Q Magazine's Scores
- Music
For 8,545 reviews, this publication has graded:
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42% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5.8 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 67
| Highest review score: | A Hero's Death | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Gemstones |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 4,112 out of 8545
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Mixed: 4,355 out of 8545
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Negative: 78 out of 8545
8545
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Five years ago she collaborated with Brian Eno and U2 producer Daniel Lanois on the ambient Wrecking Ball. Now she returns with a less intense but no less powerful new record that continues that album's heavy/ethereal vibe, courtesy of producer (and Wrecking Ball engineer) Malcolm Burn, but with a more melodic touch.- Q Magazine
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This collection is laced with a compelling sense of psychosis. [Dec 2003, p.156]- Q Magazine
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A mind-bogglingly diverse four-hour-plus odyssey. ... A stand-alone single-disc sampler featuring 10 DRIFT highlights ranks as Underworld's finest long-player since 1999's Beaucoup Fish. [Dec 2019, p.114]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 6, 2019 -
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Free Nationals say less about the band's identity than it does their taste, skill and curatorial clout--but that's still more than plenty. [Feb 2020, p.112]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 17, 2019 -
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Posted Oct 10, 2014 -
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Gonzales works with subsonic electronics, shoegazey ambiance and lush orchestration to create a wildly ambitious, often visionary record. [Nov. 2011, p. 136]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 8, 2011 -
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Cocoa Sugar finds Young Fathers at a fascinating juncture: opening up, moving forward, but still existing in a sonic hall-of-mirrors world of their own. [Apr 2018, p.104]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 27, 2018 -
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This won't alienate any fans--his voice is as soothing as ever--but it's pleasing to see him stimulating more than just a goofy grin. [Mar 2008, p.102]- Q Magazine
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It makes for one of the few Christmas albums that stands repeated listening. [Jan 2009, p.116]- Q Magazine
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Seasick Steve has settled into his stride with a seventh studio album that breaks no new ground but comfortably vaults the bar of his own setting. [Apr 2015, p.109]- Q Magazine
Posted Mar 18, 2015 -
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The result is a brilliant rewiring of post-rave sonics. [Mar 2009, p.98]- Q Magazine
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She's making a bid for the mainstream, even recruiting ex-ELO mainman Jeff Lyne to her corner on five tracks, including grandiose highlight 'Human Of The Year,' a three-minute distillation of the album's overriding facination with religion. [Aug 2009, p.104]- Q Magazine
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While Vance's pipes are impressive--a mix of Van Morrison and John Fogerty--it's his lyrical googlies that hook you in. [#361, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 6, 2016 -
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This 35-minute suite is hypnotically cinematic, skillfully orchestrated. [May 2014, p.119]- Q Magazine
Posted Apr 23, 2014 -
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Magician's Success and the Can-does-The-Normal bleep of Backstroke could be missing soundtracks to some experimental Cold War animation. [Aug 2019, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Jul 2, 2019 -
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A seedily romantic, kitchen-sink paean to London, We Love The City finds Hefner's previously wan guitar stylings given a coat of production lustre.- Q Magazine
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- Critic Score
The riffs are cleaner and catchier than on previous records. [Aug 2002, p.126]- Q Magazine
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Sexsmith's best record since his self-titled second album of 1995. [Jun 2006, p.119]- Q Magazine
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What Humanz lacks in memorable hooks, it makes up for in fist-clenching spirit--and We Got The Power sums that up best. [Jun 2017, p.113]- Q Magazine
Posted Apr 21, 2017 -
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Weber's trademark fusion of cascading chimes and subdued yet propulsive rhythm has expanded radically in scope. [Jul 2016, p.113]- Q Magazine
Posted May 9, 2016 -
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Brilliant debut, splicing rock, modern pop and EDM. [Aug 2019, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Jul 2, 2019 -
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This most recalls their masterful Through The Trees, only with pedal steel, banjo, bowed saw and some of their best harmony vocals yet. [Oct 2003, p.104]- Q Magazine
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It's a sensational return. [Sep 2017, p.115]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 24, 2017 -
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This is largely intense, liberated stuff. [Nov 2004, p.111]- Q Magazine
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Posted Jan 7, 2016 -
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Posted May 5, 2020 -
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The Promise itself is a strange thing, less a companion to Darkness than the blueprint for a lost sequel to Born To Run. [Dec 2010, p.118]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 20, 2010 -
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There are slamming riffs to be found, but they're still wrapped within synaspse-melting mathcore that requires a PhD to genuinely appreciate. [May 2010, p.112]- Q Magazine
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By turns wistful, plaintive and overwrought, Solo Piano III is a fitting virtuosic finale to this Renaissance Man's excellent adventure. [Oct 2018, p.111]- Q Magazine
Posted Sep 6, 2018 -
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Posted Aug 20, 2012 -
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This is intelligent pop freighted with emotional complexity. [Jan 2017, p.108]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 15, 2016 -
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What emerges contains much that's familiar but it's presented in revitalised new settings, with grit, urgency and delicacy in abundance. [Mar 2015, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 17, 2015 -
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Posted Jun 6, 2016 -
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Even more meandering than its celebrated, if somewhat cold, predecessor. It's also more confident, more coherent, yielding an all-enveloping warmth that's entirely resistant to any iPod shuffle function. [Jul 2004, p.119]- Q Magazine
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MTMTMK is even more propulsive than their debut. From Kondaine's digitised kwassa kwassa to the deep-house swell of Rudeboy and Mghetto's dub throb, it thumps with worldly street rhythms. [Aug 2012, p.110]- Q Magazine
Posted Aug 2, 2012 -
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Extreme but accessible, they're best savoured with out namby-pamby earplugs, obviously. [Dec 2014, p.114]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 13, 2014 -
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New View, the follow-up to 2013's Personal Record, shares that persistent quality, setting up home in the corner of your head after the briefest acquaintance. [Feb 2016, p.110]- Q Magazine
Posted Jan 7, 2016 -
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They're one of European techno's most respected names, a status enhanced by this elegant follow-up to 2006's "Movements."- Q Magazine
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While his left-field turn may sharply contrast with what he initially promised, he's sacrificed none of his mystery. [May 2016, p.111]- Q Magazine
Posted Mar 16, 2016 -
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Gut-wrenching, heart-rendering and brilliant. [May 2018, p.114]- Q Magazine
Posted Mar 29, 2018 -
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This first rate box-set shines a light on the bass magus's idiosyncratic solo output. [May 2018, p.117]- Q Magazine
Posted Apr 2, 2018 -
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Posted May 2, 2018 -
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Like so much of his troubled catalogue, it disarms you with its beauty. [Dec 2010, p.124]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 20, 2010 -
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Perfectly balanced, 2011's So Beautiful Or So What was a triumph, which Stranger To Stranger continues. [#361, p.115]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 6, 2016 -
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Posted Jul 2, 2019 -
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The title track sets the tone with its exploration of heroin addiction as a metaphor for relationships, but it's "The American Scream"--a gritty, neo-gothic parable--that best illustrates Alkaline Trio's unique take on three chords and the truth. [Mar 201, p.97]- Q Magazine
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Far from spreading himself thin, the polymath composer seems more uncontainable with each release. [Oct 2018, p.108]- Q Magazine
Posted Sep 6, 2018 -
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With each release, they tweak and slightly reinvent their wheel--and use it, happily, to keep on trucking. [Jun 2005, p.112]- Q Magazine
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Here, at last again, is the Ryan Adams of Heartbreaker - creating a uniformly strong collection of songs, singular in mood, each articulated by a voice that, whilst more lived in, remains a lovely instrument. [Nov. 2011, p. 137]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 8, 2011 -
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For those yet to experience Reich's unique soundscapes, this is as good a place to start as any. [Dec 2014, p.115]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 13, 2014 -
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Posted Feb 14, 2017 -
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It's one which adds up to more than the sum of its parts. [Apr 2017, p.114]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 22, 2017 -
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A record that unfolds like a collection of short stories, occasionally hokey but more often affectingly vivid. [Feb 2014, p.108]- Q Magazine
Posted Jan 2, 2014 -
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Posted Mar 16, 2016 -
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Gracie's at his best, however, when dialling it down for the high-end folk of When You Go or hanging out over the ragged edge for The Death Of You & I. [Jun 2018, p.114]- Q Magazine
Posted May 2, 2018 -
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Rushes to the head aside, Progress is a triumph musically, conceptually, personally. [Dec 2010, p.100]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 20, 2010 -
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Beautiful stuff: sunny with a sad undertow, like The Beach Boys, Beck and The Beatles put in a blender. [Nov 2003, p.110]- Q Magazine
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The odd portentous lapse and minor clunker aside, the rate of killer lines is remarkably high. [Mar 2002, p.115]- Q Magazine
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Led by a yearning frontman getting his Morrissey on, it's a debut that's boyishly and buoyantly charming. [Aug 2010, p.126]- Q Magazine
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Sampha's lyrics are clever and his voice so inherently likeable that it works. [Apr 2017, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 14, 2017 -
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Musically, it's more straightforward, psychedelic metal in which the sound leaps from minimal guitars to maximal sludge noise. [Oct 2012, p.98]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 13, 2012 -
