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
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- Critic Score
Overall, the album offers a surprisingly successful transformation that somehow enables one to hear this most familiar of material as if through new ears, a remarkable achievement in itself.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 1, 2017
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- Critic Score
His symphonic-soul innovations here would map out the course of much 1970s soul music, while his use of multi-layered vocals – the happy result of an engineer accidentally running two vocal takes in the same mix – added an extra element to Gaye's vocal armoury which he would use extensively throughout the rest of his career.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 2, 2011
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Though spoilt in places by distortion and too-prominent electric piano, the hitherto unheard material is notable for the innovative exploration of yet another roots blend, through the impassioned country-soul of songs such as “That’s the Breaks”. Clearly, in this most congenial of creative cauldrons, virtually anything was possible.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 31, 2014
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The piquant combination of Morrissey’s blithe aloofness and double-edged, acidly humorous lyrics with Johnny Marr’s endlessly inventive, precociously African-influenced guitar parts was rarely more effective than here.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2017
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It remains one of pop's most impervious generational touchstones.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 14, 2013
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- Critic Score
The character of the base music here is overwhelming: complex, ebullient and life-affirming, and in yoking this intricate dance music to his sophisticated New Yorker sensibility, Simon created a transatlantic bridge that neither pandered to nor patronised either culture.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 8, 2012
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- Critic Score
Manic descants, discordant pianos and abrupt changes in time signature at once complement and compete with each other in a carefully crafted clatter. The melodies are wonderful. The lyrics, too – conversational yet precise.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 16, 2020
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 4, 2019
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REM’s brooding masterwork. ... It’s an album of shadows and contrasts: “Drive”, for instance, opens proceedings on the cusp of adulthood, imparting youthful rebel spirit with a warning sense of duty for the future, before “Try Not To Breathe” offers an extraordinary image of an old person eager to leave the world to the young.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2017
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Proving that it is possible to have too much of a good thing, the five discs of this outtakes-and-all edition take the (let's be honest) rather meager delights of Brian Wilson's unfinished "masterwork" and wring the life out of them.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 28, 2011
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It's an extraordinary collection, which demonstrates exactly why Guthrie was perhaps the only performer who could square the circle pointedly implied by the title American Radical Patriot.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 29, 2013
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This album isn't a 'Holy shit I need to text my friend imploring them to listen immediately' mind blower, but it is a valuable addition to his oeuvre.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 19, 2017
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His richly soporific new album – his first new material since 2012’s Tempest – plays like an extension of that [2016 Nobel Prize acceptance] speech: a folksy recitation of literary and pop references sprawling over long, ramshackle songs with minimal (mostly acoustic) melodies that sway back and forth behind him like curtains in a light breeze.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 17, 2020
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Notwithstanding the occasional foray into jazz and blues, Black Messiah is much the same blend of miasmic boudoir soul, bare-bones funk and liberation songs that characterised his 2000 milestone, Voodoo.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 9, 2015
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So although Cave’s adept grasp of vocal expression, from aching melancholy to erupting hysteria, guides the narratives of these songs, this is not simply a singer backed by a band, it’s a unit striving for collective expression, by whatever means possible.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 10, 2017
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They pushed the single envelope in various directions – processional chants, electric-organ improvisations, big-band “space bop”, and at the furthest extreme of his sonic galaxy, the furious free-jazz of “Cosmo-Extensions”, guaranteed to clear the floor at any party.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2016
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- Critic Score
The result is beautiful, visceral and, predictably, emotionally devastating.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 9, 2016
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Like Picasso, he acknowledges that the chief enemy of creativity is good taste--which is just as well, since it's not a quality with which he seems over-burdened on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. For which we should all be thankful.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 23, 2011
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 18, 2022
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- Critic Score
Twenty-five years ago, Lifes Rich Pageant found R.E.M. metamorphosing from what was effectively a turbo-charged folk-rock cult indie outfit into a proper rock band capable of filling stadia.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 15, 2011
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- Critic Score
It all adds up to probably the best Stones album since... well, since Some Girls, actually.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 23, 2011
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This 1991 album is the best of three reissues of their work – also available are their debut, Isn't Anything, and a 2CD compilation of outtakes and EPs.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 14, 2012
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 17, 2012
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- Critic Score
