The Independent (UK)'s Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
For 2,191 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 THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
Lowest review score: 0 Donda
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,174 out of 2191
  2. Mixed: 988 out of 2191
  3. Negative: 29 out of 2191
2191 music reviews
view
per page
    • 53 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Zoom In [EP]
    An overstuffed pillow of an EP that seeks to calm all of the world's aches but just ends up sounding schmaltzy and smothering.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Volcano
    With the toothless Volcano, they’ve abandoned that path [hinting at deep immersion in psych-rock] in favour of a wheedling, keyboard-heavy electropop sound with much less bite, pock-marked with dubious stylistic potholes.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Notes on a Conditional Form
    A smug farrago in which each track grates against the next like rusted gears. In between the nonsense – meaningless orchestral interludes and indistinguishable dance tracks inspired by Jon Hopkins and Bonobo – there are flashes of promise, mostly in the instrumentation. Even this is lost to inconsistent mixing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Settle
    Now, it appears to have been reduced to simply a checklist of familiar sounds and effects, harnessed to the dullest beats imaginable, and dependent on outside collaborators for interest.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    These People
    Richard Ashcroft’s first album in six years is a dismal affair.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    London with the Lights On
    London with the Lights On is pretty thin fare, with too many tracks collapsing under the weight of excess sass.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Little Red
    The only new aspect of this follow-up to 2011’s On a Mission is her transatlantic phrasing; otherwise, it’s pretty much the same old thing, with pulsing dubstep synths relentlessly driving things to the lowest common denominator.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Uno!
    Some of the dullest music released all year.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Exile
    Innovation, clearly, is not the highest of their priorities. In truth, everything comes a distant second to style.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    What a Time to Be Alive
    Walker drizzles bluesy, Hozier-like soul bombast and nebulous folk tunes with Bond strings and EDM sizzles; tracks so thin and flavourless they go down without chewing.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Banks
    This solo album is stuffed with aloof, adolescent apocalyptism and self-regard set to lumpy, mechanistic beats and cluttered arrangements.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Unleash the Love
    Unleash The Love is steeped in this kind of smugness, aptly embodied in the rolled-up-jacket-sleeves ersatz ‘80s funk-pop of tracks like “I Don’t Wanna Know”. The “bonus” album of reheated Beach Boys hits, meanwhile, simply stains one’s precious memories.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Endless River
    What's blindingly clear is that, without the sparking creativity of a Syd or Roger, all that's left is ghastly faux-psychedelic dinner-party muzak.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Utopia
    Achingly dull, and self-regardingly solipsistic.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Sing It Loud
    An unmitigated disaster.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Born Villain
    If he tried to find something he liked, he might actually make something worth listening to.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    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.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    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.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    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.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Tears of Hercules
    This is a 12-track cringefest on which Stewart celebrates carnal love in between songs about his late father.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 1
    It’s a typical contacts-book R&B exercise, with an impressive cast of guests (including Frank, Pharrell, Snoop, Nicki, Katy, Ariana and others) on a fairly underwhelming series of grooves.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Awakening
    The songs are mostly just nondescript airwave fodder, clogging up the aether for months to come.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Something To Tell You
    These songs are as limp as long-lost lettuce, several of them barely meriting the appellation “song” at all.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 0 Critic Score
    Donda
    Resplendent moments – like a second’s burst of sunshine through dark storm clouds – are so rare that by the time you emerge on the other side, they’re all but forgotten. ... But by involving Manson, West has made this impossible. Donda leaves a sour taste that no number of good beats, gospel choirs or church organs will cleanse. Zero stars.
next
Page: