Record Collector's Scores

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For 2,506 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: 1,665 out of 2506
  2. Mixed: 835 out of 2506
  3. Negative: 6 out of 2506
2506 music reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Goodbye Small Head
    While the album (understandably) feels fragile in spots - Furman's falsetto vocals in particular exude sensitivity - Goodbye Small head bolsters its serious subject matter with sturdy, gorgeous musical statements. [Aug 2025, p.103]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jul 14, 2025
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wasteland
    Focusing at times on loss and life's cruelty, the tone is often sombre though always dignified. [Aug 2025, p.103]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jul 14, 2025
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    GOLLIWOG
    Never less than compelling, it confirms im as one of hip hop's most compelling stylists. [Aug 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jul 14, 2025
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    2t2
    2t2 is divided between rhythmic and meditative material, and it is never less than enthralling. [Aug 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jul 14, 2025
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Phantom Island
    With its strings, horns and woodwind corralled into transformative shapes by Brit orchestrator Chad Kelly, the result leaves behind its predecessor’s heads-down retro-rock for a more expansive, if introspective offering. [Aug 2025, p.104]
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    moisturizer
    Moisturizer is a strong stab at something else: permanence. [Aug 2025, p.104]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jul 14, 2025
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Oar On, Penelope!
    A joyous release that's as eclectic as the vinyl selections in a first-rate junkshop, anchored by long serving ex-R.E.M. sideman McCaughey's exuberant yelp. [Aug 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jul 14, 2025
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    McCartney, It'll Be OK
    Musically, it is akin to a stack of chairs balanced precariously on a tightrope. [Aug 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jul 14, 2025
    • 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]
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    OSMIUM
    The result is where the primordial meets the cutting edge. [Jul 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 23, 2025
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Swallow
    Swallow unfurls as an impressively sculpted soundtrack for dystopias real and imagined. [Jul 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 18, 2025
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Planting By The Signs
    The result is her finest work yet. [Jul 2025, p.103]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 18, 2025
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    21st Century Fiction
    The ballads are less effective at keeping Thomson's troubles on track, with six-minute closer Go All The Way lacking a hook to justify its dramatics. But it's easy to root for a band plainly so committed to aiming for grandeur. [Jul 2025, p.103]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Painful Truth
    Where they step into new territory is with Skin's restrained vocals and more electronic elements: whether you enjoy the ethereal synth of Shame and This Is Not Your Life will depend on your taste for stripped down beats and dark textures. [Jul 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mortal Primetime
    Eclectic in all the best ways. [Jul 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Got Too Sad For My Friends
    Throughout, Shura blends acoustic guitar with melancholy synthesisers as beautifully as she blends her vocal harmonies, which, along with a sprinkling of woodwind and funk bass, come together in muted catharsis. [Jul 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We Were Made Prey.
    Gorgeous. [Jul 2025, p.104]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dream Into It
    Everything is dispatched in pristine FM rock production that could use a little more light and shade. [Jul 2025, p.104]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    caroline 2
    With less musical improvisation - though the impenetrable lyrics are invariably off-hand - but boasting more cohesion, its sonic expansion makes for a fuller record. [Jul 2025, p.103]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Metalhorse
    [The] third album's title is a funfair metaphor for life - sometimes scary, sometimes cathartic. The record stands firm in between. [Jul 2025, p.103]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Springsteen's Country
    Big names bookend this collection, courtesy of Johnny Cash's stately narrative on Johnny 99 and Steve Earle's pleading State Trooper (both songs originating from Bruce's Nebraska album), but the remaining 18 tracks are a mixed bunch. [Jul 2025, p.99]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Crying The Neck
    It's as widescreen as anything he's ever done. He's back. [Jun 2025, p.105]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I quit
    The mid-tempo results and on-the-nose lyrics can wear thin over 15 tracks, but Haim's melodic ease provides fitful featherweight uplift. [Jul 2025, p.104]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Talkin To The Trees
    Where Rubin as co-producer, threaded some cohesion through the playful instrumental idiosyncrasies of Yiung and his long-running cohorts, Talkin To The Trees is, like the idea of a "chrome heart" itself, an uneasy hybrid. [Jul 2025, p.104]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 12, 2025
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Remembering Now
    Stupendous stuff. [Jun 2025, p.104]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted Jun 10, 2025
    • 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]
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    More
    As ever, a feeling abides of Cocker looking around him at the stuff of life – parenthood, divorce, marriage, loss, religion, class – and turning it into relatable and (yep) grown-up pop music. [Jun 2025, p.100]
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Get Sunk
    Get Sunk is a return to the energy of early National. The driving, New Order-indebted single Bonnet Of Pins is a case in point, all vivid and surreal wordplay delivered deadpan till pent-up frustrations burst through. [Jun 2025, p.103]
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Let All That We Imagine Be The Light
    These 10 tracks will undoubtedly please longterm fans, even if there's little here that doesn't revisit already well-trodden ground. [Jun 2025, p.103]
    • Record Collector
      • Posted May 27, 2025
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    MAD!
    MAD! is ‘just another’ adroit, bold, clever, distinctive, epigrammatic, fascinating, groundbreaking, highbrow, inventive, jocund, kaleidoscopic, lowbrow, maverick, nonconformist, observational, piquant, quizzical, ravishing, smart, tough, unconventional, versatile, witty, xenodochial, youthful, zeitgeisty Sparks album. [Jun 25, p.102]
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