Uncut's Scores

  • Music
For 11,991 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 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
Score distribution:
11991 music reviews
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    III
    With III, they shift their intense focus on '70s motorik rock, psychedelia and heavy drone to admit furious post-punk, industrio-dub grooves and the odd open space, [Jun 2014, p.72]
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    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The songs are more direct and arrive with a harder edge [than 2012's Blood Speaks]. [May 2014, p.80]
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    An entertaining oddity which manages to recall both Bobby Gillespie and (late) Julian Cope in its reverence for over-the-top rock'n'roll excess. [May 2014, p.78]
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Mexican duo aren't quite in the Jansch/Renbourne class, but they create memorable tunes full of clever variations of timbre, texture and tone. [May 2014, p.78]
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    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    32 years on from Swans' formation, Michael Gira is not only still moving forward, but making some of the albums of his career. [Jun 2014, p.81]
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The arrangements are reserved and understated throughout, gently cradling Merchant's strident but intimate voice. [May 2014, p.77]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    If the acoustic backdrop sometime slacks texture, there are no such qualms with the songwriting that demonstrates a novelist's eye for detail. [Jun 2014, p.83]
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Seven Dials seamlessly weaves many of the best elements of Frame's past into a work of consummate craftsmanship which also references the likes of Steely Dan, The Cure, The Beatles, Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. [Jun 2014, p.68]
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The likes of "Minimum Wage" and "Too Much Not Enough" sound like a youth-club band who've simultaneously overdosed on Haribo and the Gang Of Four, which is both preposterous and admirable behavior from people in their thirties. [Jun 2014, p.71]
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    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A subtle, unshowy set it may be, but Toumani & Sidiki shows that this particular family affair will endure... perhaps for another 70 generations. [May 2014, p.75]
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Streets' Original Pirate Material crossbred with The Fall's Grotesque, it's nasty and brutish, but mercifully short. [Jun 2014, p.83]
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    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Too busy with ideas for its own good. [Jun 2014, p.76]
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Evans' descendent Gruff Rhys has immortalised his journey with a saga in documentary, book, app and CD form. Rhys has a talent for presenting such material with the right mix of pathos and play. [Jun 2014, p.82]
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An engaging distillation of Weiss' rumbustious style that locks the listener into a groove and doesn't let go. [Jun 2014, p.74]
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The album's highlight comes when "I See You" wiggles free of its '90s indie-disco mooring and shoots at the moon; Luminous could have done with a few more of those moments. [Jun 2014, p.78]
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Disappointingly, F&M's fifth album reinforces the trio's constant strength and weaknesses. [Jun 2014, p.78]
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    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The best moments tend to come where the reggae is at its most full-on. [Jun 2014, p.80]
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amelia Rivas and Christian Pinchbeck were "on" before they recorded their debut album, but are now very much "off," a situation which adds a fraught edge to the woozy Sky Swimming. [Jun 2014, p.76]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unexpectedly exhilarating. [Jun 2014, p.79]
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You'd struggle to find a more affecting ode to the selfishness of love than this. [Jun 2014, p.80]
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    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Way is a terrific, club-attuned set that renders them barely recognizable. [Jun 2014, p.83]
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    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It may seem churlish to identify one reunion as especially cynical, but recent Pixies activities have felt notably artless--a situation emphasised by Indie Cindy. [Jun 2014, p.82]
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This study of youthful misadventures gives the 97's ample opportunity to re-immerse themselves in the punk-fuelled exuberance they brought to the alt-country movement two decades ago. [Jun 2014, p.82]
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Two
    Vocalist Tim Kinsella strikes an intriguing balance between raw emotion and lyrical enigma. [Jun 2014, p.82]
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    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The straightforward rap tracks merely show up his generically braggadocio lyricism and deflated hook, using charmless trap cliche and bringing out the leaden, smoke-headed worst in the likes of Action Bronson, Mac Miller and Ab-Soul. [Jun 2014, p.78]
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    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Its hard-edged synth-punk is grittier and harsher this time around, perhaps their best collection since 2001's Danse Macabre.