Macero’s edits on the original double-album collaged four nights’ shows into a single, 20-minute track apiece; but this 4CD set presents each night’s ebullient flow in full.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 18, 2014
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Across the album’s 13 tracks, she flits easily between pop’s peripherals and its core, dispensing emotional catharsis all the way.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 22, 2021
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Lemonade is fiery, insurgent, fiercely proud, sprawling and sharply focused in its dissatisfaction.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 26, 2016
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The sheer grace and ambition of Ants… will prove tough for 2022 to top. A huge leap forward, headfirst into the unknown.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 3, 2022
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It's a relief to report that Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down is his best effort by far since Chavez Ravine.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 1, 2011
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- Critic Score
Gently marching strings furnish an aptly martial underscoring for the conflict imagery of “Treaty”, the latest of Cohen’s romantic mea culpas, which reveals how, for a Great Seducer, love is an essentially narcissistic, even solipsistic, pastime, its protagonist apologising “for that ghost I made you be”. It’s just one of several sharp, stinging twists casting new and unusual shadows on old themes in You Want It Darker, culminating in the mordant, bitter advice of “Steer Your Way.”- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2016
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It's simply marvellous, an unalloyed joy from first to last, with Robbie Robertson's finely wrought storytelling songs augmented by a few well-chosen covers.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 4, 2013
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With Rifles & Rosary Beads, she’s created her most impressive and affecting work yet.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 29, 2018
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WAAITT is a compelling, conscious-jolting account of a life of two halves.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 28, 2021
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 4, 2019
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- Critic Score
Although the sonic mood mellows after the first two tracks, listeners will be invited to share the transcendent joy in memories of a lost child; the awe of an uxorious lover whose prayer-like love for his wife is a continual saving grace; and the frustration of a caged man with an “open road” of a heart.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 25, 2021
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Fuelled by a black humour that’s almost become her trademark, there’s heartbreak and ecstasy, desire, fear, uncertainty, acting on impulse, making mistakes and (maybe) learning from them. And those are tunes we can definitely dance to.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 16, 2017
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Across 27 tracks, almost all with compellingly muscular melodies, she whips and neigh-neighs through every conceivable form of classic and modern country, roping in elements of opera, rock and hip-hop at her commanding, virtuosic whim. .... Cowboy Carter keeps on dealing aces.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 29, 2024
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Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, lands with devastating precision. These 13 tracks are finely wrought works of art that draw as much influence from Purcell and Mozart as they do scuzzy Nineties post-punk.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 14, 2020
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- Critic Score
This re-recording is a better, brighter version of a terrific pop album. Red is dead. Long live Red (Taylor's Version).- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 11, 2021
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Finally, maverick genius Sly Stone receives due respect in this four-disc retrospective, as the leader of rock's first multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-genre band.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 29, 2013
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The 10 albums that comprise this box set depict one of the most extraordinary career arcs in all of pop music, testament to the questing intelligence with which Joni Mitchell approached music.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 31, 2012
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- Critic Score
Ingenious arrangements illuminate the songs, notably the blissful synth solo reaffirming life and love in “All Of Me Wants All Of You”, and the 12 minutes of keening sounds, like the moaning of whales, appended to “Blue Bucket Of Gold”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 30, 2017
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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
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 28, 2019
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- Critic Score
All in all, it’s a fine addition to the seemingly bottomless corpus of Springsteen’s ever-expanding oeuvre.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 7, 2015
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As with Visions, this third album sees the band hopping between styles – folk, garage rock and shoegaze – only now they’re steering deeper into the corners and controlling the skids.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 3, 2021
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Four decades on, it sounds as revolutionary as ever.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 17, 2015
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GUTS sees Rodrigo smash her way out of the confines of small screen life and arrive kicking and screaming into her real life. No more red lights or stop signs in her way.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 7, 2023
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Despite the hiatus, this guest-laden double-album finds the group still very much engaged, rattling out tongue-twisting, articulate verbal flows dealing more with social realities than self-aggrandising brags and outlaw fantasies.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 16, 2016
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Rarely have his revelations been as direct, or as personal, as on Carrie & Lowell, a cathartic exercise exploring the effect of his estranged mother Carrie’s death on him two years ago.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 27, 2015
