The Observer (UK)'s Scores

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For 2,623 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: 1,235 out of 2623
  2. Mixed: 1,370 out of 2623
  3. Negative: 18 out of 2623
2623 music reviews
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    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Certified Lover Boy
    Things start promisingly with the undulating Champagne Poetry dextrously reflecting on loneliness (“career is going great, but now the rest of me is fading slowly”), while Papi’s Home recalls early Kanye, of all people, with its sped-up samples and laid-back flow. Later, however, that playfulness calcifies into headline-grabbing stunts. ... This is an album destined to be filleted for various #mood playlists, anchored only by its creator’s untouchable fame.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
    All of this grandeur is punctuated by shimmering orchestral interludes, the plummy voice of Emma Corrin (AKA The Crown’s Princess Diana) as Simz’s life coach, and hard-hitting tracks of another kind, where the artist examines her motivations (Ovation) and her relationship with her absent father on the heart-wrenching I Love You, I Hate You.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Screen Violence
    Their formative years in the underground have always supplied this trio with a sharp and occasionally dark edge. It is an edge no more, but the defining feature of this pugilistic album.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power
    Easier Than Lying is shouty and electronic, while You Asked for This finds Halsey fronting a Smashing Pumpkins pastiche. Amid all the Sturm und Drang and sludgy oompah (The Lighthouse) there is some high-quality writing, chiefly in the pizzicato niggles and Jesus analogies of Bells in Santa Fe (“it’s not a happy ending”) and Whispers.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Other You
    As elegantly crafted as it all is, it does become a little homogeneous, and well before Other You’s 50 minutes are up, you do find yourself craving a gear change somewhere.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Woman on the Internet
    She tips the listener headlong into the scrum that is your 20s, when self-doubt and growing self-assurance wrestle one another to the mat. The emotional wrangle is skilfully handled, knife-sharp, funny lyrics carving out beautifully structured songs – co-produced by Gartland – with never a note wasted, dancing nimbly across styles.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Solar Power
    The album’s pace never really recaptures the Primal Scream vibes of the single. But the album is not much poorer for this equanimity, with its former teen star, elevated to instant mega-fame in the 2010s, pondering past lives, present happiness and future uncertainty with some deft writing, a gauzy feel and the odd Beatles melody.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jam & Lewis, Volume One
    If these collaborations occasionally rely on comfortable nostalgia, the prowling, Usher-assisted Do It Yourself – all splintering electronics and heaving beats – is a welcome reminder that Jam and Lewis can still conjure up something fresh-sounding. ... Overall, however, this is an immaculately produced debut that makes you instantly long for Volume Two.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Try It... You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor
    Itchy, blistering boogies such as She’s Gone and Let’s Get Funky epitomise their visceral approach, amid a smattering of slower outings. Antique maybe, but a reminder that the blues retain their odd, primal power.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Different Kinds of Light
    A couple more songs with the punch of Candidate or last year’s Headstart, here relegated to a bonus track, and a couple less mid-paced numbers among its 14 tracks would have made Different Kinds of Light unstoppable, but it’s a sure step forward by an impressive songwriting talent.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Loving in Stereo
    While Loving in Stereo palpably lacks Sault’s moral fire, their soundscapes do align very pleasurably indeed.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pressure Machine
    Frontman Brandon Flowers channels his Utah childhood on this lush, uncharacteristically reflective album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Independence Day
    Fredo may not yet be the GOAT (greatest of all time) for storytelling, but with his dark wit and wordplay, he’s now grazing in the same field.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    shame
    Embarrassed and Shame double down on how these emotions hold women hostage. Most personal of all is the Auto-Tuned and digitally spacious Midland’s Guilt, about how Somerville couldn’t wait to leave Tamworth but now feels aghast at losing her accent.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Welcome 2 America
    Most likely, the Minneapolitan knew this work was pleasant but unexceptional. ... This album sounds like it could’ve been made by anyone in the 1980s, back when only Prince made albums that sounded like the 2080s.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Happier than Ever
    The rest of Happier Than Ever tells a richly nuanced story about how human beings intersect.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We're All Alone In This Together
    Dave’s Mercury prize- and Brit award-winning debut, Psychodrama, became a classic overnight; now it has a rival for introspection, operatic quality and wordplay. Tender piano arrangements, unadulterated storytelling and sermon-like verses flood this topical album that is part confessional poetry, part social commentary.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night
    It all feels highly personal, with Antonoff still channelling underdog status on songs such as How Dare You Want More. There’s plenty of filigree too: string arrangements by Annie “St Vincent” Clark, input from Warren Ellis and a writing credit for Zadie Smith.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Therapy
    The title track promises much but only plays lip service to emotional soul-baring, while Ed Sheeran’s lyrical motifs dominate Beautiful’s cloying attempts at self-empowerment. A missed opportunity to let a star shine.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Stand for Myself
    Stand for Myself remains attuned to these country-soul stylings, but the full ingredients list is long: old-timey doo-wop on Great Divide, Brandi Carlile backing vocals, plus subtle British inflections.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Gold-Diggers Sound
    Seriously impressive, unashamedly grown-up songs from, and for, the soul.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Triage
    A brave, thoughtful album.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Over the Place
    His follow-up project, All Over the Place, is aptly titled. It fidgets from genre to genre, UK garage to drill, pop to Afro swing, but never quite finds its resting place.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hotel Surrender
    The marginally more upbeat and engaging Feel Good aside, it’s all very tasteful but ultimately a little unexciting. As returns go, it’s an underwhelming one.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sling
    Ruminating on everything from love, abusive men and her new dog, Joanie – even on an impressive instrumental number named after said canine – Sling is a generous, cinematic delight.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mythopoetics
    Sometimes the angst seems to overpower the song structure, as on The Apartment, where Plunkett describes the newly acquired habit of smoking as “performing my need”. ... Best of all is Swimmer, reminiscent of Glasser or Austra with its chilly, rippling arpeggios and pulsing, depth-charge beats.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Vince Staples
    Staples’s new album is much more personal and accessible than anything he’s put out before.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Nine
    It’s pretty special too. ... If a sense of discomfiture has run through all Sault’s albums – they challenge, seethe and weep, confound expectation, change tack abruptly – there is never a sense of a misstep.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pink Noise
    With all this shiny surface comes depth, too – the hard-won emotional content of these songs is all Mvula’s own.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Boy from Michigan
    Boy from Michigan doesn’t quite stick the landing as Grant forgoes his customary high-wire balance of wit and wry emotion for a more direct style. But it’s rich in bittersweet beauty and surreal levity.
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