New Musical Express (NME)'s Scores

  • Music
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:
6298 music reviews
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Beyond the familiar name drops and signposts, there are flashes of a band in control of their destiny, and willing to try something new.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The result is a densely orchestrated record that is as solid as it is sprawling.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rather than sounding like a vintage group struggling to find their identity, though, Swedish House Mafia’s debut album sees the trio flexing their musical and emotional muscles across 17 brilliant, fearless and often surprising tracks. The kings of dance music are very much back.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    He keeps growing musically, challenging what drill music can be. On ‘Noughty By Nature’, he confirms he’s a genre juggernaut, but in wearing his heart a little more on his sleeve, he’s also evolving right in front of us.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This record shows that Vile isn’t about to abandon the formula that’s served him so well since he left The War On Drugs over a decade ago. It packs that wholesome, easy charm he’s always held, almost as if the songs fell out of his brain while he was strumming away on his back porch.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With its drill influences and eclecticism, this is perhaps the record ‘Donda’ could have been, proving that Fivio has plenty of scope to transcend drill culture.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It can feel – despite the vivacity and thrilling, shack-shaking garage rock beast that this whole album is – that Romero are stuck in a single gear. There’s a sameness to the songs that won’t trouble any listeners who only want to throw their heads around, pogo bounce and get deafened by riffs.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ‘Serpentina’ is a welcome reintroduction to the artist and a cathartic ode to doing things your own way.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The result is both brutally honest and joyfully exuberant, as the band get comfortable and cathartic in their own skin – and invite you to do the same.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A collection of gorgeous, sultry songs that contend with the angst of feeling like you’re the only person who is truly awake and alive in an otherwise sleepy world.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    What White has done with ‘Fear Of The Dawn’, in fact, is row his experimental tendencies back a little, as if to meet the desires of his audience halfway. Unfortunately, that can make large chunks of the ensuing record a confused and purposeless mess.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With ‘Broken Hearts Club’, Syd has crafted an album that elevates her to new heights – one that positions her as an exceptional, peerless talent.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yes, ‘Vince Staples’ was a beautifully personal reflection from start to finish, but ‘Ramona Park…’ enriches the listener’s relationship with the rapper.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s an album of unabashed growth, as the artist gets in his feelings but never veers into self-pity. The masked cowboy is – paradoxically – baring his soul, unbridled and all the better for it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    By digging deeper into her heritage and her own psyche, Cabello has created her richest and most compelling album yet.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tracks on here like ‘Fine’ and the aforementioned ‘Racist, Sexist Boy’ are vital, powerful bursts of punk fury. Yet when they let their pop music imaginations run free it’s equally impressive, with tracks like ‘Growing Up’, ‘Talking To Myself’ and ‘Magic’ showcasing a gift for catchy, singalong choruses.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The process of letting go has resulted in a record on which an acclaimed voice can explore human emotion with more breadth and depth than ever before.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Besides its flirtations with big band-style instrumentals, ‘Chloë and the Next 20th Century’ serves as a gorgeously crafted highlight reel of the singer’s many previous styles and guises, rather than a complete reinvention.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    It rushes with liberating, infectious joy that makes you want to grab your own partner-in-crime and speed off on an adventure to find somewhere that’s, as ‘Angelica’s mantra suggests, is “good times all the time”. With Wet Leg as your soundtrack, it seems inevitable you’ll find that place.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Doherty’s folky 2019 album with The Puta Madres was the sound of the former kid in the riot staring out to sea and looking for a little peace. Here with Lo, it feels like he’s truly found it. Now more than ever, this record is truly Arcadian.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When the album proper kicks in with ‘Totally Fine’, it’s clear that PUP are still trading in the same brutally pissed off but unassailably catchy blasts of self-loathing. And, yes, it’s still as much fun as ever.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On their 12th album, Red Hot Chili Peppers not only get comfortable with their own impressive legacy, but prove there’s plenty more to come.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The freewheeling spirit does occasionally give way to a less exciting middle ground: ‘Eight Minute Machines’ comes as a blast of scuzzy guitar-driven punk we’ve heard a lot of in recent years, where the six-minute closer ‘Greasin’ Up Jesus’ is built around a drum machine doesn’t go anywhere in particular. For the most part, though, this is clearly the sound of a band ready to party once more, making for another carnival of different sounds and offbeat ideas.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ‘TILT’ is a record that proves that campness and ridiculousness doesn’t have to come at the expense of real depth.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    ‘Zombie’ has all the swagger and pep of his previous collaborator The Weeknd, while the tempered nature of ‘Cameo’ and ‘Renegade’ allow traditional pop songwriting to coexist with bolshy, bone-crunching settings. These fleeting moments are by far ‘Reborn’s most satisfying, and offer proof that there’s plenty more creative road for Kavinsky to bomb it down in years to come.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Curry flexes his ability to flow and rhyme meticulously lines that explode your mind, his gruff delivery similar to that of RZA or even Busta Rhymes.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Given its creator’s effortless vocals, smart lyricism and obvious ability to craft new bangers, ‘Gifted’ will only add to the clamour surrounding Koffee’s name: time will tell how far she will continue to rise from this point.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Musically, ‘Mainstream Sellout’ doesn’t stray too far from [Tickets To My Downfall's] blueprint laid out, but lyrically sees Baker get more honest, more revealing and more comfortable in being uncomfortable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ‘Never Let Me Go’ is a true renaissance record. It’s no ‘Metal Machine Music’ or ‘Yeezus’, but a record that finds Placebo inspired and ready for a new era, reinventing the rock veterans for the modern age.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Propelled by a glossy indie sound hell-bent on dragging the band up festival bills, opener ‘Hometown’ expresses this best. ... The problem is, such weighty ambition is left off this album, which too often finds them content on taking the easy road.