The Guardian's Scores

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For 5,514 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 Post Human: NeX Gen
Lowest review score: 10 Unpredictable
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,973 out of 5514
  2. Mixed: 2,464 out of 5514
  3. Negative: 77 out of 5514
5514 music reviews
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Xscape
    Far better to judge the eight tracks here on their own merit, which, for all their inevitable lack of coherence as a set, serve to remind you why Jackson was once pop's premier genius.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    First Mind
    His album mixes traditional and experimental, acoustic and electronic to pull unexpected rabbits out of hats.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    To Be Kind
    To Be Kind is uncompromising to the point of overindulgence.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    White Women
    The comedy lyrics and tongue-in-cheek delivery mask the fact that behind the japes there are some brilliant songwriting chops.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Phoenix & the Turtle
    This intriguing if uneven set is a vast improvement on her last solo release 13 years ago.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Turn Blue
    For all its musical diversity, Turn Blue never sounds incoherent.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Toumani & Sidiki
    It's a virtuoso, and mostly upbeat collaboration, but the best track is the one new composition, Lampedusa, a gently exquisite lament for African migrants who died trying to reach Europe.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Supernova
    There's nothing here that's exactly new, but by assembling an array of unexpected influences in one blissful place, Lamontagne has crafted an unlikely perfect summer soundtrack.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nikki Nack
    It's the force of Garbus's personality that holds these clashing parts together, her blunt promise that "I've got something to say"--and her surprising sense of fun.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I Never Learn
    I Never Learn works best in the smallest doses, despite its brevity, because it's as one-paced as a fading lower-division central defender, and that pace is sluggish.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Divide and Exit
    It's essentially angry swearing atop rudimentary bedroom synth sounds. But that would be reckoning without Jason Williamson's supremely entertaining delivery.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Someday World
    At times the dreaded accusation of self-indulgence feels appropriate, and some of the songs here feel like sketches that still need fleshing out.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Luminous
    The Horrors may need to shake up their sound more radically next time, but Luminous still sounds light years ahead of the current guitar-band pack.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    American Interior
    Its songs are not weighed down by the Evans concept, and are hugely enjoyable on their own merits.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sheezus
    There are moments that serve to remind you that pop music didn't really come up with anyone to replace Allen during her sabbatical.... Elsewhere, you can sense a certain indecision in the way Allen keeps trying on different musical styles.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The People In Your Neighbourhood
    It's Led Bib's best album so far.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Fly Rasta
    The only risk Marley takes is on You're My Yoko, where he attempts to woo a lucky lady by likening her to the avant-garde artist, while casting himself as John Lennon. Julian Lennon would have been nearer the mark.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    9 Dead Alive
    The tracks are mostly dedicated to historical figures, and the choices are often more unexpected than the music.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Avalanche
    Avalanche proves a middling followup to that first collection of airy, experimental R&B.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shriek
    Far too few of the songs are strong enough to really engage--so Shriek wafts by in a beautifully crafted haze.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Diploid Love
    It's a riotous and brazenly euphoric form of rock'n'roll.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Embrace
    Immediately accessible and vaguely uplifting, music of this kind undeniably serves a purpose, even if there's already quite a successful band out there serving said purpose already.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everyday Robots
    The music is good enough that a lack of revelation doesn't really seem to matter while Everyday Robots is playing. Whoever Damon Albarn is, he's extremely good at what he does.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Indie Cindy
    If this had been released a year after their last album, Trompe Le Monde, it would have fit perfectly adequately into Pixies' discography.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Food
    Everything from the heavenly Floyd to the slightly sickly cover of Labi Siffre's Bless the Telephone signal that she has matured into an artist at ease with her position as pop's perennial outsider.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The New Classic
    Azalea's rags-to-riches story shines on Work, but elsewhere her "bow down to a goddess" schtick grows tiring.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett
    The Lennon reference serves to highlight the record's main flaw: the former Beatle's cathartic recording provided a jolting contrast with his previous work, whereas Everett--now in his 51st year--ventures nowhere new.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amphetamine Ballads
    It's not the easiest listen in the world, but it's not supposed to be: at a time when most of what passes for alternative rock sounds desiccated, Amphetamine Ballads feels raw and potent and alive.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Arcadia
    Fans of Chairlift should find it both familiar and confounding.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Drop
    The various sides of Thee Oh Sees--the world-beatingly loud'n'fast live garage band; the swirlier, prettier home-taped psych-pop solo project; the synth-kraut-spacerock explorers--are comprehensively represented on Drop.
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