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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    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Under Great White Northern Lights [Live]
    Under Great White Northern Lights would be a funny postscript. It's not particularly revelatory, less cohesive a concert film that Under Blackpool Lights, and in no way intimates that the band was about to go into hiatus. Really, it serves, more than anything else, as a reminder of just how singularly odd the White Stripes are, and how boring things are without them around.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cornershop & the Double-O Groove Of
    Whether this latest release is merely another development or a sign of things to come, it is their most beguiling collection of songs for a number of years, a labour of love, and a record that that deserves more exposure than it's probably going to get.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Multi-Love
    What Multi-Love lacks in immediacy it mostly makes up for in aesthetic.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Next Thing
    Next Thing is an honest but beautified version of the mixed-up life of a city kid. The most interesting thing moving forward will be seeing how Kline's songwriting approach shifts shape.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Light Information
    VanGaalen draws from familiar territory. What makes these songs truly surreal (and ergo, sublime) are his wacky scenes, both monstrous and endearingly human all at once.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Broken Wave
    The release of Broken Wave heralds the arrival of a genuine creative force in British folk music, and one of the scariest things about it is that you get the impression that Peel hasn't really even got going yet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Featherbrain
    Whilst Hanne's music has evolved since her debut Little Things in 2004, Featherbrain is an album that pulls various strands of that development together to make something new.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Breaks & Bone
    Despite the nature of the record it's never a self-indulgent or forlorn listen, jumping from one emotion to the next, all the while held together by some truly excellent musicianship and wry Scottish lyrics.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strange Peace
    Metz keep consistently ticking along and will always be a welcome addition to any year's new releases, regardless of whether they're the most original band in the world and Strange Peace does nothing to disavow that.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Constant Future
    Constant Future is the sound of a band who, after nearly ten years together, are comfortable with their sound, who know exactly what they're good at and sound like they're having great fun doing it.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    That's Harakiri
    At 32 minutes, it’s a short album--but one whose brashness and pace you won’t soon forget.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fast Food
    The songs on this record have been delivered with the kind of aplomb that only someone with an unshakeable confidence in their work can muster, which suggests that Nadine Shah’s artistic future is mouthwatering.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers
    It’s the sound of forbidden affairs, illicit sex with strangers in bars, drunken confessions, of real life. And it feels fantastic.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Inni [Live]
    The music itself is epic, and not in that wanky overblown stadium rock way--epic in the way of glockenspiels and falsettos and cello bow scraping against guitar strings and pounding drums and explosions of piano chords.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Flourish // Perish
    Despite the lineup change and the turmoil surrounding the trio, Flourish // Perish builds upon Braids equally striking debut without retreading old work.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sleep of Reason
    Sleep Of Reason is darker, deeper and more daring than either Coexist or Overgrown and more emotional and soulful than The xx or James Blake. Ninja Tune won't release a better record this year.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lust for Life
    Lust for Life represents the thawing of the ice queen we thought we knew, and the strange death of her American dream. The warmth and humility revealed beneath are all the more thrilling for how well they were kept under lock and key. Human after all.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dance on the Blacktop
    Nothing's third album is something of a safe bet: fans of the band and/or genre will still enjoy this, while Agnello's name being attached may turn a few extra heads, but it is feasible that the whole 'nu-shoegaze' movement is running out of steam.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mean Love
    The unwillingness to risk emotional connection seen on Mars meant it often slipped into the background, but the shift to more straightforward songcraft and the continuing successful genre fusion means Mean Love both demands and rewards attention.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Modern Guilt
    It sits alone in his cannon as being slightly uncomfortable but in turn is a brilliantly concise work (it runs to a little over 30 minutes).
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kingdom Of Rust
    Even if the album loses its way with its final two tracks, you are left so exhausted by this stage that it almost comes with a sense of relief. By reinventing what they do best, Doves have fearlessly strutted back onto everyone's radar.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Crystal Castles [2010]
    The music is dynamic, danceable and largely based around swelling arpeggios of stabbing synths, but it remains resolutely cold, major keys avoided.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Take Her Up to Monto
    Monto occasionally overwhelms as its leading light pivots. Patience is rather vital as the album expands and Murphy continues to contemplate. There’s no padding here, but like any good trip into an intriguing mind you may emerge from the swell a touch dizzy.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I'm Bad Now
    I'm Bad Now delivers throughout its 11, mostly restrained pieces in a way that highlights Chapman's exquisite prowess for astute observational prose.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Plastic Beach
    Because past the pop songs, past the soaring (and let’s not make any bones about it, this album soars in places) this is a supremely clever album.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ash Wednesday
    Both dream-like and slightly brutal in its approach, Ash Wednesday is a rare folk-rock LP, drenched in equal parts sunshine and cloudy grey skies.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Flesh Tone
    The biggest crime here is that it sounds so dated-listening to Flesh Tone is a bit like watching a filmmaker failing to ape the innovation of The Matrix more than a decade after it was made.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    I Don't Run
    Hinds are here to have fun, whether you like it or not. They may not push past boundaries they are comfortable with, but they have identified the qualities that make them special--carving out their own niche in the modern music spectrum of loveable lo-fi embedded with off-kilter charm.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Merrie Land
    Rich and accomplished; beautifully played and immaculately conceptualised, Albarn’s latest trip from FitzRoy to Faeroes and back, via Dogger and Dover, is a drizzle-soaked deep-dive into a fractured land and fractured people. One of the quiet highlights of the year.
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