Drowned In Sound's Scores

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For 4,812 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 It Won't Be Like This All the Time
Lowest review score: 0 BE
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,477 out of 4812
  2. Mixed: 1,220 out of 4812
  3. Negative: 115 out of 4812
4812 music reviews
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wonderful Crazy Night
    Everything about Wonderful Crazy Night is utterly predictable, from its subject matter to its comprising 100% mid-tempo ballads, be they boogie-woogie piano (‘Looking Up’, ‘England and America’) or acoustic guitar lighter than a Peter Kay show (‘I’ve Got 2 Wings’, ‘Tambourine’). But despite this--and perhaps in no small part thanks to T Bone Burnett adding a lovely warm country tinge in the production--none of it grates.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Swimming
    French Kicks cannot rightly be pegged as a one-trick pony but the formulaic organisation of this record emphasises lushness at the sacrifice of any surprises.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Damage
    There's flashes of Jimmy Eat World brilliance and even a few classics in there, but this is an album that's also prone to a few fillers and cheesy one liners.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    (I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson
    If you like 'The Wrong Girl' or 'I'm Not Living In The Real World', you'll find plenty to enjoy here. If you tend to shuffle past the B&S that isn't pure Stuart Murdoch, you'll just find your punnery tolerance levels severely tested.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    New Relics
    New Relics feels more like a work in progress, a record that was more satisfying to make than to listen to.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    so sad so sexy
    If Li was a Pokémon collector So Sad So Sexy would have caught ‘em all, but alas--this is music; and the truth is Li should really leave the hip-hop influences too Janelle Monae and Lorde.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Colour Trip
    If in the meantime you've lost your copy of Loveless, you could do far worse than listen to Colour Trip.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
    Frequently unpleasant, but consistently interesting.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Secret Migration
    The Secret Migration is a wonderful record, full of exquisite indie-rock epics. But so was the last Mercury Rev record. And the one before that. So what’s changed? Nothing, basically.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Crazy Itch Radio
    If you boarded the good ship 'Jaxx back in the Nineties, Crazy Itch Radio won’t see you throwing yourself overboard any time soon. If you were waving it away from the shore, though, this won’t see you splashing your way through the sea to catch up.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Here's Willy Moon
    There is a lack of substance in the middle of the album as tracks fly by, melting into each other, and because the album bombards us early on, it doesn’t pick up until the final stretch.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Analog Man
    There are no alarms and no surprises here, but it's a record produced by Jeff Lynne (who is a genius and anyone who says otherwise is a joyless idiot) so it sounds as bright, clear and appealing as anything this year.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Forever
    Painted Palms have a natural ability to extract profound noise from otherwise unremarkable places, lyrically however; it's more subjective. Forgettable accounts of youthful deprecation litter the album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Class Clown Spots a UFO
    Most of this record isn't the kind of total genius that can be found elsewhere in their canon but it's a fine album that shows what can be done if bands just relaxed a bit.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Noctunes
    Nocturnes comes off as a monochrome drag.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fatherland
    There are moments where the album shines, absolutely, but it doesn’t match up to the same level as Okereke’s previous work, both with Bloc Party and solo. However, it’s still a worthy piece in its own right, and a testament to the idea that a musician changing their sound is a gamble that can pay dividends.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Weathervanes
    As it is Weathervanes remains a catchy album that will satiate those with an indie-pop sweet tooth, (the type who can bear glockenspiel on every track) and maybe even offer the odd moment of genuine inspiration. Many of us will find it all a little too familiar and unengaging to get that far.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Resort
    All three EPs--Junk, Dross and Dregs--featured in Resort hold their own standing alone--but when they are collated together it does have a feeling of doing it for the sake of it.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This Is Alphabeat
    In the end, what was once an exceptional record is now merely a rather good one. That’s a real shame, but it can’t entirely derail Alphabeat and their purist pop vision.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Strangeland
    Strangeland feels just a bit by the numbers.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Aureola
    So a game of two halves, with enough excitement from Arbouretum to keep it interesting--but cosmic Americana fans may find more solace in their (excellent) previous two records The Gathering and Song of the Pearl than they will here.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everything Infinite
    Everything Infinite is perfect for summer, it has a few beautiful tracks and is constructed masterfully, but you can almost hear the fan chatter describing the outfit as 'that band who sound like Tame Impala'.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One
    Although the album shows impressive range - toggling back and forth between insidious ambient ('Dome Horizon') circuit-bending noise ('2T(fru)T') and a kind of stroboscopic speed-drone (the aforementioned 'chase sequences'), much of the textures and tech you could find in commision across the Captured Tracks and Wierd Records catalogues.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lightning Bolt
    Not classic Pearl Jam by any stretch - let’s not get carried away here--but enough to kindle at least a little optimism for whatever comes next.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Bears for Lunch
    The Bears for Lunch is business as usual: more songs about airplanes and beer, as David Byrne would say.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Slaves Beyond Death
    Perhaps pushing their relentless extremity of the music is not the best way forward: there’s a more nuanced, skilled band lurking in here and it will be interesting to see to what extent they are allowed to emerge.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    IV
    Indeed, they can rock. But, inevitably, their writing here lacks the epic imagery and themes that cemented the rock gods into the canon, and thus doesn’t bewitch in the same way. Black Mountain defend the temple ably, at least.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Kablammo!
    While the longstanding fan may indulge them the odd misstep, it’s a little bit jarring when they produce something which by their own high standards is, dare I say it, a bit underwhelming.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Simon Werner A Disparu
    You probably won't head to the record store for this one unless you've been obsessive-compulsively collecting all the previous releases, but if you do, you won't be disappointed by what you hear on the turntable. After all it's Sonic Youth.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Echtzeit
    This is music to (quite pleasantly) while away dozy afternoons, but it’s far from being as transcendently atmospheric as the many great records Roedelius has been a part of in the past.
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