The Observer (UK)'s Scores

Select another publication »
For 2,608 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: 1,223 out of 2608
  2. Mixed: 1,367 out of 2608
  3. Negative: 18 out of 2608
2608 music reviews
view
per page
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bobbie Gentry's the Delta Sweete Revisited
    The standout performance comes from country singer Margo Price, who depicts living a life in fear of a vengeful God on the powerful Sermon (“God almighty’s gonna cut you down”). But Williams deserves credit too, for her impassioned take on Ode to Billie Joe, a 1967 US No 1 single drafted in here to replace the original album’s inessential Louisiana Man.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Was Real
    It’s a Rorschach blot of a record: you can find whatever you’re looking for here, from loose stoner ambience to shamanic virtuosity, with album closer WZN3 turning into a loose, swinging, Tuareg-derived rock out.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    None of Us Are Getting out of This Life Alive
    While the Streets’ Tame Impala two-hander justly set the internet abuzz, even better tunes lie within.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blue World
    The result is a brief but serious retrospective treatment of five pieces, going back as far as 1958. There are two versions of Naima and three of Village Blues, but they’re all different, and every performance is complete, no odds and ends.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sound & Color
    You can only marvel at where they will go next.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shattered
    A decade on he treads a familiar path of homespun blues and rock'n'roll, happily unencumbered by musical fashion and with deeply satisfying results.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bouger le Monde!
    This second outing presents a richer, more percussive sound, albeit one still shot through with the zinging pyrotechnics of tin-can guitar.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Night Thoughts
    The dark nights of the soul only get darker with time, and Night Thoughts proves an unexpectedly congenial companion volume.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Marlon Williams
    While he doesn’t know quite where his strengths lie yet, tracks such as Strange Things and Lonely Side of Her boast a ghostly, weathered quality that compensates for the odd hillbilly dud.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    English Tapas
    There are glimmers of musical progression on Sleaford Mods’ ninth album: Jason Williamson sings the odd line, and there are even occasional choruses. But, pleasingly, for the most part it’s business as usual.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unfollow the Rules
    Unfollow the Rules marks a welcome return to the opulent orchestration of Wainwright’s early albums.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Twins
    Everything he does is good: melodic, enervated and loud. Twins, though, is a record that goes out of its way to court the floating rock vote, upping the melodies and toning down Segall's more wayward psychedelic digressions.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Junun
    The real stars here are the Rajasthan Express’s six-piece brass section, who come into their own on the joyous Julus and Junun Brass. Elsewhere, the hypnotic Hu locks into an almighty groove, while the excellent title track is built atop a pleasingly complex rhythm.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    2013
    There’s depth here too--listen 10 times and you will still be discovering new things to enjoy: clever wordplay, a subtle melody. It’s a joy from start to finish.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blue Water Road
    Though not as affecting as the original, if we’re talking about club bangers, Kehlani makes it their own.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future
    The album sags a little in the middle, but what’s an epic without a few longueurs? The optimism of the title is well founded.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Always Strive and Prosper
    Ferg’s pungent wordplay powers this splendidly diverse and dynamic second album.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Interplay
    It’s their most adult album yet, and it suits them.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gag Order
    Though interludes from the late guru Ram Dass feel a little hokey, overall Gag Order is polished, powerful and affirming.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Art of Losing
    Davies has given a powerful, challenging voice to her grief. Great music doesn’t necessarily come from great suffering, but if you’ve the strength for the job, it certainly can.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A La Sala
    Khruangbin’s strengths exist in relative quietude, making their intricate music sound so gentle that it lulls the listener into a newly imaginative state.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love Me/Love Me Not
    What makes for a happy life is this album’s implied question, and as well as all the necessaries about love, Honne offer up idiosyncratic takes on cars (the Peugeot 306, no less) and shrinks.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New View
    Friedberger picks over love and relationships in ways that keep you guessing: strange flights of fancy are balanced by offbeat humour and there are startling moments of emotional directness that bring you up short.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Good Advice
    While Bulat’s previous sound was lovely, always tasteful, mostly mournful, here she comes arrestingly alive, invigorated firstly by the roiling emotions and rich material of a raw breakup and secondly by warm, glowing production from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, who brings out previously lurking pop and soul tendencies.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    B7
    B7 isn’t exclusively a trip down memory lane, but it does cruise past a few old haunts. Brandy’s trademark raspy vocals and sublime harmonies on Rather Be and Lucid Dreams are nostalgia-inducing for anyone who grew up listening to her acrobatic riffs and runs.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Folk Singer, Vol. 2
    His second solo outing since quitting the Old Crow Medicine Show brings vivacity to some well-worn standards--The Cuckoo Bird, When My Baby Left Me, John Henry – thanks to a voice that’s young but weathered, strong but eerie, and comes backed by intricate banjo and guitar picking.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Party
    Harding is her own woman, an arresting vocalist whose mannered deliveries--from chanteuse to jazzy--and intense themes defy obvious influence.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Raven
    This is a record designed to penetrate cell-deep, with slow, unspooling tracks such as Holier, where beats don’t intrude, the music hanging as though in a space out of time.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
    It's only later that you realise Franz Ferdinand's fourth isn't just a return to form but a tuneful meditation on death, decay and the void.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Meaning of Life
    Go High closes the album on a surprisingly experimental note. The big, syrupy ballads, meanwhile, accentuate Clarkson’s undeniably powerful voice, creating a comfort zone that feels genuine.
Page: