The Guardian's Scores

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For 5,509 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 49% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 48% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To
Lowest review score: 10 Unpredictable
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,968 out of 5509
  2. Mixed: 2,464 out of 5509
  3. Negative: 77 out of 5509
5509 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gliss Riffer
    His fourth album, Gliss Riffer, continues that singular journey [the edge of pop and experimentation] and coerces elements of pop and madcap electronica into a convincing mix.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Citizen Zombie
    With producer Paul (Adele) Epworth at the helm, there is a new gentility here.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    O Shudder
    O Shudder paints a portrait of a very modern man, and establishes them as masters at sculpting an atmosphere of unease.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ten Love Songs
    It’s both appealingly direct yet perfectly thought-through.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Music in Exile
    It’s an impressively varied and rousing set, if somewhat predictable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ibeyi
    As stand-alone tracks they work, but side-by-side, you can’t help but wish they’d try something outside this comfort zone.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    If You're Reading This It's Too Late [Mixtape]
    “Longevity?” You can count on it, if he can keep converting narcissistic navel-gazing into music as complex and compelling as If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Let It Reign
    This feels like a placeholder for the forthcoming Libertines album, but, as placeholders go, it’s a stormer.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everything Ever Written
    The rickety So Many Things to Decide has one too many ales and sways like a drunken dad at a village fete, but what bite they’ve lost they make up for with soft, sincere romance--such as the sax-packed and joyous Come on Ghost.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sucker
    If her songwriting occasionally misfires, churning out stuff that’s indistinguishable from every other indistinguishable song on the Radio 1 playlist--the Rita Ora feature Doing It is a case in point--it’s frequently dead on target.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Into Colour
    The question seems churlish: these are memorable songs, recorded with exquisite taste.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gandadiko
    The music is mature and confident, with Touré’s quietly commanding voice matched against insistent bass riffs and guitar work that echoes his one-time mentor Ali Farka Touré, but with a dash of funk and Bo Diddley thrown in. Impressive.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Non-Fiction
    The album treads repetitive ground.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Break Stuff
    This is cutting-edge music, but always accessible.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Holding All the Roses
    The sub-Quo thud of Rock and Roll Again aside, this is an eminently likable upholding of 40-year-old principles.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Coming Up for Air
    Their songs are still almost mathematically placed between Coldplay and Snow Patrol, with a smidgeon of U2 and the sort of big choruses and bells-and-whistles-and-choirboys production once trademarked by Westlife.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heavy Love
    The second half of the record (this is Garwood’s fifth solo album) sees him abandon the more accessible melodies for a sprawling, stripped-back sound that can be just as foreboding as track titles such as Hawaiian Death Song suggest.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In the Pink of Condition
    It’s not perfect--it could be trimmed of some of its mid-album flab--but those flaws are forgiven in the midst of Evans’ twisted charm.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Happy People
    It’s an album that hints at greatness--such as World Pleasure, a seductive, serpentine thrill--but ultimately seems confused by its looming self-conciousness.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unguarded
    Comparisons to Enya, Coldplay and Goulding may bring out a rash of snobbery in some, but the absence of cynicism and self-consciousness make this an endearing debut.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hold on It's Easy
    It might not make for the most essential listening of 2015, but Hold On It’s Easy is a playful distraction.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments, Pt. 2 [EP]
    It’s pretty damning when one of the most arresting tracks on your EP is a 17-second snare drum solo.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Flourish and a Spoil
    The feeling that, yes, there’s something attractive here. But, on record at least, the spark of individuality is missing.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mount The Air
    It’s a lush, often exquisite set.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    I Love You, Honeybear
    For all the layers of irony on I Love You, Honeybear, the biggest irony of all might be that such an ostensibly knotty and confusing album’s real strength lies in something as prosaic and transparent as its author’s ability to write a beautiful melody.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ornithophobia
    Produced by Django Bates collaborator Petter Eldh, Ornithophobia is Troyka’s best album to date, and a kaleidoscopic series of impressions of how fast they’re moving on.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Depersonlisation
    Depersonalisation may still be moody and at times downright dour, but at the same time it’s bursting with likeable, accessible traits.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Romeo
    No Romeo is smart, inventive, thought-provoking pop music, and it deserves to be a hit.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Viet Cong
    An ambitious and rewarding debut.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Range Anxiety
    A minimum of chords are played with minimum effort. Generic lyrics abound.
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