Q Magazine's Scores

  • Music
For 8,545 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 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: 100 A Hero's Death
Lowest review score: 0 Gemstones
Score distribution:
8545 music reviews
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Despite the hysterical crowd response, Live From Dakota is as meat'n'potatoes as its creators. [May 2006, p.130]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Taking into account the great things expected of those once promising likely lads, Romance At Short Notice offers only more disappointment. [Aug 2008, p.144]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    His first studio album in sedven years is an indigestible hotchpotch containing everything from heavier-than-thou riffing to ill-judged tilt at Puccini's Nessun Dorma. [May 2010, p.126]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While Oakey's lyrics still have a near-surreal banality, with Privilege surely the most bizarre song yet to tackle the credit crunch, the two-finger riffs of Sky and Get Together are as addictive as ever. [Apr 2011, p.104]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Unfortunately the stamina isn't there and other tracks hold all the surprise of a Kate Hudson rom-com. [Oct 2012, p.95]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    They can still write a tune but they've done away with much of what made them unique. [Jul 2013, p.101]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The musical similarities to old muckers Coldplay might smack of cynicism, but you can't fault their ambition. [Jun 2014, p.108]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    An assured start, though he'll need to be braver next time round. [Aug 2014, p.115]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It's all very valve, very analogue, and Kongos' morality feel equally antiquated. [Oct 2014, p.113]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Lyrically unambitious, musically on its laurels, there's no oomph here. [Jul 2015, p.113]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A five-year sabbatical finds them both refreshed and free of rancour. [Mar 2016, p.111]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sadly though, the pairing of this reflective Rod with 2018's ultra-slick production and some route-one songs often disappoints. [Nov 2018, p.112]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's heavy-hitting, but the price paid is the loss of the subtle details that made them unique. [Jul 2011, p.111]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While The Sweet Escape is not as garishly over-the-top as its predecessor, Stefani maintains an admirably off-kilter sound, catchy yet electronically edgy. [Feb 2007, p.106]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    While Glenn gamely belts out every song like it's a Broadway audition, his band's appeal remains some distance short of universal. [Aug 2014, p.111]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    I
    There's much daftness along the way. [Aug 2002, p.121]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Baby Monkey has nothing of the danger, adventure or indeed chemical frisson that defined rave culture--it's just smug sonic wallpaper. [Mar 2004, p.113]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Oh how it drags. [Aug 2003, p.106]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mostly, though, it's the well-trodden formula of soggy lyrics and wan, rather aimless melodies the main purpose of which seems to be not to offend. [Jul 2004, p.113]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    It's marooned in novelty. [Apr 2005, p.121]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Their quirky, inventive take on hip hop deserve a bigger audience. [Mar 2009, p.98]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    He certainly pushes the right commercial buttons. [Mar 2006, p.108]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Big Talk are less grandoise and more low-key than his dayjob, thought, and these 12 tracks do sag in the middle when this eponymous debut takes a detour into pub rock with No Whiskey and Girl At Sunrise. [Sept. 2011, p. 103]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    On Old Sock, he sings some that are to him as comfy as and to us as whiffy as the album's title. [May 2013, p.99]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    "Being herself" has resulted in her blandest record yet: it drifts from nondescript disco-pop and cloying R&B to woefully ersatz glam stomp. [July 2010, p. 132]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Blatant Queen rip-off Heaven Knows is fun, but it all goes wrong when she breaks out ballads. [Apr 2014, p.116]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    If the whole is too eclectic to eclipse the sum of its parts, it's an exhilarating diversion. [Apr 2009, p.100]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This could have all ended in Tears For Fears, but their winning seriousness is matched by a penchant for a grandiose but hummable melody. [Feb 2009, p.119]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson prove to be a depressingly ordinary package of overblown melodies and musty lyrical cliches, expensively ribboned with choirs and orchestras. [Sep 2010, p.116]
    • Q Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    [In The Now] doesn't stray too far from the latter-day Bee Gee template as songs such a s Grand Illusion, Star Crossed Lovers and the swooning ballad The Long Goodbye combine harmonies with memorable melodies. [Nov 2016, p.105]
    • Q Magazine