The Independent on Sunday (UK)'s Scores

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For 789 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 57% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 40% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 One Day I'm Going To Soar
Lowest review score: 20 Last Night on Earth
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 495 out of 789
  2. Mixed: 280 out of 789
  3. Negative: 14 out of 789
789 music reviews
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    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Mosaic Project
    This is accessible, song-based contemporary jazz at its most earnest, ordered and empowering.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bootleg, Vol. 3: Live Around the World
    This is Cash at his rawest and most riveting, singing his soul out to platoons, prisoners and presidents alike. Hard to describe in terms that are adequate.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pop Tune
    Thankfully, the Knife have remained true to their essential principles.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Saltash Bells
    While there's perhaps a surfeit of synth-washes, the beautiful "Winter Elegy" superbly fulfils the opening promise.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ballads
    This is smooth jazz raised to a high art.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everything We Hold
    It's a clever, sensitive record.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heal
    One moment--the Jason Molina tribute “JM”--is startling enough to forgive the clunking stadium-grunge workouts that seem, conversely, to be bringing Strand of Oaks to wider attention.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tempest
    King Lear probably sounded like this after a couple of days on the heath.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blunderbuss
    Blunderbuss does, at times approach his finest work. But it doesn't do anything he hasn't already done.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2
    A welcome addition to the Beastie canon, and if it gets them back out on the road, it'll be an absolutely precious one.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ill Manors
    This is one of the most exhilarating albums of the year.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Skying
    This is an album that's ostentatiously overloaded on melody, and on all-round sonic luxury. This is the one.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Defenestration of St. Martin
    An album which should win prizes (but won't), and hearts (and will).
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Apocalypse
    The weird, aquatic-sounding requiems are getting better all the time.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Grinderman 2
    Delicious.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Fear Fun
    Fear Fun is the kind of album that can name-check Sartre, Heidegger and Neil Young in the same song.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chatma
    It’s business as usual, only with a lusher production than expected and a tad too much emphasis on Western rock’s tired tropes in some of the licks.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Futurology
    The Manics’ band identity proves robust enough to withstand the tweaking.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Spirityouall
    There’s a personal context (Mac’s dad was a famous singer of spirituals), the band is great, the vibe folksy.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Whole Love
    It may not be the best Wilco album ever, but with care and consideration it may well turn out to be your favourite.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ramble at the Ryman
    The vibe is convivial. And though the great man can't put his cancer-strangled voice to every number, he can still swing the nuts off a Slingerland kit in between chesting a nifty mandolin.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I'm a Dreamer
    Bar that electric guitar, this is the kind of music that you wouldn’t be surprised to hear on an old piece of 78rpm vinyl rescued from a car-boot sale (which is, of course, meant as a compliment).
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Electric Lady
    Expect more straightforward, big-vocal, soul-funk numbers, and fewer immediate hits. But compared with most R&B records, Monae is still lightyears ahead.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ...Like Clockwork
    The band return to the slow-and-low, sinister alt-boogie that made their name, with Homme's satisfying dirty badass guitar sound in full effect.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Build a Rocket Boys!
    Commendably, the Bury band's fifth album doesn't see them chasing the mainstream or pandering to the ear of the daytime radio dilettante.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    El Tren Fantasma
    Watson packaged up the month that he spent riding the train, using his original recordings, adding his own narration, throwing in some interviews, and creating something magical.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Weather
    Any good songs sound like demos awaiting their final form.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    America
    The overall theme is utopia defiled. Until, that is, Deacon – ever the optimist – brings it all together on "Manifest", the big rapturous finale.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Theatre Is Evil
    In every sense, Theatre Is Evil sounds like a million dollars.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    World Psychedelic Classics, Vol. 5: Who Is William Onyeabor?
    The very home-made, amateur-sounding production, coupled with what was obviously a fully formed musical vision, carries great charm and will appeal to fans of Scottish indie jazz weirdo Bill Wells as much as funkers, although only the first two of eight tracks excel.
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