The Independent on Sunday (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 789 reviews, this publication has graded:
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57% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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40% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.1 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: | One Day I'm Going To Soar | |
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Lowest review score: | Last Night on Earth |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 495 out of 789
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Mixed: 280 out of 789
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Negative: 14 out of 789
789
music
reviews
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- Critic Score
The most perfect suite of music recorded in my lifetime.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 2, 2011
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- Critic Score
There are four CDs' worth but it's enormously rewarding, like mid-period Miles Davis playing Ligeti.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2012
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- Critic Score
Interesting to see that a few of the unused songs from the period (1978) push the released material for quality.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 23, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 30, 2012
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- Critic Score
"I wanted", Ocean wrote, "to create worlds that were rosier than mine. I tried to channel overwhelming emotions." Mission accomplished, and then some.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 18, 2012
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- Critic Score
This may well be Henriksen’s most approachable album--certainly for people coming to him for the first time--and even the semi-commercial breakthrough he deserves. It is also absolutely sublime.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 12, 2014
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- Critic Score
It starts nervily and there's some creative recycling of motifs, but once he builds up a head of steam the force is truly with him.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 13, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 24, 2014
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- Critic Score
This is a band for fans of Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker and Nick Cave who wondered where their next great love was coming from...it's already here.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 20, 2012
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- Critic Score
A good “deluxe” remaster job will do at least two things: one, it’ll strip away centuries of digital compression and make the music sound as if you’ve never heard it properly before; two, it’ll include additional material that gives insight into how the finished work was shaped. Moondance delivers on both counts.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 23, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 22, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 24, 2011
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- Critic Score
Simon Green, aka Bonobo, has created a beguiling and compelling narrative.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 10, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 14, 2012
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- Critic Score
Buckinghamshire band SBP return for their third album with a far more complex musical palette.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 9, 2012
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- Critic Score
What comes across most is the sheer unbridled enthusiasm expressed in the complex, racing rhythms, squalling sax solos, twanging electric guitar and crooning vocals.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 6, 2014
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- Critic Score
MBV leaves all other post-rock experimentalists looking like trivial dilettantes. If jet engines could sing, these would be their hymns.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 11, 2013
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- Critic Score
Their 12th album covers all points from brutality to beauty in pursuit of epiphanies.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 28, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 20, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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- Critic Score
It's an album about what war does to the aggressor, as much as what it does to the vanquished victim.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 15, 2011
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- Critic Score
Catchy yet abrasive, noisy yet intimate, kind of funny yet also kind of scary, this is post-pop at its most vertiginously original.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 2, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 27, 2014
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- Critic Score
The mood of uplifting-melancholia survives and this time out Vernon needs no dramatic backstory. Clearly, his is a talent that loves company as much as it loves misery.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 20, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 13, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 12, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
Posted Sep 15, 2011 -
- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 2, 2012
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- Critic Score
It's close to the best of all music I know.... A second CD of later, unreleased material with some genuine gold among the dross.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 8, 2013
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- Critic Score
A fascinating collection of songs from the 19th and early 20th centuries.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 25, 2013
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- Critic Score
Over 13 tunes, Akinmusire and his very hot quintet (featuring Walter Smith III on tenor sax and a great drummer, Justin Brown) take the basic format of post-bop straightahead jazz and tease it around with absolute authority.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 31, 2011
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- Critic Score
14 songs of keening, romantic acoustic music of great seriousness and lightness of being.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 4, 2012
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- Critic Score
To the relief of anyone who carries a torch for the reclusive genius, it's a beauty.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 21, 2011
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- Critic Score
The worldy influence remains but never overwhelms and the album contains at least half a dozen songs that are as simple and profound as anything Simon has ever written.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 15, 2011
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- Critic Score
The wisdom expressed is crusty but benign, poetic and sometimes witty.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 23, 2012
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- Critic Score
Helpnessness Blues is, like its predecessor, archaic and pastoral to the last.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 2, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 1, 2012
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- Critic Score
Arrangements are simple, bluegrass-inflected and rich in acoustic textures. Warm and thick as a hayrick.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 5, 2013
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- Critic Score
The Cumbrian quartet haven't fumbled the ball with the follow-up. Smother, recorded in the shadow of Snowdonia, tinkles and twinkles like the classiest adult-alternative pop of the 1980s.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 9, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 22, 2013
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- Critic Score
The material is all Mehldau's and quality varies from the standing ovations of the opening and closing tunes to lesser tricked-up vamps, but bass and drums groove superbly throughout.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 19, 2012
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- Critic Score
There is joy in these grooves; the attentive care of studio perfectionists, and the warm embrace of an old friend.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 10, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 27, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 9, 2013
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- Critic Score
Maybe now he can sleep a little less on floors and spend more time making gorgeous albums like this. Please.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 21, 2014
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- Critic Score
The occasional off-kilter touch throws things sufficiently askew to deny listeners any complacency.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 20, 2013
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- Critic Score
Parker's music is approached from a post-Coltrane, post-free jazz aesthetic, with the rhythmic edginess of bebop elided into an all-the-time-in-the-world fluidity. A masterpiece.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 15, 2011
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- Critic Score
Though it's far from his worst album, it's his least commercial – with its harsh beats, mangled vocals, and Marilyn Manson samples, it mimics the aesthetics of a DIY mixtape.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 24, 2013
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- Critic Score
This rocks harder and faster than those fellow Tuareg bluesmen, partly due to the noticeable pop influence of another Malian act, Amadou & Mariam.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 1, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 15, 2013
