Record Collector's Scores
- Music
For 1,889 reviews, this publication has graded:
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53% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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43% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1 point higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: | The Apple Drop | |
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Lowest review score: | Relaxer |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,233 out of 1889
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Mixed: 650 out of 1889
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Negative: 6 out of 1889
1889
music
reviews
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- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Suddenly is at its best when blending head, heart and feet to make another smart party album – among Caribou’s best yet.- Record Collector
- Posted Apr 7, 2020
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- Record Collector
- Posted Apr 7, 2020
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- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 19, 2020
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The Night Chancers tackles big themes within tight restrictions – namely, masculinity at the start of the 2020s. But though filmic in its scope, these 10 vignettes are economically plotted (the album is just 30 minutes long), with a through-line that takes you just far enough before leaving you to your own conclusions about these characters’ motives.- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 19, 2020
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This marvellous set captures every funky, florid facet of their initial golden run in the spirit in which it was created.- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 2, 2020
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Even if Clapton is the only member surviving to see it, at last they get to say goodbye on a suitably representative monument.- Record Collector
- Posted Mar 2, 2020
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Mavis Staples is an international musical treasure, and here you’ll find the recordings that cemented her standing as a living legend.- Record Collector
- Posted Feb 26, 2020
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It’s Allison’s ongoing development as a songwriter that really shines here. Clean now feels like preparation for the emotional and musical strength of this record: a quiet acknowledgment of the tough times that life throws at you.- Record Collector
- Posted Feb 20, 2020
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Mind Hive is especially groundbreaking. In fact, several of its best tracks (the restless, motorik drive of Cactused and the jagged, staccato bursts of the menacing, 154-ish Be Like Them) quite openly flirt with familiarity. Yet, as always seems to be the case with this crew, these tunes are invested with enviable reserves of contemporary energy which ensure they’re served up fresh and minus the merest hint of parody.- Record Collector
- Posted Jan 22, 2020
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It’s a lot to take in, and fresh corridors reveal themselves with each listen; it’s questionable whether they lead to any answers, and Fay would be the last person to claim they do, but it’s an intriguing exploration every step of the way.- Record Collector
- Posted Jan 14, 2020
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The generosity of the endeavour can’t be faulted: hours on end of largely unheard/unseen audio-visual content relating to the era encompassing A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, The Division Bell, Pulse and The Endless River, new 5.1 mixes, a 60-page photo book, replica tour programmes, two 7” singles featuring a Pulse tour rehearsal version of Lost For Words and the 2007 Syd Barrett tribute concert version of Arnold Layne… and, ye gods, even more.- Record Collector
- Posted Dec 12, 2019
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16 Lovers Lane arguably even shades the triumphant Liberty Belle… when it comes to defining the Go-Betweens apogee. The extras, meanwhile, are both plentiful and tantalising.- Record Collector
- Posted Dec 10, 2019
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Hearing these oddly innocent songs (and his speaking voice) can’t help but reignite that overwhelming sense of loss, and also wonder, since Bowie passed on nearly three years ago: has any artist been so loved or missed by so many? Even with all its frolics, fumbles, filler and foibles, Conversation Piece can only be welcomed and celebrated.- Record Collector
- Posted Dec 10, 2019
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There’s rich pleasure everywhere you look: Peter Case’s heartfelt delivery of I Don’t Worry About A Thing, a spectral The Way Of The World by Anything Mose! and Taj Mahal’s nimble, forceful version of the sardonic opener, Your Mind Is On Vacation. The latter offers a thrilling pointer about how high we are going to fly, and includes Bonnie Raitt’s stunning version of Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy, where her passionate take skilfully unfurls the raging force underpinning the song. Elsewhere, there are blasts of controlled power such as Ben Harper/Charlie Musselwhite’s fiery take on Nightclub.- Record Collector
- Posted Dec 10, 2019
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The charm of Thanks For The Dance can be found in the tidemark between the lapping waves of Cohen’s poetic self-effacement and the shoreline of our appreciation for his lyrical accomplishments.- Record Collector
- Posted Dec 10, 2019
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As the original album did for Prince’s artistic progression, so this super deluxe edition does for the posthumous reissue series: refine a vision, making good on all the promises of the past while pointing to a future full of possibilities. Whatever expanded edition comes next, if it builds on this it cannot fail.- Record Collector
- Posted Dec 10, 2019
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Put together with love and care, it’s all a grand tribute and beautiful vindication for a once-despised band. Those witless saps who savaged them may be long forgotten but Motörhead are up with the greats. We’ll never see their like again.- Record Collector
- Posted Nov 21, 2019
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They may have been the unwilling faces of a barely-there movement, but De La Soul planted the seeds of something beautiful. Collections like this allow us to reap the rewards.- Record Collector
- Posted Nov 20, 2019
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It is a wonderful record – fascinating and engaging. Pure art. Give it the time it deserves.- Record Collector
- Posted Nov 14, 2019
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For the most part, the Cash sessions are a fun listen you might not return to often, their voices too far apart to really work, despite the obvious kinship. Still, it’s fascinating hearing Dylan as the junior partner – Cash seems much more on the ball – and previously-unbootlegged treats like Bob running through Wanted Man and the Staples’ Amen.- Record Collector
- Posted Nov 13, 2019
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Vocally, Leaving Meaning is especially strong, with an atypical abundance of words appearing to have pushed Gira to experiment with their delivery.- Record Collector
- Posted Nov 13, 2019
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It can only tower when it comes to naming this decade’s great albums; miles above and light years ahead of anything else.- Record Collector
- Posted Nov 13, 2019
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It is simply one of the most beautiful records ever made and anyone who hasn’t experienced it needs to stop reading and do so immediately. But for those of us who have, while they have already heard the best possible version of No Other (as we tend to learn from all box sets of this ilk, the best version got released), in these newly-discovered versions there is much to learn about and love.- Record Collector
- Posted Nov 13, 2019
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One of Will Oldham’s strongest albums in recent times, if not ever. .... It’s thoughtful, beautiful fare, along with a few singalong stormers (Mama, Mama will get a crowd swaying at 30 paces) as you’d expect from Oldham, but it’s in the lyrics that he succeeds in his desire for self-reflection.- Record Collector
- Posted Nov 13, 2019
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This is possibly Dawson’s best work. Yes, it’s tough-going – you’ve probably realised he REALLY doesn’t dig this country of ours right now – but the blend of smarts, art and heart is more than enough to demand your ears on repeat.- Record Collector
- Posted Oct 14, 2019
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The one-time folkie’s fourth album exorcises romantic demons by taking another bold leap forward.- Record Collector
- Posted Oct 14, 2019
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In trying times, Wilco have found some joy in creativity and made another album true to themselves, full of “poetry and magic” to console and inspire.- Record Collector
- Posted Sep 30, 2019
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The whole thing works beautifully and, if you shop carefully, you will end up with superb value for money and a repackaging of a great album that for once isn’t stuffed with redundance.- Record Collector
- Posted Sep 26, 2019
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Jenny Lewis and The National’s Aaron Dessner guest this time out but to be honest, the spotlight is increasingly and deservedly Taylor’s alone to enjoy. Surrender now.- Record Collector
- Posted Sep 12, 2019
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Though some of the high-tech production gadgetry sounds dated now, back in 1985 it was a fiercely contemporary record. But while time might have blunted its cutting edge, Rubberband, for all its flaws, still fascinates.- Record Collector
- Posted Sep 12, 2019
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