Record Collector's Scores
- Music
For 1,893 reviews, this publication has graded:
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53% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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43% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1 point higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: | The Apple Drop | |
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Lowest review score: | 180 |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,237 out of 1893
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Mixed: 650 out of 1893
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Negative: 6 out of 1893
1893
music
reviews
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- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Simon’s song choices weave together to form a narrative on intolerance, the dangers of divisive thinking, impending mortality, the ebb and flow of love, ecological troubles and faith. Where less nimble-minded songwriters might flounder, his literary eye for the minutiae of life stands him in good stead.- Record Collector
- Posted Sep 5, 2018
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Not since Bon Iver’s aforementioned reinvention or even Radiohead’s Kid A have a relatively mainstream band made such an assured volte-face, wilfully pushing their audience away while they revisit, remake and remodel the tension that made them so very precious in the first place. Fierce and beautiful. Low are back.- Record Collector
- Posted Aug 29, 2018
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They’ve created an album that manages to combine grief, self-loathing and a realisation that life’s better played honest, with a fine-tuned, brutal sound: something like bent sheet metal being hammered straight. Yet it remains listenable, so very listenable.- Record Collector
- Posted Aug 24, 2018
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It took several listens for the potions on Move Through The Dawn to take effect. ... Sometimes, slow burners provide the best flames.- Record Collector
- Posted Aug 15, 2018
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There’s enough going on in the grooves of Smote Reverser to satisfy your psych and/or prog urges for the foreseeable future, let alone in the few months it’ll take Dwyer to follow it up.- Record Collector
- Posted Aug 10, 2018
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A behemoth of a box, The Public Image Is Rotten offers over six hours of PiL brilliance.- Record Collector
- Posted Jul 25, 2018
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It’s both beefier--practically punching you in the face in places--and more nuanced, the vocal harmonies, for instance (in many ways, GNR’s secret weapon--you don’t notice they’re there, until you do), coming into their own. Amping up its already formidable power, the new mix never loses the sense that this was the work of a bunch of scrappy upstarts, while reminding you just how well-constructed Appetite really was. That’s underscored by the bonus material.- Record Collector
- Posted Jun 25, 2018
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Despite the sheer weight of material on offer you’ll struggle to find an inch of fat. With its forward-thinking, deep-searching nature counterbalanced by a natural warmth and populist, groove-heavy approach, it’s another hugely accomplished work by a man whose prolific run of form shows no signs of abating.- Record Collector
- Posted Jun 20, 2018
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Though it’s essentially a finely-crafted guitar pop record, Arthur Buck also finds room for enough angles, quirks and adroitly-employed electronica to keep it interesting and it rarely puts a foot wrong as a result.- Record Collector
- Posted Jun 20, 2018
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In short, it’s another essential compilation of vintage music from the peerless Analog Africa, whose contents should further strengthen Benin’s reputation as one of the African continent’s most important musical centres.- Record Collector
- Posted Jun 5, 2018
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God’s Favourite Customer leaves the over-wrought and possibly over-thought days of Pure Comedy in its slipstream in return for something just that bit purer. True, the fun days of I Love You, Honeybear et al may be gone, but what a sacrifice if this is what we get in return.- Record Collector
- Posted Jun 5, 2018
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It’s bold stuff, but if you were taking any solace that the Trump catastrophe would at least inspire some great art, The Future And The Past serves as Exhibit A.- Record Collector
- Posted Jun 5, 2018
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Babelsberg is ultimately a sorely-needed tonic. Mellow-sounding, but hefting weighty humanitarian concerns on its back, it boasts a you-are-here focus normally only accorded to those who are about to peg it.- Record Collector
- Posted May 25, 2018
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The live In Concert/MTV Plugged may lack the obvious, rambunctious energy of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live/1975-85 and only (subdued) E Street favourites Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Thunder Road feature in the set, but the cheeky obscurity Red Headed Woman and an electric Atlantic City (from Nebraska) still capture Bruce’s magnetism as a performer. ... The remastered LPs sound pristine. ... It makes for a pretty boss bundle.- Record Collector
- Posted May 23, 2018
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Lamdin and Fatty have created sympathetic backdrops for the Poets to declaim over: lightly jazz-tinged reggae grooves, dubby production flourishes, spacious arrangements that allow for the Poets’ words to take centre-stage.- Record Collector
- Posted May 23, 2018
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- Record Collector
- Posted May 23, 2018
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It’s clear that Watson has studied the classics, but rather than repeat the past, he’s created something modern, fresh, exciting and potentially classic.- Record Collector
- Posted May 21, 2018
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A preoccupied and deeply immersed heart-art journal, graced with discreetly nailed-on band performances while simultaneously worrying away at its own edges.- Record Collector
- Posted May 8, 2018
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The Prodigal Son is easily one of the most satisfyingly focused, complete records he’s ever made.- Record Collector
- Posted May 7, 2018
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Standards Vol IV will get deserved airplay thanks to its electronic take on classic pop (from Bacharach and The Beach Boys to early Harry Nilsson) but hidden in all that sunshine and heartache is a progression from a sound that once so defined them. Standard? Above standard, more like.- Record Collector
- Posted Apr 19, 2018
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Overall, it’s less of a curiosity than it might look on paper; not so much a departure as it is a confidently mapped-out alternative route.- Record Collector
- Posted Apr 12, 2018
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Veirs has honed her craft over nine studio LPs, and this album reveals her at the height of her powers--a record that verges on pop, in the same way that a Magnetic Fields record might, though “pop” seems too reductive a term for the layers of artistry at work here.- Record Collector
- Posted Apr 9, 2018
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Beautiful Thing’s blend of ambition and emotion shows that Taylor could genuinely make whatever he wants--sometimes that’s the trouble and sometimes that’s the difference. Our loss, our gain.- Record Collector
- Posted Apr 4, 2018
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Evil Spirits is their best work in 35 years, so if you last heard them performing Eloise on Top Of The Pops or haven’t purchased one of their albums since Strawberries, then it’s time to give them another hearing.- Record Collector
- Posted Apr 3, 2018
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Yes, it can be a bit daft, but in all the self-importance is some genuinely free, affecting music. If you’re new to Entourage, jump on in. The water’s groovy.- Record Collector
- Posted Apr 2, 2018
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So, while this represents not exactly business as usual, but definitely still in the office, it does mean Dead Meadow have managed to sustain their identity for over two decades now--comfortably their longest, sludgiest achievement to date.- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 30, 2018
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- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 29, 2018
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Serious Miles and Coltrane aficionados will already be familiar with these recordings, no doubt, though the incentive to acquire this fresh iteration sanctioned by the Miles Davis estate is the superlative quality of Mark Wilder’s audio restoration, which makes it hands down the best version to own.- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 29, 2018
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Just one minor grumble: more phin next time, please. That thing cuts through a crowd like a backstage pass.- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 29, 2018
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Harking back to Automatic Midnight and Suicide Invoice more than it resembles its immediate predecessor, this is one electrifying comeback. In short, Jericho Sirens absolutely smokes.- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 29, 2018
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