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
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- Critic Score
Black Panties finds him getting back to his core business with rather less artistic ambition.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 6, 2013
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- Critic Score
The cult-like enthusiasm of The Magnetic Zeros is best experienced live, where their massed forces translate into a somewhat muddy morass.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 23, 2013
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- Critic Score
It's a soothing, chillsome experience, though some tracks do strangle themselves in repetitive accretions.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 16, 2011
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 14, 2013
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- Critic Score
This album is more Pringles than caviar. But it’s comfortingly moreish. When it comes to the Jonas boys, it seems that once you pop, you can’t stop.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 12, 2021
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- Critic Score
It doesn’t take many tracks to blunt the impact of Moby’s relentless goosestepping drum programmes and shouty slogans.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2016
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- Critic Score
No Doubt makes only the most tentative divergences from previously tried and tested strategies, which gives Push and Shove a character that could be described as either dated or timeless.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 21, 2012
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- Critic Score
She’s still in her prime, as you can tell when she delivers a knockout vocal on the guitar-backed ballad “Broken Like Me”. .... But for all her promises to show us the “real her”, it’s a struggle to see it in the slick and sexy production of tracks such as “Mad in Love” or “Rebound”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 15, 2024
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This alliance with The Orb is positive for both parties, Perry providing a tighter rein on their tendency to meander, while they furnish him with a different terrain to his usual dub skanks.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 31, 2012
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With the slight caveat that Laurie's vocals never quite cast off their Englishness (and why should they?), this is a commendable effort which at its best furnishes considerable enjoyment.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 12, 2011
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Musically, it's pretty much the standard modern electro fare familiar from dozens of contemporaries, from Kylie to Britney. The dubstep riffs are more tortured in places, but when David Guetta and will.i.am are involved in a track's production--as with the bullishly shallow "Fashion!"--you're not straying from the mainstream.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 7, 2013
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- Critic Score
Connick displays his versatility with the bossa nova sway of “I Love Her”, the New Orleans R&B of “S'pposed To Be” and “You've Got It”, and the sentimental country stylings of “Greatest Love Story”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 28, 2013
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It’s fine to be influenced by one particular band, but they need to find their own voice or risk being known as little more than The 1975’s pale imitators.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 13, 2018
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His is the sort of personable charm that even the slickest PR machine can’t drum up. It is also, unfortunately, something that’s too often missing from this album. That and variety.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 18, 2023
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It's the same throughout, London relying on charm over content. But, in fairness, he makes it more fun than most.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 30, 2011
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As with Young’s electric-car album Fork In The Road, his single-issue tendencies can grow wearisome after a few songs.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 15, 2015
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Although it is largely the entirely predictable modern dance-pop creation you might expect from production-line hit maestros Max Martin and Dr Luke, Katy Perry deserves some credit for injecting a modicum of originality into Prism.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 18, 2013
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- Critic Score
The ponderous rocker "How Long Can These Streets Be Empty?" shows up the limitations of a voice better suited to pop and soul.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 23, 2011
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Comprising as it does outtakes from the sessions for The 20/20 Experience, it's hardly surprising there should be a drop-off in quality for this follow-up; but it's a pretty steep fall.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 27, 2013
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- Critic Score
Certified Lover Boy’s greatest crime is just how bland and boring it is. There’s very little here that Drake has not done better or more emphatically elsewhere; his album is deprived of any kind of experimentation or insight. He rose to the top baring his soul. Now it feels like there’s no soul to bare.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 4, 2021
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- Critic Score
The band have managed to pull it off again, with an engaging collection that refuses to be hidebound by the strictures of indie-rock.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 29, 2014
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Compared to Chase and Status's fizzing 2011 debut, No More Idols, this sounds creatively knackered.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 7, 2013
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Ultimately, there’s something genuinely courageous and admirable about Cyrus’s ambitions with Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz. Sure, it’s way too long, and flamboyantly self-indulgent; but it’s free, and it’s fun.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 11, 2015
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- Critic Score
Halfway through, as guest rappers stop littering the proceedings, the album does a 90-degree shift and becomes a banging club affair, stuffed with David Guetta-style synth-stompers.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 5, 2012
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You’ve Always Been Here is a carefree celebration, a win-win; the band have fun unloading on such un-precious tracks and the songs prove themselves sturdy enough to withstand the punishment. In rock or classic soul circles, it's guaranteed to raise a smile.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 5, 2020
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Some of the better songs lack that adhesive zeitgeist quality that used to be the group's stock-in-trade. But at its best, there's enough variety and invention to recall The Beatles, sometimes directly. [Review of UK release The Future Is Medieval]- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 6, 2012
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A few decent songs may be lurking behind all the sonic detritus; but perhaps they ought to ditch the multitracks and get themselves a ukulele.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 13, 2012
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What's happened is a slight scaling-down of Ditto's approach, so as not to burst the hems of the more restrained arrangements. It's actually worked to her advantage.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 11, 2012
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Through it all, Middleton somehow locates the appropriate settings for Shrigley’s perverse poems (or is it the other way round?) with charging techno pulses animating the hysterical protests of a teenager appalled at the vandal antics of a “Houseguest”, and chuntering stomp-beats illustrating the grotesque primitivism of a homicidal “Caveman.”- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 12, 2014
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Expect reassurance rather than revelation and you’ll find the lesser-worn pages of the American songbook elegantly traced.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 27, 2020
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Competently organised and confidently delivered, it’s an engaging set, but ultimately, like all live albums, essentially a souvenir.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 21, 2014
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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.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 6, 2011
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London with the Lights On is pretty thin fare, with too many tracks collapsing under the weight of excess sass.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 28, 2013
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MS MR deal in a similar kind of blandly alienated, metrosexual pop to Hurts, with Lizzy Plapinger's sultry-soulful vocals allied to Max Hershenow's electronic pop arrangements.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2013
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Strangeland marks a sad reversion to Coldplay territory after Keane's tentative experimentation on recent releases.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 4, 2012
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It's 16 years since Mariah Carey's first Christmas album, and there's nothing here to suggest she's developed significantly since then.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 14, 2011
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It’s a pretty decent album, with their trademark melange of rap stylings at their most spikily effective, each track switching between self-promotion, street-crime narrative, social commentary and cosmological speculation as different members take the mic.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 1, 2014
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The Zolas are a Canadian indie band whose outsider-pop songs evoke a keen sense of disjunction with the modern world.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 3, 2012
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Tangerine Reef gives a musical voice to these alien coral creatures and their aquatic world. If only it were a more mellifluous voice.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 16, 2018
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It's hardly groundbreaking stuff, but McCartney undeniably has an ear for melody.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 6, 2011
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 10, 2012
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- Critic Score
There's an assured balance of passion and restraint in his takes on "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "I Only Have Eyes For You", though his "Lonely Avenue" lacks Ray Charles' relaxed slouch.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 26, 2012
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Jay-Z, being Jay-Z, spends most of the time banging on about how rich he is, how brilliant it is being married to Beyoncé, and how irritating it is that some people don't find him quite as wonderful as he does.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 5, 2013
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Alongside some so-so newer material, this latest set revisits earlier triumphs in JD's new style, which owes more to MOR jazz than rock or country. It's not as successful as his 2009 comeback If The World Was You, being something of a halfway house.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 4, 2011
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It’s an OK effort overall, but far from Kelly’s best work; and it really goes to pieces in the five bonus tracks of the deluxe edition, which spin off in all directions- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 11, 2015
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The absence of those usual big arena hooks proves critical through the rest of the album, when the songs don’t quite hit home.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 4, 2015
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For while there’s no denying that Low In High School is more musically exploratory than usual, drawing from glam rock, electropop, tango and Tropicalismo, the singer himself has rarely exhibited such a grating combination of spite and self-pity. ... The album’s lengthy centrepiece “I Bury The Living”, an odious slab of trundling guitar bombast, lambasts as “just honour-mad cannon-fodder” the work of soldiers whom he presumes are too stupid to understand the wars they’re involved in.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 16, 2017
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As before, echoes of classic Primal Scream/Stone Roses psych-rock underpin the grooves, which lope and stride infectiously.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 6, 2015
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He could easily have served up another full helping of R&B romance, but instead he’s tested himself – something you rarely see in artists of his stature. It’s impressive.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 19, 2020
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Listening to The Heavy Entertainment Show is a bit like watching EastEnders--a constant barrage of snarling, strutting chippiness passed off as authentic British geezerism.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 3, 2016
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Though not entirely “unplugged”--there’s a wealth of keyboard drones and subtle electronic detail lurking behind the foreground mandolins and acoustic guitars--applying this stripped-down format to some of their most memorable moments does help dilute the excessive stadium bombast which became a cornerstone of Simple Minds’ style.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2016
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There’s a mismatch overall between the angry observations and the pell-mell pop-rock riffing of tracks such as “Cannons” and “One More Last Song”, so eager to curry favour and cajole us into singalong hooks.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 28, 2014
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[Shows a] lack of development involved in either the music or the creators' worldview.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 17, 2012
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Arriving several months after the tragic documentary, this soundtrack has a waif-like quality that’s touchingly appropriate, with Amy Winehouse’s demos and live tracks interspersed with brief snippets of Antonio Pinto’s incidental music.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 6, 2015
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 14, 2018
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- Critic Score
Tracks like the delinquent reminiscence "How Life Changed" and the mea culpa duet with Chris Brown, "Get Back Up", teeter queasily on the cusp of boast and apology. But you have to admire the gall of a repeat offender brazen enough to feature a quote from Helen Keller in his lyric booklet.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 26, 2011
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If he tried to find something he liked, he might actually make something worth listening to.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 27, 2012
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It ticks along unremarkably on smudges of synthesiser and shuffling drum programmes, augmented by acoustic guitar or synthetic brass stabs.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 1, 2013
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Though not quite as potent as Shangri La, but it constitutes a confident negotiation of the “difficult third album” hurdle.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 15, 2016
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It’s amusing to hear Method Man claiming “Wu-Tang is for the children, go get your child support on” in “Two Minutes Of Your Time”.... It’s an ironic counterbalance to the sinister lope and slow-rolling menace of the typically inventive drug and gun metaphors of tracks like “50 Shots”, “Bang Zoom” and “The Meth Lab” itself.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 20, 2015
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Recorded over six days in Nashville with Dave Stewart, the debut release on Joss Stone's own label is, she claims, the first on which she has exerted total creative freedom.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 26, 2011
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 22, 2011
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Origins is further proof of Reynolds’ pop songwriting capabilities and also his ambition when it comes to pushing the messages that matter onto the charts. And there’s no doubting his sincerity. It’s a refreshing quality in a pop frontman.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2018
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Innovation, clearly, is not the highest of their priorities. In truth, everything comes a distant second to style.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 8, 2013
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Musically it’s pleasant enough, with string and wind flourishes either emboldening or offering solace from the folk-rock arrangements; but it’s all a bit samey, and after a while, rather dull.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 25, 2017
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CSS's La Liberacion offers a much more serviceable blend of their original X-Ray Spex-style doughty amateurism with their slicker, sleeker electropop self.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 19, 2011
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Midnight Memories finds One Direction fumbling the transition with clumsy attempts to adopt ill-fitting rock livery.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 27, 2013
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He avoids turning the songs on this album into as much of a box-ticking exercise as they felt on earlier records, managing to weave influences in with a little more flair.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 28, 2021
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Though marginally better than its predecessor, BE can in no sense be considered a progression.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 29, 2013
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 10, 2014
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Track after track follows the same formula, with Newman’s subdued introductory verse swallowed by a huge, anthemic refrain that never lets up, his voice drowned in a tide of orchestra and chorus, all dialled up to 11. It’s quite frustrating.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2015
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The comforting simplicities peddled in tracks like “Reunion” and “Knockout” offer the rock equivalent of Donald Trump, currying favour without getting too specific.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2016
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For the most part, Circa Waves prefer to channel youthful disillusionment with an aggressive guitar line (bound to open up one or two moshpits) than any grand lyrical statement. They’re not trying to set the world to rights so much as offer fans an outlet for escapism. It’s refreshing.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 8, 2019
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The bawled slur that passes for Doherty's vocals is less agreeable the older he gets, while the flaccid grunge plaints and raggedy punk thrashes have diminishing appeal.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 30, 2013
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Natural Rebel, sadly, is paint-by-numbers singer-songwriting. For a 10-track album, it feels hideously overindulgent--only two songs fall under the four-minute mark, and those still feel drawn out by plodding, bog-standard riffs.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 18, 2018
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Thicke's wheedling tone and sylvan falsetto are engaging enough on this sixth album, though his clumsily backhanded way with a compliment deteriorates as the album proceeds.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 22, 2013
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Moments after hearing “Best 4 You”, with its slimline groove and sleek falsetto chorus, I can’t remember a trace of its melody or theme: it was just there, and then not there. It’s an experience repeated throughout Red Pill Blues.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2017
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 26, 2011
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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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There's something about the combination of their shoegazey, distorted drones and James Allan's cracked, sulky Scots brogue that leaves these tales of emotional turmoil oddly ineffectual: even at its most fancifully Spectorian, it sounds strangely insubstantial. And as with bad acting, it's not persuasive enough to make one care.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 7, 2011
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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.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 5, 2014
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In truth, the move towards country music made on Younger Now is fraught with potholes that she and producer Oren Yoel rarely manage to avoid. The main problem is the half-heartedness of the move.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 27, 2017
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Long Way Down is stuffed with bogus sensitivity, crystallisations of emotional disquiet couched in chant choruses, and polite piano arrangements reliant on a few chord-changes.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jun 21, 2013
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Their brusque punk-pop style and his louche intonation suggest a tidier version of the Libertines.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 24, 2014
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[Jupiter Calling] still relies too heavily on routine romantic fluff like “Hit My Ground Running” and the glutinous “Butter Flutter.” T-Bone Burnett has been drafted in as producer, and brings his usual taste and expertise- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2017
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There’s nothing on this record to equal the giddy delight of Perry’s greatest hits. No fireworks to light up the dance floor, but enough to raise a smile.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 27, 2020
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If Scenic Drive sets out to be an easy-listening accompaniment to a late-night ride, it’s successful. But if you’re looking for something with more clarity and oomph, your car horn may be the better option.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 3, 2022
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Overall, it's their most spirited effort yet, and the changes have been deftly effected in a way which shouldn't alienate their core fanbase too much.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 11, 2011
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The Lost Tapes II sounds like an artist rediscovering his love for hip hop in the most joyous and satisfying way.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jul 19, 2019
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A very credible record with no real mistakes--but no real personality, either.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 4, 2019
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The enjoyable only just outweighs the annoying on the opener "Never Let Me Go", where the auto-tuned vocal is a let-down.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 11, 2011
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Thanks to her faithful for enabling the rest of us to enjoy Correa's gauzy, melodic dream-pop.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 7, 2012
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- Critic Score
Arthur grossly overdoes the emotional groaning that passes for vocal expression in the album's more overwrought corners.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 4, 2013
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It's the original tracks that bring a new life to the form, while the standards--routine duets of "I Wanna Be Like You" and "Dream a Little Dream" with Olly Murs and Lily Allen, and a bland "Puttin' on the Ritz"-- sound like filler.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 17, 2013
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For the most part, though, Blood Red Roses’ vaguely anthemic ditties are as adrift as his sailor, with nothing much beneath the surface.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 26, 2018
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While a dozen singles will probably be lifted from Doggumentary, as an album experience it's an utter dogg's breakfast – as might be expected from a project that credits no fewer than 20 different producers and 35 engineers.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Apr 14, 2011
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It features blues standards remodelled as reggae skanks, bland takes on the Great American Songbook, and too much acoustic guitar and dobro.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Mar 22, 2013
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The main problem is that overall, the aptly-titled By Default just lacks excitement and panache.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted May 25, 2016
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Ignoring the diabolical “Saviour”, which sounds like a hundred other Nashville-based bands song (featuring the chorus: “Thinking I could save you, I’ll never be your saviour”), the results are much more interesting on the second half.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Aug 3, 2018
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Trip-hop pioneers Morcheeba continue to broaden their approach on Head Up High, incorporating dancehall, dubstep and rock elements into grooves informed by European soundtrack/library music. Remarkably, they still keep it infectious.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 15, 2013
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