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Posted Apr 23, 2019 -
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Classic soul opener Bet Ain't Worth The Hand sounds like the Philly soul of The Delfonics, but it's not long before we're into more up-to-date sonic shapes witht he dislocated beats of Lions. [Jun 2018, p.109]- Q Magazine
Posted May 2, 2018 -
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Steve's boy finally finds his voice on this third record. [Dec 29010, p.104]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 20, 2010 -
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Posted Apr 21, 2016 -
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IN Memory he finds his most reflective tone--the hurt still keening, but distant enough now to bring a gentleness and fluidity to his thought. [Jul 2016, p.111]- Q Magazine
Posted May 5, 2016 -
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The folowing eight songs amount to a proper return to formm, with Middleton's always literate eye for trivial detail matched by catchy acoustic pop tunes and an underlying bleakness that is quietly gripping. [Jul 2009, p.128]- Q Magazine
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The acoustic-leaning song-cycle Hendra presents mature reflections on memory and loss. [May 2014, p.120]- Q Magazine
Posted Apr 23, 2014 -
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Finisterre distills their Mellotrons, strummed guitars and electronic beats to a fine essence. [Oct 2002, p.114]- Q Magazine
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Fans will debate stand-outs but Brothers will shiver the spine of anyone in love with unsanitised rock'n'roll. [Jun 2010, p.128]- Q Magazine
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Us bristles with huge choruses and idiosyncratic lyrics, albeit suggesting that Pet Sounds is his record collection. [Apr 2003, p.111]- Q Magazine
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For all the fraughness there are unpredictable but always apposite moments of beauty. [Jun 2010, p.128]- Q Magazine
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This compilation once more confirms, Wyatt demands, deserves and ultimately abundantly repays, the fullest attention. [Dec 2014, p.120]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 24, 2014 -
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A fiercely well-assembled soundtrack that blends '80s pop and club classics with more recent R&B innovations. [Apr 2017, p.116]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 14, 2017 -
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He'll always be too mannered for mainstream acceptance, but there's unarguable brilliance here. [Nov 2010, p.105]- Q Magazine
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It's a revelation from start to finish and up there with Oldham's best work. [Mar 2013, p.107]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 14, 2013 -
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Intimately compelling, from his first strum to last breath, Regan passes the acid test of songmanship; all 10 are perfect as they are. [Feb 2013, p.109]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 21, 2013 -
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Gargoyle takes the electronic bedrock of its 2014 predecessor Phantom Radio and kicks it up a notch. [Jun 2017, p.109]- Q Magazine
Posted Apr 21, 2017 -
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The grandstanding result sounds like U@ if Bono had decided tattoos, obscure piercings and the occasional sore-throated growl were the way forward. [Jan 2011, p.135]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 13, 2010 -
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Posted Mar 14, 2012 -
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It's remarkably poised, perfectly calibrated vocal swells evoking the synthetic English pastoral of XTC or Julia Holter's experimental layering. [#361, p.112]- Q Magazine
Posted Jun 6, 2016 -
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Posted Jul 17, 2019 -
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Your Future Our Clutter is the Fall's finest in years. [Jun 2010, p.133]- Q Magazine
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The follow-up is far more coherent, as passionate but resisting the temptation to press the button marked "Gotterdammerung" with quite such abandon. [Dec 2010, p.103]- Q Magazine
Posted Mar 15, 2011 -
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The real revelation of this new Smile is its melodic depth, even if lyricist Van Dyke Parks's oblique ruminations seem unnecessarily flowery. [Nov 2004, p.114]- Q Magazine
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:?q:,ails is much better than a collaboration between a former Luscious Jackson keyboardist and a former Breeders bassist has any right to be.... the surprise derives from the convincing Gallic pop-meets-Brazilian tropical-meets-American prairie blend.- Q Magazine
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- Critic Score
Toronto outfit, The Weekend, have been hailed as one of the most exciting new sounds in modern R&B -- hype that, on the basis of this equally startling follow-up, seems entirely justified. [Nov. 2011, p. 138]- Q Magazine
Posted Nov 8, 2011 -
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The scale and bombast of this record are inescapable, it has a swagger one might associate with acts far bigger than those in the cult hero waters Furman swims in. [Mar 2018, p.112]- Q Magazine
Posted Jan 31, 2018 -
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Here he finally found a head-expanding, mind-frazzling voice all of his own. [Jan 2016, p.108]- Q Magazine
Posted Jan 12, 2016 -
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Posted Feb 14, 2017 -
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When they really hit their Ultravoxian stride on Clipped Wings or the piano breaks through the wall of synthesizer on Migrating Clay Pigeon, they're really quite spectacular. [Jul 2012, p.107]- Q Magazine
Posted Dec 4, 2012 -
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Lewis has never sounded on stronger form than she does here. [May 2019, p.109]- Q Magazine
Posted Mar 12, 2019 -
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An album that's consistently mind-melting and often brilliant. [Feb 2012, p. 106]- Q Magazine
Posted Feb 1, 2012