The Independent (UK)'s Scores

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For 594 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 57% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 65
Highest review score:
Director's Cut
Critic Score 100
Lowest review score:
The Awakening
Critic Score 20
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 245 out of 594
  2. Mixed: 336 out of 594
  3. Negative: 13 out of 594
594 music reviews
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    • Metascore: 64
    • Critic Score 20
    Violet Cries
    The group have been around for well over a year without arousing much of a stir, and the monumentally tedious poesie-rock of Violet Cries offers few hints that this should change.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Critic Score 20
    Dancing Backward in High Heels
    It lacks both unity and quality.
    • Metascore: 74
    • Critic Score 20
    Sing It Loud
    An unmitigated disaster.
    • Metascore: 49
    • Critic Score 20
    Mona
    there's ultimately nothing distinctive here to grab the imagination. The singer has obviously modelled his every inflection on Bono, and the guitarist likewise over-employs Edge-style arpeggiated riffs; but they lack U2's broader ambition and sense of purpose.
    • Metascore: 34
    • Critic Score 20
    Famous First Words
    Strident guitars and harmonies tug one's sleeve, eager for attention they don't merit, while the lyrics seem to be about nothing.
    • Metascore: 52
    • Critic Score 20
    The Awakening
    The songs are mostly just nondescript airwave fodder, clogging up the aether for months to come.
    • Metascore: 62
    • Critic Score 20
    Stronger
    Despite the references to Nietzsche and Einstein, which suggest a cachet Stronger doesn't deserve, this is simply an overlong string of standard putdown R&B and bogus emotional turmoil, the songs blitzed with generic power-ballad overkill.
    • Metascore: 51
    • Critic Score 20
    Sticks + Stones
    the only real flashes of character come from the reworked riffs of Old Neneh Cherry and Ann Peebles hits used on a couple of tracks.
    • Metascore: 60
    • Critic Score 20
    In Case You Didn't Know
    Olly Murs might have a lovely on-screen personality, but only the merest glimmers of character are allowed to shine through the swaddling retro-pop arrangements of In Case You Didn't Know.
    • Metascore: 59
    • Critic Score 20
    Born Villain
    If he tried to find something he liked, he might actually make something worth listening to.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Critic Score 20
    Uno!
    Some of the dullest music released all year.
    • Metascore: 65
    • Critic Score 20
    Banks
    This solo album is stuffed with aloof, adolescent apocalyptism and self-regard set to lumpy, mechanistic beats and cluttered arrangements.
    • Metascore: 59
    • Critic Score 20
    Exile
    Innovation, clearly, is not the highest of their priorities. In truth, everything comes a distant second to style.