The Independent (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 2,192 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: | Radical Optimism | |
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Lowest review score: | Donda |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,175 out of 2192
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Mixed: 988 out of 2192
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Negative: 29 out of 2192
2192
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Sometimes, the changes simply frustrate, as when Josh Homme rations out the hellhound gallop of "Mickey Bloody Mouse" too sparingly. But the additions can bring extra layers of exhilaration.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 28, 2012
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This Jack White-produced comeback album suggests there can be few septuagenarians keener on raising hell.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 26, 2011
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 18, 2011
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- Critic Score
Heard It in a Past Life is evidence of Rogers’ ambition and potential, but it is proof, too, that you can’t bottle lightning.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 23, 2019
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- Critic Score
The result is an engaging, softly sensuous air of desolation, emotion recollected in tranquility.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 12, 2012
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- Critic Score
The songs are just a little perfunctory. Like a popcorn disaster movie, the album is full of adrenaline, and yet doesn’t stick in the mind long after you’ve finished with it.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 17, 2019
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 14, 2018
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- Critic Score
It's a one-sided album: following the soulful “Late Night”, things plummet badly in the second half.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 8, 2013
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- Critic Score
Waterhouse’s own vocals could be stronger, but his throwaway manner has a languid charm.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 3, 2014
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"Whistle", takes a sidestep with its acoustic guitar and tedious single-entendre hook, but there are plenty more brutal stompers to spare on Wild Ones.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 2, 2012
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On the surface, Who sounds like a classic Who album. ... There are moments when Townshend stops questioning his own relevancy, but to dubious effect: “Beads on a String” is a limp metaphor for human connection, while “Hero Ground Zero” is just as clumsy.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 5, 2019
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- Critic Score
It's hardly groundbreaking stuff, but McCartney undeniably has an ear for melody.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 6, 2011
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On Freedom Highway, Rhiannon Giddens animates black American history--notably, the arduous journey from slavery to civil rights--in songs which pair her strong, sonorous delivery with arrangements echoing pre-blues minstrel music.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 22, 2017
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- Critic Score
Unsurprisingly, it’s not a pretty sound, though there are moments of transcendent grace.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 1, 2017
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- Critic Score
The lyrics sound like they’re being negotiated, rather than expressed, while the music, for all its pleasing West Coast and Brit-psych affinities, lacks the risk and edge that made Sixties psychedelia such a thrill-ride.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 19, 2016
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The title track slips from minimalist cycling harpsichord to portentous organ and guitar arpeggios before fading mid-lyric, while the cod-oriental motif of “Entertainment” offers a fond memory of a time when such things didn't seem quite so patronising.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 25, 2013
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- Critic Score
Though drab and overlong, it has a certain rugged, whiskery charm, which doesn't extend to the concluding "God Save the Queen", a stodge too far.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 4, 2012
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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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- Critic Score
Their problem is a lack of originality: they never suggest they'll find a new angle on well-worn roots-rock modes.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 5, 2011
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- Critic Score
Rufus Wainwright believes this to be "the most pop album" he's ever made, and he's probably right, so long as you're thinking 1970s pop.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 19, 2012
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- Critic Score
Although some of the songs follow that same pop structure seen on the first half, by contrasting them with more experimental sounds (that are not hoping to top the charts), they have much more impact.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 23, 2018
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There may be none of the heart-tugging vibe of octave-spanning “Without You”, or the abundant melody of “Everybody’s Talkin’”, but Losst and Founnd resurrects a treasured voice in songs full of vim.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 25, 2019
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- Critic Score
Burke's presence remains as commanding as ever even when the material sags.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 31, 2011
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- Critic Score
Oddly erratic. ... The way he darts between different sounds is exhausting and, ultimately, messy. On certain tracks he raps like he has something to prove, on others it's like he has nothing.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 29, 2018
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The album never regains ["Strong's"] scuttling momentum, lapsing into a boudoir-soul bubble-bath that, with too much immersion, leaves one’s interest wrinkling.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 10, 2015
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- Critic Score
Save for a couple of uptempo trotters like the jaunty kiss-off “It’s Goodbye And So Long To You”, it’s mostly melancholy fare.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 1, 2017
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- Critic Score
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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- 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
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Quaintness is what their fans look for; you just sense that there might have been an even more searing political bent lurking beneath on Angry Cyclist that never quite pierced the surface.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 15, 2018
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- Critic Score
It’s a low-key, subtly composed rock record that sets slow-rolling country and anthemic southern rock as its parameters, and never so much as hints that it might break beyond them.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 8, 2018
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