The Independent (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 2,194 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 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: | Hit Me Hard and Soft | |
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Lowest review score: | Donda |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,177 out of 2194
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Mixed: 988 out of 2194
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Negative: 29 out of 2194
2194
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
A little more campfire crackle to his delivery would have helped lift these good short stories from the prettily glowing embers of forgettable and occasionally recycled melodies.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 13, 2021
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At 14 tracks, the album is one of Fredo’s longest and yet it still manages to feel concise. Independence Day is another push forward for Fredo – a mostly solid follow-up from a rapper continuing to hone his voice.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 6, 2021
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A record that captures nostalgia without devolving into anachronism or retrograde – a fine line that Nas is well-versed in toeing. As ever, Nas is his own lynchpin. Tracks including “Store Run” and “Moments” demonstrate the rapper’s gift as a lucid narrator of his own experience.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 6, 2021
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Happier Than Ever is full of things most of us don’t have to deal with – NDAs, interviews, paparazzi – and yet Eilish weaves them around universal woes, with such a knack for sharp, insightful lyrics that it never comes across like her diamond shoes are too tight.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 30, 2021
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Between the piano-led dreamscape of “Red Snakes”, the shimmering electronica of “Bloom at Night” and the pop-leaning “We Cannot Resist”, Animal feels restless right up until its six-and-a-half-minute closer “Phantom Limb”, which concludes with Marling’s autotuned voice reading out the album’s credits.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 29, 2021
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For three tracks of low-slung ambient funk (the title track), lounge jazz (“Running Game [Son of a Slave Master]”) and tired orchestral soul (“Born 2 Die”), every low expectation of the funk-pop legend’s late-career cast-offs is lived down to. ... Then he rediscovers his imaginative peak-era verve and Welcome 2 America becomes an unexpected blast.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 29, 2021
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WAAITT is a compelling, conscious-jolting account of a life of two halves.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 28, 2021
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Downhill from Everywhere provides plenty of evidence of that relit spark, delivering the sheer joy of hearing a master songwriter with the wind in his sails.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 22, 2021
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he record is a confident immersion into a genre he’s only toyed with before. And just as Good Thing never fully sacrificed Bridges’ style, neither does Gold-Digger forget his roots.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 22, 2021
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KSI does well to allow his collaborators to come in and do what they do best in their respective styles. ... At times, though, All Over The Place flails in the absence of a singular distinct voice.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 21, 2021
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Smith’s new record does feel like her most personal. Her lyrics have a stream-of-consciousness style, as though she’s in the middle of composing a message to a friend or partner. The delight she takes in performing these songs is palpable.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 16, 2021
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It’s genuinely enjoyable. Fairly forgettable. A pleasant enough middle-lane trip down what Mayer – with knowing cliché – calls “the highway of dreams”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 16, 2021
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Hewson’s songwriting is definitely up to snuff, although occasionally lapses into cliches.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 8, 2021
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Staples called this his most personal record yet. Perhaps it’s this new vulnerability that makes the album so great. Or maybe it’s the whip-smart one-liners. Or the vivid storytelling. Staples will say this latest triumph is just a dude doing some different things.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 8, 2021
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Occasionally, the meandering nature of Mvula’s song structures can leave you grasping for more melody, but the moods she creates are always clearly defined.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 1, 2021
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While the production here is as slick as IGOR, though, there’s less of a through line. IGOR was the devastating pieced-together parts of a broken relationship. CMIYGL plays fast and loose with its subjects, relying instead on the music itself to carry listeners through. ... Tyler, the Creator continues to defy expectations.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 25, 2021
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Dacus’s warm vocals are as rich and full as ever, between upbeat album singles like “Hot & Heavy” and yearning, piano-driven ballads (“Please Stay”).- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 24, 2021
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Quietly Blowing It feels like the first steps into bold new territory.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 24, 2021
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A record that finds the 52-year-old Grant on his most romantic, melodic form, as he looks back on the pleasures and fears he faced growing up as a gay kid in America’s Midwest. ... A lovely, generous album.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 24, 2021
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Peace or Love, their first album in 12 years, is perfectly pleasant and familiar, the tracks tracing the well-trodden vicissitudes of love in tones so subdued that they’d seem hushed even when played at maximum volume.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 17, 2021
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The album doles out small doses of riot grrrl nostalgia but for the most part, on No Gods No Masters, Garbage stretch beyond the gilded cage of their Nineties icon status to reach for something new – often, but not always, to effective ends.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 11, 2021
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Many of these songs are hip hop-lite, incorporating bland trap beats as Levine delivers lyrics in the kind of stutter pioneered by early Soundcloud rappers.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 11, 2021
