The Guardian's Scores

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For 5,504 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: 2,965 out of 5504
  2. Mixed: 2,462 out of 5504
  3. Negative: 77 out of 5504
5504 music reviews
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    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mañana Será Bonito
    Karol’s skill is in evocative melodies that transcend any language barrier.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Star Is Born [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    As a serious drama about addiction, and the supernatural, transformative, sometimes erotic power of music, it needs songs that are earnest and instantly classic. Against the odds, it succeeds.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life Without Sound
    Baldi has bulked up the band’s lo-fi production values for a more muscular sound while retaining the youthful energy of his songwriting.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Slave Ambient
    Slave Ambient makes a triumph of the unlikely premise that US heartland rock and Krautrock would mix like old friends.... A wonderful record.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This Is Alphabeat
    It's pop for blaring out when the sun has its hat firmly on, and, at only 10 tracks, remains a blast throughout.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Slowdive
    Shoegaze is rarely affiliated with overwrought emotion, and yet it’s difficult not to feel moved by the expanse of the group’s oceanic comeback.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    21
    A progressive, grown-up second collection, it ought to ensure Adele is around for 23, 25, 27 and beyond.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Listening to Pictures (Pentimento Volume I)
    This is certainly dense, endlessly mutating music that rewards multiple listenings.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love You To Death
    For all Tegan and Sara’s adoption by the queens of teen pop, Love You to Death feels like a distinctly grownup album, unafraid to explore nuanced, mature themes.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Forgiveness Rock Record
    It's fantastic, as is so much of Forgiveness Rock Record, a collation of so many talents that it's practically bursting at the seams.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    None the Wiser
    His latest album is remarkable for the settings as much as the lyrics.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rollins in Holland [The 1967 Studio & Live Recordings]
    The studio set’s sound balance is warm and spacious, the live takes less so (Bennink’s irrepressible energy sometimes overdominates). These tracks catch the saxophone colossus in gale-force form with partners right on his case, and the accompanying essays and images expand on that fascinating story.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Richard Butler
    An unexpected triumph.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Person Pitch
    The prevailing mood is one of euphoria - of clouds parting, sun shining and hearts melting.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Weather
    Accessible but still absolutely out there, this is prog, but not as we know it.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Take Off and Landing of Everything
    You couldn't say there were any jaw-dropping surprises on Elbow's sixth album--but then it's dependability and craftsmanship that made them huge, and that's all in place.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ventriloquizzing
    Everything about Ventriloquizzing feels thrillingly tense, with layers of creeping analogue synths and taut, suave pop building up the pressure.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    TLC
    TLC are the second most successful girl group of all time (after the Spice Girls) and this record proves that their winning formula still works.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amazing Grace
    Even in the current climate, they sound unique.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Book of Souls
    For the most part, The Book of Souls is marked by a impressive rawness that scratches against the album’s more grandiloquent moments.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Highs
    Hecker seems to want you on guard, braced for cataclysm. Nerves fray, discords linger, that sense of panic accumulates and draws you helplessly in. And this allusive, wordless album starts to feel eerily modern and big.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Commune
    Commune sounds like the soundtrack to an imaginary early 70s horror film, and it’s wonderful.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Inside the Old Year Dying
    Like the Dorset woods they describe, I Inside the Old Year Dying is eerily forbidding, but intoxicating, and easy to lose yourself in.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Long.Live.A$AP
    Long Live A$AP's is frequently thrilling, a dense splurge of woozy electronics and samples, packed with lovely production touches.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Manchester
    Delightful and frustrating.... There’s one disappointment: there are only seven songs here (five of which are repeated as live versions), and they don’t include any classic Morrissey-Marr Smiths songs.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic
    Making use of relentless, repeated riffs, matched again chanting drum patterns and occasional guitar solos, their often lengthy songs are exhilarating, edgy and at times downright spooky.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Spades
    Ingenuity in spades.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You & I
    It's sad and lovely, and proves the Pierces handle delicacy as well as they do drivetime.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Electronica, Vol. 1: The Time Machine
    By and large, the new age retro-futurism that characterised Jarre’s earlier work is replaced by a focus on accessible modern pop.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dark Matter
    his is a record that tries to bottle the intricate energy of jazz improvisation into an orchestrated studio production when it has always been the freedom of live performance that has marked out Boyd as an artist. If he makes room for more of that in the studio, we would have a mighty record.
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