UK version]- Q Magazine
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- Critic Score
Brighten The Corners found the Califirnian indie five-piece buoyed by a more consistent set of songs than 1995's sprawling "Wowee Zowee." [Feb 2009, p.124]- Q Magazine
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A long, sometimes hard, often inspired haul, this could easily have been pared down to a uniformly excellent double disc. [Dec 2006, p.138]- Q Magazine
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Their joyous music has an even greater emotional weight. [Dec 2008, p.133]- Q Magazine
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This 23-track collection of his formative spell with the New York-based Bang label makes a welcome reminder what a top pop tunesmith Neil Diamond was in his younger, Brill Building days. [Jul 2011, p.126]- Q Magazine
Posted Jul 28, 2011 -
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Deeply ambiguous yet wittily epigrammatic, You Want It Darker is all one might want from a final testament, short of cosy reassurance. [Dec 2016, p.114]- Q Magazine
Posted Oct 19, 2016 -
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Vol. 1 is long on quality, variety and versatility, whatever format you choose. [Aug 2009, p.114]- Q Magazine
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While Ocean's artistic ambition is impressive, it's his haunting candour that really casts a spell. [Sep 2012, p.106]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 20, 2012 -
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The sheer wealth of material--over four hours' worth--seem designed to only excite the tastebuds of tourbus veterans. [Nov 2013, p.120]- Q Magazine
Posted Oct 22, 2013 -
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A record sufficiently impressive to suggest that White Blood Cells caught Jack and Meg using only a fraction of their talents. [Apr 2003, p.98]- Q Magazine
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The vindication of this luxury raw Power is it bestows still greater kudos on Ron's band. [Jun 2010, p.140]- Q Magazine
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It's a good album. [Apr 2014, p.122]- Q Magazine
Posted Mar 19, 2014 -
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Posted Apr 10, 2019 -
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Lorde's biggest achievement is retaining her emotional insight into herself and her generation despite her utterly transformed life. [Aug 2017, p.100]- Q Magazine
Posted Jul 6, 2017 -
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Speakerboxxx takes up where Stankonia left off.... The Love Below isn't really hip hop at all. Its sound and lyrics owe a huge debt to, inevitably, George Clinton. [Sep 2003, p.97]- Q Magazine
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This compilation of that [debut] album, Apple, plus preceding EP Shine, show what all the fuss was about. [Jan 2017, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 14, 2016 -
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The record's second half feels a little dreary after the spectacular opening, but the combination of doleful beauty and violent emotion that makes Hadreas's work extraordinary is never hard to find. [Summer 2020, p.104]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 9, 2020 -
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This definitive 77-track anthology favours the early years, illustrating how quickly Stone and his multiracial crew evolved from a decent R&B outfit into a trailblazing psychedelic-soul gang show, [Oct 2013, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 4, 2014 -
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The best album of 2004 so far, and by some distance. [Jun 2004, p.92]- Q Magazine
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- Critic Score
Throughout, quality doesn't waver; always sensually and intellectually rigorous, her songs touch on degrees of romantic disaffection and beyond with a sometimes uncomfortable gaze, and still sound freshly minted. [Jan 2013, p.119]- Q Magazine
Posted Jan 3, 2013 -
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They capture a group on the brink of a startling transition. [May 2013, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 21, 2013 -
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Posted Oct 22, 2013 -
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Thrilling, thoughtful and unrestrained by existing rap templates, Grey Area confirms Little Simz as an artist who is increasingly difficult to dismiss. [Apr 2019, p.115]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 26, 2019 -
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Creeper may lack originality, but they make up for it with ambition and sheer cheek. [Aug 2020, p.105]- Q Magazine
Posted Jul 30, 2020 -
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Stellar fifth album is a determined attempt to push back the genre's long-established boundaries, folding in everything from glitchy electronica and lysergic Americana to gnarled pop into their full-frontal noise. [Aug 2019, p.108]- Q Magazine
Posted Jul 2, 2019 -
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This box set may be a dizzying experience at times, but it shows a superstar-in-the-making working out where he wants to go, and contains all the excitement that promises within. [Jan 2016, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 9, 2015 -
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Their chemistry seeped into the post-punk water table but Pere Ubu still dance alone. [Oct 2015, p.121]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 28, 2015 -
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It makes the case for some long-forgotten virtues: fast songs, staccato chords, songs about trysts in squalid apartments. You know, the good stuff.- Q Magazine
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- Critic Score
A noble, affecting sign-off worthy of the name. [Feb 2017, p.118]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 13, 2016 -
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Disc five means you can now hear it in its aborted "quadrophonic" surround sound mix. [Dec. 2011 p. 145]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 15, 2011 -
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Stevens's love for the region, its people and legacy is palpable and infectious enough to send the curious scuttling straight towards the bookshelves to discover more. [Aug 2005, p.137]- Q Magazine
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Posted Mar 16, 2015 -
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A dark album for darker times--at 53, Saadiq is still ahead of the curve. [Oct 2019, p.110]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 27, 2019 -
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Newcomers may be amazed that a rock band can still feel so vital. Even diehard fans will wonder at the sheer melodic intensity. [Feb 2015, p.107]- Q Magazine
Posted Jan 7, 2015 -
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Posted Sep 24, 2019 -
- Critic Score
These lavish Deluxe Editions are fat with rare tracks and live performances on accompanying DVDs - they are all the Beat anyone could ever wish for. [Aug 2012, p.112]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 3, 2012