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- Critic Score
It happens to be their most cohesive and convincing effort yet.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 5, 2011
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- Critic Score
Though his appeal remains frustratingly specialist, with each release it becomes clearer that Callahan is the natural successor to Leonard Cohen.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 16, 2013
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- Critic Score
This is accessible, song-based contemporary jazz at its most earnest, ordered and empowering.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 3, 2011
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- Critic Score
This is Cash at his rawest and most riveting, singing his soul out to platoons, prisoners and presidents alike. Hard to describe in terms that are adequate.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 13, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 17, 2012
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- Critic Score
While there's perhaps a surfeit of synth-washes, the beautiful "Winter Elegy" superbly fulfils the opening promise.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 23, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 19, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 20, 2013
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- Critic Score
One moment--the Jason Molina tribute “JM”--is startling enough to forgive the clunking stadium-grunge workouts that seem, conversely, to be bringing Strand of Oaks to wider attention.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 24, 2014
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 10, 2012
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- Critic Score
Blunderbuss does, at times approach his finest work. But it doesn't do anything he hasn't already done.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 23, 2012
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- Critic Score
A welcome addition to the Beastie canon, and if it gets them back out on the road, it'll be an absolutely precious one.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 2, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 23, 2012
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- Critic Score
This is an album that's ostentatiously overloaded on melody, and on all-round sonic luxury. This is the one.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 11, 2011
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- Critic Score
An album which should win prizes (but won't), and hearts (and will).- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 26, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 3, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 28, 2012
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- Critic Score
Fear Fun is the kind of album that can name-check Sartre, Heidegger and Neil Young in the same song.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 30, 2012
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- Critic Score
It’s business as usual, only with a lusher production than expected and a tad too much emphasis on Western rock’s tired tropes in some of the licks.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 14, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 14, 2014
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- Critic Score
It may not be the best Wilco album ever, but with care and consideration it may well turn out to be your favourite.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 26, 2011
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- Critic Score
The vibe is convivial. And though the great man can't put his cancer-strangled voice to every number, he can still swing the nuts off a Slingerland kit in between chesting a nifty mandolin.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 31, 2011
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- Critic Score
Bar that electric guitar, this is the kind of music that you wouldn’t be surprised to hear on an old piece of 78rpm vinyl rescued from a car-boot sale (which is, of course, meant as a compliment).- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 18, 2013
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- Critic Score
Expect more straightforward, big-vocal, soul-funk numbers, and fewer immediate hits. But compared with most R&B records, Monae is still lightyears ahead.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 9, 2013
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- Critic Score
The band return to the slow-and-low, sinister alt-boogie that made their name, with Homme's satisfying dirty badass guitar sound in full effect.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 3, 2013
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- Critic Score
Commendably, the Bury band's fifth album doesn't see them chasing the mainstream or pandering to the ear of the daytime radio dilettante.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 9, 2011
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- Critic Score
Watson packaged up the month that he spent riding the train, using his original recordings, adding his own narration, throwing in some interviews, and creating something magical.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 4, 2012
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- Critic Score
The overall theme is utopia defiled. Until, that is, Deacon – ever the optimist – brings it all together on "Manifest", the big rapturous finale.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 27, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 10, 2012
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- Critic Score
It's that rare thing: an album that will reward repeated listening by drip-feeding you its secrets.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 10, 2013
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- Critic Score
We get grooves as smooth and tight as Lycra, funky stabs of brass and arch lyrics delivered with cool detachment.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 15, 2012
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- Critic Score
Words and Music, the first full studio album in an aeon from Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, is a masterclass of pop theory and practice in perfect harmony.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 25, 2012
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- Critic Score
The occasional familiar, Carpenters-esque track aside, it makes for an exhilarating musical progression--even as his lyrical style remains unchanged.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 11, 2013
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- Critic Score
Charges of over-solemnity may be levelled its way, but only occasionally are the melodic and narrative threads lost to a focus on miasmic, brush-stroked atmospherics.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 16, 2014
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 23, 2011
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- Critic Score
As with some diseases, the album gets worse before it gets better, but by the end you're left stunned in admiration. Hell, there's even a redemptive arc. Amazing.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 9, 2011
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- Critic Score
ODIGTS is the soul album of the century. It might yet turn out to be the album of the year- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 5, 2012
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- Critic Score
Post-millennial indie boy-rock has taken a savage beating here. And it may prove the best it’s ever had.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 6, 2013
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- Critic Score
It's a little too polished for the Oh Brother... crowd, but fans of Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss should take note.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 24, 2011
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- Critic Score
The orchestra's work is subtle and supportive rather than flashy, allowing free rein to that astonishing voice.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 14, 2012
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- Critic Score
The songs are sparky and Cherry is in excellent voice as she raps, sings and swings against the sparse, drum and bass-style backing orchestrated by Four Tet.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 24, 2014
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- Critic Score
David Bowie's perpetual predicament is that he can't escape David Bowie's past. In that respect, he's just like the rest of us: we can't escape David Bowie's past either. The Next Day leaves you wondering why you'd ever want to.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 4, 2013
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- Critic Score
The intricate interweaving of guitar and ngoni juxtaposed with the bright, clear backing vocals makes for a sound that’s dynamic and assertive.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 9, 2013
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- Critic Score
A sassy self-overhaul, AM issues lubricious R&B come-ons over a self-assured narrative arc with personality and open potential cannily spliced.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 9, 2013
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- Critic Score
The fourth album from the award-winning strings-and-sisters folksters is a thing of shivery and spooky charms.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 16, 2011
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- Critic Score
Listened to sympathetically, as soppy late-night jazz, it’s fine. Just don’t expect sparks to fly.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 17, 2014
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