NOW Magazine's Scores

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For 2,812 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Miss Anthropocene
Lowest review score: 20 Testify
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,287 out of 2812
  2. Mixed: 1,452 out of 2812
  3. Negative: 73 out of 2812
2812 music reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trouble In Dreams
    TID is a solid collection of his trademark epic ballads ready to be your summer patio soundtrack.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ring
    Strangely, a distinct analogue warmth still shines through. Think Enya filtered through chillwave.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Honeymoon
    Whereas her last album had a gently psychedelic and live-off-the-floor feel, Honeymoon plays it safer with “cinematic” arrangements occasionally pumped up (but not excessively so) with modern drum sounds.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
    The album as a whole does drag on, and the songs aren't as immediately grabby as those on their last disc, but We Were Dead is more interesting and varied than Good News.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Alive 2007
    Songs you thought you knew are put through the spin cycle--each track deftly fastens together at least two of their best--so even if you're the level of devotee who owns 'Homework' in every format, you'll still be impressed by this heavy load.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life
    When it works, it’s as joyful as the best Tune-Yards songs. ... Given her soaring delivery elsewhere, the talk-sung ABC 123 and Now As Then fall flat in comparison, and the reliance on 808s feels a tad dated for a group lauded for their innovative production.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mothertongue
    These three suites get under your skin in a good way, none more so than the final track, a haunting gothic tale of sororicide sung by fellow Vermonter Sam Amidon.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bloom
    Bloom is consistent in quality, and there isn't a single bad song. It just feels like they spent too much time worrying about production and not enough time songwriting.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Play It Strange
    Despite the nostalgia-brightened compositions, a rawness adds a tinge of melancholy to the proceedings. Here's hoping they keep this up.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Bride
    Natasha Khan's fourth Bat for Lashes album is her most mature and cohesive yet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Springtime Can Kill You
    Brutally beautiful.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Several Shades of Why
    Though his unmatched guitar prowess often overshadows his other tools, Several Shades Of Why highlights his startling talent as a songwriter.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ships
    Sounds like one big, happy family get-together.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
    It feels way huger than the work of two people, with dense, textured songs that sound like a remarkable collision between two distinct personalities.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Here's To Taking It Easy
    There's no particular deficiency, but the new approach pushes the Brooklyn-based Athens, Georgia, band closer to the middle of the road than ever before.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Creatures of an Hour
    Despite the beautiful arrangements, it's hard to shake the notion that Still Corners, like a lot of new indie bands, haven't yet risen above the sum of their influences: movie music, Morricone, Slowdive, Broadcast, Nancy Sinatra.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ibeyi
    There is an unexciting emphasis on precision and minimalism that saps the emotional heat from an otherwise interesting fusion of styles and sounds.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Heart Is a Monster
    The occasional “segues” throughout the record recall Fantastic Planet and although they help give it some variety and atmosphere, they also feel like too much of a throwback rather than helping The Heart Is A Monster stands on its own.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tremors
    Even though the chords are minor and the mood sombre, there’s something pure, clean and uncluttered about the record that prevents it from being altogether sad. It breathes.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    How to Dance
    Although the album pushes the envelope lyrically, the music doesn't always elevate the ideas as much as it could. Mount Moriah's deftly woven, loose Americana is more a vessel for McEntire's poetry than anything else.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Once More 'Round the Sun
    The music still branches off into proggy places, especially in the latter half, but nothing hits hard or is remotely memorable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ones and Sixes
    Despite its relatively minimal instrumentation, virtually every song here crackles and hums with distorted, altered familiarity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Momofuku
    This second album for Lost Highway isn’t radically different from 2004’s return to sneering form The Delivery Man, only the rockin’ tracks sound slightly less raucous and the ballads not quite as bitter. So he’s back in Attractions mode, sans the old piss and vinegar.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Low Highway
    The tunes are lively, soulful and diverse, each with Earle’s Texas drawl and trademark poetic storytelling in the foreground.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Absolutely Free
    The album swells, twists and turns, but rather than feeling helplessly meandering--a pitfall of the genre--it has an organic pacing that naturally starts and ends with each song.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Green and Gray
    The wild, bludgeoning crest of the album’s centre gives way to the soft, yellowing bruises of its final third, revealing that the band can be just as disarmingly potent and complex even while exhibiting the utmost restraint.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Time On Earth
    It's actually startlingly dark, and understandably so – drummer Paul Hester took his own life only two years ago, and the tragedy definitely shades Neil Finn's songwriting on Time.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything
    More than just another post-whatever crescendo generator, SMZ remain committed to nuance and subtlety while no less committed to getting louder.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Strong Feelings
    All 10 are thoughtful and gentle, presented with little embellishment and zero pretense.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Is Is [EP]
    Crammed with 18 efficient minutes of material generated in the liminal period after 03's "Fever To Tell," Is Is comes closer to the lusty nails-scratching-down-a-lover's back energy of 'Date With The Night' or early Yeah Yeah Yeahs tracks like 'Art Star' than anything on 06's "Show Your Bones. "
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