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Imagine Killing Eve in audio form. They’re still that kick-ass. That sexy. That much fun. Put this album on your to-listen list, pronto.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 10, 2021
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Soberish is a record of push and pull, of doubt and regained confidence. ... Phair is the queen of rock reinvention, and as this album proves, she’s got a few lives left.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 3, 2021
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Traverses Eighties-indebted dance, swirling alt-pop and homespun lo-fi across a tight 10-song track list. There are reprieves – where the energy quietens to syrupy, fluid ballads on which Zauner’s voice lolls as opposed to skips – but the emotional journey is always upward.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 3, 2021
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As with Visions, this third album sees the band hopping between styles – folk, garage rock and shoegaze – only now they’re steering deeper into the corners and controlling the skids.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 3, 2021
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This album is unlikely to win him any new fans. But, for the many millions whose lives intersected with the original music, Reprise offers a graceful and nuanced opportunity to take stock.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 28, 2021
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On Cavalcade, black midi feast on a smorgasbord of influences but the result at times can leave their sound meandering aimlessly.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 27, 2021
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Despite its 16 tracks, not once does Long Lost feel crowded. The pace is unhurried, the phrasing exquisite.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 24, 2021
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Across the album she stretches her voice into familiar, hushed shapes – but the record marks a clear evolution of an artist done with being called pretty.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 21, 2021
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At times, it feels as though the polite, considered Rodrigo could push ideas, emotions and melodies a little further than she does. ... But this is an incredibly impressive debut from a singer who’s only just learning to stretch her wings.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 21, 2021
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It sounds – for the first time in a decade – like Clark has slipped out of her high heels and found an equal strength in this barefooted soul.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2021
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Never once do Sons of Kemet compromise on their fiercely individual sound.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2021
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Delta Kream is a soundtrack for those hot and heady nights of late summer. It’s brilliant.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2021
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His tendency to hurl the same emotional intensity into every syllable (loud, soft, high, low, new idea or repetition) gets wearing. It doesn’t help that the melodies are often simplistic to the point of forgettable and the production seldom leaves a space unfilled.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 6, 2021
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Latest Record Project Volume 1 might be a grievance-heavy sprawl, but if you’re a Morrison die-hard it’ll be a worthy, timely addition to his catalogue.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 6, 2021
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 6, 2021
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The Australian artist sounds like a brand new person, ready to make up for those years she played it safe. Produced by Thomas Bartlett and Annie Clark (St Vincent), Sixty Summers is a celebration of newly claimed liberty.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 29, 2021
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The riffs are better, arrangements more textured, harmonies more interesting (there’s a great contribution from some female backing singers on “Oblivion”). Then there’s the surprising closer “All We Have is Now”, a poignant moment of calm after the storm. Royal Blood have finally found their own voice.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 29, 2021
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Faithfull lifts them from the page with a compelling combination of crispness and tenderness. She doesn’t use that soporific “poetry voice”. Instead, she can make 200-year-old visions of beauty, love and death feel as urgent as the latest true-crime podcast.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 29, 2021
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His barnacled baritone steers a steady course through Moog-soaked covers of favourite songs, with sombre lines about dark oceans, soulless days, and skirting a skeleton coast.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 22, 2021
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He’s already had a No 3 album, without the kind of major label backing many of his peers enjoy. The follow-up happens to be even better.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 19, 2021
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It’s always nice when artists sound genuinely excited to participate in a collective project, and that comes through in spades on the delightful, crisply produced, and well-arranged McCartney III Imagined.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 16, 2021
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London Grammar seldom grab you by the collar; they’re thoughtful middle-class kids making tasteful pop landscapes. If you’re chatting in the car, odds are you might not even notice that Reid is pouring her heart out. But if you’re driving alone, she is capable of breaking yours.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 16, 2021
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The album feels baggy in places, leaving you wondering if they’re trying too hard to tick every box. But most of the risks the band take pay off. A very promising debut.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 13, 2021
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It’s hard to think of many other contemporary albums that are quite so beautifully arranged as this. ... This is a very special album indeed.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 9, 2021
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“Windows”, with its eerie synths and squawking delivery, recalls the dark psychedelia of Cypress Hills’ 2018 record, Elephants on Acid. But that then jumps to skittery R&B with “I’ll Take You On”. Nothing joins together. Brockhampton don’t sound self-aware as much as self-conscious.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 9, 2021