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Though frowned on by some purists expecting the traditional fare of the family band The Watersons, the siblings’ original songs were eagerly accompanied by luminaries like Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson and Ashley Hutchings, who bring a roguish enthusiasm to tracks such as “Rubber Band”, on which even the horns seem to have their cap at a jaunty angle.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 10, 2017
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On her new album, Eve, she explores a lineage of black female icons in a way that is both tender and compelling. ... The overarching sound, production and instrumentation on Eve are outstanding. ... Nina Simone said an artist’s duty, “as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times”. This is precisely what Rapsody has done – in the most resonant way possible.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 27, 2019
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Punisher ends with a thunderstorm of manic, discordant brass and drums and a pained scream, the physical culmination of the undercurrent of doom that has lurked throughout. But you emerge feeling not deflated but purged. Punisher has the effect of a particularly pummelling massage.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 17, 2020
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- Critic Score
These 15 pieces sketch an entire world of music, coloured by the locale, and shifting between the smoothly lyrical and the propulsive rhythmic.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2011
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This revamp does at least serve as a reminder of the album’s untouchable greatness.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 27, 2023
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The subtle melodies on The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We can take their time to gleam through the murk. So give it time and space at night, when you’re alone, to allow its wild darkness to shine.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 15, 2023
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Even when required to accommodate passing trends like mambo or funk, Hooker’s blues simply bent a little, but never broke. Its atavistic power, he knew, resided in its hypnotic grip, which effectively crystallised rock’n’roll years before the style was recognised.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 12, 2017
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Kouyate's electrification of his ngoni lute is just as effective a sign of resistance: fed through a wah-wah pedal, his serpentine, fleet-fingered lead lines gain a fresh, assertive power on songs.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 13, 2013
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Even if you don’t love This Could Be Texas, it’s a hard album not to respect. English Teacher have well and truly arrived: the class had better pay attention.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 11, 2024
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One of the most thoughtful, moving and necessary albums of 2019 so far. ... Tracks are at once astute and deeply personal in how they capture vignettes of everyday life and spin them into important lessons.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 11, 2019
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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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Irish folk quartet Lankum’s second album offers an object lesson in how to perform old songs in new ways, without losing the essential sense of continuity that gives traditional music its timeless appeal.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 26, 2017
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When the album shifts into its second part, and turns inwards with a slower pace to match its vulnerable introspection, there’s no jolt: Sumney’s voice ensures that his soundscapes melt together. It’s here that the emotional heft is to be found.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 14, 2020
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The faithful will feel more than sated, and newcomers will find more to suck on here than a peppermint bass drum.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 3, 2020
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Throughout there’s a determination to find the appeal in paradox, notably the beguiling blend of cool and cumbersome that carries the love song “Prince Johnny” to another place.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 21, 2014
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 25, 2018
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The record is an introspective mix of psychey soul, blues, rock and funk, which skips and strolls and swaggers through its 13 tracks – but it is not simply an exercise in nostalgia. Its influences span decades; Gil Scott-Heron, Fela Kuti, Kendrick Lamar and Bobby Womack are all recalled.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 4, 2019
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This is music of stellar quality, from the smirking masturbation anthem “Low Yo Yo Stuff” to the berserk wizardry of “Big Eyed Beans from Venus.”- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 5, 2015
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Run the Jewels 4 is the culmination of their near-30 years of experience, during which time they have observed, listened and reacted. Their anger, hurt, elation and love – along with their near-psychic ability to read and riff off one another’s individual thoughts – build to the radioactive “a few words for the firing squad”, the album’s astounding apex.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 3, 2020
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Rina’s mini album may have marked her out as one to watch, but SAWAYAMA stakes her claim as one of the boldest voices in pop today.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 16, 2020
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Notionally a five-track EP, M3LL155X is in its fullest realisation an art film/performance (co-directed and co-choreographed by her), freely available on YouTube.... Musically, it’s a more focused, coherent application of the same kinds of sounds and vocals used on LP1.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 21, 2015
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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
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 3, 2019
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Though already condemned by Van himself, there's much to appreciate about this 4-CD expanded edition of one of the greatest albums ever recorded. It's fascinating to follow the development of a track such as "Caravan" across half a dozen takes.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 23, 2013
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For Those I Love is as much a piece of history as it is a work of art. ... A staggering album.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 25, 2021
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Her follow-up to 2013’s sublime Pushin’ Against A Stone finds Valerie June expanding her unique blend of blues, soul and mountain music to create a distinctive hybrid in which past and future coalesce with gentle power.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 8, 2017
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Musgraves has always been a brilliant songwriter but she’s never sounded as confident as this; it’s as though a wall has been knocked down and a little of that bolshy attitude has been paired back to make for some of her most personal lyrics.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 28, 2018
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Letissier makes her vintage synths snap, crackle, pop, fizz, freeze, squelch, shimmer and soar.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 20, 2018
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 22, 2024
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- Critic Score
Save for the chunky “Don’t You Wait”, there’s little punch or pop charm to the album, which boasts a surfeit of luscious textures and feisty attitudes, but a shortfall of killer melodies.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 12, 2016
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Occasionally, the meandering nature of Mvula’s song structures can leave you grasping for more melody, but the moods she creates are always clearly defined.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 1, 2021
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When I Get Home is an album, yes. But ultimately, it’s a sleepy, uplifting antidote to the often painful reality that black people, particularly black Americans in Solange’s experience, have been increasingly facing in recent years. We’re in the midst of ever-escalating chaos. But here Solange has come, offering us a chance not just to rest, but to relish in that languidness.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 6, 2019
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The sheer ambition on We Are Not Your Kind is just as staggering. ... This may be one of the band’s most personal records, but the rage they capture is universally felt.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 7, 2019
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 6, 2021
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The result is a record that is by turns lush and ethereal, a sonically cohesive venture into slightly unfamiliar territory.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 25, 2024
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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
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Haim take us through a dark place and they do it frankly. But they never let the momentum dip. And they never lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 25, 2020
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There are no pop bangers here, just exquisite, piano-based poetry. There are characters Swift has never introduced before. Some are fictional, it seems; some are inspired by family members; some are people Swift wishes she hadn’t met. Folklore’s songs care less for those showstopping one-liners and more about the small details.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 24, 2020
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Thoughtful, engaging and utterly contemporary, it’s one of the albums of the year.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2016
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Bulging with 55 previously unreleased outtakes, Come All Ye is an education, and as entertaining as it gets.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 28, 2017
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Her best work to date. ... Violins courtesy of Rob Moose (The National, Bon Iver) make this in part an elegy for her own experiences. What a marvel this album is.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 10, 2020
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Honestly, there isn’t a duff track on here. Every beat is elastic, every note and sample bold and shiny. Future Nostalgia is 37 minutes of pure sonic spandex.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 26, 2020
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- Critic Score
As usual with Newsom, the deeper resonances resound louder with subsequent exposure.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 23, 2015
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The songs themselves are good. Grounded in pathos, they tend to be handsomely crafted ballads about love and its various agonies – but it’s her vocals that sell them.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 16, 2021
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Despite its 16 tracks, not once does Long Lost feel crowded. The pace is unhurried, the phrasing exquisite.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 24, 2021
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An album which contains no filler at all, each track blooming in its own way like a collection of strange desert succulents, with a whole lot of hollerin' and a touch of Lieber-Stollerin'.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 21, 2011
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Drawing on the embattled, hopeful possibilities of early Seventies soul, rock and folk, its chamber-classical and folk instrumentation allows for pleasure as well as despair. This is a Radiohead album to make you feel, better.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 9, 2016
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A brilliantly-realised evocation of addiction building to crisis-point before the inevitable comedown heralds a change in priorities, it gives some idea of what Clark herself may be building towards.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 13, 2017
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This is the most country she has ever sounded. The most lavish, too, despite the album having been stripped back to only its most necessary parts.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 26, 2020
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Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is the most thrilling album of the year.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 2, 2021
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While the production here is as slick as IGOR, though, there’s less of a through line. IGOR was the devastating pieced-together parts of a broken relationship. CMIYGL plays fast and loose with its subjects, relying instead on the music itself to carry listeners through. ... Tyler, the Creator continues to defy expectations.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 25, 2021
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