The Independent (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 2,193 reviews, this publication has graded:
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47% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: | Radical Optimism | |
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Lowest review score: | Donda |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,176 out of 2193
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Mixed: 988 out of 2193
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Negative: 29 out of 2193
2193
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Elwan (Elephants), perhaps their most powerful album since Amassakoul, confronts their situation head-on, in songs musing on the values of ancestry, unity and fellowship, driven by the infectiously hypnotic cyclical guitar grooves that wind like creepers around their poetic imagery.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 8, 2017
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The confidence of the performances benefits strong contemporary material dealing with issues from outreach to domestic abuse.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 2, 2017
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Garwood forces the listener to adopt his pace--a sort of aural equivalent of the “slow food” movement. But it works.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Feb 2, 2017
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Movingly prefaced by Gillian Anderson reading the novelist’s suicide note, its gently absorbing string undulations, with a faintly keening soprano occasionally audible amongst the oceanic swells, bring fiction and real life together in a deep, powerful manner.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 30, 2017
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Butler performs miracles as producer, sprinkling flute like pollen over “An Angel’s Wing Brushed The Penny Slots”, and haunting “Nothing And Everything” with spectral backing vocals. Eitzel’s glass-half-empty attitude, however, grips the songs too tightly.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 25, 2017
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An album which focuses their stadium-alt-punk sound to its sharpest edge yet.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 25, 2017
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While not quite as impressive as 2012’s Traveling Alone, there’s much to enjoy about Tift Merritt’s Stitch Of The World--not least the inspired contributions of her top-notch accompanists.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 25, 2017
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In a career spanning more than two decades, Elbow have always taken things at their own pace, and this shows in Little Fictions’ pleasing rhythms.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 20, 2017
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[A] more thoughtful, diverse creations in which floating organ and mellotron lend a wavering melancholy to songs like “Maybe We’ll Drown” and “Lemon Memory”, pierced by contrasting guitar rages of keening angularity.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 18, 2017
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The duet between Miss Kittin’s android vocal and a machine voice on the engagingly dystopian “Hans Is Driving” seems devoid of contact, a sad lament from a world bereft of humans. But it’s Arbez-Nicolas’s magpie ways that leaves a bad taste.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 18, 2017
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The creepier explorations of infantile eroticism--the lollipop metaphor of “All Day Suckers”, the fairytale allusion of “Baby Teeth, Wolfy Teeth”--are voiced by Harvey himself, allowing guest singers like Jess Ribeiro and Sophia Brous to indulge the sweeter romanticism of songs such as “The Eyes To Cry” and “Prevert’s Song”, where Gainsbourg’s musing on the poet’s work prompts a moving reflection on transitory love.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 18, 2017
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Sometimes, sheer ambition can render music too top-heavy to succeed. Hang, by Los Angeles duo Foxygen, is a case in point.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 18, 2017
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Where his recent albums have leant more towards long-form improvisation, 50 focuses on songs, with the warm drizzle of Chapman’s gnarled Yorkshire burr lending a bluff, worldly-wise character to American tableaux.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 18, 2017
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Thankfully, Burn Something Beautiful confirms his own fund of creativity is far from drained, the collaboration with Buck and McCaughey resulting in all three’s best work in years.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 18, 2017
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His light, understated tenor blends well with her piquant tone on the blithe, buttoned-down yacht-rock grooves he creates for Little Wings’ “Look At What The Light Did Now” and Frank Ocean’s “Thinking Bout You”; but an affectless version of Barry Gibb’s “Grease” is less successful.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 11, 2017
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 11, 2017
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 11, 2017
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It’s a lovely, silly, serious work that draws one in despite the bursts of utopian cosmo-babble.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 11, 2017
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Cliched rock band they might be, but the problem lies more with the fact that they used to be bloody good at it. Night People is a painfully disjointed album that shows a band at an impasse, unsure about which direction they want to go in.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 6, 2017
