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
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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- Critic Score
On their third album Mommy, their blistering garage punk is finessed, their songwriting, sharp and sardonic.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 25, 2023
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- Critic Score
There’s so much deliciously analogue texture to cherish here – all bakelite, mahogany, coconut shells and bougainvillea, with woodwind you could drink and percussion you could tuck behind your ear. It’s 2023’s hippest release. Get up, get down, kick back to it.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 11, 2023
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If such bittersweet reflections came packaged on a solo Albarn release, they’d probably be set to sorrowful, detached, acousto-electronic sounds. But his old friends have alchemised those sentiments into songs that elevate his suburban tristesse into moments of sheer ecstasy.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 20, 2023
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The past typically isn’t the most comfortable place to inhabit, but Swift embodies her younger self fully, imbuing these tracks with the same immediacy and emotional heft as she did all those years ago. Country twang or not.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 7, 2023
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I suspect that those who’ve always found Harvey a chore will find much to mock. But her fans will be all in for this mucky pagan whirl.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 6, 2023
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It’s an album that cools and shimmers its way through a delicious range of nuanced moods and subtly layered musical ideas. Delightful.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 30, 2023
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Some tracks on The Good Witch serve as incantations to manifest a better lover; others spit curses on past ones. All of them, though, convincingly set Peters up as the next musician to confidently march us into another sad girl summer.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 23, 2023
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Admittedly, with 15 full-length tracks, the record does run a little long. That said, there’s something alluring about such an unapologetic and candid album.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 23, 2023
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This new collection finds Horan moving towards the lusher production sound of his former bandmate Harry Styles. Laurel Canyon references mingle easily with Eighties synth-pop and Noughties guitar rock. It’s beautifully cohesive.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 8, 2023
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Clocking in at a scant 31 minutes, you could call The Age of Pleasure a quickie – but one that more than manages to scratch that itch.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 8, 2023
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 1, 2023
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 1, 2023
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- Critic Score
My Soft Machine is a punchier, poppier outing for Parks but the record shares a lot in common with its predecessor. .... It’s when Park veers off her own path that things get interesting. “Devotion” is a risk that pays off.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 25, 2023
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 18, 2023
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 27, 2023
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It’s an album that makes a church of its elegant electronica: all vaulting arcs of yearning melody and glimmers of stained glass that dance upwards, to the familiar urban spire of Thorn’s beautiful, hangdog voice.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 21, 2023
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72 Seasons may not see Metallica doing anything new – but it does find their old machine firing on all cylinders. Old and new fans alike will be headbanging happily throughout.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 14, 2023
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- Critic Score
By the time her vocals roll in on “God Above”, you’re already caught in the slipstream of Drop Cherries. ... Marten dials back her sound to paint tender, intimate moments using only strokes of orchestral watercolour.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 6, 2023
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Most of them slot together with an appealing combination of simplicity and enigma – like those little puzzle cubes made of three types of wood. All the while, you can hear the careful questioning with which the songwriters have honed one another’s thoughts until they slot smoothly together to become satisfying tactile emotional experiences.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 30, 2023
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- Critic Score
By avoiding clutter, both in lyrics and in instrumentation, each song feels like inhaling a gulp of cold, crisp air.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 23, 2023
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- Critic Score
Her sweeping, layered ninth album is more ruminative than reactive: questions of family and legacy, memory and death swirl around one another until they’re one in the same.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 20, 2023
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 10, 2023
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 3, 2023
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- Critic Score
Food for Worms sees Shame confidently embrace their flaws and resign themselves to the messy, beautiful chaos of their live shows. It’s all captured within this bedhead of a record.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 23, 2023
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- Critic Score
Signs that Cracker Island is designed to be a summer album sizzle though the heat-haze synths of “Silent Running” (featuring soulful contributions from Adeleye Omotayo) and the hip-sloshing dancefloor pulse of “New Gold” (feat Tame Impala and Bootie Brown).- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 23, 2023
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- Critic Score
After releasing all the pent-up adrenaline in the album’s first half, Paramore’s melodies lumber likeably to a sludgier, shoegazier speed after that. But the band keep things interesting by accessorising that sound with a synth flute (on “Big Man, Little Dignity”); a rattle stick tap (on “You First”); a twinkling keyboard; and low horn effect (on “Figure 8”).- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 10, 2023
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A very brave, strong record. Hats off, Raye. These blues are smoking hot.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 2, 2023
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The older he gets, the better the conversational-confessional flow of his rapping, which allows him to stroll through a 10-minute bragathon like “Mel Made Me Do It” without breaking a sweat or losing the listener’s attention. He raps about trips to Dubai and giving up weed like he’s sitting beside you at a London bus stop.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 28, 2022
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There’s a little electronic noodling going on to remind us that, though Mering sounds supremely grounded, a part of her is still in exiled orbit around a damaged world. It’s soulful, and a little spooky.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 17, 2022
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