Uncut's Scores
- Music
For 11,991 reviews, this publication has graded:
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50% higher than the average critic
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5% same as the average critic
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45% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.8 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 72
| Highest review score: | Miles Davis at Newport: 1955-1975 The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Let Me Introduce My Friends |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 9,011 out of 11991
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Mixed: 2,906 out of 11991
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Negative: 74 out of 11991
11991
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
If the three-CD anthology is intended to make a case for the allure of the band's post-Tattoo You recordings, which comprise 18 of the 36 studio selections, it succeeds for the most part. ... The chief selling point, though, is the third disc, which contains 10 performances from recent tours, four of them featuring guest stars, and here, the results are decidedly mixed. [Jun 2019, p.49]- Uncut
Posted Apr 25, 2019 -
- Critic Score
This set offers up a dozen nuggets from the heyday of Nigeria Afropop, all previously unreleased outside West Africa. [Jun 2019, p.49]- Uncut
Posted Apr 25, 2019 -
- Critic Score
There's an equally brutal, pulverising mix of guitars and electronics elsewhere, but they surprise more often than not. [Jun 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Apr 25, 2019 -
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Despite the glistening production and seamless craft of it all, his wired intensity is often missed. [Jun 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Apr 25, 2019 -
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Hansard's whispery growl is something of an acquired taste, and the first half of this LP sees him aiming towards Nick Cave-style slow burning epics. ... More successful is the second half of the album. [Jun 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Apr 25, 2019 -
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Taken together, the songs constitute a potent set of surging alt.rock euphoria and more sombre ambience. [Jun 2019, p.24]- Uncut
Posted Apr 25, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Never quite persuades you if it's sincerely bitter or a knowing facsimile of an early '80s break-up album. [May 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Apr 25, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Parts of the album are perfectly serviceable but largely the songs become indistinguishable. [May 2019, p.26]- Uncut
Posted Apr 25, 2019 -
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Harding lays bare the pain and discomfort felt in her previous work, though the road to it is far more dynamic and winding. [May 2019, p.33]- Uncut
Posted Apr 24, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Finn remains an astute and supremely compassionate songwriter, but musically, New War is often mellow to the point of lethargic. It's best when it showcases his deep eccentricities. [May 2019, p.27]- Uncut
Posted Apr 24, 2019 -
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Producer Stephen Street deftly updates the brio of their early hits and the songs are impressive, too. [May 2019, p.27]- Uncut
Posted Apr 23, 2019 -
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As with Singing Saw and City Music, a lot of time an thought has gone into ensuring Oh My God holds together. Lyrical themes are repeated, explored and teased out. [May 2019, p.22]- Uncut
Posted Apr 23, 2019 -
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It's every bit as immediate and listenable as it is confident, and more buoyant overall than the sombre Modern Vampires.... It's also flighty and so wide-ranging, at times it reads like a future compilation rather than the next step from a band now into their imperial phase. [June 2019, p.35]- Uncut
Posted Apr 22, 2019 -
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More mellifluous than menacing despite its formidable display of power, Life Metal may be the richest work in the band's 21-year-mission to reconfigure Tony Iommi-worthy riffage into a soundtrack for mindful meditation. [May 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Apr 19, 2019 -
- Critic Score
This daring approach at times exposes the quality of their material, but mostly this is sparkling stuff. [May 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Apr 19, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Mix[es] up The Bends and OK Computer with a pinch of late Fugazi and Talk Talk. [May 2019, p.37]- Uncut
Posted Apr 19, 2019 -
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Posted Apr 18, 2019 -
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Posted Apr 18, 2019 -
- Critic Score
While Forsyth is mindful to retain his more spontaneous impulses, this wonderfully intense set is dominated by "Techno Top", a pounding 20-minute groove that recalls both Talking Heads and Television. [May 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Apr 18, 2019 -
- Critic Score
This audacious album succeeds not by altering Cage's distinctive identity but by exponentially amplifying it. [June 2019, p.26]- Uncut
Posted Apr 18, 2019 -