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For the most part the songs are full to bursting with youthful melodies that lift the weight off the more serious of topics.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 5, 2017
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Norwegian musician Thom Hell’s eighth album is an inventive meditation on growing up.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 5, 2017
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They are exciting precisely because they refuse to reveal everything about themselves, and because there is an ambiguity to be found in lyrics that come across as bluntly personal. It’s a talent that was present in their first two albums, only this time, they’ve let the light in a bit.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 5, 2017
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Killer Mike and El-P bring typically sharp, visceral observations, chugging beats and superb guest artists onto their most successful studio effort to date.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 5, 2017
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This 111-track set does a commendable enough job, reflecting the extraordinary creative tumult happening behind the headline crap about gobbing and safety-pins.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 3, 2017
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Freedom Jazz Dance features the entire session reels for tracks from Miles Smiles and Nefertiti, complete with studio dialogue, enabling us to hear Miles discussing and directing the music, ironing out details. ... The point when they all seem to realise, as one, what to do with “Nefertiti” is a moment of pure, transcendent joy.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Jan 3, 2017
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A decent collection which explores different aspects of the duo’s chosen musical territory.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 21, 2016
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As it is, these seven surviving tracks capture a group in transition from R&B covers outfit to something more significant.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 20, 2016
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 14, 2016
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It’s a delight, full of rich textures and subtle touches, from the harpsichord, hi-hats and horns of “Apollo’s Mood” to the sumptuous opener “Sirens Of Jupiter.”- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 14, 2016
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The depth of The Colorist’s percussive range is transformative, bringing explicit form to the simple expression of romantic excitement in “Jungle Drum”, and rendering the enchantment of the new song “When We Dance.”- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 14, 2016
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Jermaine Cole’s fourth album is highly principled and skilfully wrought, but those aren’t always the most prized or effective elements when it comes to hip-hop.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 14, 2016
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Restless Spheres is the first release in nine years from Blue States, the nom-de-disque of chill-out stylist Andy Dragazis; and sadly, it sounds somewhat mired in the modes of an emptier era.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 7, 2016
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The contrasts of the title are evident throughout John Legend’s latest album--in the push and pull between devotion and desire, indulgence and empowerment, and musically in the dialectic between comforting familiarity and exploratory urges.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 7, 2016
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With Peace Trail, Neil Young slips into self-parody again, with a set of desultory peacenik songs too simplistic and patronising to be taken seriously.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 7, 2016
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Dec 7, 2016
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They pushed the single envelope in various directions – processional chants, electric-organ improvisations, big-band “space bop”, and at the furthest extreme of his sonic galaxy, the furious free-jazz of “Cosmo-Extensions”, guaranteed to clear the floor at any party.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2016
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Musically, it’s an odd mix of ambition and disorder, with Doherty’s familiar raggedy-ass rock tempered with poignant moments.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2016
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His guests include Lana Del Rey, whose affectless manner makes her a perfect match for him; though the best grooves here come courtesy of Daft Punk, bookending the album with the scudding title-track and Michael Jackson homage “I Feel It Coming”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2016
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What impresses most about Blue & Lonesome is Mick Jagger, who really animates these songs.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 30, 2016
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Accompanied by a crack hometown band for whom the intricacies of New Orleans’ distinctive second-line rhythms are clearly second nature, it’s a parade of infectious funk and soul right from the moment Bruce Springsteen romps through “Right Place Wrong Time”, to the Doctor’s closing roll through “I Walk On Guilded Splinters” and “Such A Night”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 28, 2016
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 28, 2016
