Record Collector's Scores

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For 2,518 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Queen II [Collector's Edition]
Lowest review score: 20 Relaxer
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,674 out of 2518
  2. Mixed: 838 out of 2518
  3. Negative: 6 out of 2518
2518 music reviews
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    • 87 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Running the Voodoo Down: Explorations in Psychrockfunksouljazz 1967-1980
    By its very nature, RTVD is eclectic, and there is an obvious element of hit or miss to contend with. The sequencing isn’t fantastic, and the compilation does lose focus at times. It does however do what it sets out to do; it explores, and gives a good sense of the ways in which African-American music of the late 60s and 70s splintered off in different directions and absorbed outside influences.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Figure In Blue
    Lloyd creates sound tapestries that are by turns ethereal (Abide With Me), haunting (Desolation Sound), and imbued with the evocative earthiness of the blues (Chulahoma). [Dec 2025, p.90]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Oct 31, 2025
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Love You, Honeybear
    The finest album of Tillman’s career to date, it should have the staying power to make the end-of-year lists.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Place Called Bad [Box Set]
    They remained off all save the hippest of radars, yet this exhaustive 80-track anthology incorporating their complete studio recordings and an exuberant bonus live set shows that they nonetheless amassed a fearsome catalogue.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wet Leg
    Wet Leg’s debut album is simultaneously of its time, ahead of its time, and evokes past times.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Random Access Memories
    Ultimately, you don’t quite get the sky-scraping, genre-blending bangers mustered in the past, nor the negative synergy and diminishing returns of many collaboration-heavy, late-career albums.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs By Karen Dalton
    Dalton gets her dues and other voices gain welcome exposure.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Bowler Hat Soup
    It’s worth reminding yourself that the swarming deeps, lo-fi thumbprints and careworn erudition of Bowler Hat Soup--released in a limited run of 500 vinyl copies--would represent a career-best achievement for a preternatural craftsman of any age.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Cleansing
    Witty, wise and wonderful. [Dec 2024, p.108]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Nov 4, 2024
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Colour
    The album manages to transcend genre, but never once feels disjointed. Any mis-steps are quickly developed into something bigger, and no single noise ever outstays its welcome.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Scratch It
    With diss track No Fruit as a droll closing note, the result is a seductively shape-shifting affair: sometimes affecting, sometimes witty, always captivating. [Aug 2025, p.105]
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Rage Against the Machine XX [20th Anniversary Edition]
    The real gold is in tracks that didn’t make the final album, such as the funked-up Autologic and a jazz workout, Darkness Of Greed.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Box Set #4: Curated by Erykah Badu [Box Set]
    This is a great place to start--and possibly to end.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Train On The Island
    Another deceptively sparse collection, the sonic progression has been developed still further, several songs enhanced by hushed, brooding electronica. But the words surprise and dazzle like never before. [Jun 2026, p.102]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted May 15, 2026
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Goodbye Tour Live 1968 [Box Set]
    Even if Clapton is the only member surviving to see it, at last they get to say goodbye on a suitably representative monument.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    V
    Arguably The Horrors’ best album yet. V, it would seem, is for Victory.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    22, A Million
    While some may sneer at the glitches and production tricks that pepper the record, thinking them mere gimmicks, those who stick around long enough will be rewarded by a string of mature, thoughtful songs emerging from their concealment, gradually revealing a little more of themselves with each play.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    1992-1998 [Box Set]
    The attendant singles, EPs and B-sides distil their career into manageable chunks that tell the surface story, but the real gems lie in the albums themselves--each of which is also being reissued singly.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nashville Obsolete
    Rawlings emerges from his usual behind-the-scenes role with considerable originality and quiet authority on an album of entirely original songs.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Springsteen on Broadway
    Such is the unrelenting flood of language and emotion from this remarkable performance that it’s difficult to take everything in on first viewing and repeated listens become essential to experiencing the fullness of it all. ... We can just be glad that this particular spell of lightning was bottled so beautifully.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heavy Heavy
    Their unpredictability and magnetic power remain undimmed by the years.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Proxy Music
    There’s an ethereal feel, something that transcends the boundaries of folk, a gentleness yet something more, helped by the guitar of Richard.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Surgical Steel
    Surgical Steel is both muscular and accessible enough to appeal to metal fans of almost all stripes.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Nightmare Logic
    Nightmare Logic says it all over eight tracks in a damn near perfect 35 minutes.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lotus
    Simz takes on several different genres, handling punk, samba and soul. The atmosphere is dark at times, but emotional honesty is always the priority: whatever style Simz tackles, she delivers it with impressive commitment. [Jun 2025, p.103]
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    End of the Middle
    These are stripped-back songs rich in detail and full of heart, studded with everyday moments and cultural references. [Apr 2025, p.101]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Mar 24, 2025
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Audio Vertigo
    As ever, a warm and humane kind of marvel
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Complete Matrix Tapes [Box Set]
    While the music is frequently revelatory, capturing the post-Cale line-up chilled and stretching out, as on the 40-minute Sister Ray with Lou’s guitar on overdrive, most tracks have appeared before; on 1974’s 1969 Live, 2001’s The Quine Tapes and the third album reissue.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Far from Over
    More abstruse and cerebral.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986
    Bob Stinson wouldn’t see out the rest of the year as a Replacement as his damaging behaviour got the better of him, but he’s on fire here, showboating around with utter joie de vivre – Color Me Impressed is a riot of total abandon, check his solo on a raucous Favorite Thing. The irritating sorts who witnessed The Replacements in their wild pomp will never tire of reminding you of the fact. This explains why.
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