Observer Music Monthly's Scores
- Music
For 581 reviews, this publication has graded:
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64% higher than the average critic
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2% same as the average critic
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34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.5 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: | Hidden | |
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Lowest review score: | This New Day |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 376 out of 581
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Mixed: 195 out of 581
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Negative: 10 out of 581
581
music
reviews
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- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Hurricane shatters the illusion, and flattens the force of nature known as Grace Jones into something quite humdrum.- Observer Music Monthly
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Stereophonics deserve doughty, workmanlike praise: they're a safe pair of hands, and this record does exactly what it promises. There are worse crimes.- Observer Music Monthly
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So where do you go when you've been a backing singer for the Pussycat Dolls? Not straight to the scrapheap but kooky la-la land, it transpires here.- Observer Music Monthly
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The first LP for nigh on a decade from Tjinder Singh and co feels like rummaging through rock's dressing-up box on a wet afternoon.- Observer Music Monthly
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Yet far from heralding a more obviously commercial taint, major label backing finds them ever more extreme. This album may not be quite as bleak as The Bairns, and the sound is more sophisticated, but they still sound like nobody else.- Observer Music Monthly
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You know, deep down, that the These New Puritans set is the one that you'll be listening to in a decade, enjoying the fact that you can never quite decipher its codes, and probably being amazed at how many more commercially successful records it inspired.- Observer Music Monthly
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Mostly, it works well. Intriguingly, Gabriel fares better with more recent material.- Observer Music Monthly
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Black's more soft-centred approach has since lagged behind, though this idiosyncrantic debut should help him make up ground.- Observer Music Monthly
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I wasn't sure whether to listen to the record or call Ghostbusters. But once I plumped for the former, I was somewhat shocked to discover a pop record, full of grooves, melodies and recognisable chorus type-affairs.- Observer Music Monthly
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Something magical may well have rubbed off [while working with with Robert Wyatt], as One Life Stand not only sees them back on track, it's also their best work, paring down those past excesses and unifying them into an extraordinarily lovely whole.- Observer Music Monthly
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I'm New Here might turn out to be a footnote rather than an American Recordings-style new chapter, but this is as striking a return as we're likely to hear all y.- Observer Music Monthly
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Then, six songs into a characterless album, one on which ambience takes precedence over tunes, 3D and Daddy G unveil three stunning numbers that compare with anything in their back catalogue.- Observer Music Monthly
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The result is a fifth Four Tet album which has the power to delight someone who has never listened to a Kraftwerk record all the way through, just as much as those who know their Walter from their Wendy Carlos.- Observer Music Monthly
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Like its physical namesake, The Sea is capable of being dull and flat, but at its most winning it provides glimpses of a new horizon shining beyond the riptides of pain and sorrow.- Observer Music Monthly
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Any fears that the zippy Afro-pop of these New York-based hipsters was a novelty--so very 2008--are quickly dispelled on this confident and completely entertaining second album.- Observer Music Monthly
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The loose, spontaneous nature of the exercise means there's the odd dud, but there are far more hits than misses. The result? A dead concept is temporarily revived.- Observer Music Monthly
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The music's Pharrell Williams-assisted dancefloor pop; the words entirely Shakira's. Preposterously brilliant.- Observer Music Monthly
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For the most part, Reality... swings between the mawkish strings and piano overproduction which Williams has seemed overly attached to ever since 1998's Bond-inspired 'Millennium,' and flashes of genuine pop frivolity, for which he likely has producer Trevor Horn to thank.- Observer Music Monthly
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A handful of upbeat numbers–-including an unexpected foray into frothy high-speed electro–-pull Leona back from the brink of boring, while 'I Got You' is an impressive distant relative of 'Bleeding Love.'- Observer Music Monthly
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It's an effortless success, from the opener, Ruby, big on melody and plaintive harmonies, to the dream-like Bells of Harlem, moving river-slow to a brushed snare and ending this quite terrific record with a meandering coda of wistful strings.- Observer Music Monthly
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Underproduced by Nick Cave producer Nick Launay, results are less the Smiths' heroic jangle than something from the muddier end of John Peel's Festive 50 circa 1987. Fans of "real indie" will be thrilled.- Observer Music Monthly
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It's likely that their slabs of noise are too explosive. But for Team Biffy, their followers, this is a strength, not a failing.- Observer Music Monthly
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It is also a sound that on this, their fifth album, seems as resistant to change as the forces of nature and while seemingly limited in palette, is as expansive as it is inventive.- Observer Music Monthly
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Hudson Mohawke, whose debut album contrives to be both idiosyncratic and soulful. The spirits of OutKast and Prince loom large, and, along with most of the albums here, it crackles with imagination.- Observer Music Monthly
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White Denim somehow manage to cover all points of the musical compass without ever losing their overall sense of direction.- Observer Music Monthly
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Sometimes the rough edges have been over-smoothed: there are all kinds of strange, cheap synthesised noises buried under the layers of polish that I'd like to hear more clearly. But this is a minor gripe, for despite its dark heart, there's a real joy about this debut.- Observer Music Monthly
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It's the best pop album about beating depression since 1983's Soul Mining by The The. Buy now, and avoid the winter rush for Prozac.- Observer Music Monthly
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The gear changes on this particular autobahn are swift and sometimes a little clunky.- Observer Music Monthly
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Embryonic is certainly not without charm, but its title gives the game away. Largely, it's the sound of a band seeking inspiration rather than finding it.- Observer Music Monthly
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