Critics give Little Fictions a B-Side Breakdown of 80 (B-), from 9 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 70 to 90.
The verdict on Little Fictions
8 of 9 critics liked it, and they mostly agree.
- Highest 90 Spill Magazine
- Lowest 70 AllMusic
- Career Tied for #3 of Elbow's 8 albums with a Breakdown
- By the numbers Elbow's best-reviewed album here since Build a Rocket Boys! (2011).
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spill Magazineby Aaron Badgley | 9.0/10 | 90 | 2017 | “Elbow Little Fictions Polydor Records/Concord Music Group I am going to be honest; I was a bit nervous when I heard that Elbow was recording a new album. Their last…” |
| Under the Radar via Wikipediaby Scott Dransfield | 8/10 | 80 | 2017 | “Guy Garvey and his bandmates in Elbow are, at this point, the U.K.'s most consistent elder statesmen of "old-school" alt-rock.” |
| The Guardian via Wikipediaby Dave Simpson | 4/5 | 80 | 2017 | |
| XS Noizeby Lori Gava | 8/10 | 80 | 2017 | “Esteemed Alternative Indie band Elbow released their seventh studio album “Little Fictions” on February 3rd. The album is a follow up to the band’s 2015 EP” |
| PopMatters | 8/10 | 80 | 2017 | “Two songs cast a long shadow over the career of Elbow, one of Northern England's most popular musical exports. Both songs feature on the band's 2008” |
| musicOMHby Alan Ashton-Smith | 4/5 | 80 | 2017 | “Their seventh album arrives not to great anticipation or suspense, but with a sense of quiet confidence that they are about as safe a set of hands as any band…” |
| Slantby Josh Hurst | 4/5 | 80 | 2017 | “Little Fictions distinguishes itself as an Elbow album not quite like any other.” |
| The Line of Best Fitby Joe Goggins | 8/10 | 80 | 2017 | “Shorn of their drummer, Bury’s favourite sons return with a sharp, carefully-crafted statement of a record.” |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby Stephen Thomas Erlewine | 3.5/5 | 70 | 2017 |
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More from Elbow
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How the Breakdown works
Every outlet’s score is converted to 0–100 (2/5 is 40, 5.9/10 is 59, a B+ is 88) and averaged. Grades follow the B-Side scale: A is 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69, F below 60. Approval is the share of critics who scored it 75 or higher; the Breakdown shows green at 75 and up, red below. Divisiveness asks a different question: not how many critics liked it, but how close their scores are to each other. Five critics who all give it 50 are Unanimous, even though none of them liked it. The labels run Unanimous, Broad agreement, Some debate, Divided, and Contentious. Replay rate comes from listeners, not critics: yes counts fully, a few tracks counts half, no counts zero. The gist quotes each outlet’s own summary of its review. Published is the date on the review itself, read from the outlet’s page, so you can see whether an album’s reputation came at release or years later. Scores marked est. come from reviews that publish no number. Scores marked via Wikipedia are archive ratings, mostly for older albums, taken from the “Professional ratings” box on the album’s Wikipedia page (published openly through Wikidata); each links to the original review when we can find it online, and to that Wikipedia entry when we can’t. When an outlet reviewed an album twice, years apart (often for a reissue), both scores count, each labeled with its year.
A-Side marks the critics’ top tier. An album earns it automatically, from its numbers alone: a Breakdown of 90 or higher, from at least 5 reviews, with at least 75% approval. Nobody hands it out and nobody can buy it; if new reviews pull an album below the line, it loses the badge.
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