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
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hail To The Thief
    Hail to the Thief's big drawback has less to do with its similarity to its predecessor than the sense that Radiohead's famed gloominess is becoming self-parodic.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Christine and the Queens
    You never find yourself in the presence of music that sounds self-consciously clever. Everything flows easily, nothing jars.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Un Verano Sin Ti
    Lke most 23-track albums, Un Verano Sin Ti could have used a nip and a tuck. But when it hits its heights, it leaves you puzzled at Britain’s lack of interest in Bad Bunny.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I See You
    Say Something Loving pits its depiction of a relationship in crisis against a lovely, rolling, dubby rhythm track and samples of bouffant-haired 70s soft-rock duo Alessi. It’s an old trick, but, like the rest of I See You, it really works.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Midnights
    That confidence is the thing that binds Midnights together. There’s a sure-footedness about Swift’s songwriting, filled with subtle, brilliant touches.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
    Clarke, McCoy and co have made one of 2018’s most ambitious and urgent albums.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Helplessness Blues
    The result is almost laughably beautiful.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mezmerize
    Who'd have thought you could describe a metal band as "intriguing"?
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Purple
    Purple is a far more focused and fiery beast; both a return to the stormy riffing and skewed melodies of old and a subtle but unmistakable lunge for mainstream glory. It’s a balance they pull off brilliantly.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Aromanticism
    On a concept album about lovelessness, he creates a cavernous feeling of loneliness using soundscapes similar to those Nigel Godrich explores. There’s a warmth too.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pompeii
    Pompeii is noticeably more subdued than much of her earlier work. Where once there was a playfulness in the arrangements, the slow and austere songs here sound as if they’re carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New Moon
    The albums Smith released before his probable suicide in 2003 had a bruised, fragile quality, and these sparse songs... are no different.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Seasons of My Soul
    [It] has the pleasing sense of an album made to the artist's vision rather than the focus-grouped demands of the marketplace: almost uniquely in its chosen milleu, Seasons of My Soul sounds like a hit album without sounding like all the other hit albums.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Interplanetary Class Classics
    There will be more considered and crafted albums released this year, but few that are so much fun.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Drift
    The Drift is a record that demands a lot of work and repays tenfold.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Working Class Woman
    Existing at the point where intense focus becomes total nihilism, the unique, funny Working Class Woman depicts Davidson’s fight to resist homogeneity, and the cost of doing so.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Streetcore
    His best work since the Clash's London Calling.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Silences
    It’s all a bit wonderful, actually.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Atrocity Exhibition
    His voice, agitatedly squawking and yet dainty as a ballerina, is one of contemporary music’s greatest pleasures. He quotes Outkast’s BOB on Today, and is the true successor to their trailblazing spirit.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Semper Femina
    You’re not struck by a sense of dry conceptualising, more her way with a smart, witty lyric.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Roaring Forty 1983-2023
    His lyrics tend to overshadow his skills as a tunesmith or his musical eclecticism, but if you listen to the more manageable two-CD set, you’re struck by how melodically strong and varied his output sounds.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My Favorite Picture of You
    His voice isn't quite what it was, but his writing is distinctive as ever.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smother
    Smother isn't conventional chart material, but will make their burgeoning cult impossible to ignore.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Have One On Me
    Grand, long and bold--Newsom makes it sound like the first word she sings here: easy.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ba Power
    A fine selection of thoughtful songs.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Acoustic
    Fans had to wait eight years for Mogoya, while Sangaré expanded her business empire; but this unplugged sequel is better still.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Good News
    Megan Thee Stallion’s talents are a moveable feast – she sounds as at home snarling over the minimal 80s gangsta rap of Girls in the Hood as she does with Beyoncé’s voice weaving around hers on Savage Remix.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ultra Truth
    It’s an intense listen, demanding in the sense that you struggle to imagine putting it on in the background. Better to stick your headphones on and give Ultra Truth your undivided attention, something it amply rewards.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Oceans Apart
    The air of two songwriters on rare form, confidently challenging each other to greater heights, is inescapable.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Veckatimest
    The musical emphasis subtly shifts, from track to track and within tracks to create something that feels rather greater than the sum of its parts.
Page: