The Observer (UK)'s Scores

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For 2,612 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 37% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 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: 100 Gold-Diggers Sound
Lowest review score: 20 Collections
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,226 out of 2612
  2. Mixed: 1,368 out of 2612
  3. Negative: 18 out of 2612
2612 music reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Harlecore
    Harlecore is big, dumb escapist fun with – as no one says any more – a massive donk on it.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lioness: Hidden Treasures
    Covers make up the backbone of this perfectly enjoyable, but tame release.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    We Can Do Anything
    Roughly half of the album cleaves fabulously to this back-to-basics template, with songs such as What You Really Mean drawing out the doo-wop sadness in Gano’s songcraft. The rest is what you might call “touring” Femmes.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Kind Revolution
    It reins in the genre-hopping. Although some of the magic is lost in the process, it consequently comes across as a more cohesive album, one that’s suffused with warmth and optimism, giving equal weight to rock, soul and jazz.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Immunity
    North feels like early Beck, grungy guitar with an old-school hip-hop bump, while Sofia pairs Strokes guitar with Stereolab-style ironic Eurodisco and Impossible offers intimate confessions over baroque-pop harpsichord and shunting beats.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fatherland
    Okereke’s shaky voice means that Fatherland is far slighter than it might have been. Only Versions of Us truly resonates, and that’s thanks in no small part to Corinne Bailey Rae, whose interplay with Okereke is a joy.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Highway Queen
    Mixing country sweetness with rock swagger, Lane’s set takes in music biz demographics (700,000 Rednecks) and gambling metaphors (Jackpot), while songs such as Companion and Forever Lasts Forever save a little room for vulnerability.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unguarded
    For the most part it’s the more delicate moments that suit her best, particularly on the pleasingly acerbic Cold and the lovelorn sigh of This Time, but overall the immaculate sheen smothers the emotional honesty.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    99.9%
    It’s hard to keep up, then--but worth it.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Peace Is the Mission
    The more restrained moments, such as hit single Lean On, nicely accentuate the crazed moombahton intensity of tracks such as Blaze up the Fire.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Testament
    It’s let down by a few too many unremarkable ballads (Fumes, I Would), but that doesn’t detract from the fact that Testament shows this comeback is more than simply an exercise in nostalgia.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Platinum
    At its centre is Lambert's ebullient personality and a classic Texan voice that can deliver ballads or arena rock with equal ease.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Satisfied at Last
    Now 64, Ely still sings with agility and swagger, though retrospection and mortality tie together the songs here.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blue Lips
    Solid if formulaic, Blue Lips peaks with unfaltering vocals and the kind of humid, polished production that would make Jack Antonoff jealous.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shangri La
    There's an endearing, if slight love song in Me and You but the attempt at social commentary (Messed Up Kids) is a lot less successful.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Alive
    It's by no means a bad record, although the ballads are best avoided.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Apollo XXI
    On this sprawling, often horizontal record, Lacy’s default setting is a blissful Los Angeles funk that bleeds easily into punchier hip-hop passages. Occasionally, he’ll show off his Prince 2.0 soloing skills on songs like Love 2 Fast.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blume
    For all the variety, no single track stands out; Nérija rarely stray from the comfortable territory of mid-tempo, mid-dynamic improvisation.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Essiebons Special 1973 - 1984/Ghana Music Power House
    A surprising trip to an altogether other time and place.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As You Were
    A set of songs that, if not remarkable, are at least an upgrade.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Elements of Light
    The instrument [carillon] affords Weber a chance to expand his hibernal sound in various interesting ways, but ultimately this feels more like a scholarly exercise than a fully realised album.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Distance Inbetween
    The extra girth suits them well, and their old wit and twinkle hasn’t deserted them as the shimmering, harmony-laden pop of Miss Fortune attests.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Citizen Zombie
    The music gets better and better, with the out-and-out xx-y Age of Miracles breaking sonically satisfying new ground.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Teenage Emotions
    It’s a graphic exemplar of the contemporary Atlanta sound: stark backing, nagging hook and staccato wordplay, as distinct from the lyricism that traditionalists hold dear.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Back Home
    It is a brave experimentation through unexpected sounds, including Depeche Mode-style new wave on Sainted, but Big Joanie are on more stable and satisfying ground when they put the glittering melodies aside.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Funeral
    Wayne’s unheralded 13th studio album proves that the 37-year-old’s flow can still be fearsome, even if his edit function remains iffy.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All the Time
    Her third album stays close to the formula, though with a slightly darker, starker turn.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It Was Good Until It Wasn't
    Sonically, it can blend a little into one, but the closing feature from the late rapper Lexii, a friend and collaborator of Kehlani’s, is a rousing, poignant end to a largely accomplished set.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Songs Cycled
    Those coming fresh to Parks may find his reedy voice, and his warping of time, requires some adjustment.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Universal Themes
    Universal Themes is another chapter in the larger work in which the gruff San Franciscan transplant continues to grouse about hipsters (Cry Me A River Williamsburg Sleeve Tattoo Blues), count blessings, and ponders the cruel senselessness of the universe with intermittently startling guitar work.
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