AllMusic's Scores

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For 18,280 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 32% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 The Marshall Mathers LP
Lowest review score: 20 Graffiti
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15,329 out of 18280
  2. Mixed: 2,925 out of 18280
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18280
18280 music reviews
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jazz Fest! The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival [Box Set]
    The very existence of Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival indicates how the event has become a cultural institution, influencing countless other regional festivals in the decades since while retaining a unique blend of local institution and tourist destination. Smithsonian Folkways remarkably re-creates that appeal with their box set, offering 50 live tracks recorded at the fest over its 50 years, a collection that illustrates how far beyond jazz the festival has grown.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Flashback
    A paranoid set that's nonetheless cathartic and dependably fun.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songs of Our Mothers
    The collaboration as a whole is a unique treat that shows the best attributes of each of its participants.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Thirst
    While Thirst's generous length means it meanders occasionally, it gives SebastiAn plenty of room to show how much he's grown since the early 2010s. Even if his music has slowed down, it's not standing still.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We Still Go To Rodeos
    Rose may tend to nod at the past but she's not a revivalist, she blends these familiar sounds in slyly idiosyncratic, personal ways that give We Still Go to Rodeos a handsome, modern feel that's distinct from other retro-minded Americana records, her previous albums included.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shelby Lynne
    Shelby Lynne is a profound meditation on amorous complexity and cost; it's arguably the most powerful record in the songwriter's catalog.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Banana Skin Shoes
    As wide-ranging as Banana Skin Shoes is, it never feels like Gough is dabbling. The album's sounds are as carefully considered as the motifs of tears, apples and snowy spring days that recur in its lyrics, and the flourishes of brass that pop up throughout feel like triumphant fanfares.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Devastator
    With Devastator, Phantom Planet have crafted an album that deftly undercuts their hooky West Coast optimism with a bitterly cloudy beach bum sadness. You can almost hear the bright pop sound of their youth echoed back through the hazy din of waves returning to shore; California here we come, right back where we started from indeed.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Crazy Hearts
    As anything he's ever given us, full of straightforward, cheerfully impassioned rock & roll with some garage rock and psychedelic touches to keep things colorful, coupled with Fair's individual lyrical outlook. Still talking more than he sings, Fair is much better at bringing the listener in than he was in his earlier days, and his tales of favorite horror movies (both real and imagined) have a homey, less obsessive tone that works in their favor.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Introducing...
    All too often, this type of record can become bogged down by its own reverence for the period it seeks to re-create, but on Introducing..., Frazer manages to overcome the vintage doldrums with good songwriting and top-notch arrangements.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pat Metheny: Road to the Sun
    Road to the Sun showcases Metheny's developed musical hallmarks in compelling new and bravely wrought compositions, expertly performed by kindred spirits and modern masters.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Assembly
    For anyone who hasn't explored the music Joe Strummer made after the Clash, Assembly works well as a compact introduction.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fat Pop, Vol.1
    Weller may often be adventurous, particularly during the third act inaugurated with 2008's 22 Dreams, yet he rarely seems as loose and playful as he does here, and that sense of mischief is an unexpected and welcome gift.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kingdom of Oblivion
    Kingdom of Oblivion organically grafts trademark elements from Motorpsycho's previous work and influences onto literally spontaneous musical discoveries. The album is a pillar of 21st century rock, adding dimension and depth to the band's visionary legacy.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Butterfly 3000
    Butterfly 3000 is the work of a band with a million ideas and the skills to make them all work like a dream. In this case, a shiny, happy dream that leaves the sleeper feeling refreshed and at peace upon awakening.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Horses and the Hounds
    His work is full of the messy energy and surprising turns of a life lived hard, and on The Horses and the Hounds, the music speaks as vividly as his excellent songs. Not many artists pushing 60 get to deliver as satisfying a breakthrough as this one.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    W
    W is not merely a counterpart to No but its polar opposite -- an album made of moments and atmospheres rather than songs. Nearly spectral in its articulation, this set offers a more elegant, restrained side of Boris than we've ever encountered before.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ghost Stories
    It's the duo's keenly observed originals that stay with you the longest, delivered with hard-won wisdom, gallows humor, and the near-supernatural fluidity of sisterly harmonies.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sonescent
    It'll take at least a full listen or two to adjust to the album's structure and arrangement. Once it clicks, it's a truly unique, engrossing experience that plays with one's perception of memory in relation to music, somewhat reminiscent of the Caretaker's work, but far from its sense of romanticized nostalgia.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Under an Endless Sky
    Under an Endless Sky is not the United States of America, nor does it need to be. This is music that confirms Dorothy Moskowitz is a seeker looking forward, and what she sees is well worth hearing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Les Égarés
    Together they wander the landscape like a band of joyous nomads, relishing the journey over the destination.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    For That Beautiful Feeling
