The Independent on Sunday (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 789 reviews, this publication has graded:
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57% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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40% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.1 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: | One Day I'm Going To Soar | |
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Lowest review score: | Last Night on Earth |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 495 out of 789
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Mixed: 280 out of 789
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Negative: 14 out of 789
789
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 10, 2012
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Parker's music is approached from a post-Coltrane, post-free jazz aesthetic, with the rhythmic edginess of bebop elided into an all-the-time-in-the-world fluidity. A masterpiece.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 15, 2011
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The world adored the xx's Mercury Prize-winning debut album xx. Coexist is, if anything, an even finer piece of work.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 10, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 12, 2013
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Even though the album comes in at nearly 80 minutes, surprisingly it doesn’t feel too long. This is largely because it doesn’t get stuck in an Afrobeat rut.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 16, 2013
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Feels Like Home is musically conservative, socially ingratiating, politically vulnerable. It is unmistakably a piece of product. But it is also brilliant.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 27, 2014
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ODIGTS is the soul album of the century. It might yet turn out to be the album of the year- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 5, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 22, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 21, 2014
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 27, 2014
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
Posted Sep 15, 2011 -
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MBV leaves all other post-rock experimentalists looking like trivial dilettantes. If jet engines could sing, these would be their hymns.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 11, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 30, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 16, 2012
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This may well be Henriksen’s most approachable album--certainly for people coming to him for the first time--and even the semi-commercial breakthrough he deserves. It is also absolutely sublime.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 12, 2014
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The most perfect suite of music recorded in my lifetime.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 2, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 13, 2012
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Fear Fun is the kind of album that can name-check Sartre, Heidegger and Neil Young in the same song.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 30, 2012
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What comes across most is the sheer unbridled enthusiasm expressed in the complex, racing rhythms, squalling sax solos, twanging electric guitar and crooning vocals.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 6, 2014
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 30, 2012
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But where Learning drifted into the ether, this captivating follow-up thrives off harnessing his fragile sensibility to fulsome melodies.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 21, 2012
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There are four CDs' worth but it's enormously rewarding, like mid-period Miles Davis playing Ligeti.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2012
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The occasional familiar, Carpenters-esque track aside, it makes for an exhilarating musical progression--even as his lyrical style remains unchanged.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 11, 2013
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Drawing on anything from Medieval plainsong to free jazz, she creates an extraordinary sensation of light, air, and space.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 29, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 12, 2013
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This is a band for fans of Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker and Nick Cave who wondered where their next great love was coming from...it's already here.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 20, 2012
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To the relief of anyone who carries a torch for the reclusive genius, it's a beauty.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 21, 2011
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It's that rare commodity: an album to immerse yourself in and spend time with, both things no one does any more.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 14, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 2, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 27, 2012
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- Critic Score
There are overworked beatscapes and confounding lyrics, sure--but also multiple sublime, fully formed songs.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 10, 2013
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If you like smart pop and are not familiar, hearing Bird for the first time will feel like discovering a new planet.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 5, 2012
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Hot Cakes is a rock-solid home win from the band who still do feelgood hard rock better than anyone alive.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 29, 2012
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Words and Music, the first full studio album in an aeon from Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, is a masterclass of pop theory and practice in perfect harmony.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 25, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 27, 2014
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The eighth Marilyn Manson album features some of his finest lyrics yet and, musically, it often approaches the heyday of Holy Wood and Mechanical Animals.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 30, 2012
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There is joy in these grooves; the attentive care of studio perfectionists, and the warm embrace of an old friend.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 10, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 30, 2012
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The songs are sparky and Cherry is in excellent voice as she raps, sings and swings against the sparse, drum and bass-style backing orchestrated by Four Tet.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 24, 2014
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If music be the food of love, Kelis has cooked up something tasty enough to satisfy all but the hungriest of hearts.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 21, 2014
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 22, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 24, 2014
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A good “deluxe” remaster job will do at least two things: one, it’ll strip away centuries of digital compression and make the music sound as if you’ve never heard it properly before; two, it’ll include additional material that gives insight into how the finished work was shaped. Moondance delivers on both counts.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 23, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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There's not a duff track or dull moment in this 75 minutes of studio material.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 19, 2012
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The most vibrant, organic and energy infused African hip-hop debut since K'naan's The Dusty Foot Philosopher.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 17, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 10, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 12, 2013
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As with some diseases, the album gets worse before it gets better, but by the end you're left stunned in admiration. Hell, there's even a redemptive arc. Amazing.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 9, 2011
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Gruff’s gorgeous voice helps humanise Feltrinelli. Never more so than on “Hoops With Fidel”, which, rather than demonising him and Castro, conveys the ideal of international revolution as a beautiful thing. As beautiful, in fact, as this album.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 29, 2013
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The Cumbrian quartet haven't fumbled the ball with the follow-up. Smother, recorded in the shadow of Snowdonia, tinkles and twinkles like the classiest adult-alternative pop of the 1980s.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 9, 2011