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Having helped define '90s alt.rock with Pavement, Kannberg here turns felicitous rock classicist. [May 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Apr 16, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Andy Gill's guitar work is still distinctive and angular on tracks like "Toreador" and "Don't Ask Me," but the band seem intent on lending the old with the new. [May 2019, p.23]- Uncut
Posted Apr 13, 2019 -
- Critic Score
These 10 tightly wound, mystical mini-epics are underpinned by Jared Tankel's precision horns, and Brian Profilio, whose John Bonham drums bring the black country rock. [May 2019, p.24]- Uncut
Posted Apr 12, 2019 -
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Posted Apr 11, 2019 -
- Critic Score
White has found his sweet spot in the downhome elegance of Nashville's golden age, collaborating with venerable songwriters Whisperin' Bill Anderson and Booby Braddock, while Muscle Shoals bass legend David Hood anchors his studio band. [May 2019, p.37]- Uncut
Posted Apr 11, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Trent and Hearst have always been keen storytellers, digging deep into characters at loose ends, laying them out in the lyrics and then finding new depths and new sympathies in the performances. [May 2019, p.28]- Uncut
Posted Apr 11, 2019 -
- Critic Score
A welcome fusion of past glory with 21st century arena-rocking attitude. [May 2019, p.26]- Uncut
Posted Apr 11, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Even if the lyrical references to Greek mythology are a little nebulous, she's already created a world we believe in. [May 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Apr 10, 2019 -
- Critic Score
At first you're impressed by more robust moments such as "From Inside, Looking Out"--think Philip Glass on steroids. But further plays are to the benefit of the record's more restrained moments. [May 2019, p.37]- Uncut
Posted Apr 9, 2019 -
- Critic Score
It's a sequence of long, ambitious, noirish, trip-hoppy soundscapes narrated by Burnett on what sounds like a phone line from hell. [May 2019, p.24]- Uncut
Posted Apr 9, 2019 -
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Musically, it's not exactly mould-shattering, a blend of surf and chirpy indie rock. They're at their most effective when they deliberately fray the edges. [May 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Apr 8, 2019 -
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Sonically and creatively, these demos reflect their domestic environment, the realm of the historically valuable rather than the mind-blowing. [May 2019, p.38]- Uncut
Posted Apr 5, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The sound remains satisfyingly Stax/Volt-centric yet also full of left-field touches. [May 2019, p.35]- Uncut
Posted Apr 5, 2019 -
- Critic Score
On this debut album they already sound fully formed, despite only having come together in 2016. [May 2019, p.37]- Uncut
Posted Apr 5, 2019 -
- Critic Score
It's a gorgeous and gutting return to Jurado's Rehearsals For Departure-era roots, wandering and bare, wielding only guitar and voice and recorded in one afternoon. [May 2019, p.30]- Uncut
Posted Apr 5, 2019 -
- Critic Score
These 10 art-pop and jazz-inclined abstractions are as elusive as they are instantly likeable, slipping away from definition even as you're listening via sweet melodic overplaying, elegant spaces and meandering/urgent grooves. [May 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Apr 4, 2019 -
- Critic Score
When You're Ready is a sharply confident debut, as Tuttle proves an expressive vocalist and an idiosyncratic songwriter. [May 2019, p.37]- Uncut
Posted Apr 4, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Idlewild throw together plenty of ideas--without much cohesion. [May 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Apr 4, 2019 -
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Posted Apr 3, 2019 -
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Posted Apr 3, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Meditative, agitative and seductive throughout. [May 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Apr 2, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Tuba can feel somewhat unwieldy, but in Cross's hands it's anything but. his style a blend of New Orleans brass-band music and a grime and soundsystem culture that's somewhat closer to home. [Apr 2019, p.26]- Uncut
Posted Apr 1, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Tightly structured, lavishly orchestrated, brilliantly realised. [May 2019, p.18]- Uncut
Posted Apr 1, 2019 -
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Posted Mar 29, 2019 -
- Critic Score
You're The Man is a bitty, madly varied collection. ... But as a series of discrete and individually brilliant EPs, it's a fascinating documents of the myriad directions that Gaye could have investigated at his creative peak. [May 2019, p.48]- Uncut
Posted Mar 28, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Collins' first album since 2013 sees the singer in pleasingly superb form. [Apr 2019, p.26]- Uncut
Posted Mar 28, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The group channel tasteful elements of the Grateful dead, the Allmans, Pink Floyd, Steppenwolf and CSNY in nine songs that swirl and melt into one one another, forming an album-oriented listen where dual guitars steer the ship, and nascent vocals take a back seat. [Apr 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Mar 28, 2019 -
- Critic Score
There's a biting political edge to the off-kilter "In The Desert," which savages Bush and Blair for instigating the Middle East crisis and its attendant horrors. At the same time, this wouldn't be a Mekons record without a fair dollop of humour. [May 2019, p.26]- Uncut
