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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    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Big Day
    With 22 tracks over 80 minutes (including a few skits you’ll skip after the first listen), it’s way too long. It’s themed around Chance’s wedding to his longtime partner, Kristen Corley – a rite of passage that mirrors the “big day” of his debut album release. And like a wedding in which the priest’s sermon is getting in the way of the dinner buffet, you can really feel it drag.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    III/IV
    There's plenty here to compare to his unfairly criticized Rock N Roll record: new wave influences, contemporary alt-rock. The difference is that Adams sounds comfortable rather than out to prove a point.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Night Creeper
    The record’s second half loses some immediacy, partly due to the hazy nine-minute epic Slow Death, but not enough to diminish the overall power.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fragrant World
    The fractured sounds give us little to hold on to; the songwriting's hidden behind so much distraction.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lightbulbs
    Despite a few uncomfortable moments, the Brighton trio turn in another solid effort.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Beacons Of Ancestorship
    The album has some great moments but a few too many fumbles to hold up as a complete package.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Green [EP]
    Bibio isn’t reinventing the wheel here (or rather, the acoustic guitar), but when you’ve already hit the sweet spot, you don’t have to.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ufabulum
    Ufabulum won't blow the mind of anyone familiar with his work, but it's a decent entry point for new fans and a very satisfying collection of light-hearted left-field dance music.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    God Forgives, I Don't
    The album's production work is predictable, and its high-concept narratives (Hold Me Back, Diced Pineapples) are painfully over thought.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We the Common
    Even when duetting with harp sprite Joanna Newson, she avoids the trappings of twee.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Afraid of Heights
    Surprisingly, the least punk moments are the most adventurous.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Further
    This stripped-down effort forgoes the high-profile collaborations we've come to expect to create an unstrained, repetitive thumpathon that fits right into their catalogue.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Seen It All: The Autobiography
    On his seventh studio album, however, he’s reinvigorated, dipping a toe into some of rap’s newer stylistic trends.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Our Love To Admire
    In terms of writing and production, this may be Interpol at their best.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Strange Grey Days
    You can hardly call it original, but they've definitely done their homework.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Art Official Age
    Once you get past the air-horn headache that is opener Art Official Cage, the album settles into a pleasant rhythm that plays up His Purpleness’s knack for whispery weightlessness and deep grooves.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Green Lanes
    Once you’ve finished playing Name That Influence, it becomes just a nice mid-tempo indie pop record with catchy guitar hooks.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    World Waits
    While World Waits isn't lacklustre in any way, fans of Frog Queen may be disappointed.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Darkside, Vol. 1
    Unlike Rick Ross, who entertainingly describes his (completely fictitious) exploits in fantastically opulent terms, Joe brags with a dullness that betrays how often he's repeated this story. And the production seems dated all the way down to Kilo, which uses a sample that Ghostface Killah and Raekwon employed to much grimier effect in 2006.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everybody Loves Sausages
    Calling in favours from Neurosis’s Scott Kelly and Mudhoney’s Mark Arm makes Everybody Loves Sausages feel like a loose party record.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Glitterbust
    Glitterbust is the sound of someone coming out on the other side of that moment, armed with heightened instincts and unfaltering confidence.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Strangers to Ourselves
    Songs you'd expect to swell and boil over--which is what Modest Mouse are good at--often end up trudging humourlessly (Ansel, Be Brave), and things get far worse in the moments where humour is actually the goal.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mean Old Man
    Do too many cooks spoil this classic rock 'n' roll concoction? Hell, no.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Red Yellow & Blue
    Over the course of an 11-track album like Red, Yellow And Blue, all the unison way-hoo-hay-oohing gets very annoying, especially when it comes bracketed by earnest yelping and long strummy passages that go nowhere in particular.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Duper Sessions
    While Lerche could pull off Bacharach's breezy lounge swinger persona, he lacks the pipes, the pain and the maturity to deliver the smooth retro romanticism these jazz-inflected ballads require.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Five Ghosts
    The elegant album is wisely paced, cinematic with strings and keyboards, and Campbell and Millan sound great together. But despite the emotional drama on offer, it fails to be moving.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    See Mystery Lights
    Interesting, but not mind-blowing.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    World Peace Is None of Your Business
    The biggest problem is Morrissey himself, who sounds like he’s trying to be clever rather than actually demonstrating that infamously razor-sharp wit.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Live At Carnegie Hall
    Veloso still sounds as smooth and warm as on his 70s recordings that helped spearhead the Tropicália movement.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ti Amo
    Ti Amo feels like the kind of escapism Phoenix and their compatriots could use right about now. And the fact that it’s the most summery music they’ve ever made is like a big, red cherry on top.
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