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    22-year old singer and songwriter Dylan Baldi still sounds like an angst-wracked teen. [Jun 2014, p.73]
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    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    An entirely ravishing aesthetic experience. [Jun 2014, p.76]
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    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Plenty of mouth, then, but lacking in trousers. [Jun 2014, p.69]
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    If El Camino was the Keys' catchiest album. Turn Blue turns out to be their sneakiest, subtlest and most seductive. [Jun 2014, p.65]
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There are enough moments of mercurial brilliance on May Your Marry Rich to suggest that the core duo of former student buddies Ryan Hendrix and Nick Turner are finally on to something. [Apr 2014, p.71]
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    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The overall effect is both dark and playful. [May 2014, p.74]
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    They've lost none of the vigour of second (and last) album, 1988's Woodenfoot Cops On The Highway. [Mar 2014, p.85]
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shriek is a sustained act of seduction, a deftly conjoined conjuring of song, rhythm and mood. [May 2014, p.83]
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    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gone, for the most part, are the aching ballads in favour of identikit stadium rock epics somewhere between Simple Minds and Coldplay, overlain with '90s dance beats. [May 2014, p.73]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This is an album that twitchily turns away from a pat genre tag. [May 2014, p.81]
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    3rd
    While a talking blues about baseball cards edges into geekville, "To The Veterans Committee," a sunshine pop supreme, might have you singing the praises of Dale Murphy without even knowing who he is. [May 2014, p.69]
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    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    There's no doubting To Kill A King's musicianship, nor their potential to be absolutely massive, but singer Ralph Pelleymounter's mid-Atlantic drawl is as irksome as the abundant lyrical truisms. [Apr 2013, p.79]
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everyday Robots is a less ebullient, more intimate and reflective affair, as befits the tentative revelation of a man's soul. [May 2014, p.63]
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    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's an effective idea and an enjoyable stopgap before her next masterwork arrives. [May 2014, p.74]
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Once you get over the initial shock of Kelis' raw-throated take on country-rock on "Friday Fish Fry," the culinary theme becomes another ingredient that never quite blends into a tasty dish. [May 2014, p.76]
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Those who adored The Make-Up may find the skeletal drum machine thunk of "Stuck In A Box" a little demo quality. But Svenonius' charisma is unflagging, and his commitment to the theme can thrill. [May 2014, p.71]
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As frustratingly close to perfect as ever. [May 2014, p.73]
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It;s an easy, unchallenging ride, but a satisfying one. [May 2014, p.76]
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This stone-age jalopy has a definite theatrical charm--malevolent Nick Cave-ish narratives, vicious basslines, squally guitar and touches of honking saxophone, all executed with a visceral energy that's almost painful to behold. [May 2014, p.67]
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There's a mellow-late-Beatles vibe at play, especially on "Full Moon," and this may be the band's finest to date. [May 2014, p.83]
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The joy is in how much of it there is to listen to, with constant change in tempo, instrument and texture that manage to maintain an overall coherence while keeping everybody from getting bored. [May 2014, p.79]
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Afghan Whigs remain a high stakes band, conducting business not with a eye on self-preservation, but in the heat of the moment. [May 2014, p.72]
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Throughout, Crowell’s versatile, impassioned voice is in fine fettle, a confident mix of goofiness and longing, anticipation and excitement, sadness and sentimentality, as if he’s just now entering a new prime. He might well be.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    He's let down by the lyrics, which seem, to have been assembled from a collection of fridge magnet soul cliches. [May 2014, p.78]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These are beautiful songs, penned from midlife. [May 2014, p.82]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Am The Last has a wind in its sails, though, thanks to Tibet's preacher vigour, and an extraordinary guestlist. [May 2014, p.71]
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Though sometimes a tad one-dimensional, at its best this music is as warm, sad and effortlessly beautiful as a midsummer sunset. [Apr 2014, p.69]
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is music that looks death square in the face and screams back at it, announcing its life. [May 2014, p.69]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    At two hours, it could use pruning, but Belomancie has a visionary quality. [May 2014, p.80]
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The unlikely pairing works precisely because of the contrast between their approaches, as they locate a vibrant middle ground on rawboned yet tuneful rockers like "The Prisoner" and dynamic ballads like "No Sir." [May 2014, p.69]
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This tasteful collection is best represented by McBride;s cover of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now," matching her satin to the original's velvet. [May 2014, p.77]
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    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This polished third album is a feat for fans of puerile humour and glam-metal guitar solos. [May 2014, p.80]
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    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There are some nice details though daft lyrics such as "I kiss your knees and I try to be bold" threaten to undermine the flashes of brilliance elsewhere. [May 2014, p.73]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Their blue period, perhaps. It suits them. [May 2014, p.76]