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This is the perfect moment for Fearless (Taylor’s Version): there’s no time like a pandemic to be given a dose of nostalgia, and it’s nice to have a refresher of some of the best pop songs committed to record. Even the six “from the vault” tracks that didn’t make the cut first time round feel oddly comforting.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 9, 2021
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The best of confessional pop – think Beyoncé’s Lemonade – finds an original sound for an original experience and demands the listener’s attention.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 1, 2021
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Though it encompasses a whole galaxy of observations and sonic structures, ultimately Head of Roses is worth getting lost in.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 1, 2021
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Instead of a too-many-cooks situation, which this easily could’ve been, Dessner and Howard find cozy nooks for everyone. The singer’s reedy voice is the drawstring that ties it all together.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 25, 2021
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A stunning celebration of Black, gay love. ... It is also a groundbreaking proclamation of personal acceptance.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 25, 2021
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For Those I Love is as much a piece of history as it is a work of art. ... A staggering album.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 25, 2021
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There’s still a nagging sense that the band are resting on their laurels. The record is still good – DFA are too talented for it to be otherwise – but it’s a little deflating for a band whose history is built on boundary-pushing.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 25, 2021
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With strong, clear-eyed subtext, overlaid by compositions that touch on every influence from TV on the Radio to Prince, Childish Gambino and Radiohead, Smiling With No Teeth is not so much an album as it is a memoir – a story both unique to Owusu and universal to anyone who has ever felt “othered”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 19, 2021
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It’s a welcome opportunity to revisit Sting‘s lengthy collaborative resume; if anything, Duets serves as a reminder that not only has the man been doing this for a long time, but when he does team up with a new artist, he strikes just the right balance in letting the featured player shine, and letting the song belong to them as well.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 19, 2021
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An overstuffed pillow of an EP that seeks to calm all of the world's aches but just ends up sounding schmaltzy and smothering.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 19, 2021
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It’s been just over a year since Bieber released his worst album. He’s returned with his best.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 19, 2021
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A great storyteller, Del Rey consistently delivers the who, what, where and when. She picks out the telling details – turquoise jewellery, the TV in the corner, “on the second floor, baby”. She sketches a backstory (“I come from a small town”) and then tells you how it all feels.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 19, 2021
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This album is more Pringles than caviar. But it’s comfortingly moreish. When it comes to the Jonas boys, it seems that once you pop, you can’t stop.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 12, 2021
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Their latest EP, Lout, is only three songs long, but even in under 15 minutes, the short-player packs a wallop.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 12, 2021
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I wonder if Larsson boxed herself in with her theme (“I’m obsessed with love”, she told NME in a recent interview), then struggled to find new ways to explore it. Overall, though, Poster Girl has more than enough bops to keep fans happy.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 4, 2021
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It’s pleasantly – if forgettably – soporific. The sort of family motorway album that tired parents can hum along to without waking the kids in the back.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 4, 2021
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Rather than phone anything in, Cooper’s clearly making the most of his elder statesman position, finding new ways to freshen up vintage sounds and styles. He’s every bit as durable as the American city he celebrates.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 26, 2021
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Thematically and sonically, For Those That Wish to Exist feels limitless.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 26, 2021
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Although the sonic mood mellows after the first two tracks, listeners will be invited to share the transcendent joy in memories of a lost child; the awe of an uxorious lover whose prayer-like love for his wife is a continual saving grace; and the frustration of a caged man with an “open road” of a heart.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 25, 2021
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His 2017 debut Reaper was built around tender guitar motifs that would mesh with stuttery trap beats. There is some of this on Trauma Factory, but it’s been mostly sidelined in favour of vocal melodies that frequently sound like playground rhymes.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 18, 2021
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 12, 2021
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Despite the album’s slick production and radio-ready melodies, one wishes Pale Waves could find a more sophisticated language to express youthful enlightenment.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 12, 2021
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The record is divided into two sets. The first half is a jagged-edged electro backed spleen-splurge with all seven tracks titled with the CAPS LOCK ON. The smoother, more soulful second half finds him in more reflective, lower-case mood.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 12, 2021
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There is something admirable about the fact they stay so firmly planted in their lane. Medicine at Midnight is unlikely to win over many new fans, but it will make the existing ones happy.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 4, 2021
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It just feels tedious and predictable. Portentous twangs of guitar? Tick. Shivery percussion? Tick. Screeches of feedback? Tick. A frontman who delivers lyrics (rambling prose) in a croaky, squawking gasp that recalls Mark E Smith? Tick.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 4, 2021