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The mood of uplifting-melancholia survives and this time out Vernon needs no dramatic backstory. Clearly, his is a talent that loves company as much as it loves misery.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 20, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 24, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 15, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 23, 2012
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A welcome addition to the Beastie canon, and if it gets them back out on the road, it'll be an absolutely precious one.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 2, 2011
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Catchy yet abrasive, noisy yet intimate, kind of funny yet also kind of scary, this is post-pop at its most vertiginously original.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 2, 2011
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This is Cash at his rawest and most riveting, singing his soul out to platoons, prisoners and presidents alike. Hard to describe in terms that are adequate.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 13, 2011
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Bloodsports is effortlessly superior to its predecessor A New Morning, and averages out roughly on a level with Head Music (though more consistent in quality).- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 18, 2013
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It sounds like a soundtrack for the end of the world, or the birth of new worlds. Extraordinary.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 17, 2011
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The none-more-Nietzschean, grandiose-apocalyptic mood continues through the utterly splendid Olympic theme "Survival", with its über-ELO arrangement, and "Animals", with its sound effects of an angry, riotous mob.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 1, 2012
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Post-millennial indie boy-rock has taken a savage beating here. And it may prove the best it’s ever had.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 6, 2013
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First Aid Kit sing harmonies so close you couldn't run a Band Aid between them.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 23, 2012
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As always, Ladytron make the world feel a more haunted, evocative, romantic place. Faultless.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 12, 2011
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14 songs of keening, romantic acoustic music of great seriousness and lightness of being.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 4, 2012
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The worldy influence remains but never overwhelms and the album contains at least half a dozen songs that are as simple and profound as anything Simon has ever written.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 15, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 14, 2012
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 19, 2012
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An unprecedented futuristic hybrid of dubstep, speedcore and math-rock, with lyrics which charge towards unexplored lexicographical horizons.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 17, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 10, 2014
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Between the pub and the high seas, Elbow reset their mission statement here: to navigate the heart’s tides with their art intact.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 10, 2014
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 10, 2012
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Tracks such as "Epilogue to a Marriage" here, serve as a reminder that there's always room for the real thing, and you'll know it when it hits you.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 28, 2012
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This is an album that's ostentatiously overloaded on melody, and on all-round sonic luxury. This is the one.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 11, 2011
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If his follow-up doesn't evince quite the same exuberance, it still twinkles with a well-travelled exoticism.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 10, 2013
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When it's good, it's a thrilling and ambtitious state-of-the-nation address.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 6, 2012
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She's on the cover, smirking in front of an old map: a naughty sea god(dess) in a Cruikshank cartoon. Which somehow suits the discursive post-folk rompery of the music: highly arranged, wordy as an Elvis Costello song with larks taking the place of bitterness.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
Posted May 20, 2011 -
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The majority of A (clever title, in the context of Faltskog's history) consists of dignified, age appropriate ballads.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 13, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 20, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 23, 2013
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The internationalist (Scouse-Chinese-Scottish-Bulgarian-Israeli) electro-rock quartet may not have presented a comprehensive summary of their career here, but it's a superb starting point for Ladytron latecomers.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 21, 2011
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One day, maybe the Lips will play nice again. Until then, they and their Fwends have given us plenty to get our heads around.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 30, 2012
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It's lovely to fall asleep to. Which is a compliment, not a complaint.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
Posted Jan 18, 2011 -
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CocoRosie [is] squat, inventively, somewhere between Fever Ray and Joanna Newsom.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 28, 2013
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Here are a dozen more such, all beautifully crafted and conceived with poetic flair, arranged nicely for restrainedly plucked instruments, sung in a thin soprano which strains into a yelp.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 1, 2011
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With treasurable details – the dubbed-up refrain of "Black Icy Stare", the Merseybeat-ish groove of "Karmatron" – feeding into an overall ambience of lotus-eating sensuality.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 16, 2012
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Glowing Mouth is so subtly soaring it could restore words such as "atmospheric" and "portentious" to the rock lexicon.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 17, 2012
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David Bowie's perpetual predicament is that he can't escape David Bowie's past. In that respect, he's just like the rest of us: we can't escape David Bowie's past either. The Next Day leaves you wondering why you'd ever want to.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 4, 2013
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While this may once have been filed under 'shoegaze', now we can call it 'noisy dream pop' and just wade in its wash of guitars.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 31, 2013
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The set list's rather obvious and the interstitial chat goes on a bit, but the heart of the man is there to be heard.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 16, 2013
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What's revealed is what's often been outshone by the originals: the sheer quality of the songwriting and vocals.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 31, 2012
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Built for repeat listening, this will keep on giving. Don't you just hate it when the hype is right?- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 7, 2011
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D&B&G is delicate and unaffected but clever and soulful--a balm and an inquisition.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 19, 2012
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The perfect soundtrack for early summer, and all the possibilities it holds.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 20, 2011
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You might even argue that this and its predecessors, My Name Is Buddy (2007) and Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (2011), represent the most cogent work of his long career.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 20, 2012
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At what point does a child prodigy turn into a talent so exceptional that we no longer talk about age? Sarah Jarosz’s third album answers that question in style (though just for the record, the banjo, guitar and mandolin supremo is now 22).- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 27, 2014
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A genuinely empathetic production, then, which does not pull up many trees.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 10, 2014
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The material is all Mehldau's and quality varies from the standing ovations of the opening and closing tunes to lesser tricked-up vamps, but bass and drums groove superbly throughout.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 19, 2012
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