DIY Magazine's Scores

  • Music
For 3,417 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:
3417 music reviews
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    ‘Here Is Everything’ lands in the sweet spot; it’s creatively ambitious, pushing the quartet into new ground, but it does so with a renewed sense of fun.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    ‘Dirt Femme’ sees her juxtapose elements ingeniously. If she’s singing in a straightforward manner, on a more direct number, then the music is twisting and turning in offbeat ways.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    ‘CHAOS NOW*’ might not have much of ‘80s Mancunian misery in its toolbox, but there’s an exhilarating meeting of grunge, pop-punk and indie with hip hop rhythms: Beck if he’d used a palette of early ‘00s MTV2.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There is something strangely satisfying about its consistency and confidence. Have no doubts, ‘Being Funny…’ is most certainly still The 1975; they’ve just refined their pop nous that little bit more this time around.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There are plenty of good ideas across ‘Suckerpunch’. It just could’ve done with fewer bad ones.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    For a record born of fatigue and exhaustion, she imbues a renewing sense of urgency to each bar she delivers.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    ‘Into The Blue’ comes across like the pair swapping mixtapes; a little ‘60s psych here, some ‘70s soul there, with a smidge of ‘80s R&B between. ... In lesser hands, this may have presented a mish-mash of confused homage, but here, it’s just a pleasant, nostalgic listen.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The stories being told match in tone, driven forward through a tantalising mix of urgency and despondency – mirroring the detached hustle of England’s capital.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Uneasy and unpredictable, yet invigorating.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Across ‘Cool It Down’, Yeah Yeah Yeahs remain true to their roots without making it sound like a nostalgic grab for previous glory. ... It turns out Yeah Yeah Yeahs 2.0 is exactly what 2022 needs.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These 14 tracks are so sonically rich with a multitude of textures, each listen peeling back just one measly layer; Molly’s vocal hooks and turns of phrase will remain in your brain days after the last listen.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    With fewer hands stirring the pot this time around, she’s had ample opportunity to come even more into her own, pulling off the bouncy, subtly ska-influenced WLW bop ‘hover like a GODDESS’ and introspective guitar pop groove of ‘curious/furious’ and ‘ur a stranger’ with stylish ease. Most intriguing, perhaps, are her forays into post-hardcore, unleashing a tremendous scream over the top of crunching guitars in the dying moments of ‘ it’s my fault’, but not everything goes quite so smoothly.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The record makes no attempt to shroud emotional reactions to the modern world, and it results in a thematically poignant, lyrically sharp and sonically surprising statement piece that redeems what was once used as a dismissive label.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    ‘GULP!’ isn’t Sports Team’s number one-scoring album (that could well be still to come). What it does offer is a heft of new ammo for pint-flinging, moshpitting chaos on the dancefloor.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lounge Society clearly have more in their influence pool than just one slipstream, and it’s when they embrace the full flood that they shine.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s a testament to his talents that he can produce an album that encapsulates his weird and beautiful world, which is full of more questions than answers.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    ‘Tough Baby’ gives us a distinctly moving experience of serious artistic intent. It’s like watching a wound open, flowers growing out of it.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The LA quintet’s third album doesn’t quite explode as much as it hopes to, though a few songs threaten to, largely the acid-tongued, grinding ‘Roadkill’ and the vintage-sounding title track.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There’s an abundance of over-excited jitters that keep you bouncing to each wildly mercurial moment. ‘demon time’ is an undeniable rush to your systems, and a deliciously futuristic one at that.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A deeply thoughtful and yet infinitely danceable collection of songs, it balances honest truths with taunting vocals and bursts of synth-prompted energy.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘(self-titled)’ is Vegemite: the same, but different. When he strips it right back - ‘Prior Warning’, with its bleak reminiscing reflected by a sonic hark back to the London scene in which he made his early name, and the stark ‘Dangerous Game’, where Marcus’ voice allowed to linger for just the right amount of time - there’s a warm quality to his songwriting that seeps through.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Suede maintain their magnitude through emotional craft - single ‘15 Again’ is the perfect microcosm of ‘Autofiction’’s ups and downs, its euphoric chorus built around painstaking regret. In essence, ‘Autofiction’ finds Suede still fiercely in motion.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Spark’ presents a jarring change: not one from that familiar warmth to icy cold, but only halfway, a sort of uncomfortable mild chill.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ‘Asphalt Meadows’ may not be a lockdown record, but it’s one that finds its voice in emerging into musical freedoms found in separation.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    It’s an honest and visceral look into more painful moments that come with processing past pain.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It takes a while for Preoccupations to find their new groove on ‘Arrangements’. But, when they hit that stride in the latter half, it’s a terrific one.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    ‘Natural Brown Prom Queen’ is Sudan Archives’ most accessible record to date. An unashamedly brash and confident one, but much more subtle and realistic. Rumbling beats, smooth R&B grooves, with just a touch of the experimental. Yet, in opening itself wider, it loses some of the sharp idiosyncrasies that made the early material so exciting.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Where ‘Spirituals’ - which both marks a return from a four-year break and Santi’s first release as an independent artist - works best, is as reminder and introduction. The cut-and-paste, mixtape ethos that shone through in the first place is still there.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    ‘I Love You Jennifer B’ feels like everything that’s come before has just been a trial run. It’s bolder, more rewarding, and so much more cohesive.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ‘As Above, So Below’ feels more refined. It’s fair to say there’s no one else quite doing it like Sampa The Great right now.