The Independent (UK)'s Scores

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For 2,192 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 47% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 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: 100 Radical Optimism
Lowest review score: 0 Donda
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,175 out of 2192
  2. Mixed: 988 out of 2192
  3. Negative: 29 out of 2192
2192 music reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Pt. 1
    Merging their asymmetrical early math pop with the deep space atmospherics of Total Life Forever and Holy Fire, plus added innovations – ambient rainforest throbs on “Moonlight”, deadpan EDM on “In Degrees”, Afro-glitch Radiohead on “Café D’Athens” – they’ve created an inspired album of scorched earth new music that, in all likelihood, will only really be challenged for album of the year by Part 2.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In a Galaxy
    In a Galaxy is a record that takes you far beyond the borders of the world you’re familiar with, and into something altogether more colourful.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When I Get Home
    When I Get Home is an album, yes. But ultimately, it’s a sleepy, uplifting antidote to the often painful reality that black people, particularly black Americans in Solange’s experience, have been increasingly facing in recent years. We’re in the midst of ever-escalating chaos. But here Solange has come, offering us a chance not just to rest, but to relish in that languidness.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Grey Area
    What Simz does here is phenomenal. This is an album--and artist--to cherish.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Wasteland, Baby!
    Andrew Hozier-Byrne’s second album Wasteland, Baby! is still stuck mid-sermon, albeit emaciated from surviving solely on stale communion wafers.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Strange Creatures
    Strange Creatures is certainly packed with musical ideas.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Crushing
    Grunge-rinsed, feminist-flipped, upcycled Fifties guitar an’ all: Crushing is a triumph.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eton Alive
    This is a record that expands the idea of what Sleaford Mods could be.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Head Above Water
    Lavigne might not have found a musical identity that truly becomes her, but Head Above Water is an effective, and occasionally affecting, album.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    thank u, next
    So thank you, “Ari”, for a lovely listen. I have to confess, I’d like a bit more vocal grit. Maybe that’s up next.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    AJ Tracey
    With the help of stellar producers like Cadenza (Kiko Bun), Swifta Beater (Kano, Giggs), and Nyge (Section Boyz, Yxng Bane), Tracey incorporates electronic music, rock, garage and even country on his most cohesive work to date.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change
    Nesbitt is back with her second LP, switching to a brand of soul and R&B-fused pop that feels bang on time, and suits her far better. The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change has slick, polished production from Fraser T Smith (Adele), Lostboy (Anne-Marie), Jordan Riley (Zara Larsson), and Nesbitt herself.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Better Oblivion Community Center
    The self-titled record, a loose but beautifully crafted collection of folk-rock songs, explores the kinds of anxieties intrinsic to the modern age--the longing to be at once noticed and invisible; the paralysing effects of limitless information, and the desire to do good versus the desire to be seen doing good.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    DNA
    Mostly this standard boyband fare, reheated, and topped with modern pop sprinkles. It just feels so unnecessary.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Get Tragic
    There is some sense that Blood Red Shoes are trying too hard to cultivate their own myth, with all these tales of rock and roll hedonism. For the most part, though, the music on Get Tragic is good enough to speak for itself.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amo
    Amo won’t satisfy all of BMTH’s fans, but it’s certainly accomplished, catchy and eclectic enough to bring in some new ones.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Heard It in a Past Life
    Heard It in a Past Life is evidence of Rogers’ ambition and potential, but it is proof, too, that you can’t bottle lightning.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Assume Form
    The good news is that the perma-brilliant James Blake has flooded his fourth album--Assume Form--with euphoric sepia soul and loved-up doo-wop. His trademark intelligence, honesty and pin-drop production remain intact.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?
    Already Disappeared, which was co-produced with Cate Le Bon in the sprawling desert expanse of Marfa, Texas, is not an easy album. It’s often bleak and experimental: Cox’s vocals burst through like distorted, burbling fragments of static, or appear muffled amid the instrumentation. This is a new side of Deerhunter that gives the listener much to contemplate.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Unseen In Between
    Gunn has created a work of quiet, understated charm. But as far as helping him break out as a distinctive artist, it’s less likely to make its listener sit up and pay attention than lean back and close their eyes.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Remind Me Tomorrow
    “Seventeen” winks at the inevitable, then celebrates it. Remind Me Tomorrow is best in thrall to this untouchable energy, when Van Etten and her band sound ecstatic despite their worldly wisdom.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    What Is Love?
    Essentially, this is yet another album of formulaic EDM pop and Latino R&B dancefloor grinders, more market tester than art.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Icarus Falls
    The first 12 songs glow with standard praise for a natural, respectful love (rumoured to be about his on/off model girlfriend Gigi Hadid) but things take a darker turn after Malik’s mythical musings (over muted pings of electric guitar) on “Icarus Interlude”, which concludes with him singing that he “lied to the liars”. Both sonically and lyrically, things get more interesting from this point.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Springsteen on Broadway
    Live albums, never quite being able to replicate the atmosphere of a show or the cleanness of a record, can be hard work--but Springsteen on Broadway is an enthralling listen.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Prophet Speaks
    Satisfying and wholly enjoyable album.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Skins
    SKINS is another fiery blast of catharsis, a largely metaphor-free space where depression isn't hinted at poetically but invited to throw down. ... There are no songs as refined or showing such potential as ?'s “infinity (888)” and “Moonlight”, and many of them feel like half ideas.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    DUMMY BOY
    DUMMY BOY is an insufferable 13-track farrago of anything from rock riffs to calypso drums, all pinned by 6ix9ine’s obsessive use of the “n” word, along with every other negative trope found in the gangsta rap of the early Noughties. ... Avoid.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bitter-Sweet
    The result should be something that feels rooted in nostalgia, but in fact these songs sound and feel as modern and innovative as they did when first released decades ago.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
    As with all of The 1975’s escapades, it ought to be a disaster. Instead, the showpiece triumphs as an unlikely paragon of social media-era pop. In a glass bottle, tamed and ridiculed, the inferno is strangely beautiful.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Phoenix
    Given the stuttering, protracted process it’s been through to get here, it’s a surprisingly coherent record. ... For the most part, though, Phoenix is worth the wait.
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