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She's in fine eloquent fettle, sinking her heart into the ever-resilient material. [May 2014, p.71]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An invigorating debut. [May 2014, p.78]
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's a surprisingly varied record, the mood darkening towards the close, the band ever occasionally busting their habitual one-minute barrier. [May 2014, p.78]
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fun for all the family. [May 2014, p.80]
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    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The homogenous production gets bland real quick, meaning, that, ultimately, it' shard to care either way about it. [May 2014, p.83]
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Six
    She's performing and singing at her peak. [May 2014, p.83]
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The beautiful, feathery songwriting featured on Boson-based Casy Dienel's previous album as White Hinterland has had a steroidal pumping. [May 2014, p.83]
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It's unfortunate that these splendidly rumbustious tracks make the lumbering ballads even harder work by comparison. [May 2014, p.81]
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Few of the 23 artists involved here resist the shackles of taste. [May 2014, p.81]
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While everything is played with gusto and the songs themselves are well constructed, the album perhaps lacks enough surprises or detours from its sturdy formula to make it especially memorable. [May 2014, p.80]
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sleeper Agent rise to the occasion on their major-label debut. [May 2014, p.80]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Vienna-based Londoner who lurks behind the Sohn alias coins a wintry brand of high-tech electro-soul on this striking debut. [May 2014, p.80]
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    She's actually more effective when slowing things things down a notch. [May 2014, p.77]
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    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This is actually their most enjoyable record in ages, largely because it draws together recurring Laibach themes. [May 2014, p.77]
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    An album that feels joyously cathartic as well as musically stunning. [May 2014, p.76]
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The duo of Matt Carlon on Modular synthesiser and Joanthan Sielaff on bass clarinet, are onto something with Seer. [May 2014, p.74]
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    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Salad days is goofy but sweet guitar pop in the vein of Jonathan Richman, occasionally somewhat lightweight but delivered with a crooked smile that's quite endearing. [May 2014, p.73]
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Anderson's voice keeps songs like "Smoulder" feeling raw and human. [May 2014, p.73]
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Slasher House is not so different to the last Animal Collective album, 2012's bristly Centipede Hz. [May 2014, p.69]
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Small Town Heroes is the band's fifth and best album. [May 2014, p.68]
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    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    His leftfield takes on protest soul have been ditched in favour of pick'n'mix revivalism and banal inspirational platitudes. [May 2014, p.67]
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    You wish the pace would pick up after a while but then again, what My Sad Captains do, they do beautifully. [Apr 2014, p.78]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Vermont find unexpected warmth in the almost mathematical precision of these restrained but seductive instrumentals. [Apr 2014, p.83]
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Essential and sublime. [Mar 2014, p.76]
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Langford, as ever, masterfully mixes the personal, the political and the poetic. [Apr 2014, p.77]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Old Fears is entirely worth your concentration. [Apr 2014, p.81]
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    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sinclair's knack for storytelling, wordplay and a warm voice carry sufficient wit and energy to ride the jazzy undercurrent. [Apr 2014, p.81]
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A stew of attractive singalong folk pop that looks to evocative kitchen sink drama for lyrical inspiration. [Feb 2014, p.83]
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    They have finally assembled a terrific debut full of scuzzed up guitars, dirty synths, nihilistic lyrics and wood's magnificently bored--though never boring--vocals.[Apr 2014, p.71]
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Motion files nicely alongside Fripp & Eno, or Klaus Schulze, a set of rippling, drowsy circuitry, laminated with silvery guitar drones. [Apr 2014, p.76]
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    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Their full engagement in the creative task was never in doubt, and more than 40 years later the result compels close listening. [Apr 2014, p.88]
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    DNA plus inspiration can be a potent combination. [Apr 2014, p.69]
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    • 69 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    No range of light here, just a wan glow that denies the need for shade. [Apr 2014, p.71]
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    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Remarkably, almost every performance resonates. [Apr 2014, p.83]
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    These are songs to be treasured. [Apr 2014, p.73]
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The second album by this East London singer sees her moving away from the orthodox jazz trio and expanding her sonic palette. [Feb 2014, p.77]
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Dietrich pour nos jours. [Apr 2014, p.80]
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The result is alternatively maddening and satisfying. [Apr 2014, p.74]
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No prizes for adventurism, but bracingly fat-free, with attitude in spades. [Apr 2014, p.77]
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    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Guitarist Marty Stuart re-recorded his parts, and contemporary shading has been added by Buddy Miller and Jerry Douglas. They don't completely erase the synthetic qualities of the sound, but it's clear that Cash was in fine voice even if the material didn't always suit him. [Apr 2014, p.89]
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