    For That Beautiful Feeling has a few minor surprises, but for the most part it meets expectations and ends up another solid, enjoyable entry in the Chemical Brothers' discography.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Champion
    Champion's affecting, thoughtful, occasionally hyperactive songs open up new possibilities for the band and celebrate being true to yourself -- no matter what your age.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Mighty Several
    While fans are bound to miss Abbott, Heaton's still got more to say, and his crew is in fine form.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wake the Dead
    It's fine work from a great songwriter who is following his passions while he can, and that makes it special.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole
    A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole stands in a direct line behind the rest of DePlume's catalog and brings his spiritual and creative worlds together. It's a brave record that confronts pain while embraces it with humility, acceptance, and yes, vulnerability.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Points Of Origin
    Consisting of skillful (mostly) first-person character sketches, the songs seem like intimate Stratton remembrances until the settings crystallize.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Earthstar Mountain
    In addition to Earthstar Mountain's consistently warm soundscape, Cohen is at her most accomplished yet songwriting-wise, even offering up an ode to a "Rag" that strips things down to notice the small comforts all around.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Evenfall
    Akpro sounds like he's still finding himself, but his first album is an evocative mixture of nocturnal city scenes and youthful expression, and there's no telling where he'll go from here.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Luster
    Luster is an accomplished, affecting work that finds strength and clarity through introspection and forgiveness.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Echo [EP]
    Echo delivers on the promise of Happy, surpassing that debut with improved production, more daring choices, and impossible-to-resist choruses.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This Material Moment
    A more challenging work than RPG, This Material Moment is distinctive, deeply felt music from an artist committed to discovering new ways of looking at -- and listening to -- the world.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songs For Nina And Johanna
    Like most of Yorkston's best work, Songs for Nina and Johanna succeeds not only because of his talents as a songwriter, but by his choices as a collaborator. He knows when to step back and let others shine.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Selenites, Selenites!
    Selenites, Selenites! offers the creative vision and fortitude to celebrate community and the human spirit.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kin
    Kin is unexpectedly abrasive compared to other KMRU albums, but feels just as natural and inviting.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What A Day For A Daydream: The Complete Recordings 1965-1969 [Box Set]
    While it may be enough for most people to look for a best-of compilation, there are many delights to be found on this set.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    WIXIW
    While WIXIW might be a shade less ambitious than some of their previous albums, it's still fascinating to hear Liars wield beauty and delicacy just as formidably as they've used force and noise in the past.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Raw Honey
    Fulfills all the promise of the debut and more.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Yawn
    Yawn, too, has its moments of beauty and craft, but the payoffs are so subtle and slow to arrive that its title becomes the regrettably inevitable reaction.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Microtonic
    The songs on Microtonic simply aren't as memorable as the highlights of their debut. It sounds impressive, but it exists in a sort of netherworld between expansive sonic exploration and fully engaging songwriting.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo
    What's best is that Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny doesn't sound like it was brought into the 21st-century kicking and screaming. It does all that and more, but there's so much mad joy at the helm -- this is a band that would close their shows with a faithful cover of the Alan Parsons Project ballad "Time" while masked and covered in blood -- that the material feels bracing, vital, and rooted in the present.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You & I Are Earth
    The album's overriding ethos is expressed more clearly on tracks like "I Reach for You in My Sleep" and closer "The Rest of Our Lives," whose warm, layered harmonies, nimble fingerpicking, and gentle background shimmer evoke and encourage sweet dreams.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Torture
    It's clear that the gore-obsessed band shows no signs of slowing down.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    1000 gecs & the Tree of Clues
    Some of the most interesting tracks on 1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues come from less predictable pairings.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cavalcade
    Cavalcade is intentionally oversaturated and designed to knock listeners off balance, and at its best, the album's overpowering rush of sounds and ideas communicates the excitement and a sense of unlimited possibilities.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tremor
    With Tremor, Avery establishes a singular form of distortion-doused electronic rock which dwells in a nocturnal landscape, letting deep-seated emotions rise to the surface.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Engineers
    Derivative as it may be, it's done so well that it's awfully hard to bash.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Alasdair Roberts
    For the casual listener, his music may be a bit heady and hard to follow, but for fans willing to be challenged, Roberts has delivered yet another excellent release.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Anniemal
    As cunning as it is, Anniemal is also deeply affecting.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Tanglewood Numbers
    A uniquely powerful and moving set of songs.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    DJ-Kicks: DJ Koze
