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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    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
    One can't help wondering whether this was really the album that Noel Gallagher set out to make when he contemplated a solo career, or just the one he settled for.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Great Escape Artist
    They may talk it up as a brave new step forward, but their first album in over eight years can't really be viewed as other than a retrograde move for Jane's Addiction.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Awakening
    The songs are mostly just nondescript airwave fodder, clogging up the aether for months to come.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Last Days of Meaning
    As usual with Sawhney, it's typically eclectic, and surprisingly effective.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Earth Division [EP]
    Earth Division finds Mogwai in unusually calm and engaging mood, its four tracks for the most part eschewing their trademark surging post-rock in favour of a lighter, more reflective approach.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For True
    Shorty here offers an explosive blend of funk, blues and jazz.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Paul McCartney: Ocean's Kingdom
    It's hardly groundbreaking stuff, but McCartney undeniably has an ear for melody.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Reverie
    Henry's stubbled delivery pitched somewhere between Randy Newman and Tom Waits as he negotiates the galumphing waltz "Strung" and the ramshackle cakewalk groove "Sticks & Stones", which best exemplifies the album's mythopoeic blues mode.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    New Blood
    Due to the choice of material, the arrangements lean heavily towards the dramatic and angst-ridden--well, it is Peter Gabriel--with the sole recourse to mellow calm reserved for the undulating strings of "The Nest That Sailed the Sky".
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Obscurities
    Merritt's main problem may be that his baritone croon makes him sound cynical even when he's baring his heart, an impression only partly undercut by his occasional ukulele strum.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    TKOL RMX 1234567
    Most are dully baffling.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ashes & Fire
    There's barely a shred of truly memorable content here.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Biophilia
    The only reliably engaging elements of the compositions are the wonderful choral arrangements that provide most of the mortar connecting Björk's voice to the instrumental parts.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    An Appointment with Mr. Yeats
    Scott's overly melodramatic delivery sometimes gets in the way of the words, although his arrangements are for the most part respectful and apt.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
    It's the communal sentiment underlying such ostensibly personal heartache that gives Williams's songs much of their power, that draws the listener in as an emotional fellow-traveller.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beauty Queen Sister
    Their 14th studio album finds the Indigo Girls operating as powerfully as at any time in their career, on a set of uncommonly strong songs performed with the kind of typically understated Nashville polish that affords their signature harmonies the full spotlight.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Metals
    Feist here cements her position as the poster-girl for intimate US indie rock, with songs that peel back the skin of the human condition.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Timez Are Weird These Days
    It's the same throughout, London relying on charm over content. But, in fairness, he makes it more fun than most.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Black Rainbows
    While imparting a palpable sense of immediacy to the performances, there are some tracks that could do with more work.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Trans-Love Energies
    Seven years on from Satan's Circus, Death in Vegas' prime mover Richard Fearless doesn't seem to have moved on at all.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Less You Know, The Better
    There's a pronounced shortfall of his usual joyous eclecticism here, with many pieces settling for basic repetitive sequences; some sound like little more than extended intros.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Whole Love
    If it's not quite the landmark that was Wilco (the album), it's not far behind, as absorbing as any you'll hear this year.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Scintilli
    Here, they find unsuspected connections between disparate sounds.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    +
    He's a bona fide hitmaker with a colossal YouTube following, working in the argot and style of his own generation
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    4everevolution
    It's a more considered and persuasive analysis than most of his younger, grimier peers can offer.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Seasons on Earth
    Meg Baird, formerly the frontperson of Philadelphia-based psychedelic folk-rockers Espers, is left a little exposed on her own solo album.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pajama Club
    Despite the propulsive energy sustained throughout, some tracks lack focus.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mockingbird Time
    The Jayhawks release their most insipid, uninspired album in years.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Velociraptor!
    As on the splendid West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Kasabian talk a good fight with Velociraptor--and if the results don't quite bear out the bluster, that's probably more a reflection of the excellence of its predecessor than a measure of its own shortcomings.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    SuperHeavy
    The sad fact about supergroups is that they are rarely the result of any musical imperative. This is painfully confirmed on the debut offering from the alliance of Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and A R Rahman, on which the assembled talents cast around for a style of their own without ever unearthing the natural chemistry on which great bands rely.
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