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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    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    People Who Aren't There Anymore
    It makes for an album that’s too involving and engaging and powerful to count as merely more of the same: you leave the turmoil of People Who Aren’t There Anymore feeling moved, rather than jaded.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Electronica, Vol. 2: The Heart of Noise
    On this companion piece he teams up with the likes of Jeff Mills, the Orb, Yello and Sebastien Tellier, and again seems energised and inspired by the collaborative process.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Emotions and Math
    Margaret Glaspy’s first album is a fabulous miniature, clocking in at just 34 minutes, that gets better every time you listen to it.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    SMiLE
    Despite the hype, it is hard not to be impressed with the new Smile.... The music flows beautifully - no mean feat when it encompasses barbershop singing, acid rock, early pop, Hawaiian chanting and mock-religious plainsong.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Again into Eyes
    This is no underdone confection from fly-by-nights: it's as taut and accomplished as any British rock album this year.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heavy is the Head
    it consistently hits a sweet spot. It is packed with memorable hooks – singles Vossi Bop and Wiley Freestyle are by some distance the least obviously commercial things here – but never sounds obvious or craven in its desire for chart success.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lights Out
    One of the year's more delightful debuts.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My East Is Your West [Live]
    Where Mayer and Harriott engaged in a jerky, slightly awkward sound-clash, Korwar’s fusion is seamless.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hit the Light
    In the most heartening sense, it speaks to the current lack of boundaries between genres, and if there are intriguing hints of drama (“I have to twist your arm to hold your arm”), that’s just another reason to listen.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Further Explorations [Live]
    An occasionally uneven but mostly dazzling tribute to that tradition – and to one of its greatest exponents, 1960s star Bill Evans.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sunday Dinner
    There’s much about Sunday Dinner to delight.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gold & Grey
    Their travails have produced an epic, ambitious collection that is beautifully beatific, purifying and uplifting.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Through The Devil Softly
    This is music to lose yourself in during the long cold winter nights.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wonderful Wonderful
    This is certainly big music, which is all the better for its more intimate, touching soul.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Woods
    Though the guitars sometimes get a little too intoxicated on their new freedom, this is a makeover that finally does the band's melodies proud.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beyond Now
    Such repetition-based and anthemic music can pall for some jazzers, but it’s nonetheless a formidable set with a darkly seductive power.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Means
    Fews sound excited by the prospect of overreaching themselves on a debut that has flaws, but is alive with possibilities.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On Sunset
    You’d have a hard time arguing that On Sunset doesn’t work as an album, held together not just by its overriding lyrical theme but uniformly strong melodies. As exercises in trying to have your cake and eat it go, it’s pretty impressive.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
    The resulting epic is barmy and beautiful, suggesting that while Kasabian's amps go up to 11, they can also sound good when they're turned down to four.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    CTRL
    Languid and soulful, the debut album from New Jersey singer SZA is an immersive dreamscape, book-ended poignantly with her mother’s musings on the subject of control.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lucifer
    The result is the best album Peaking Lights have yet recorded.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Treasure But Hope
    No Treasure But Hope is much as you would expect: subdued and crepuscular, everything stripped back so each musical element is distinct and has its own breathing space.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Steve Reich: WTC 9/11
    It's short--15 minutes--but perfectly proportioned.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Early Years 1967-1972 [Box Set]
    Anyone startled by what happened to Pink Floyd in the wake of Waters’ rancorous 80s departure, aghast at the sheer level of screw-you obduracy displayed by all parties, might consider the story The Early Years tells. As it turns out, they were always like that.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Be OK
    Their saucy moniker promises something more subversive, and belying the sweet, swelling harmonies delivered in this collection of covers and original compositions is an erotic thread that runs from a cover of Amy Winehouse’s typically frank In My Bed to the drunk-in-love sensuality of self-penned opener Ada.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Feel Alive
    Tops are now up there with Phoenix as the masters of modern soft rock – just don’t go changing.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It Was Good Until It Wasn't
    Walking with impressive confidence along the line that separates commercialism from experimentation, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t doesn’t need an accompanying soap opera to sell it, but it’s got one anyway.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ladyhawke
    Smarts to her, too, for making her pop sound so good that it never sounds like pastiche.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Accelerando
    The world's full of fine jazz piano trios, but Iyer's is way up the A-list.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Aw C'Mon
    An enticing dip into melancholy.
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