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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    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lemonade
    Lemonade is strikingly varied. ... Where her huge team fails to innovate is on the album’s drab middle few cuts about acceptance and forgiveness--chief among them the horrible hoedown ‘Daddy Lessons’, which blends whooping with boring rhymes (“Daddy made me fight / It wasn't always right”). But the final four tracks see quality return, and penultimate track ‘All Night’, in particular, is one of Beyoncé’s most nuanced vocal performances to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Singing Saw
    He sounds similarly out of it on the dreamy-as-hell pair ‘Drunk And On A Star’ (“I’ve gone dizzy, like a ship/ When that water comes into it”) and ‘Ferris Wheel’ (“Well I lose my mind, sometimes”). By the end of this sublime record, you’ll have lost yours too.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Diary
    Nothing here totally confounds the suspicion that Yancey was a brilliant producer, but merely an able rapper. Still, as a respectable cap on a great body of work, The Diary will do nicely.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Slay-Z [Mixtape]
    Slay-Z is a blast. What sets Banks apart from her peers is her ability to bounce effortlessly between genres.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gore
    Largely flirting with conformity from a distance, Gore really comes into its own in the latter half, when Deftones open the silo doors on their buried missiles of epic melody.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Red Flag
    They return to their roots for the addictive ’90s swing of ‘Make U Love Me’ but--frustratingly--after the sultry ‘Summer Rain’ the album quickly slips off piste. ‘Who Hurt Who’ is a wet Disney ballad, while the limp dancehall and incessant pitch-shifting of ‘Ratchet Behaviour’ grates. Third time lucky it might not be, but it’s not a million miles away.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Human Performance
    It’s easy to simply pore over Savage’s frantic wordplay--which peaks when evaluating kebab-wrapping techniques on ‘Berlin Got Blurry’--but the music is equally brilliant.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Hope Six Demolition Project
    The album’s lyric booklet is very bare, offering little explanation. Sometimes this spare approach works, sometimes not.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Metal Resistance
    Metal Resistance shines brightest during tracks such as the epic, melodic ‘Amore’, which draws more heavily on J-pop. For the most part, though, its adherence to the aforementioned formula can be quite boring.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mind of Mine
    Zayn has clearly achieved his aim of making an album of sexy, credible pop-R&B.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Weezer (White Album)
    It’s a fan-pleasing record that’s actually more Beach Boys than peak Beatles.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everything You've Come to Expect
    This album isn’t quite what we’ve come to expect from The Last Shadow Puppets, but that’s just how we like it.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Grapefruit
    Yet it all hangs inexplicably together, thanks to heavy doses of charm and wit, its ability to propel your emotions from thrilled to weepy to lovelorn in a trice--and the promise that Kiran Leonard might grow into a properly important figure in British rock.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Stiff
    This is certainly the kind of music punk had to be invented for. It probably won’t make it onto the Radio 1 playlist, but don’t be surprised if something from Stiff pops up on Mid Morning Matters.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New Misery
    Denser than any of their three albums, New Misery blends catchy solos, beefy drums and thick synth parts indebted to Spiritualized and OMD with Cullen’s voice--which remains evocative of some dreamy American high school utopia.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Know It All
    For all this uncertainty, the record is incredibly assured.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Compassion
    Packing too much tunefulness and pop sensibility to ever feel crushingly miserable, Compassion is nevertheless ripe for wallowing in.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chaosmosis
    Over the course of a 35-year career defined by excess, reinvention and the occasional brush with genius, Primal Scream have made all sorts of albums, but not one quite like this.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This Is What the Truth Feels Like
    Over the album’s 12 tracks, Stefani doesn’t mope once--in fact, a lot of the time she sounds like she doesn’t give a s**t. ‘Where Would I Be’ and ‘Send Me A Picture’ say it with Disney dancehall, while ‘Me Without You’ is the closest she comes to balladry, singing “I don’t need you/not a little bit” over polished trip-hop.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ii
    ii is a record that unveils itself slowly, initially sounding ugly and abrasive before the melodies surge to the fore. Once you look for it, there’s beauty amidst the ugliness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Post Pop Depression
    As parting statements go, Post Pop Depression is solid gold proof of his genius.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Second Love
    Both muted and epic, Second Love foresees a future where torch singers are forlorn replicants and a post-human’s ElectroFolk.2 port is hard-wired to its heart. You’ll believe they can 3D-print love songs now.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    untitled unmastered.
    There are few unfamiliar messages and it’s all dense and considered, but never overwrought or explicitly angry. What really emerges is Kendrick's nuanced worldview.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    United Crushers
    If this really is Poliça’s “final paper” (as Leaneagh’s called it), then they’ve excelled themselves with the most intimate and empowering album of their career.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Long Way Home
    At 47 minutes, Long Way Home may seem lengthy for a debut, but it feels cohesive without boxing Låpsley into a limited sound.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Distance Inbetween
    Distance Inbetween is a cohesive, imaginative psych-rock record that grows with every listen. Welcome back, boys.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life of Pause
    Such confident, experimental songwriting points to a rebirth for Wild Nothing, and means ‘Life Of Pause’ can be considered alongside indie records like Tame Impala’s ‘Currents’ and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s ‘Multi-Love’.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    SVIIB
    SVIIB is a fitting eulogy for a musician and a band ever connected with both.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It
    Any record that burrows as deep into your psyche as I Like It... should be considered essential. It’s hugely clever and wryly funny, too.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This Unruly Mess I've Made
    It’s equal parts witty and serious, poppy and knotty, cracking wise one minute, then demanding you sit quietly and listen carefully through some complicated soul-searching.
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