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Garth here sensibly celebrates simple good times in songs like the twangsome “Honky Tonk Somewhere” and its cutting-loose continuation “Weekend”, where copious location namechecks enthuse that “it’s weekend all over the world”. Elsewhere, “Baby, Let’s Lay Down And Dance” tacks its cheeky proposition onto a “Long Train Running” groove, while the chugging boogie of “Pure Adrenaline” suggests how ZZ Top might sound if they were country.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 23, 2016
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It’s a stark but stunning collection, with Rawlings’ exquisite acoustic lead lines dancing around the melodies, and the duo’s harmonies imbuing their songs with poignant shades of emotion.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 23, 2016
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Too often, the songs are shadowed by earlier interpreters.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 23, 2016
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There’s scant distinction overall, with Bruno’s eager-beaver personality wearing perilously thin on “That’s What I Like”, a tiresome tick-list of unimaginative hedonism, and “Chunky”, a big-lass anthem lacking even the roguish, cheeky [sic] charm of Sir Mixalot’s “Baby Got Back”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 23, 2016
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What comes across perhaps more strongly in this audio version of Before The Dawn is the subtly contrasting nature of the two suites, their disparate characters--entrapment versus liberation, petrifying terror versus exultant joy--reflected in the music.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 23, 2016
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Equally interesting are undeveloped outtakes such as the exquisite heartbreak miniature “Marigold”, and two songs deliberately written to meet Elektra’s demand for a hit single, “Once Upon A Time” and “Lady, Give Me Your Key”, on which Buckley’s genial charm and outlandish vocal gymnastics--not to mention the latter track’s clumsy drug-pun metaphor--trump any unfeasible commercial considerations.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 16, 2016
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A series of lovely, languid soul grooves built around throbbing, cyclical organ drones, subdued guitar and electric piano, downtempo funk beats and subtle streaks of strings.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 16, 2016
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Despite the hiatus, this guest-laden double-album finds the group still very much engaged, rattling out tongue-twisting, articulate verbal flows dealing more with social realities than self-aggrandising brags and outlaw fantasies.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 16, 2016
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There’s something grippingly wide-eyed and manic about her performances here and on the mounting hysteria of Beth Orton’s “Alexandria”, while more reserved shades of mental imbalance are evoked in “Window”, where the petrifying effect of obsession is considered over a stealthy, furtive arrangement.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 10, 2016
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Not that the usual soul belters are entirely absent from Long Live The Angels. Tracks like “Every Single Little Piece” and “Highs & Lows” are big, radio-friendly chartbound anthems, ebullient and eager to please; but the more interesting aspects of the album are to be found in less formulaic arrangements, such as “Give Me Something”, which opens with an acoustic guitar flourish pointedly recalling “The Tracks Of My Tears”, before settling into a folk-soul setting clearly influenced by Tracy Chapman.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 10, 2016
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The combination of indistinct vocals and the band’s preference for meandering charm over more decisive structures tends to sap the music of potency.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2016
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Though not entirely “unplugged”--there’s a wealth of keyboard drones and subtle electronic detail lurking behind the foreground mandolins and acoustic guitars--applying this stripped-down format to some of their most memorable moments does help dilute the excessive stadium bombast which became a cornerstone of Simple Minds’ style.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2016
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“Heading South On The Great North Road”, sounds like an outtake from Sting’s musical The Last Ship. But otherwise it’s fairly standard AOR fare, only baring its teeth on the snarling “Petrol Head”- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2016
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Alicia Keys’s musicality is far superior [than Solange's]: whether developing swaying gospel fervour on “Pawn It All”, threading balofon through the two-part reflection on African-American queens “She Don’t Really Care/1 Luv”, or riding a perky Latin shuffle for “Girl Can’t Be Herself”, her work is grounded in a melodic appeal that’s almost magnetic.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 9, 2016
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Listening to The Heavy Entertainment Show is a bit like watching EastEnders--a constant barrage of snarling, strutting chippiness passed off as authentic British geezerism.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 3, 2016
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It doesn’t take many tracks to blunt the impact of Moby’s relentless goosestepping drum programmes and shouty slogans.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2016
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The comforting simplicities peddled in tracks like “Reunion” and “Knockout” offer the rock equivalent of Donald Trump, currying favour without getting too specific.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2016
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Amongst the poppy organ and droning guitars, McClure’s managed to retain the ingenuous character of his debut, blending pop sparkle and melancholic indie charm in a way that recalls New Zealand’s legendary Chills.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2016
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2016
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Nov 2, 2016
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It’s the quiet weariness of “Shipwreck Love” that’s most effective, its minimal alliance of guitar and violin gently emphasising Steve’s promise to offer a safe harbour from the “hidden shoals, breaker of souls”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 28, 2016
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Bovelle’s dub skills ensure there’s depth and disturbance in the band’s angry bricolages of whines, whirrs and harsh, stabbing guitars dancing around Mark Stewart’s edgy, political caterwauling on tracks like “Instant Halo” and “Pure Ones”, while Shocklee cooks up a bulldozer funk maelstrom of splintering sounds for “Burn Your Flag” and “City Of Eyes”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 27, 2016
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Can’t Touch Us Now doesn’t have quite the exploratory breadth of Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da, but there’s enough variety to animate their tableaux of social portraits.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 27, 2016
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At their most normal, “In Love” resembles Prince at his oddest; while the most likeable of a range of silly lyrics offers the promise, “I like to watch you run, but I’ll never touch your bum”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 26, 2016
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Two Vines glows with a relaxed, beachside warmth that brings to mind “Standing On The Shore” from their debut.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 26, 2016
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The Courteeners are still pretty much mired in Mancunian mores on this latest album.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 26, 2016
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- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 21, 2016
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The album arguably gets worse as he gets better, particularly in “Quicksand”, with its Coldplay-esque promise to “patch you up, we’ll work it out”.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2016
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The result is a fine album, subtly varied in both musical style and lyrical slant.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2016
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The songs on her third album are more concealed in their arrangements than before, despite a sonic palette still based in the slim, austere piano and cello settings for which she’s known.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2016
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Gently marching strings furnish an aptly martial underscoring for the conflict imagery of “Treaty”, the latest of Cohen’s romantic mea culpas, which reveals how, for a Great Seducer, love is an essentially narcissistic, even solipsistic, pastime, its protagonist apologising “for that ghost I made you be”. It’s just one of several sharp, stinging twists casting new and unusual shadows on old themes in You Want It Darker, culminating in the mordant, bitter advice of “Steer Your Way.”- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2016
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To a certain extent it works, especially when Josh Homme’s on hand to lend gritty riffing and imaginative lead lines to some tracks: his spiky but fluid breaks on “A-Yo” and “John Wayne” are undoubted album highlights. Sadly, the bombastic orchestral stomper “Perfect Illusion”, a much-anticipated collaboration with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, is less impressive, just stridently dull.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 19, 2016
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Complex, involved and engaging, her music’s exploratory inclinations are tempered with a distinctive melodic charm.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 14, 2016
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Lyrics have never been the band’s strongest suit, and WALLS is no exception, with the blandest of emotional expressions occasionally punctuated by simple stupidity.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 12, 2016
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Save for the chunky “Don’t You Wait”, there’s little punch or pop charm to the album, which boasts a surfeit of luscious textures and feisty attitudes, but a shortfall of killer melodies.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 12, 2016
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Always an unflinchingly open songwriter, Conor Oberst leaves himself even more exposed on Ruminations, where his songs are accompanied just by his own piano, guitar and harmonica.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 12, 2016
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The songs are littered with piquant period references--Eric Bristow, Bruce Lee, Roman Polanski, spaghetti hoops--often in absurd situations, such as the mash-up of teutonic terrorism and mad-scientist sci-fi that is “Ulrike Meinhof’s Brain Is Missing”. But Haines’s genuine affection shines through fond tributes like the chugging glam boogie “Marc Bolan Blues” and acid-folk exploration “The Incredible String Band.”- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 5, 2016
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There’s a frustrating disjunction between intention and execution on Green Day’s Revolution Radio.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 5, 2016
