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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strangers
    When the music is less overwhelming, you notice that July knob-twiddler Randall Dunn’s clean production and Nadler’s move away from the depths of morbidity have changed something about her music.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chrome Dreams II
    It’s a well-rounded album that defies the notion of a man being allowed to rock himself to sleep on the porch of rock’s sappy dotage.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    District Line
    While District Line is by no means a classic, it’s a decent addition to the catalogue of a man who could’ve lived out the rest of his days without lifting another finger
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Hawk Is Howling
    The Hawk Is Howling may not induce the apprehensive anxiety of "Happy Songs For Happy People" or even match the apocalyptic ambience of "Rock Action," but when taken in isolation, even outside of the Mogwai name, it holds its own as Mogwai's first solely instrumental album
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dark Developments
    Chesnutt’s vocals never intimidate, and Elf Power’s accompaniments and choral tongues are tasteful, careful not to overpower the vocals while innately aware how important the supporting cast is in shaping the overall mood.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ha, Ha, He.
    Ending on a crashing waterfall of an outro and coming in at just under 27 minutes, Ha, Ha, He. leaves the listener desperate for more.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No One Can Ever Know
    Purer than innocence and richer than gold, No One Can Ever Know confirms that The Twilight Sad are simply too good to remain a-little-less-than-well-known outside the restrictive realms of slightly-less-than-world-conqering 'zines.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Before The Dawn Heals Us
    For all its reference points, it's a remarkable and original record.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fool's Gold
    The first half connects the mind and the body equally, which is why they are such successful songs. The second half of is just body music and that’s where it falls a little flat. That’s not to say it doesn't work at all.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Music Complete
    New Order have made a really good album, one that easily justifies their soldiering on.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Let's Go Extinct
    You can’t deny that their intentions are good, but Let’s Go Extinct really is just missing that certain spark that’s required to lift it above the middle ground.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tunnel Blanket
    While their earlier records managed to keep you drawn in through a direct manner via the rippling intricacies they both possessed, Tunnel Blanket keeps you at a distance, favouring an emphasis on the reverberant aspects that they had touched on previously.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wander/Wonder
    Whilst Koone's recycling of chiming keys and bell like samples throughout each track might seem lazy, it in fact makes Wander/Wonder effective as a cohesive listen, and that's how its euphoric atmosphere should be heard.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Too
    Although on the relative straight and narrow, the band have lost none of their attitude.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Vol. 2
    While there will always be the criticism that a Wooden Shjips record is a merely an acquired taste of familiar morsels, the ripened fruits within never fail to satisfy the palette on every count, and even though some of Vol. 2 may be three years old, its a more than worthy addition to anyone's sonic menu.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Manners
    Despite an opening volley that suggests Ghandi himself would have felt the urge to tell Passion Pit to stop being so bloody silly come the end, it finds a slightly more meaningful note surprisingly soon.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO
    There are some great moments on this record, but by the end they’re lost under swathes of synths and looking for a sense of purpose.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wait to Pleasure
    The record loses its way a touch over its second half, ultimately lacking the songwriting craft to deliver emotional gratification, though it’s naggingly close.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    New Moon
    With some clear-minded editing, a workable pair of EPs could have been forged from New Moon. As it is, the cumulative effect of lumping so many competing ideas together is a mess. A frustratingly muddled mess.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Animal Joy
    Though harder, happier and a little more direct, Animal Joy is above all a Shearwater record: swooping, eloquent, concerned with nature.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A River Ain't Too Much To Love
    He's reached another career peak to match that of 1999's 'Knock Knock'.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Similes
    [The] expansive and slightly melancholy tone which has always been at the core of his music does feel slightly constrained when he tries to squeeze it into a verse chorus verse structure: the best moments on Similes come when he simply lets it wander free.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Body Talk Pt 1
    Proclamations that only the music matters, not the units shifted, are liable to ring a little hollow. Nevertheless, there's a lot to like about Body Talk Pt. 1.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Testarossa
    Testarossa is an album that gets better with each listen.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Attack & Release
    In the end we’re left with a solid, sympathetically-performed record that only intermittently comes to life, which is either a subtle victory or a hollow triumph of taste over gutbucket soul, depending on which way you look at it.
    • 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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Boys & Girls
    In the cold light of day the album feels flat and utterly predictable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Good, The Bad & The Queen
    But for all its momentary highlights, this is a record that doesn't tend to grow on you as much as sink and seep into your skin: and it does this slowly.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Official Body
    Overall, another great album from one of the UK’s best underground talents who may not remain so underground for long.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Remain Calm
    As a whole, Remain Calm dies too quickly, leaving the listener hanging on the sandy, sunset-lit horizon of 'Mob of Waters'; 'I’ll Keep Going' stretches its melancholic (and mostly static) air a minute too long; and while the concept of 'Xhill Stepping' as dissected electro amuses on paper, its dry deserted dancehall yields nothing but empty space.
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