The Guardian's Scores

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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
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Sovereign Self
    There are some fine songs here, from the gloriously strange O, Where Is Saint George? to the epic I Is Someone Else, but the album’s excitedly noisy production would benefit from greater degree of variety.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sing Into My Mouth
    An album of covers which, however enjoyable, doesn’t always take songs by the likes of John and JJ Cale, Ronnie Laine, Bon Iver and Bonnie Raitt to places they haven’t been before.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Secret
    Toure sings well, but intricate solos are his forte.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wicked Nature
    Songs such as Anything You Say and Metal Zone come laden with unsubtle but effective hooks, loud-quiet-loud dynamics, crunchy riffs and Beatles-esque harmonies. Only on the dreamy Clueless does Nicholls attach his strong sense of melody to a different set of sounds.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Chemtrails Over the Country Club
    Chemtrails Over the Country Club does what it does exceptionally well. The songwriting misfires that plagued her early albums have been eradicated through that refinement; everything here is incredibly melodically strong, strong enough, in fact, that it feels beguiling rather than formulaic, which is an impressive feat to pull off.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Man of the Woods
    The good bits are great, the bad bits best avoided, but in a pop world where originality isn’t much encouraged, there’s something really laudable about the intention behind it, and its author’s willingness to think outside the box.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    My December
    She writes in bland generalities... and uses her opulent voice as a battering ram.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Divine Ecstasy
    Interesting, but not involving.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Form & Control
    While 'The Written Word' and the title track are bonanzas for fans of arm-waving disco-house, the "control" element of the title is present all the way through, and the songs never quite transcend the feeling they're a bit too school for cool.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Spirit in the Room
    It's never as rollicking as 2010's Praise and Blame, though a version of Tom Waits' Bad As Me will sound agreeably demented to anyone who's never heard the original.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Animal Nature
    Escort’s sense of abandon never quite reaches the heights of their disco forebears, but closing track Dancer, recorded before an audience in Brooklyn, reveals them to be a formidable live prospect.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    K 2.0
    Their big moment in the sun has long gone, but there’s enough here for an Indian summer.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Made in the Manor
    While the likes of Stormzy and Novelist have concentrated on harder, myopic tracks that reference their world and little else, here Kano offers more accessibility. Some of that jars, including a slow, trudging ode to his sibling (Little Sis), but others--such as standout A Roadman’s Hymn--show an MC who has become an artist.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Or Nothing
    Opening track Girls and Boys and the furious Turnaround are enough to make anyone over the age of 24 shake their head at the unnecessary racket. There are more muted moments, too, most of them musing upon the other recent event in Lunn's life.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Russian Wilds
    They ape the cons as well as the pros of 70s rock: longer-than-necessary songs, a weakness for cliche and, inevitably, unabashed retroism.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Meltdown
    A straight-ahead rock album that already sounds like a festival set list in waiting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Always Ascending
    While the record climaxes with a duo of stomping disco tracks furnished with pleasingly dour melodies. They hammer home Always Ascending’s technical brilliance, but a visceral emotional connection remains elusive.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Californian Soil
    Moments of excitement notwithstanding, the result is a frustratingly tentative step from a band who promised bolder strides this time around.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Comicopera
    If the album has a rough-around-the-edges, askew quality, that just makes it more fascinating: this isn't music that settles in the background.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Warpaint
    Some of the routes it leads you down come to dead ends, but when it works, Warpaint slowly pulls you into its own, quietly captivating world.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cavalier Youth
    The album is consistently tuneful, yet also pile-driving and monolithic.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Big To-Do
    Musically, the DBTs manage a decent range--from big, squalling rockers to teary, lap-steel balladry--albeit without throwing any great surprises. Same old story, to some extent, but one worth hearing again.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Comfort Woman
    You end up wishing Ndegeocello would grab someone and go get a room.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cass County
    The most interesting aspect of this uneven album is Henley’s lyrics: he’s by turns peppery (“Space-age machinery / Stone-age emotions,” sniffs the honky-tonk swingalong No, Thank You) and unsentimental (“Time can be unkind / But I know every wrinkle and earned every line”)--and enjoyably so.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Manchester Calling
    A certain cosiness produces fillers So Happy and New York Ivy, but abandoning the comfort zone delivers some of the best things here.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Know It All
    Too often here Cara is let down by bland arrangements and underbaked melodies, from the Swift-by-numbers of opener Seventeen to the banal balladry of Stars.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Down To Earth
    Though it's utterly sumptuous, and occasionally sizzling, the album has been divested of the spook-pop quality that made the debut stand out, replacing it with excessive tastefulness.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Piano
    In its second half, Piano begins to suffer from its stripped-back simplicity, when its sparse arrangements and slow pace start to feel plodding rather than profound.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    James Farm
    It's very classy contemporary jazz, but it doesn't leave quite as lingering an effect as the lineup suggests it might.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Freetown Sound
    It’s often passionate, illuminating and fascinating, it frequently bears the hallmarks of self-indulgence, and some of it, you get the feeling, might only make sense to its author.
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