DIY Magazine's Scores

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For 3,422 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Superbloom
Lowest review score: 20 Let It Reign
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,498 out of 3422
  2. Mixed: 911 out of 3422
  3. Negative: 13 out of 3422
3422 music reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    American Head
    Musically, it’s the ‘Lips at their most fully-realised. It may not get your feet moving but it’ll tug at the heartstrings. Each track builds up slowly like a rising tide that eventually envelops you. Compelling stuff.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Time's Arrow
    While the album may find itself guilty of treading the line of pretty-but-unassuming at times - the sheer beauty of every detail is impressive, if not a little tiring - ‘Time’s Arrow’ remains a sumptuous listen.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Gods No Masters
    Yet as overt and outwardly targeted the likes of ‘The Men Who Rule The World’ and ‘Godhead’ are (“would you deceive me if I had a dick?” Shirley asks on the latter), the album finds space for the introversion that has previously allowed Garbage to cross over.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Island Fire
    there is an extremely satisfying sense of fun throughout Island Fire (despite the dark content) and Ray is very much in on the joke.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Things Are Great
    An extended gap since their last full-length outing has resulted in their sharpest raft of material since ‘Cease to Begin’.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nature Noir
    Nature Noir' is very much Crystal Stilts sticking to their well-trodden formula, conforming as they are, essentially, to their own trademark sounds. But it's also the sound of a band retaining the best of their identity: sharp melodies, steady drum fills and discordant synth still all underpin Brad's sleepy, monotonic vocals.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    London [EP]
    Nothing quite matches 'This Is What It Feels Like', but that alone is enough to give genuine reason to BANKS' mighty cause.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Apar
    This is music that desires to be clutched to youthful hearts and fill sun-bleached fields or golden coastlines; a hunger to delight that is so insatiable it’s rather tough to question.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In Praise of Shadows
    While at times he toys with jazz (‘Velvet Dreams’ and ‘Oil Slick’) these moments are fleeting enough to be endured, safe in the knowledge that we’ll be taken back to the fluffy R&B dreamland before long. Sunday nights might never be the same again.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hung at Heart
    Hung At Heart is not a particularly forward-thinking album with all of its 15 songs dealing in homespun 60s grooves, but this is a largely irrelevant quibble when the songs are this good.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ugly Season
    There aren’t any standalone tracks, with the arguable exception of ‘Pop Song’. In that sense this is an album in its truest form, a record to sit with and take in as one whole.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Welcome To My Blue Sky
    Hazy and forlorn but peaceful record, one that reaffirms their stake in the genre.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Yu
    Everything feels less claustrophobic than on ‘Control’ as synths soar, rather than constrict. Beats bounce and guitars are led by the groove. Throughout ‘YU’, we see a grander side of her.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    King Con
    It's oddly accomplished, and Winston's classical background shines through.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    See You at the Maypole
    ‘See You At The Maypole’ is a challenging listen not through sound or even particularly subject matter, but in not reaching its end under a similarly black cloud as the record itself.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mind Hive
    Wire have proven that it’s possible to stretch possibilities through the introduction of outside influence. Youngsters take note, the past can be your friend.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    While a Nation Sleeps
    Admittedly, there is probably nothing on While A Nation Sleeps that quite scales the peaks of the their finest works, there is no 'Rookie', no 'My Life in the Knife Trade' but there are plenty of pulse quickening moments for fans and non-fans alike.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    King of the Mischievous South, Vol. 2
    The beats may occasionally be interchangeable, but several cuts stand out, such as the minimal speaker-blower ‘SKED’ and the menacing ‘Hit The Floor’. Each track features a guest spot, which helps provide their sometimes homogenous nature with personality.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Half Divorced
    ‘Half Divorced’ is a bolshy barrage played out over the course of 12 short, sharp tracks.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Charli
    It’s still a worthwhile successor to them, of course. It’s just not the world-beater she’s surely capable of.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Two Saviors
    A feather-light collection of alt-country, packed with pedal steel, lilting melodies and Buck’s own evocative Texan burr.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cave Rave
    Cave Rave is outlandish, silly, summery and as brilliant as its title, and Crystal Fighters have somehow managed to continue in making their seemingly unattainable mix of traditional instrumentation and ideas and dubby electronics work without disaster.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Book Of Churches
    ‘Book of Churches’ is a debut effort rich with promise.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rituals
    If you were expecting a post-rock album, you've come to the wrong place; this is something sharper, more accessible, sure, but no less clever.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Reset
    The few hints towards more modern fare - the undulating yet ultimately forgettable ‘Whirlpool’, closer ‘Everything’s Been Leading To This’ with its ‘80s keys and distinctly ‘00s indie air - could’ve been left on the cutting room floor, but overall ‘Reset’ is as warm a listen as Sonic Boom’s near-forgotten records must’ve been in lockdown Lisbon.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Macaroni
    A curious album that is well worth investigating.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    If You Wait
    London Grammar have created an album of graceful sophistication.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Irreversible
    Not perfect, then, but further evidence that their upwards climb remains a steady one.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ores & Minerals
    While songs like 'Significant Bullet' and 'Leominster' feel like slightly unnecessary inclusions and can cause the listening experience to drag slightly, this is a very impressive record with some truly excellent songs.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY
    In sound, it sits somewhere between the sparse nature of ‘folklore’ and the overt pop of ‘Midnights’, across its two hours settling into a steady pace that forgoes massive fan favourites in favour of a continuous pull on the heartstrings. The issue with a two-hour album is that you’re not going to hit the mark on every track (no song should have three exclamation marks in the title), and it’s tricky to keep momentum when the name of the game is introspective storytelling.
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