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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    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hi Honey
    At its best, it’s tremendous stuff, with droll, sardonic portraits of lovers and losers punched along by grooves that sound variously like the Spencer Davis Group produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland (“Shake It Little Tina”), Stonesy raunch pitched midway between rock, funk, soul and country (“Me N Annie”), and sundry suggestions of Elton John, The Replacements and Calexico.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Freedom Highway
    On Freedom Highway, Rhiannon Giddens animates black American history--notably, the arduous journey from slavery to civil rights--in songs which pair her strong, sonorous delivery with arrangements echoing pre-blues minstrel music.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Argument
    Former Hüsker Dü drummer/songwriter Grant Hart exhibits huge ambition on The Argument.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bloodsports
    Producer Ed Buller has given the band a bigger sound that works well on the rolling U2-esque riff to “Barriers”, but parts of the album still sag under expectations.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ventriloquism
    The results are frequently transformative, and always enjoyable.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Where We Were Together
    Say Sue Me’s charming third outing shows the quartet exploring a broad range of sounds, but it most significantly ensures they’re not a band to sleep on.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pulse/Quartet
    The palette is tender, and the changes subtle: it’s like climbing a mountain, the same view altering by slight increments over the course of the ascent.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mirror Traffic
    These are some of the most engaging songs he's written, with beguiling melodies wrapped around typically gnomic lyrics, and little undue instrumental indulgence.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Noonday Dream
    On Noonday Dream, he expands the Cornish landscape that has impacted his previous work and brings in sounds and instruments that spark the imagination for places further afield, in the most exquisite way.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One True Vine
    Throughout, Tweedy’s arrangements are the soul of discretion, employing the merest suggestions of rhythm and texture to show Staples’ iconic voice to best advantage.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    American Head
    American Head addresses something more universal – memories of childhood, adolescence and family, and their lifelong imprint on us – with an expansive sound that is equally accessible, tender and surreal.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bleeds
    There’s the same penchant for itchy, unusual beats from the likes of 4Tet and Fred; the same provocative, philosophical flow; and the same undertow of paranoid wariness.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For Those That Wish to Exist
    Thematically and sonically, For Those That Wish to Exist feels limitless.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Emmaar
    Emmaar is a typically impressive blend of the emotional and the political from Tinariwen.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Panther: The Album
    Though not as powerful as Lamar’s own albums, it’s similarly diverse, with elements of boudoir R&B, sinister street creep and ebullient electro dancehall stippled with a variety of sonic detail, such as whistle and kalimba, reflecting the film’s African setting.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    UGLY
    UGLY is a powerful and direct transmission from a brilliant, beleaguered brain.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Pleasure
    Unfortunately, there’s not much pleasure here for the listener, manoeuvred into the position of reluctant psychoanalyst.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    7
    Instead of limiting themselves, Beach House are finally embracing all of their creative moments, which have inevitably challenged them to become better artists.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Songs
    Songs finds John Fullbright more concerned with the act of writing than with illuminating a subject.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hoodoo
    A true original, at his very best.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    From a Room, Vol. 2
    While this partner set doesn’t have quite the sustained quality of the preceding album released six months ago, it still affirms the value of spiking country music with a strong shot of rhythm & blues.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Beginner's Mind
    The great thing about this album is that you can choose to fall down a nerdy rabbit hole with its creators and dissect all the movie themes. Or, you can just let it wash over you while you catch the odd breeze of reference here and there. And though it lacks the direct gut-punch of one of Stevens’ best solo records, it’s infused with the warmth of real friendship.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tassili
    The skirling electric guitars have been replaced by acoustic instruments which, allied to the ageless, weary but unbowed character of Ibrahim Ag Alhabib's voice, enhances further the bluesy nature of their music.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    After Hours
    Like Starboy, there’s a hefty Eighties influence here, although for the most part, After Hours abandons the danceability of its predecessor in favour of moody introspection. This is the music you listen to when the party’s over.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mutual Friends
    Mutual Friends, a loose song-cycle, is entirely winning.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Reason to Believe: The Songs of Tim Hardin
    Mark Lanegan's darkly knowing interpretation is one of the highlights of this compilation tribute.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Wed 21
    Fascinating, enjoyable and original.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Trouble & Love
    It’s a break-up album that’s perhaps a touch too unremittingly bleak for the closing resolution of “Another Train” (“I’m moving on, through the past, through the pain, waiting on another train”) to completely convince.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Still
    A brilliant, nigh-on faultless work from an acknowledged master.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Happy Rabbit
    Norwegian musician Thom Hell’s eighth album is an inventive meditation on growing up.
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