The Observer (UK)'s Scores
- Movies
- Music
For 2,616 reviews, this publication has graded:
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37% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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59% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.9 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 68
Highest review score: | Gold-Diggers Sound | |
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Lowest review score: | Collections |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,230 out of 2616
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Mixed: 1,368 out of 2616
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Negative: 18 out of 2616
2616
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Like Michael Kiwanuka, Carner’s first two albums were occasionally terrific but his third is a masterpiece.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 24, 2022
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- Critic Score
There's plenty to like about Neil Young and Crazy Horse's first work together for nine years, a collection of cover versions of essential American tunes.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 5, 2012
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- Critic Score
The continuity stressed between body and tool, folk history and future, like the work of Meredith Monk or Björk, lures the listener away from the twin traps of techno-evangelist complacency and technophobic retreat with sweet inspiration.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2019
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RTJ4 supersizes their outsider aesthetic without squandering any hard-won authenticity. Icy disquisitions on the missing soul of modern America jostle with good-natured boasts from the golden age of hip-hop, yielding a remarkable hit rate.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 8, 2020
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- Critic Score
The record’s dreamlike atmosphere is seductive and disquieting; a moving tribute to Albion’s troubled soul.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Mar 19, 2024
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- Critic Score
Every song is a wonder. It is unlikely Angels & Queens will inspire many imitators of its retro-future soul, its damaged doo-wop. It’s simply too good to be copied.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 10, 2023
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Perhaps Tempest’s greatest achievement is not to fall prey to the pressure for unnecessary revolution; her work sits more comfortably in the tradition of perfecting the groove, not changing it. That perfection might be illusion, but its pursuit can produce wonderful work, as it has right here.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 10, 2016
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Over seven elegant tracks, White and his musicians achieve the kinds of loveliness that Spiritualized, Lambchop, Cat Power and the Beta Band have tilted at, at different times in the past, and quite often missed.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jan 22, 2013
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At their best, which is often on Gigi’s Recovery, the Murder Capital combine muscular drama and skeletal grace with a confidence that Radiohead would be proud of.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jan 23, 2023
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 17, 2016
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- Critic Score
It is full of indecipherable songs, swaddling the brutal clarity of the techno DJ-producer duo’s early singles in something unpredictable, off-kilter. Choral vocals make you feel everything from terrified to strangely soothed.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 14, 2018
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- Critic Score
Summer is traditionally the season for unearthing treasures from the jazz archives, and this is a real prize.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Aug 17, 2015
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- Critic Score
Recorded over the course of five years, this extraordinary collaboration deserves excellent speakers and a soft couch to catch the swooning listener.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Mar 30, 2021
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Its 10 songs are stark but powerful, their anguish and insight given a deft, minimalist treatment by producer Kenny Greenberg. ... An aching, moving testimony, beautifully realised.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Nov 25, 2019
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- Critic Score
Brown’s storytelling is as witty as ever, with pungent bars that pop like pimples, spattering tracks with quotable filth. His best work by a distance.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 7, 2019
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- Critic Score
Small Town Heroes may mourn victims of violence but it is emphatically a record stuffed with good times.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Mar 31, 2014
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- Critic Score
Ultimately, all are visions, alternately haunted and comforting. Subtle evolutions in mood and instrumentation come to peaks that are made all the more stunning by their scarcity.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 7, 2019
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- Critic Score
Hip-hop is constantly being tweaked and nudged in new directions, but rarely is it reconfigured as radically, and thrillingly, as on this second album from Shabazz Palaces.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 28, 2014
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- Critic Score
Comparisons with such late-career highlights as Johnny Cash’s American Recordings albums and Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker are inevitable, but Negative Capability really does belong in such exalted company.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Nov 5, 2018
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- Critic Score
Bevan has jettisoned the sleep paralysis pop of his early work for something even more dissociated and peripatetic. You might head for the vicious rave of Rival Dealer or Nightmarket’s sumptuous, pealing melody first, to swerve some long, austere, beatless passages, but this is a compilation of rare bravery and beauty.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Dec 16, 2019
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- Critic Score
To Believe is heartbreakingly brilliant: a collection of exquisitely assembled songs that appear delicate from a distance before revealing a close-quarters core strength. ... A triumph.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Mar 18, 2019
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- Critic Score
There’s not a weak song here. A genuine pleasure to listen to.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 30, 2023
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Released from both internal and external shackles, Muna feels like phase two for one of pop’s best bands.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 27, 2022
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- Critic Score
An exceptional record that deserves your time and headphones.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 2, 2023
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- Critic Score
This is an album whose bone-deep grief sits inside music that’s very easy to tap a toe to.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Feb 8, 2021
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- Critic Score
It’s an unsettlingly raw album, the sparse instrumentation – Nastasia’s soft voice and acoustic guitar, recorded, as ever, by Steve Albini – making her lyrics all the more stark and powerful. ... An astonishingly moving record.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 25, 2022
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- Critic Score
With less dissonance and psychedelic experimentation than Jon Hopkins or Four Tet, Fragments may be too care-home comfort for some, but it’s brilliant, wondrous work.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jan 18, 2022
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- Critic Score
The band’s intoxicating, questing spirit throbs through the strongest suite of music Coombes has assembled in 20 years.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jan 30, 2023
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In an increasingly fraught world, it’s an unashamedly sunny sound. It makes for a gorgeous record in which to lose yourself for 40 minutes.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 15, 2020
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- Critic Score
If the interplay between the band’s instruments makes gleeful mincemeat of genre, singing guitarist Isaac Wood’s equally remarkable lyrics regularly float to the top of the mix. Half-spoken, half-sung, they riff on granular scene references (“I told you I loved you in front of Black Midi”) and Gen-Z witticisms, but pack in plenty of timeless tenderness and anomie.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Feb 8, 2021
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- Critic Score
The Navigator might be full of site-specific anger and yearning, but like its predecessors, it is incredibly easy on the ear. The songs just flow--slinky, sad or elegant in their own ways.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Mar 13, 2017
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- Critic Score
The group maintain control throughout, making this a flawless and packed debut – one that has been worth the wait.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 20, 2023
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Seriously impressive, unashamedly grown-up songs from, and for, the soul.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 26, 2021
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 27, 2020
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 18, 2022
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- Critic Score
The result is an exceptional album that centres joy and community, radiates positivity and youthful abandon, and could well be the one to cross over to the big league.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Nov 6, 2022
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The humour is often savage--a sprightly accordion heralds a story of damaged troops--but Cooder's aim is true. He's become a Woody Guthrie for our times.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Sep 6, 2011
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- Critic Score
Set over gorgeous production, and serving as a comforting reminder to black sheep and ugly ducklings everywhere that it pays to be true to one’s full self, Negro Swan is a dizzying triumph.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Aug 27, 2018
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- Critic Score
Bon Iver have imperceptibly moved from requesting close listening to requiring it, and i,i spins a mesmerising web of superficially insubstantial yet intensely majestic music. Listen closely and you can hear the language of pop being redrafted in real time.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Aug 12, 2019
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- Critic Score
[The two previously unreleased songs] comprise a fascinating companion piece for two classic albums.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Nov 8, 2021
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It’s an aural through line as she dazzles us with her range: unexpected dancefloor bangers (Prove It to You), pellucid vintage soul and exultant funk.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Feb 5, 2024
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- Critic Score
Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (as his mum knows him) has as intuitive a grasp of how to punctuate a thought process with musical trigger points as any rapper in history.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 13, 2015
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 4, 2013
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 5, 2021
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 15, 2023
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- Critic Score
Voice Notes is conceptually and musically accomplished, flourishing with inspired narratives and sensuality at every turn. It seamlessly blends jazz, soul and electronica without overpowering the singer-songwriter’s supple vocals. There’s so much to love and savour.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 18, 2023
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Eleven songs and at least seven of them could be hits. A sensational album. Consider your summer saved.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Aug 31, 2020
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- Critic Score
This reissue (effectively 2008’s Collector’s Edition plus three excellent unreleased songs) proves that Radiohead’s reputation derives from their music’s depthless humanity, not its instrumentation.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 26, 2017
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- Critic Score
Its blend of historical drama, ballad ghosts and philosophical memoir is compelling, made as intimate as if it were in your own skull by Polwart’s warm, wise, attention-commanding voice.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Nov 27, 2017
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A bravura statement from an artist still sounding fresh three decades into his career.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 1, 2017
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Oon The Record, Baker, Bridgers and Dacus pack layer upon layer into their sound, standing tall and exquisite.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 3, 2023
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- Critic Score
As with all the best sets, it’s coherent but not repetitive, the ghostly Auto-Tune choir, which features on most tracks, sighing and whispering encouragement behind Banks’s increasingly empowered words. There are shades of Bon Iver and Billie Eilish in her layered, subtle sound, but also a rare, steely delicacy all her own.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 15, 2019
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The result is magnificent: “dance” music that bursts out of the grid with retro textures, prelapsarian oscillations, birdsong and bells.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 3, 2023
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It’s pretty special too. ... If a sense of discomfiture has run through all Sault’s albums – they challenge, seethe and weep, confound expectation, change tack abruptly – there is never a sense of a misstep.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 8, 2021
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- Critic Score
It feels like a feast at a time when pop is offering up scraps. As she mentioned herself when announcing the album to a mix of anger, intrigue and confusion: “This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.” It’s also her fourth classic in a row.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 8, 2024
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These nine new songs see the band’s gift for melody and grasp of pop’s dynamics tweaked into transcendent shapes by the late house master Philippe Zdar and xx producer Rodaidh McDonald.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 24, 2019
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- Critic Score
You could dismiss Cheat Codes as dad rap, but this record is absolute joy from end to end.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Aug 15, 2022
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 3, 2024
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- Critic Score
Starring his voice and nimble guitar, with subtly dramatic instrumentation adding texture throughout, this is less a record than a dream state designed to wash over the listener in one sitting.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 22, 2023
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Here she sounds more assured, even in her darker moments, and her strong, versatile voice is as extraordinary as ever.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Sep 6, 2016
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- Critic Score
A punk disposition suffuses many of these nine tracks, immolating assumptions around the j-word. Fly Or Die III (for brevity) rocks, rolls and generally throws itself around.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Aug 29, 2023
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 23, 2012
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- Critic Score
Conflict of Interest, his third studio release, has both cinematic scope and tear-jerking moments.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Feb 22, 2021
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Hard to believe it was 50 years ago. Nobody’s done it better since, and few have even tried.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Dec 8, 2016
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This is an album that wrestles with the sisyphean slog of remaining engaged – with love, with work, with life. And you can dance to it.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Feb 7, 2022
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It feels just as estranged of pop’s traditional structures and strictures as they’ve always been. It feels exhilarating; it feels like freedom.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Mar 12, 2018
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This is a sexy, sparkling snapshot of borderless youth in 2023, with Amaarae emerging as an ascendant star.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 12, 2023
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Sep 21, 2020
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The magnificently eerie Four Kinds of Horses is the record’s peak, while maternal elegy And Still feels like the most open, vulnerable song he has ever sung.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Dec 4, 2023
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While Lamar’s extended metaphor of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly begs for greater self-knowledge and transcendence. That bit might get old quickly. The rest won’t.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Mar 23, 2015
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There is a form of mania at work here, but the results are propulsive and ecstatic.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 6, 2013
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Lu seems intent to immerse us fully, deeply, intimately into her gossamer creative vision--and she succeeds. An astonishing first album.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 23, 2019
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Recorded quickly, with most of the 10 songs featuring Anohni’s original vocal takes, it’s an album that manages to wear its heaviness lightly and quickly buries its way under your skin.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 10, 2023
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Apr 24, 2017
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This is a carnival of imagination with an intricate balance to its sequencing and a cohesion of sound and concept to die for.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 6, 2014
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Previously unheard on any other archival release, these versions genuinely add to his already considerable myth.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Sep 19, 2022
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To get the full effect, listen to the album from start to finish, over and over again. It’s a blast.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Feb 7, 2022
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Gold Record marks another stage in one of the most intriguing about-turns in recent American music. The curmudgeon of Callahan’s early records might now meet humanity with a wry chuckle and an observational benevolence bordering on empathy.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Sep 1, 2020
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It’s typical Monk--angular, mercurial, introspective--played by his regular quartet of the time, plus French saxophonist Barney Wilen.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 31, 2017
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From first note to last, Chronicles of a Diamond swaggers from the speakers. Even the love songs have new light cast on that hoary old topic by the roaring fire of Burton’s voice, while Quesada layers psychedelics and electronica into the orchestral mix, always conjuring new charms from familiar elements.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 30, 2023
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Songs such as The Wheel and Stockholm Syndrome offer thrills that can’t be denied, a preposterously exciting scrapyard soul.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Nov 15, 2021
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The modulations and switches in pace remain as bold as ever, and Clark has a knack for memorable melody and a winning voice with shades of Kate Bush and Leslie Feist.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Sep 11, 2011
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- Critic Score
It’s the knockout closing pair that illuminate the band’s mastery of dynamics, unbearabletension and cathartic release.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 21, 2019
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- Critic Score
Carnage was clearly made in the same creative breath as Ghosteen. We remain in the grip of Cave’s loss and its fractal of consequences – a haunt enabled further by Ellis at the peak of his powers.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Mar 1, 2021
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You Want It Darker could be addressed to fans pining for a return to Cohen’s bleakest songwriting; or a lover, or a higher power.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 24, 2016
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Modern Country is a beatific and expansive ambient record daubed in acoustic and electric guitars, analogue oscillations, some really scary bells and no words; its meaning can be fluid.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jun 13, 2016
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There’s also great ingenuity in the shorter interludes comprising little more than random chatter over a simple melody (Can’t Stop). An album with this much flair and originality is hard to fault.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 24, 2016
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Cynics will cry foul, that Beyoncé remains an entitled superstar, raging at a paper tiger. Those cynics will be ignoring one of this year’s finest albums.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 2, 2016
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Dec 5, 2011
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A generous 21-track double mixtape, divided between grime (Days) and R&B raps (Nights). Both playlists have plenty of the wit, grit and authenticity that made them famous.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 31, 2017
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- Critic Score
By and large it’s an understated affair but unmistakably the Floyd, divided into four sides (and available on double vinyl), each with a different mood from the next. It also packs a great deal into 53 minutes--not least because some of the tracks are barely more than a minute and a half long. Nothing is dragged out.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Nov 10, 2014
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 10, 2021
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It is eminently danceable, but not braindead. Funk bubbles away down below, but the lyrics are well worth tuning into.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 25, 2016
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Dec 17, 2020
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Endless Arcade dwells on the end of love, as hymned on multiple TFC albums; on stoicism in the face of this emotional catastrophe, or – on Raymond McGinley’s songs – our tiny place in the cosmos and the importance of eking joy out of everything.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted May 3, 2021
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It gets better with every play, mixing punk with glam with fuzz guitar, recalling everything from the Rolling Stones to Jack White. It is just heavy enough, and it is also meta.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Feb 13, 2017
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With archaic language updated by transatlantic twang, it's a winning addition to the canon.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Feb 12, 2013
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Underpinning everything are the Watkinses themselves, especially the agile vocals of Sara, who outshines California art rockers Tune-Yards on a cover of their Hypnotized. But it’s not a competition, just a great night out with a ringside seat.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Oct 24, 2022
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Hazy and mellifluous, theyesandeye possesses a Nick Drake-like attention to detail.- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jul 25, 2016
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- The Observer (UK)
- Posted Jan 22, 2018
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