The Guardian's Scores

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For 5,511 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 Lives Outgrown
Lowest review score: 10 Unpredictable
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,970 out of 5511
  2. Mixed: 2,464 out of 5511
  3. Negative: 77 out of 5511
5511 music reviews
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Circuital
    Their sixth album finds them back on track. Circuital combines their experience with a rediscovered youthful zest, a theme Jim James visits in the lyrics.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Acoustic Classics
    A bravura performance.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Music For Drifters
    It stands on its own, too: as with all of their creations, the gentle dusting of a hi-hat and the nervous wobble of a xylophone undulate and entwine as if the instruments are in conversation.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tape Deck Heart
    While this is a more philosophical, even tender Turner than we're used to, everything is crafted with his usual love and care, and delivered with fire and conviction.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sugaring Season
    The result is a fresh, autumnal album that's unashamedly mature yet impressively free.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Immunity
    Clairo impressively broadens her sound on this strongly written debut album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
    If you wanted to pick holes, The Tortured Poets Department is a shade too long.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ghost on Ghost
    Long-time fans may miss the old eerie melancholia, but it's hard to quibble with Beam's most assured set of tunes to date.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kicking The National Habit
    The first seven tracks are nearly flawless, and the occasional wobble thereafter doesn't mar one of the year's most scintillating debuts.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Queen of Golden Dogs
    For an album that veers between the hallmarks of happy hardcore and ghostly choral incantations, Queen of Golden Dogs makes a surprisingly satisfying whole. That’s largely thanks to Gainsborough’s efforts to maintain the balance between entertainingly jarring and modernity-evoking erraticism and a gratifying sense of beauty and peace that feels age-old.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Who Is the Sender?
    Fay is now in his 70s, and his beautifully hymnal fourth studio album contains sublime, heartfelt ruminations on nature and the world from someone who knows his time is running out.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sticky Wickets
    These ELO/10cc-style mid-tempo rockers step up to the crease with the languid confidence of a suitably refreshed Australian batsman ready to hit the ball out of the ground.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Low Country Blues
    No great surprises, maybe, but it's good to find he can still deliver.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono
    It’s impossible not to repeatedly turn Ocean Child off, and instead seek out the originality and uniqueness of the genuine article. Presumably, it’s what Gibbard would want.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tinsel And Lights
    The most surprising thing about Tinsel and Lights might not be that it's a Christmas album by Tracey Thorn, but that it manages to transcend its genre and the season it's intended to soundtrack, perhaps because it forsakes any of the usual musical signifiers.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gossamer
    A big moment is the ethereal R&B pastiche Constant Conversations, with Swedish a cappella trio Erato, but there are virtually no duds here.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Owl John
    Owl John: low on self-esteem, but high on ambition.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Maritime
    The result is rich in unusual unions.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Watch the Throne
    If Watch the Throne's musical direction seems like West's work, it's worth noting that Jay-Z has the better lyrics.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    To Survive
    Her emotion-rich songs have become tender affirmations, such as the hope-sprinkled 'Honor My Wishes.' And the needling guitar, soulful brass and gothic piano of her "punk rock R&B" are more evocative than ever.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yours, Dreamily
    For someone whose main project has been criticised for operating inside very limited parameters, this album proves he’s at ease outside his comfort zone.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tender Buttons
    [Broadcast] have managed to find a halfway house between this always engaging but fussed-at sound and the resonant, muscular psychedelia of their spectacular live shows.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    1989
    The really striking thing about 1989 is how completely Taylor Swift dominates the album: Martin, Kurstin et al make umpteen highly polished pop records every year, but they’re seldom as clever or as sharp or as perfectly attuned as this, which suggests those qualities were brought to the project by the woman whose name is on the cover.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Roll On Roll On
    He is in fine, easy-going voice on most of the songs, and his multi-instrumental work on guitar, banjo, fiddle and autoharp is still remarkable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Personal Appeal
    Moore's experiments may be weird, but they're a whole lot of fun.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    If I Was
    This one is softer in its address, more introspective, yet the sound is so much bolder, the music taking thrilling leaps in character and complexity.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lost and Found
    A ragbag, maybe, but an exquisite ragbag.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Dead Cross
    The result is an album that sounds as if it was a blast to make and one that’s immensely enjoyable to listen to.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Still Here, Ho?
    Her debut is a great, carefree soundtrack to dancing through the struggle.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Odd Couple
    There's no doubt The Odd Couple is hard work, but it pays off.
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