New Musical Express (NME)'s Scores

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For 6,298 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: 4,465 out of 6298
  2. Mixed: 1,680 out of 6298
  3. Negative: 153 out of 6298
6298 music reviews
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    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mutilator Defeated at Last
    The Californian five-piece’s 14th album packs everything they’re good at into one concentrated effort: frenetic rock, pulsating psychedelia and buoyant melodies.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Whole New Mess
    If ‘All Mirrors’ took you to a lavish, creaky ballroom, then ‘Whole New Mess’ tucks you away in the cupboard under the stairs, the door slammed tightly shut.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Inheaven
    It’s the sound of all your messiest student rock nights packed into 39 breathless minutes.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gossamer
    One quibble is that Gossamer never really comes down off its Haribo rush, which gets exhausting. That said, when they do ease up, as on the boudoir-funk 'Constant Conversations', it resembles the two-a-penny synthpop that clogs the blogosphere.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Every Now & Then
    A lot of Every Now And Then was recorded in the rural French studio they’ve compared to the doomed country retreat featured in cult comedy Withnail & I. And that fits, really, as the place this album had to have been made: somewhere haphazard and idiosyncratic, but weirdly brilliant.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Information
    If Beck gets better as he gets madder, this is definitely his best since 'Midnite Vultures' - maybe even since 'Odelay'.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blood Mountain
    The perfect entwining of brain and brawn. [9 Sep 2006, p.37]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Join the Dots
    Dougall relies too much on overly simplistic lyrics, and it gets a bit annoying.... But this is a minor flaw in what is otherwise a strong second album from a band in the ascendancy.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Season High
    This is an album that delivers both mood and melody, thanks in no small part to Nagano.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sun Structures
    Bagshaw’s tendency to spout arcane guff about the Odyssey, desert rituals, buried crystals and dancing on the stones is pure hippy mimicry. Sonically, though, this is a fresh and energised ’60s homage.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What a Devastating Turn of Events
    ‘What A Devastating Turn Of Events’ – despite its slightly macabre title – is consistently charming, while offering enough range in sound and scope to hint at Chinouriri’s future ambitions. She has worked hard to make it sound this easy.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life is Good
    Nas doing exactly what he does best.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For Ever
    While their debut album favoured a shadowy and mystical aesthetic, For Ever makes for a far more personal affair.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Send Them To Coventry [Mixtape]
    Seriously brilliant stuff. ‘Send Them To Coventry’ promises that Salieu is unbelievably gifted with a ceiling nowhere in sight. He carries the entire mixtape with his singular voice oscillating between conventional rap flows, dancehall toasts and ice-cold venomous lyrics.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Iridescence
    Far from making vague allusions to the events prior to Iridescence, Brockhampton lay them bare, atop some of their most adventurous work to date.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Breakthrough
    Mary J draws on an eventful life to reach new levels of feeling. [7 Jan 2006, p.29]
    • New Musical Express (NME)
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pursuit of Momentary Happiness
    Pursuit of Momentary Happiness is excessive at times. From most other bands a swooning old-time ballad like ‘Encore’ and the slightly indulgent power-ballad ‘Words Fail Me’ would raise a big alarm. Somehow though, in Yak’s case they just about get away with it. Excess, after all, is how this record was created in the first place.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Public Strain
    Public Strain is an album that invites you in and lets you at least stay for tea.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cheatahs
    here are patches of sonic soup--‘Kenworth’ suffers from a particularly acute case of moaning flange--but overall, Cheatahs is a triumph of content over style: a gleaming pop wrecking ball taken to the sonic cathedral.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hideaway
    With the liberty of turning attention to new creative pathways, Williams has crafted one of their finest albums to date, this record an unshackled upping of the game.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nikki Nack
    The songs splatter unpredictably with little concern for cohesion, forming a whole that is emphatically unique.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Air Between Words
    This third LP is jumpy and beat-driven and banishes the memory of the dubstep scene he emerged from.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Beyond/Where the Giants Roam [EP]
    Less, in this case, is definitely more: The Beyond is his best work to date.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    America
    America is a profound statement; splicing Fuck Buttons with Sigur Rós in a state-of-the-union address balanced between hope, despair and an accomplished collision of strings, brass, soaring choirs and beats.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ruminations
    Oberst’s evocative character studies add intrigue throughout.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Agent Intellect
    If these guys don't have the loftiest ambitions ever, it needn't matter when The Agent Intellect makes post-punk feel like purest rock'n'roll.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shadow of a Doubt
    The resulting album is a total knockout.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hotspot
    There’s no jolting shock-of-the-new: there’s just reassuringly here, refining what they they do best.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    D-Sides
    Crazy as a second Gorillaz B-sides album might sound, this rummage through the "Demon Days" cutting room floor is totally justified.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Big Bad
    It’s definitely in need of a more brutal edit: the 18-song tracklist is a little bloated and some songs such as ‘Don’t Go Hungry’ (which features Labrinth doing his best Weeknd impression) are pretty forgettable. However, there are enough bangers on here to keep you hitting the replay button, with Giggs’ unique vocal delivery never anything but interesting. He sounds ready to reign for a long time yet.
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