The 405's Scores
- Music
For 1,530 reviews, this publication has graded:
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57% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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39% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.9 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: | Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 | |
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Lowest review score: | Revival |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,296 out of 1530
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Mixed: 209 out of 1530
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Negative: 25 out of 1530
1530
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
There’s nothing wrong with harkening to ‘80s synth-pop once in a while, but it seems Wild Nothing have explored every nook and cranny of their current sound. It’s time for the incredibly talented Jack Tatum to move on to something more forward-thinking.- The 405
- Posted Sep 4, 2018
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- Critic Score
A touch more volume on the instruments and a bit of extra distance between one man's mouth and his microphone, this might have been a blissful exercise in studied yet clamorous rock music.- The 405
- Posted Jun 20, 2014
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- Critic Score
The record's very nice, but swimming alongside adequacy rather than soaring for the top isn't a wonderful career move.- The 405
- Posted Jan 28, 2014
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- Critic Score
So Sad So Sexy is by no means a bad record, but while the Li of previous records was refreshing and stark showing us her vulnerability, the slickly produced nature of this means that’s often lost and in its place is cliché as Li tries to hang onto the weighty romance of youth.- The 405
- Posted Jul 5, 2018
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- Critic Score
Songs in the Key of Animals lacks the focus of A Love Extreme, but then again, we're talking about an album that was supposedly written on the fly.- The 405
- Posted Feb 4, 2016
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- Critic Score
Weatherhouse houses its own experiences but could just be listened to as a sub-experience of Radiohead. It shares many of experimental shifts using beat and synths to explore mood, only without the hooks and utterly unique melodies that nobody but Radiohead can produce.- The 405
- Posted Oct 7, 2014
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- Critic Score
The Detroit quartet's debut album for Woodsist is at times striking and catchy, but also finds itself digging up the same nostalgia-seeking melodies that showed some promise from Bonny Doon to begin with.- The 405
- Posted Mar 28, 2018
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- Critic Score
The production is tidy but one note, the instrumentation resolutely professional. The vocalist has a few touchstones and reverently shifts from one to another without exactly lighting any fires of his own. Back in 1992 they would call this alternative rock.- The 405
- Posted Jan 22, 2018
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It works well enough as a snapshot of where Everett finds himself as he approaches middle age, but the overwrought agonisation on the past and infuriatingly samey instrumental choices make it a difficult record to love.- The 405
- Posted Apr 14, 2014
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- Critic Score
Garbus' sound is still a little too vague, still in need of some real streamlining; the promise remains blindingly obvious, but the execution, for my money at least, is still missing.- The 405
- Posted May 2, 2014
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- Critic Score
At Best Cuckold is much like the autumnal vibe it tries to project in that, like autumn, you don't mind its existence but you kind of just want to go back to that excellent summer again.- The 405
- Posted Sep 4, 2014
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- Critic Score
It's a pity they remain slavishly committed to a successful template and too often Atlas feels like a memory of a memory.- The 405
- Posted Feb 26, 2014
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- Critic Score
If, after an absence of 19 years, you are happy to engage with a band who are reprising much of their musical and lyrical themes whilst also dipping their toes into unexplored (and poorly realised) terrain, then no doubt there is much within White Stuff which will tick all of the appropriate boxes. But, oh man, that Kool Keith track.- The 405
- Posted Mar 6, 2019
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- Critic Score
As a continuation of U2’s work at this point in their career, Songs of Experience is a decent addition to their legacy that longtime fans should be generally pleased by. However, it still suffers from the same issues that have made U2 so polarizing in recent years, and is unlikely to change anyone’s mind about the band one way or another.- The 405
- Posted Dec 5, 2017
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- Critic Score
Wysing Forest has a time and a place but unfortunately falls short of the mark that was set by Abbott's previous memorable output and the work of his peers.- The 405
- Posted Jun 20, 2014
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- The 405
- Posted Sep 23, 2014
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- Critic Score
Public Service Broadcasting's intentions are to be praised, even if the result is weak and unfocused. If the SDP leadership had formed a band, it would sound like this.- The 405
- Posted Jul 11, 2017
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- Critic Score
It’s refreshingly spur-of-the-moment on an album that’s let down by constant overthinking and underestimating of her abilities. If Minaj wants to make a mission statement of an album, worthy of this title, she needs to figure out a mission statement for herself.- The 405
- Posted Aug 14, 2018
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- Critic Score
The production on the album is very shiny and polished, but at times far too cut and paste as every chorus seems to be layered with Sia's vocals, providing a backing falsetto.- The 405
- Posted Jul 7, 2014
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- Critic Score
Subtlety is in short supply on Lost Themes II, with soaring guitar solos, industrial synthesisers and violent percussion throughout.- The 405
- Posted Apr 26, 2016
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- Critic Score
Although Green Lanes is a total bore, it is cool how they bear this mask on a handful of different songs. They've made that style of storytelling their own.- The 405
- Posted Aug 3, 2015
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- Critic Score
The Moon Rang Like A Bell starts off with captivating momentum, a potential to take you on a whimsical, emotional journey. But along the way it seems to have sacrificed that sense of purity first apparent in its experimentation.- The 405
- Posted May 23, 2014
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It's encouraging that there are some clear signs of expansion on Brightly Painted One, but the question now is whether Tiny Ruins really have anywhere else to go.- The 405
- Posted May 5, 2014
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- Critic Score
In terms of the surface tones and textures, the tracks in question are interesting enough--pretty, even. The underlying structures that govern these tones and textures, however, don't allow for anything approaching the band's typical intensity.- The 405
- Posted Sep 9, 2015
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- Critic Score
Noveller has created a pretty, stretched, tasteful, insubstantial record.- The 405
- Posted Jan 12, 2015
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- The 405
- Posted Mar 2, 2017
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- Critic Score
Overall it’s a fun album of two halves. The first half tows the line between the cheesy elements of radio pop that even the snarkiest Slayer fan secretly loves, and some truly inspirational, if not fleeting, compositional substance. The second half, although still very much a fun listen, somewhat strays.- The 405
- Posted Oct 17, 2017
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The result is a mixed bag of songs with which the group continue to earn their moniker, through moody orchestral pop pieces adorned with the group’s signature electronics, but we’re left wondering whether the soundtrack might have been more interesting.- The 405
- Posted Mar 20, 2019
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It's hard to decide if what Yeasayer have created with Amen & Goodbye is a case of pop genius, of if the result is a load of over the top, art-rock pretensions. It seems that whether Yeasayer are really the future sailors of experimental indie, still remains to be seen.- The 405
- Posted Mar 29, 2016
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Haiku From Zero offers up plenty of mesmerising moments, but they come with a damaging amount of baggage and ultimately the record falls a little short of the tropical dream that it envisages.- The 405
- Posted Sep 27, 2017
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