New Musical Express (NME)'s Scores

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For 6,299 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 1.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Lowest review score: 0 Maroon
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,466 out of 6299
  2. Mixed: 1,680 out of 6299
  3. Negative: 153 out of 6299
6299 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unicorn
    Sadly there’s only one track here where singer Tigs’ urgent purr and the subtle combination of electronica and bouncy indie pop matches either of those two tracks: the mesmeric ‘Slick’. The rest is solid, but with New Young Pony Club back on the scene, tracks like ‘Two Hands’ feel unremarkable.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Trans-Continental Hustle
    Musically, it's really just more of the boozy, ribald, shoutalong same, but tellingly the best moments are when Hutz reins in his mentalist troubadour shtick.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Corinne Bailey Rae
    If you don't mind the odd reflective moment, the odd luscious production value, then this has plenty to offer. [25 Mar 2006, p.37]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Slime Language 2
    The album peaks quite early – perhaps with a few tweaks to the tracklist, the new stars of YSL could have had a little more time to shine.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    To Be Still
    Her pipes can still be transportational, but mostly they deliver nice, docile music to stroke cats to.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Diamond Mine
    The eerie, mist-shrouded 'Running On Fumes' is the standout track, but really, Diamond Mine should be taken as a whole, at night, in the dark, with some Scotch and a blanket.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Heaven Upside Down
    For Manson fans this is familiar territory: the same mechanical riffs, same whisper/scream vocals heard on his regular stream of albums. Here, most songs are entertaining rather than groundbreaking. Occasionally they’re neither.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tiny Cities
    Sublime stuff. [11 Feb 2006, p.33]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Revival
    Not all of it works, but his renewed creative vigour is obvious and his sense of duty commendable.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    War Room Stories
    What diminishes War Room Stories is the songs themselves, which can feel a little ordinary. Rappak’s vocal is a bit sub-Yannis Philippakis, a monotone half-mumble that doesn’t make the most of his intriguing lyrics.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Girl Cried Red [Mixtape]
    Enjoyable, fiendishly moreish, while also somewhat disjointed, A Girl Cried Red is most rewarding for what it tells us about Princess Nokia, both as an artist and a person--showcasing an alternate side of an open yet abstruse enigma.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Back On My B.S.
    Taken on its own merits, there are more than enough moments on Back On My BS to stop the world from forgetting his name. The pity is that, given he’s one of rap’s most distinctive voices, right now Busta seems to have no idea who he is.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sleep of Reason
    It’s just a shame he can’t bring them together as a coherent whole.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Father Creeper
    When it works, as on 'Let Them Talk', it's a mongrel-pop joy. When it doesn't, as on the overloaded 'Venison Fingers', it's a mess.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Clues
    Yet get past the grating AF-isms and there’s some good tunes.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sha Sha
    A solo charm assault with mixed results.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Secret House Against The World
    It's fair to say you won't hear another album like this in 2005. Or probably until 3005. [30 Jul 2005, p.49]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    When Your Heart Stops Beating
    There are more ideas here than Blink-182 had in their entire career; it's just that they're the same ideas that Jimmy Eat World had on their last LP. [11 Nov 2006, p.41]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Christopher
    Christopher is all dreamy lushness with synths that range all the way from zappy to squashy.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Do Whatever You Want All the Time
    Do Whatever...sounds less like inhibitions being shed, less like sex with a tree trunk after a hallucinatory, three-day Haribo bender than their other stuff - and that's kind of a shame, too.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Let's Get Out Of This Country
    If 'Let's Get Out Of This Country' was a person, you would want to hug it until its big doe-eyes popped out. [10 Jun 2006, p.41]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Divine Ecstasy
    Only the appearance of Barbadian teen rap prodigy Haleek Maul, annotating the grimy 'ISIS' with a murky charisma saves Supreme Cuts from slipping completely between the cracks.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Drifters/Love Is the Devil
    There are magic moments, but the overall effect might make you drift off rather than have you on the edge of your seat.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Magic Hour
    A mixed bag, sure, but there's signs that they are still fighting the good fight for weirdos everywhere.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Delirium
    There's something disappointing about this, however undeniable the quality of material.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The 20/20 Experience
    While it’s a good listen, every song drags.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Driving Rain
    'Driving Rain' is supposed to be raw, spontaneous and unpolished, when in fact it's perfectly pleasant, unable to resist the McCartney default modes of jauntiness and sentimentality.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's Up to Emma
    This album compares favourably to Smog, or PJ Harvey at her most skeletal--not least in the confessional lyrical sexuality.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    N.O.W. Is the Time
    The cream of their output is undeniable--the Air-like stringed beauty of ‘Les Nuits’, gut-wobbling soul wailer ‘I Am You’ and early singles ‘Dextrous’ and ‘Aftermath’--but there’s an awful lot of so-so wallpaper here, especially for a Best Of.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Toast to Our Differences
    It’s too long (16 tracks), musically all over the place (veering from Littlewoods advert pop-house to Smooth Radio schmaltz) and, above all, wants so hard to be liked that it sounds like an earnest school project. However: for its occasional tedium, it would take a hard heart indeed to reject this record.
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