Posted Mar 28, 2019 -
- Critic Score
She brings Gorecki's great classical prayer to life beautifully, an expression of empathy that feels deep and profound. [May 2019, p.25]- Uncut
Posted Mar 28, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Much of Agora recalls his 2001 breakthrough album Endless Summer: long, processed guitar drones engendering an atmosphere of extreme, if rather familiar, calm. [Apr 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Mar 27, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Only the too-obvious "Lady Liberty stumbles, but even that song is redeemed by a road-hardened band that adds a twangy stateliness to Farrar's outrage. [Apr 2019, p.36]- Uncut
Posted Mar 27, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Herbert enlisted more than 1000 extras to stitch together this patchwork of mournful classical music, keening choirs and parpy Brit-jazz. [Apr 2019, p.31]- Uncut
Posted Mar 26, 2019 -
- Critic Score
It's all held together by the band's well-honed knack for a screwy groove. [Apr 2019, p.39]- Uncut
Posted Mar 26, 2019 -
- Critic Score
There are more fine moments--"powder Man" is softly somnambulant, and the cinematic soundscape of "Kubrick" is an intoxicating affair--but self-editing is notably absent. [Apr 2019, p.39]- Uncut
Posted Mar 26, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Patty Griffin reached something of an artistic peak with 2015's Servant Of Love, a record that distilled her love of American folk, blues and country into an intimate song cycle with a powerful emotional pull. Its follow-up is no less personal, perhaps even more so. [Apr 2019, p.28]- Uncut
Posted Mar 25, 2019 -
- Critic Score
TNP have slimmed down, morphing into a thoughtful electronic pop group with shades of Depeche Mode or late Talk Talk. [May 2019, p.37]- Uncut
Posted Mar 22, 2019 -
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Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
An electrifying collision of cosmic jazz and squalling psychedelic rock, all tumbling grooves and frenzied collective euphoria. [May 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
It's closest to the similarly spare Peace Queer and Agnostic Hymns & Stoner fables, and smider's writing assumes spectacular meta-dimensions. [May 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
They're rich articulations of home, longing and identity, the denuded production allowing a shivering vulnerability to pierce their core. [May 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The sound, constructed with The very best's Johan Karlberg, is spare, clean and spry, a gratifyingly novel fit for Taylor as she dissects Slow Club's split and raw romantic wounds--a heady emotional brew of pain, thwarted lust and giddy pride. [May 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The familiar tropes of nomadic wrangler life are present--trusty steed, blood-red sunsets--but, refreshingly, the masculine cliches are not. Instead, the country-rocker concentrates on intimacy, tenderness and ambiguity. [May 2019, p.33]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The result is lush, beautifully busy-bodied ambient music with a roomy, lo-fi hiss running underneath, as though they're creating these sounds in a basement somewhere. [May 2019, p.30]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
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Tracks like "Running" show he can do a decent dreamy R&B ballad, but more interesting are the digitally manipulated sonic collages, or the impressionistic Spanish-language songs. [May 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The album is a loose concept piece with a watery theme, but it's the infectious melodies and powerful vocals that stand out. [May 2019, p.27]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
"Bellevue Bridge Club" lands somewhere between Van Morrison, Richie Havens and--if only thanks to his violin's drones--The Velvet Underground, while "Manifest" is like a sober Townes Van Zandt. [May 2019, p.24]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
It's a work of elegant simplicity--a suite of wistful and slightly breathless songs set to dreamy tropical guitar and muted lo-fi beats. [May 2019, p.23]- Uncut
Posted Mar 21, 2019 -
- Critic Score
In the wrong hands this mish-mash could be a colossal disaster, but delivered through the inimitable vocals and presence of Eno Williams, it melds gracefully. [Apr 2019, p.31]- Uncut
Posted Mar 20, 2019 -
- Critic Score
She crafts tightly coiled rock epics with just a few elements, sounding like The Strokes one minute, Liz Phair the next. [Apr 2019, p.39]- Uncut
Posted Mar 19, 2019 -
- Critic Score
As the album proceeds, these simpatico players alternate between swaddling Showalter's introspective songs in downy ambience and dialling up the grandeur, before the Clash-like stomper "Moon Landing," with Jason Isbell blazing on electric guitar, relives the accrued existential torment. [Apr 2019, p.36]- Uncut
Posted Mar 19, 2019 -
- Critic Score
It's real allows the band to stretch their legs a bit, to jam ferociously without looking at the time, to slow things down, to try out a few new tricks. [Apr 2019, p.27]- Uncut
Posted Mar 19, 2019 -
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The sweetness of her voice often masks tough sentiments. [Apr 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Mar 15, 2019 -
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Their reformation record is a surprisingly substantial pleasure. [Apr 2019, p.36]- Uncut
