The Independent (UK)'s Scores

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For 2,310 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 48% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 48% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 Middle Of Nowhere
Lowest review score: 0 Donda
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,261 out of 2310
  2. Mixed: 1,019 out of 2310
  3. Negative: 30 out of 2310
2310 music reviews
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    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Devouring Radiant Light
    Tracks such as the blistering “Temple of the Sun” take no prisoners, taking little time before exploding into the kind of full-frontal assault we’ve come to expect from the heavier side of metal. Elsewhere “The Luminous Sky” takes a more frenetic approach though feels no less uncompromising, while “The Sacred Soil” closes out a record that not only shows exactly where Skeletonwitch are in 2018, but also where contemporary metal is at as well.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Don't Lose This
    Save for the big live band arrangement of Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody” that closes the album, it’s a thoughtful, intimate set.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Still Smiling
    Blixa Bargeld's collaboration with Italian composer Teho Teardo finds him in fine fettle on a group of typically sardonic songs set to unusual string and electronic arrangements performed with The Balanescu Quartet.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Big Machine
    The confidence of the performances benefits strong contemporary material dealing with issues from outreach to domestic abuse.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Landfall
    Some are perfectly matched: the cycling strings of the poignant “The Electricity Goes Out And We Move To A Hotel” are like waves lapping at a wall, while the darting bricolage of scraping bow and “close-up” violin brings a real sense of desperation to “Dawn Of The World”. Anderson’s characteristic air of matter-of-fact wonder, meanwhile, lends a gentle charm to the epiphanies of “Everything Is Floating” and “Nothing Left But Their Names.”
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Race for Space
    Race is richly entertaining, immersive and evocative, orchestrated with fastidious care and feeling.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tell Me How You Really Feel
    While the songs here lack the scuzzy charm of her debut, Tell Me How You Really Feel is a weightier, more direct record.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Southern Blood
    For his final recordings, Allman returned to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, where gospelly backing vocals and burring horns bring a deep-soul tone and texture not just to a soul standard like “Out Of Left Field” but also to material like “Going, Going, Gone” and the Dead’s “Black Muddy River”.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Saturn
    NAO has hovered around a near-perfect brand of sultry, neo-soul-inflected R&B. Four years later, and she seems to have mastered it.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Good Woman
    Though it could stand to sound more consistent throughout (at times The Staves sound like they’re throwing that proverbial spaghetti against the wall), Good Woman successfully demonstrates that even through life’s lessons and uncomfortable liminal states, family is the most stabilising force.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Notes of Blue
    A brave, and welcome, transformation.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Terror
    Beautiful, blissful melodies are buried in there.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Good Times!
    All told, probably The Monkees’ best album, after their hits compilation.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
    There’s a little electronic noodling going on to remind us that, though Mering sounds supremely grounded, a part of her is still in exiled orbit around a damaged world. It’s soulful, and a little spooky.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Thank You, Happy Birthday
    The Kentucky combo Cage the Elephant manage to find a new wrinkle on the face of US indie-punk, thanks to an enthusiasm for yoking catchy melodies to abrasive guitar riffs that recalls the Pixies.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Geography
    Their mega beats endure on No Geography, but this is also a stupendously successful splicing of past and present.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    72 Seasons
    72 Seasons may not see Metallica doing anything new – but it does find their old machine firing on all cylinders. Old and new fans alike will be headbanging happily throughout.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Going Back Home
    For his part, Daltrey matches Johnson every step of the way, fighting his corner just as fiercely as in his dayjob.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Undying Color
    The calm, methodical “Gravity Wake” blends stately Moondog-like drums with undulating synths and relaxed solo horn lines that inescapably bring to mind Terry Riley. Elsewhere, the use of rhythmic, murmured vocables in “Glossolalia” recalls Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life. Love. Flesh. Blood
    For Life Love Flesh Blood, Imelda May has hooked up with T-Bone Burnett and his failsafe session crew of tasteful interpretive talent to effect a shift away from boisterous rockabilly towards more sensual torch songs like “Call Me” and “Black Tears.”
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Different Kind of Fix
    They now dart in yet another direction, devising a shuffling indie-dance style that recalls variously the infectious syncopations of Talking Heads, the baggy grooves of Happy Mondays and the campfire psychedelia of Animal Collective, but somehow manages to sound homogenously all of a piece.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Duster
    For better or worse, Duster sounds as though it was created by humans. Imperfections are packed into structures that are more comprehensible, and far less nebulous. Each crackle, echo and strained vocal makes the limitations of being human seem not only clear, but beautiful in its vulnerability.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dancing with the Devil... The Art of Starting Over
    The best of confessional pop – think Beyoncé’s Lemonade – finds an original sound for an original experience and demands the listener’s attention.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Interstellar
    It's Rose's harmonies that make the album special: warm and breathy, they seem to sidle gently into position, rather than cut with razor precision.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Magic Whip
    Heart, ultimately, is the key to a project which links personal, small-scale disturbances of loneliness and homesickness with broader concerns of population density and ecological sustainability.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Seventeen Going Under
    Fender has refined both his songwriting and his sound.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Don't Forget Who You Are
    It's quite easy to envisage entire arenas punching the air to songs like these and the pounding “You're Gonna Get It”, one of two tracks featuring Paul Weller.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All Born Screaming
    The result is a record that is by turns lush and ethereal, a sonically cohesive venture into slightly unfamiliar territory.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Coup de Grace
    Coup De Grace is Kane’s best work to date: punchy, cohesive and lots of fun.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service
    Despite the hiatus, this guest-laden double-album finds the group still very much engaged, rattling out tongue-twisting, articulate verbal flows dealing more with social realities than self-aggrandising brags and outlaw fantasies.
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