The Independent (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 2,177 reviews, this publication has graded:
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47% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.1 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: | Deeper Well | |
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Lowest review score: | Donda |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,162 out of 2177
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Mixed: 986 out of 2177
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Negative: 29 out of 2177
2177
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
The record’s sprawling R&B slow jams are more likely to inspire snoozing than shagging. Weighing in at a bloated 18 tracks, it’s got the soggy dead weight and wonky springs of a fly-tipped mattress.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 15, 2024
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- Critic Score
Deeper Well is a revelation – as though Musgraves stumbled on an oasis after months in the desert.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 14, 2024
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- Critic Score
While there’s a moreish quality to the off-key guitar of “Imperfect for You” and an unexpectedly golden flush of brass on “Ordinary Things”, Grande’s delicately conversational tone is often left having to compensate for her lack of strong melodic snags.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 8, 2024
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Bleachers occasionally lets Antonoff’s genius shine through, but more often it feels like an experiment gone awry.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 7, 2024
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You’ll hear the recycled riff from the Beatles’ Paperback Writer (“Rain”’s original A side) on their new song “I’m So Bored”; the hook of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” smoking its way through “Love You Forever”; and the brooding melody from the Stones’ “Paint it Black” on “One Day at A Time”. The pair poke fun at their own slapdash songwriting process on “Make it Up as You Go Along”. But still, there’s fun to be had with the way Gallagher tows teenage ‘tude into middle age.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 29, 2024
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She’s still in her prime, as you can tell when she delivers a knockout vocal on the guitar-backed ballad “Broken Like Me”. .... But for all her promises to show us the “real her”, it’s a struggle to see it in the slick and sexy production of tracks such as “Mad in Love” or “Rebound”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 15, 2024
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How you feel about that will depend on your threshold for Coming Home’s smooth-bossing seduction style. What Usher lacks by way of foreplay (“I wanna be inside ya/ I’ll be coming” is the album’s second line) he compensates for with stamina: smooching his way through 20 tracks of mostly silky-solid grooves. Coming Home is enlivened by a cool cast of collaborators sharing the mic.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 9, 2024
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 1, 2024
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It’s wonderful to find so many moreish layers in music that was, apparently, composed so quickly. Grab yourself a bean bag and settle in for the long haul with this one.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 26, 2024
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 19, 2024
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- Critic Score
Pink Friday 2 shows flashes of the inventive brilliance that made Nicki such an undeniable superstar, but like so many legacy sequels, it mostly just makes you wish you were listening to the original.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 8, 2023
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The tracks on i/o grow both on and in a listener like seeds germinating. Those who like their song structures neat and tidy may struggle with the jazz odysseys, but Gabriel asks very little of his fans – just time. Give him that, and you will find this album gently becoming part of you on a cellular level.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2023
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His grievances on For All the Dogs seemed exclusively directed at women, causing some to wonder whether we’d ever see a return to his puppyish, boy-next-door type. Scary Hours 3 isn’t that, but it does even the playing field somewhat, not least by praising the women in his life and castigating the men.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 17, 2023
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 16, 2023
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So many ideas have gone into I<3UQTINVU that it’s almost a new album in its own right. So while it’s not quite as brilliant as I Love You Jennifer B, it does suggest the restless duo are moving into more thrilling terrain.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2023
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McCartney gives Lennon’s vocals space and prominence, blending his own voice sensitively into that wondrous brotherly harmony we thought we’d never hear afresh again. The lyrics – while reading like a typical holding-pattern Lennon love song until greater inspiration stuck – resonate now after 40 years of loss. .... “Now and Then” is the musical event of the year and one of the greatest tear-jerkers in history.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2023
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This revamp does at least serve as a reminder of the album’s untouchable greatness.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 27, 2023
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The album could have been shorter and catchier but fans will feel their cockles warmed and their pulses raised.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 20, 2023
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Although she’s got the makings of a great songwriter, she needs to push the sounds into sharper corners to give her narratives more distinctive definition. Because this album delivers many shades of grey but never the promised punch of black.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 13, 2023
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A late-career Exile on Main Street? Their best since the Seventies? Arguably, but such hyperbole undeniably rests on the broad shoulders of the seven-minute “Sweet Sounds of Heaven”, the album’s spectacular spiritual crescendo.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 10, 2023
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It doesn’t pack quite the same melancholy, melodic punch as Carrie and Lowell. But it’s lovely to feel all the heavy stuff just breeze past you.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 6, 2023
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On tracks such as “Daylight” and “Fear of Heights”, he strains to fit over the futuristic “rage” sound popularised by Playboi Carti. For better or worse, the album is at its best when Drake’s not there.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 6, 2023
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There’s no standout tune on here to match Elgar’s “Nimrod”, of course, but there’s enough soupy seasonal sentimentality to fill the Royal Albert Hall.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2023
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 22, 2023
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- Critic Score
At various points across the album, Doja Cat channels her predecessors. There’s a gorgeous D’Angelo croon to “Often” and on the punchy “Demons”, she emulates Kendrick Lamar’s silky, dangerous tones. Notably, though, there are zero features on this record. Scarlet holds up all on its own.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 22, 2023
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It’s true that listening to The National often makes me feel I’m hearing ghosts of their previous songs. Old chords and thoughts stalk the halls of different songs. But it’s hard to resist their shimmering, shapeshifting companionship. And on Laugh Track the ghosts are floppier and friendlier than they’ve been in a while.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 19, 2023
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The subtle melodies on The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We can take their time to gleam through the murk. So give it time and space at night, when you’re alone, to allow its wild darkness to shine.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 15, 2023
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Blake clearly revels in the invention and freedom of the exploit. “Fall Back” comes across as a very organic, found-sound kind of ambient concoction, as if someone has worked out how to recycle DJ software out of firewood and hemp.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 7, 2023
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GUTS sees Rodrigo smash her way out of the confines of small screen life and arrive kicking and screaming into her real life. No more red lights or stop signs in her way.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 7, 2023
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- Critic Score
She can do all sorts with those pipes and Hit Parade finds Murphy celebrating her many textures.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 5, 2023
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