The Guardian's Scores

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For 5,500 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 If I don't make it, I love u
Lowest review score: 10 Unpredictable
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,963 out of 5500
  2. Mixed: 2,460 out of 5500
  3. Negative: 77 out of 5500
5500 music reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Now Here Is Nowhere
    Each track is astonishing.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War)
    Each listen to New Amerykah brings fresh rewards: it demands to be explored.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Bright Phoebus [Reissue]
    An album to live with, to live long.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ramones [40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]
    Not even overfamiliarity can really dull the rest of what’s here. The box set carries a distinct whiff of die-hards only--the mono mix is nice but inessential, the best of the demos have already been released, as has the first of the live shows, while the second was recorded later the same night and sounds virtually identical--but the music at its centre is about as inarguable as you can get.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Mirror
    This album looks like one of 2010's major contenders.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Untrue
    As addictive as its predecessor, Untrue confirms that Burial possesses not just the keen ear of a Lee Perry or Martin Hannett.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Have You in My Wilderness
    The result is a genuinely exceptional and entrancing album, opaque but effective, filled with beautiful, skewed songs, unconventional without ever feeling precious or affected.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Live at Bush Hall
    Releasing this material as a live album is a virtue – the audience’s roar after the absurdly pretty Turbines/Pigs has a thrilling note of disbelief.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    My Dusty Road
    This is a remarkable and historic set of recordings with an equally remarkable history.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Fed
    As nourishing as it is satisfying, Fed will leave you craving more.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Call Me If You Get Lost
    The result is a dense, kaleidoscopic album that might take a lot of time to fully unpick, but clearly isn’t going to diminish in quality if you do so.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    American Radical Patriot [Box Set]
    He wanted change but loved America, as shown by this remarkable box set of material recorded for the US government.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Truth, Liberty & Soul: Live in NYC: The Complete 1982 NPR Jazz Alive! Recording
    This exhilarating set is a real find, for Jaco fans and left-field big-band followers alike.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Prioritise Pleasure
    It’s a powerfully intense record that some may recoil from; confrontational and liable to catch you off-guard as Taylor crisply extracts gutting truths from the general murk of self-loathing, never sugarcoating grimness nor over-egging her attempts at self-affirmation. ... It’s remarkable.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Two Ribbons
    Two Ribbons is a fabulous album.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Beautiful Africa
    It succeeds because of the sheer quality of her singing and the thoughtful, varied songs from the light and then furious Kouma to Mélancholie, a highly personal reflection on sadness and solitude.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Any Human Friend
    Hackman is more confident than ever. With her singles The One and I’m Not Where You Are, in particular, she delivers lethally sharp pop hooks. The more low-key moments cut just as deep.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Tunes 2011-2019
    He remains one of the most evocative, instantly recognisable voices in contemporary British music.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Age of Anxiety
    By flitting between a low, clear vocal, and something more urgent and old-fashionedly English, which evokes both 1960s pop and Tudor carols, Rodgers manages to dodge straightforward comparisons. It makes for a riveting and refreshing debut, which balances weirdness with sweet and soothing electropop joy.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Moomins [OST]
    The leitmotifs of The Moomins Theme and Woodland Band will give anyone who saw the series as a child a Proustian rush, but amazingly, it’s the first time this remarkable soundtrack has been issued.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    When I Have Fears
    It’s an outstanding debut from a great new band who play it like they mean it.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Nothing Great About Britain
    Clever, bleak, funny, bracing, aware of a broad musical heritage but never in thrall to it: after you hear Nothing Great About Britain, it’s even more obvious why Slowthai stands out.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Fetch the Bolt Cutters
    The result is that this seems not so much an album as a sudden glorious eruption; after eight long years, an urgent desire to be heard.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Jarvis
    An idiosyncratic triumph.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Third
    Portishead's third album is initially more a record to admire than to love, its muscular synthesisers, drum breaks and abrupt endings keeping the tension high. But after several listens, Third's majesty unfurls.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Tales From Terra Firma
    Stornoway make unconvincing space rockers--but that's the only caveat about a triumphantly expansive album.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Rips
    Here are 12 succinct, speedy, riff-happy gems smothered in snarling backtalk and shameless, glorious guitar solos.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Kaputt
    It's unique and warm and beautiful, as love letters are supposed to be.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ten Silver Drops
    These are beautiful songs, as delicate as they are rocking and heavy.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Revolver Special Edition (Super Deluxe) [Box Set]
    Revolver’s new details tease out deeper meanings in the songs. Now more prominent, the low-lit backing harmonies on Here, There and Everywhere remake the tune as an old-fashioned rock’n’roll love song; the piano bending out of key on I Want to Tell You mirrors the narrator’s insecurity; and McCartney’s booming walking bass on Taxman illuminates the biting, cynical tone of Harrison’s lyrics. ... Revolver still sounds so vibrant.
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