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Though it could stand to sound more consistent throughout (at times The Staves sound like they’re throwing that proverbial spaghetti against the wall), Good Woman successfully demonstrates that even through life’s lessons and uncomfortable liminal states, family is the most stabilising force.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 4, 2021
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On All Fours is undoubtedly an intense listen, with its blistering harmonies and Pendlebury’s low murmur. They’re good for a sharp analogy, too.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 28, 2021
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Not Your Muse is an album that will lure you back time and time again, as much for its technical brilliance as any of its other qualities.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 28, 2021
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The charm – and perhaps a flaw – of Collapsed in Sunbeams is how easy it is to drift in and out of it. At times, Parks’s prism colours and ideas can leap out, scatter and startle you. At others, the myriad references to fruit and fashion alongside mental health catchphrases can feel like flipping through a magazine. But then, that’s how the light works. And I’m so glad Parks is here to brighten this dark year.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 28, 2021
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Isles invites you to close your eyes and let your alpha waves throw their own shapes.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 21, 2021
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Home sounds like an invitation to a decedent, warmly lit house party where there may or may not be a jar of keys in the corner.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 21, 2021
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 15, 2021
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Spare Ribs certainly reflects the personal and political overload of 2021, but half an hour in you’d be forgiven for scanning the horizon for your stop.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 15, 2021
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Drunk Tank Pink offers a new sense of space, of notes ricocheting off walls. Green and Coyle-Smith clearly enjoyed experimenting with unconventional guitar tunings, playing energised ping pong with the tangy twists of key.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 15, 2021
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It offers no narrative to speak of and only brief glimpses of personality. It is a blancmange of watered-down R&B, each song sliding listlessly into the next.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 15, 2021
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 7, 2021
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Each artist is joined at some point by Gibb’s distinctive high, breathy voice. It’s wobblier now, but sounds a little more searching and humble.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 7, 2021
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Weird, wonderful and whimsical, McCartney III finds the walrus on inspirational form.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 17, 2020
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Swift has said she has no idea where she’s going from here. She doesn’t need to. But it’s a Christmas treat to hear her enjoy creating a whole magical, mystical world away from the spotlight. No reinvention required.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 14, 2020
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It’s probably the pandemic’s impact on the live music scene that makes an album like this feel more welcome than it might have last year. It’s still not comparable to the real thing, but it does remind us of what we’re missing.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 11, 2020
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Reflective, immersive and, in a more subtle way, euphoric, this is the record to put the art into The Avalanches’ party.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 10, 2020
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Weird!’s eclecticism frequently threatens to overwhelm. ... Where Yungblud is consistent is his lyrics.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 4, 2020
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The faithful will feel more than sated, and newcomers will find more to suck on here than a peppermint bass drum.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 3, 2020
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Despite the dearth of original melodies and ideas, there’s an obvious nod to the Everly Brothers’ 1958 “All I Have To Do Is Dream”. And throughout this record, Mendes’s savvy songwriting team are harking back to retro influences to suit the vintage ice cream parlour shades of the singer’s shirts.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 3, 2020
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2020
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From start to finish, Plastic Hearts dresses catchy, Eighties-indebted pop melodies in rock’s studded leather, lets them spin a few wheelies and max out the speedo. It’s basically a truckload of fun with added blood and guts, driven by Cyrus’s reckless, open-throated, soul-bearing charisma.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 27, 2020
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In just eight songs, BTS have accomplished the same genre-bending they usually do in double that runtime. And for the most part, the album avoids the pitfall of sounding like a checklist. With BE, BTS keep their foot on the pedal.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 20, 2020
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Night Network isn’t a bad album, but it's not a particularly memorable one, either.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 20, 2020
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 12, 2020
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Even among the country music gems already released this year, Stapleton’s feels like a small miracle.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 12, 2020
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The continuing appeal of AC/DC lies in the fact that this self-proclaimed bunch of “noisy little guys” consistently sound like they’re having good-hearted, OTT fun.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 12, 2020
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Its 13 tracks are a polished mix of flirtatious bops and high-octane tracks that celebrate self-worth, with the moving torch song “Breathe” serving as the album’s closer. Sure, there’s nothing groundbreaking to be found here, but it does prove that Little Mix do just fine when they’re relying on their own instincts.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 5, 2020
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There's nothing wildly inventive about her modern take on the vintage vibe. But it’s nonstop fun.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 5, 2020
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