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The widescreen south-western ambience is stippled with intriguing touches, like the shruti box and bowed guitar droning through “Gallop On The Run”, and the rhythmic rattling chains of the death ballad “Lay My Lily Down”; though the most moving performance is Weir’s plaintive solo piece “Ki-Yi Bossie”, oozing empathy for a reluctant penitent alcoholic.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 5, 2016
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When they get their teeth into a groove, Goat’s alloying of krautrock and Afrobeat, desert blues and psychedelia proves irresistible.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 5, 2016
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Kate Tempest’s follow-up to the dazzling Everybody Down is similarly ambitious in scope, fired by the same compassion and delivered with the same level of energised loquacity.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Oct 5, 2016
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There’s an intensely private quality about 22, A Million that makes it initially hard to penetrate. ... But as the album progresses, it becomes more accommodating.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2016
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Bookended by “Frau Tomium”, a bleep-tastic tribute to electronic pioneer Oskar Sala, Toy could have come from any time in Yello’s career, so resilient are their tropes.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2016
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There’s something of the warmth and fulfilment of Tupelo Honey about the album generally.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2016
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Tracks like “No Limit” and “Need U”, with their miasmic, swirling synths and pulsing vibrato effects, epitomise modern boudoir-soul, as Usher slips effortlessly between warm caresses and pleading falsetto.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2016
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On Remember Us To Life, Regina Spektor exhibits stronger affinities with Randy Newman, thanks to a turn of phrase often leaning towards the ironic, and a deceptive worldview which, like the sardonic string arrangements and ominous piano settings, gives most of these songs a slightly sour sting in the tail.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2016
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Head Carrier is an altogether more convincing affair than 2014’s comeback album Indie Cindy, the intervening months of roadwork having helped relocate the band’s classic mode.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2016
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Thoughtful, engaging and utterly contemporary, it’s one of the albums of the year.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 28, 2016
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This fourth album is produced by south London’s Paul White, and a shared taste for Talking Heads and especially Joy Division (the LP is named after their song, more than JG Ballard’s novel) takes it way off the mainstream hip-hop map.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 27, 2016
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Hammill continues to explore the hubris of human existence. He’s often best, though, when he ventures off-track into more warmly specific tales.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 26, 2016
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The Experiment’s increasingly obvious fault, though, is how close they keep to the middle of their many musical roads.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 22, 2016
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Bubbling synths and glistening ripples of acoustic guitar adorn these tales of elite bohemians.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 22, 2016
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Songwriting points remain shrouded, and voices drowsy, but an understated fearlessness pears through the mist.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 22, 2016
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After bandmates quit and more heavy blows rained down, he retreated to a cabin, where these wonderful songs poured out. “Frontman In Heaven” is one of several which both mourn and resurrect the idiocies and potent faith of the rock’n’roll age.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 22, 2016
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The most revelatory song of the now mature songwriter is, though, “My Father’s House”, from Nebraska (1982). There’s a sluggish, nightmare feel as Springsteen dreams of a bramble-tangled house in a haunted field, a home where he’s no longer known; a past he can’t return to. The merits of this rough, questionable compilation lie in such small revelations.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 22, 2016
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There’s a pleasing congruence between the way that the surreal invades the ordinary in Rennie Sparks’s lyrics, and the way that Brett Sparks’ voice and music illuminates that invasion.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 14, 2016
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Furfour finds the duo at their poppiest: even though they create songs from improvised sounds, there’s an engaging, hypnotic charm to tracks like “Milky Light” and “Heavy Days” that’s strongly reminiscent of Eno’s pop side.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 14, 2016
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The result is beautiful, visceral and, predictably, emotionally devastating.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 9, 2016
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Steinman’s sonic fingerprints are all over the album--the furiously arpeggiating piano riffs (one “borrowed” from Randy Newman), the brusque guitars, the Wagnerian pomp--though it is Loaf’s stagey delivery, with that juddering vibrato, which dominates songs.- The Independent (UK)
- Posted Sep 8, 2016
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