Posted Mar 15, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie play a whirlwind hits set complete with numerous diversions and wonderfully bathetic between-song anecdotes. [Apr 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Mar 15, 2019 -
- Critic Score
It feels in some ways much more of a post-Lambchop album than FLOTUS. [Apr 2019, p.24]- Uncut
Posted Mar 13, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The result is pulsating electronic music that draws from the spontaneity and invention of free jazz. [Apr 2019, p.30]- Uncut
Posted Mar 13, 2019 -
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By combining focused layers and distinctive styles, The Coathangers have crafted their best record yet. [Apr 2019, p.26]- Uncut
Posted Mar 13, 2019 -
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There are dark undertones--drug references mainly--but Lewis is no moper. [Apr 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Mar 12, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The premise may sound gimmicky and cerebral but the results are mostly playful, poppy and accessible. [Apr 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Mar 12, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Roots Manua's particularly thrilling on the poignant urgent "A Caged Bird," but while "Lessons" suggest the warm post-jazz realms of Tortoise could have explored post TNT, no-one else combines dignified grandeur and soulful romance so effectively. [Apr 2019, p.26]- Uncut
Posted Mar 12, 2019 -
- Critic Score
These 33 minutes are some of Malkmus' finest work; one avenue, then, has now been explored and staked out, but remains pleasingly wild. [Apr 2019, p.35]- Uncut
Posted Mar 12, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The album is most fun when it plays up to the contours of Karen O's idiosyncratic voice. [Apr 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Mar 12, 2019 -
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Posted Mar 8, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Donnelly's unselfconscious voice recalls Kate Nash and Lily Allen, but she both angrier and less suited to straight-up pop. [Apr 2019, p.28]- Uncut
Posted Mar 8, 2019 -
- Critic Score
There's a touch of mum-at-the-disco about the dancier numbers, but the sweet acoustica of "Some Kind Of love" and the wispy electronica of the title track still underpin earwormy hooks that won't be denied. [Apr 2019, p.28]- Uncut
Posted Mar 8, 2019 -
- Critic Score
A certain oppressiveness is part of the design, but there are glimpses of beauty here, too. [Apr 2019, p.39- Uncut
Posted Mar 7, 2019 -
- Critic Score
It's impressive the way the trio can seamlessly slip back into the Dead-like country-psych sound that defined the best of their '80s/'90s output. [Apr 2019, p.32]- Uncut
Posted Mar 6, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Her deft piano playing helps release some of the tension in her highwire act. [Apr 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Mar 5, 2019 -
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A collection of songs that are superficially alluring but, bar standout "Morning Comes," rarely captivating. [Apr 2019, p.36]- Uncut
Posted Mar 4, 2019 -
- Critic Score
The best moments of Inferno are tender hymns to everyday pleasures. [Apr 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Mar 4, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Guitars play more of a supporting role, and the tonal shifts suits the band, with Philippakis's voice given much more room to float elegantly through the record, [Apr 2019, p.29]- Uncut
Posted Mar 1, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Arguably Pond's slickest effort so far--a gorgeously nuanced set of damaged synth-funk and curdled power ballads that should finally see off any Grateful Dead comparisons. [Apr 2019, p.20]- Uncut
Posted Mar 1, 2019 -
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Posted Feb 28, 2019 -
- Critic Score
They've expanded on their debut's Goat/Can homage, opting for a rawer sound that leans on funk-charged bass throbs and wildly oscillating synths. [Apr 2019, p.36]- Uncut
Posted Feb 28, 2019 -
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Many of the covers are of recent blues songs, such as Joe Bonamassa's "Distant Lonesome Train," Gary Moore's "The Hurt Inside" or "Evil And Here To Stay" by John Headley, but Mayall is able to locate them firmly within an older blues tradition without ever making them sound like hollow tributes. [Mar 2019, p.30]- Uncut
Posted Feb 26, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Any sense they're simply re-creating the sounds of the past is dispelled from the first notes of opener "Morning in America." ... The band set every song in the present, drawing as much from sampling and turntablism as from old-school soul. [Apr 2019, p.31]- Uncut
Posted Feb 26, 2019 -
- Critic Score
These 12 songs have a resonance that's deep and wide, examining intimate/romantic connections and their power to wound and confuse, as well as relationships in the broader contexts of existential identity and being fused to a genealogical history. [Apr 2019, p.38]- Uncut
Posted Feb 26, 2019 -
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In Keeping it simple, Frawley speaks volumes to the gloriously messy stew of the human psyche. [Mar 2019, p.27]- Uncut
Posted Feb 26, 2019 -
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A power-pop potpourri that falls between the Beatlesque formalism of Cotton Mather and the eruptive emotionality of Car Seat Headrest. [Mar 2019, p.34]- Uncut
Posted Feb 26, 2019 -
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Posted Feb 25, 2019