New Musical Express (NME)'s Scores

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For 6,302 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: 4,469 out of 6302
  2. Mixed: 1,680 out of 6302
  3. Negative: 153 out of 6302
6302 music reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love Letters
    This contrarian impulse ultimately makes things more interesting, but Mount's decision to record at Toe Rag--the all-analogue Hackney studio made famous by The White Stripes and Billy Childish--imbues the songs with an archaic, lived-in feel that takes some getting used to, and you'd be forgiven for being underwhelmed by your first listen. Bear with it, however, and that feeling will turn to pleasant surprise.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Classic
    It’s not an easy listen and moments, notably the faux-soul of ‘Shame’, can grate, but this is a fascinating and rich record.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Take Off and Landing of Everything
    This isn’t a bad or a lazy album, and Elbow are too good a band to ever be dismissed, yet one can’t help but feel they could push their envelope a bit further.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Axxa/Abraxas
    All we can say for sure is that here is a talent in bloom, the sound of ideas finding shape, winding out in all directions.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Electric Balloon
    Each song is so powerful and crafted you can’t help but buy into whatever it is Ava Luna are trying to sell you.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dean Wareham
    In the main Dean Wareham is too dreary, too frequently.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    TV en Français
    Despite the presence of ex-Razorlight man Andy Burrows on drums and extra songwriting oomph, their latest offering feels like another exercise in anonymity.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Addison Groove Presents James Grieve
    A release packed with bangers and choppy breaks.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Let's Be Still
    This is glossy Americana, mixing The Avett Brothers with Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros, its piano- and violin-led crescendos emulating old-timey grandeur.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eagulls
    It’s as nasty a little thing as it sounds, yet, for all the ugliness that spills out of Eagulls, they’re never anything less than vital; these are anthems for a doomed youth determined to kick against the pricks rather than mope forlornly and fruitlessly.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mastermind
    here’s no doubting that the beats on Mastermind, as you would expect from a production roster including Kanye West, Jake One, JUSTICE League and The Weeknd, are exceptional, lush and bombastic and full of zaftig soul samples. So, really, it’s all down to Rick and whether he shows up. And he does.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon
    Brave and futuristic, by venturing into space, Mescudi finally steps out of Kanye’s shadow--with not just one small step, but one giant leap.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Soul of All Natural Things
    This is an album in possession of a rare innocence and charm.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blood Red Shoes
    Blood Red Shoes is probably the duo’s most satisfying effort to date--frustratingly short of the “quiet triumph” they sing about on closing track ‘Tightwire’, but an admirable racket nonetheless.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Black Soul Choir
    Sadly, the Norwegians promptly undo much of their good work by interspersing the bombastic rocking with acoustic cobblers like ‘Lovescared’ and the sort of excessive, pompous emoting that even Pearl Jam tend to avoid these days.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Acoustic at the Ryman [Live]
    The only real lump-in-the-throat moment is ‘No One’s Gonna Love You’--although admittedly, said lump is gobstopper-sized for the duration.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Manhattan
    There are a couple of duff tracks here, in the shape of ‘Fear Of The Knife’ and the horrible cod-reggae of ‘Bandbreaker’. More broadly, Skaters’ whole shtick can feel about as current as that Hot Hot Heat T-shirt lurking in your bottom drawer.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Morning Phase
    It couples a moody sort of glamour with a concrete feeling of loneliness, and it makes for some of the most affecting comedown folk you’re likely to hear all year.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blue Film
    For all Hemerlein’s prodigious talents, you can only have your heartstrings tugged for so long before it all gets a bit wearing.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blank Project
    This new music sounds fresh, vibrant and effortless.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    St. Vincent
    Clark’s readiness to be freakish and alone has translated into her songwriting, which is bolder than ever, and out to connect.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Occult Delight
    A gently addictive and well-balanced offering.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Working Out
    Arthur Beatrice running their race slow and steady has resulted in an album full of sophisticated pop.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Spreading Rumours
    Luckily, no amount of squelchy beats, dubstep bass, trip-hop crackles and gabba breakdowns can suppress their effervescent sense of melody.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wave 1 [EP]
    Sadly, Wave 1 is a more disjointed, disorienting listen.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Present Tense
    The result is an LP that feels more in sync with contemporary music than ever before. There are notes here of Oneohtrix Point Never, Clams Casino, and Tim Hecker. Crucially, though, Present Tense roams a landscape which couldn’t have been charted by anyone else.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Benji
    This time round, the humour is more subtle but the observations on life, and increasingly death, are no less keen.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Peroxide
    The debut album from half-Scottish, half-Swedish songwriter Nina Nesbitt is pop so sugary it’ll rot your teeth.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Motivational Jumpsuit
    Anglocentrically and have eternally teenage garage production values. In other words, a GBV record that sounds like everything GBV fans love about GBV.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Burn Your Fire for No Witness
    Burn is her first album recorded with a full band, though the resultant fuzzily glam swagger doesn’t forsake her wise style, instead coming off like Bill Callahan covering T Rex.
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