The Guardian's Scores

Select another publication »
For 5,507 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 All Born Screaming
Lowest review score: 10 Unpredictable
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,966 out of 5507
  2. Mixed: 2,464 out of 5507
  3. Negative: 77 out of 5507
5507 music reviews
view
per page
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Untitled (Rise)
    It manages to be as lyrically unflinching as the music is compelling – not the easiest balance to achieve, as acres of terrible protest songs historically attest. You’d call it the album of the year if its predecessor wasn’t just as good.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Some Rap Songs
    One of the best rap albums of the year, a smoky iceberg of great emotional depth.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Doris
    This is knockabout punchline rap made into high art, a psychedelic visionquest to the taqueria on a skateboard.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Dear Science,
    Career-defining stuff.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    There is No Other
    For an album recorded in only five days, it wallops with impact. Giddens is going supernova, and it’s a blistering thing.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Unto the Locust
    This is a gloriously brave and vibrant piece of work and the most significant metal album of 2011 by some distance.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Women in Music, Pt. III
    They translate desolation into richly searching music, putting familiar sounds through their distinctive filter: fluttering G-funk (3am), homages to Walk on the Wild Side (Summer Girl) and Joni Mitchell at her most seething (Man from the Magazine, an acoustic riposte to a leering journalist), and Led Zep bounce (Up From a Dream).
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Without a Net
    Without a Net is free to bursting point, but it's a triumph.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Golden Hour
    It’s an album that imagines a world in which its author is the mainstream, rather than an influential outlier. It says something about its quality that, by the time it’s finished, that doesn’t seem a fanciful notion at all.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution In Sound
    And whereas the dark era that began with a military coup in 1964 is now relegated to Brazil's history, the music it inspired sounds fresher and more provocative than ever.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Rather Ripped
    Rather Ripped may not have the cultural impact of 1989's Daydream Nation, but it contains some of the best music of their career.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Van Lear Rose
    The result is genuine alt-country at a time when the term has come to signify little more than middling acoustic rock.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Seven Swans
    A record of remarkable delicacy.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Apologies To The Queen Mary
    Magnificent, all told.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ringleader Of The Tormentors
    Some of his most impressive songs in years.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Neon Bible
    It's hard to think of another album that rocks in such an epic manner without sounding completely ridiculous.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    HoboSapiens
    His most direct, energised and modernist work in years.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Open Season
    It's a triumphant lesson in sweeping gracefully towards the mainstream with your imagination and mystery intact.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Employment
    That Employment is derivative is both undeniable and irrelevant. It is so confident, so smart, so full of life, that a more enjoyable 45 minutes is hard to imagine.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Out Of The Woods
    The spellbinding mix of shimmering folk and shimmying disco on Out of the Woods eclipses her past work.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    i
    Merritt's lugubrious baritone has never sounded stronger, nor have his songs.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Back To Black
    A 21st-century soul classic.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Want Two
    Another broadsheet rock critic waxing rhapsodic may be the last thing Wainwright needs, but here goes: Want Two is a stunning album.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    You Could Have It So Much Better
    The trend for disappointing follow-ups bucked with enviable panache, You Could Have It So Much Better leaves you eager, rather than concerned, about Franz Ferdinand's next album.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Showtime
    Beyond his trademark agitated yelp and panic-attack rhythms are all manner of surprising and compelling sonic twists.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Antics
    Manages to dabble with tension and still emerge with something life-affirming.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Blue Eyed In The Red Room
    Frequently magnificent, Blue Eyed in the Red Room offers up more with every listen.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Cure
    Strikes a near-perfect balance between the various facets of the band's history.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Real Gone
    There is plenty that is remarkable about Real Gone.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Damaged
    A profound melancholy suffuses the elegant and often sublime Damaged.
Page: