The Independent (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 2,193 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: | Radical Optimism | |
---|---|---|
Lowest review score: | Donda |
Score distribution:
-
Positive: 1,176 out of 2193
-
Mixed: 988 out of 2193
-
Negative: 29 out of 2193
2193
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
-
- Critic Score
All 10 tracks are stacked with hooks, making it as good as their 2009 breakthrough album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. ... Mars’s sophisticated stream-of-consciousness lyrics operate in perfect synchronicity with the album’s sound. Melancholy themes of mortality are balanced by a giddy commitment to seizing the dance floor moment.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 3, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Ultimately, Dry Cleaning start to sound like a one-song idea dragged out over two albums. A slog.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 21, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The subtle melodies of Midnights take time to sink their claws in. But Swift’s feline vocal stealth and assured lyrical control ensures she keeps your attention.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 20, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It’s Turner’s persona that gives The Car its charm and intrigue, though. Where Tranquility Base… provided his obtuse lyricism with a sci-fi framework, here it roars off in every direction, as wonderfully imagistic as it is largely impenetrable.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The narratives are dependably punchy through this record, and they’re carried by solidly danceable Eighties and Nineties club beats. Not an original sound, then. But one that allows her more challenging or subversive thoughts to slide slyly into a night out on the town.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 13, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Despite the occasional challenge of big blasts of (gleefully disruptive) discord on tracks such as “trolle-gabba”, those considering dipping a toe into avant garde pop will find the waters are warm on Fossora. Give it time – it’ll grow on you. Like a fungus.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 30, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The eight tracks of Cool It Down (a real mission statement of a title) make for a quasi-gothic synth record that beefs up the Eighties revivalism of the past decade... even as it leaves behind the yelping dynamism of their youth for a more considered and placid middle-age.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 29, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Happy hour at the all-you-can-eat alt-rock buffet is clearly open. ... It’s all delivered rambunctiously enough that it’s easy to simply enjoy Gulp! as the alt-pop pick’n’mix it is. Go gorge.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 23, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It feels uncomfortable for me to point out that there aren’t a lot of tunes on this record. This stuff has to come out the way it wants. It’s hardly singalong material. It is – necessarily – heavy. But it also fulfils Mumford’s intention, learnt from Beyoncé, he says, to leave us with hope.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 16, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Hold the Girl is eclectic and searching, a little glossier than Sawayama’s debut, perhaps, but also much more introspective.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 15, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Emotional echoes of this complicated public history reverberate through Jude’s solid collection of mature mid-tempo rockers and ballads. ... Lennon’s production is clean, steely and a little claustrophobic.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 8, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The record is more fun than the lyrics suggest. Watt’s production flirts with Muse’s epic grandeur and the anthemic metal of a Red Rocks Oasis. ... But by the time he’s rhyming “asphyxiation, masturbation, degradation” on the Hawkins co-write “Degradation Rules” – the second Iommi appearance – things are getting a little ridiculous, and at over an hour the record drags.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 8, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Harrison has a knack for narrative and a snagging vocal that lifts potential mediocrity of this vibe into a warmer and more engaging experience. He’s at his best at his most British, when he channels the conversational intimacy of The Streets’ Mike Skinner.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 1, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Pre Pleasure is one of those rare records that reveals the whole artist, cheap kicks and all.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 25, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Holy Fvck, from the title down, then, is a classic shedding-the-pop-facade record, bristling with defiance and real-me rebirth. And, as is the nature of such emancipation albums, it’s extremely horny. ... Amid the buzz-rock howls and air-guitaring, though, there is plenty of space (on a frankly overlong record) for more subtle emotion.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 18, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
They’re sounding less thuggish and more nuanced than of old. But they’ve still got that off-kilter alchemy.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 11, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
That there are spots of filler on the first hour of Beyonce’s new trilogy suggests we’re in for indulgence, but that there are brisk bangers and Lemonade-like leaps of genre too bodes well for Beyonce’s defiant emotional renaissance.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 29, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Riderless Horse obviously isn’t an easy listen. At times – as on “Go Away – it gets dirgy. But its truth-hounding also delivers poetry and restful release.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 21, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
At its heart, The Theory of Whatever is a Jamie T album; there are his usual characters, political barbs, and myriad observations about London in all its gross glory. But this is an evolution: new material Treays could only write now, performed with that same old bravado we know and love.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 21, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Three of the record’s 11 – eleven – incongruous covers, seemingly selected by lobbing darts at a Spotify genre cloud, involve Beck showcasing his sub-Dave Gilmour, cruise ship guitar work by playing the vocal lines on instrumental takes of Davy Spillane’s “Midnight Walker” and a couple of Beach Boys tunes. When Depp gets involved things often, somehow, get worse.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 19, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Her rap flow has a terrific tensile strength. When singing, she delivers as both a belter and a breathy balladeer. ... Special is good as hell.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 15, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
It’s BUSY. The trick – as with a Pollock – is to stand back, soften the joints and enjoy the energy. That energy is delightfully consistent.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 16, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Ezra’s third album delivers precisely the kind of easygoing, family-friendly happiness we’ve come to expect.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 9, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Big Time is a rich, uplifting album that shakes off sorrow, having stared it squarely in the face.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 2, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
She sings like she’s falling apart, but the quality of the album suggests she’s got it together.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 27, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Heart Under thrums with menace, a glint of teeth always on display yet never fully bared. Heart Under is an album rooted in anticipation: Just Mustard know it’s the glimmer of danger that’s most enthralling of all.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 26, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
There’s so much sheer, on-one attitude in Gallagher’s parka pastichery that’s hard to resist. His band are on fire with it. Riffs skirling from the guitars. Drums constantly a-quiver. Even tossed-off tracks like “World in Need” (“send godspeed”) catch flame with harmonica hooks and shaken maracas.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 26, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
As ‘Harry’s House’ flings open the doors of its party garage, Styles navigates this confusing emotional territory with a funk shuffle and future soul panache worthy of the Purple One himself.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 17, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
A surprising meditation on fatherhood, family and friendship. Kendrick Lamar’s work has always been introspective, but Mr Morale and the Big Steppers – with guest spots from artists including Florence Welch, Beth Gibbons, Summer Walker and Sampha – has a delicacy and tenderness to it that is unprecedented for the father of two from Compton, California. Because of this, Mr Morale and The Big Steppers is most redolent of Lamar’s second album good kid, m.A.A.d city.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2022
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
In its commitment to euphoria, Dance Fever is an album that looks forward to the release of all the pandemic’s pent-up energy at this summer’s festivals. ... I hope she never learns to keep a lid on her wonderful wildness.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 12, 2022
- Read full review