    When Koze finally gets around to mixing in some house tracks, they're midtempo and bittersweet rather than high-energy floor fillers, and uniformly excellent, particularly Frank & Tony's sublime "Bring the Sun. One wonders how astonishing the mix would be if it had consisted entirely of tracks like this, but the variety is refreshing, and Koze's adventurous spirit is always admirable.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wonderland
    The tracks are still tense and heavy, but they don't quite overwhelm you with dread the way other DS releases do. Instead, these tracks focus on dancefloor grooves while still throwing in plenty of eerie voices and other strange sounds.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    About the Light
    Well-conceived, vibrant, and executed with attitude and aplomb, About the Light is a career standout for Mason.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    -io
    Fohr's lyrics draw from personal experiences as well as scientific phenomena, and she elevates them with her dynamic, sometimes earth-shaking arrangements.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New History Warfare, Vol. 3: To See More Light
    With New History Warfare, Vol. 3, Stetson explores scorched landscapes and heavenly scenes alike with his stylized playing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wilderness
    A complex yet intriguing soundscape.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    July Flame
    There are no wasted notes anywhere on July Flame, neither in Martine's production nor Veirs' tightly written (but still expressionistically poetic) compositions.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Patience (After Sebald)
    Patience (After Sebald) succeeds as beautifully evocative music to accompany the documentary, as another distinctive entry in Kirby's Caretaker discography and as an inspired blending of different works that makes its own statement.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Put Your Back N 2 It
    While Learning's haunting storytelling remains singular, Hadreas is as brave an artist as ever, and Put Your Back N 2 It is a heartening follow-up in so many ways.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Borders
    Completely dispensing with the conventions of dance music and embracing techniques more in tune with natural human rhythms, Emptyset have created one of their most unique works yet.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bonfires On The Heath
    The warmth it conveys is immense, and along with the happiness it provides, the album also shows that the Clientele continue to be one of the best pop bands around in the 2000s.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    St. Elsewhere
    With the help of Danger Mouse's platinum ear and intricate vocal productions, Green is revealed as a top-notch post-millennial soul singer.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Home of the Mind
    Melancholy but not overbearingly so, No Home of the Mind is thoroughly entrancing, and another triumph for Bing & Ruth.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ocean to Ocean
    Like Native Invader before it, Ocean to Ocean is a late-era standout for Amos, who reaches through the dark cloud of collective grief to be that supportive presence for listeners, healing with familiar touches and a timely message.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Drums And Guns
    It's a lean, potent work, and even if it's not one of Low's most superficially pleasant collections of songs, it's certainly among their most necessary ones.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gore
    Gore is a triumphant reminder that a veteran act can continue to grow and still remain relevant.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Through The Windowpane
    There's still a kind of inconsistency in the development of Through the Windowpane, an inconsistency that can't quite work itself out in sweeping strings and vaguely dissonant chords, and unfortunately, this diminishes the power of what the album really could be.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rebirth
    It's a return to form and just what fans of Cliff's early work could ask for, but it's vital too, putting it on the man's top shelf, somewhere in the vicinity of The Harder They Come soundtrack and Wonderful World, Beautiful People.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beware the Fetish
    The album rolls along with a meditative, confident feeling, morphing into a bright dream-like celebration in its many various peaks.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    War & Leisure
    For all the conflict imagery, War & Leisure is often brightly colored, even upbeat.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Third
    Overall, though, these songs are meant to exist in a complete volume, tied together gracefully with a sweetness that belies their complexity.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Ghost of Orion
    It is apparent that The Ghost of Orion was born in the aftermath of strife, strain, and fear; but these are balanced by gratitude, endurance, and even benevolence; the conflicting tensions exist with no attempt to alleviate them, and all of these qualities are among the many reasons My Dying Bride has, for more than three decades, reigned at the pinnacle of doom metal.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Gods We Can Touch
    While The Gods We Can Touch is ultimately a pop record, it only expands upon AURORA's already mystical bearing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Magic Sign
    Remaining in the same musical neighborhood as his debut, its sentiments were inspired by looking back at that transient time just before young adulthood, in his case in the early 2000s. ... That lesson in experience and optimism shines through dreamy guitar atmospheres on much of the record, including opener "Corncob."
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Magic Whip
    Like Everyday Robots, there's an existential loneliness thrumming throughout The Magic Whip, but there's also camaraderie, a sense that companionship can pull you through, and that's especially true of Albarn and Coxon, who prove once again to be the other's ideal collaborator, refining, expanding, and sharpening their ideas, turning a potential throwaway to something quietly resonant.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Distance Inbetween
    Unlike a lot of bands that seem to reunite just to cash in or repeat the past, the Coral came back with a renewed focus and a new sound. That's impressive in itself, and resulted in one of the band's best albums to date.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The London Sessions
    His hopped-up hipster everyman with a bruised heart style is perfect for the band's small-club intensity, and the album leaps out of the speakers with an intense power that makes it more than just a commemoration of their 2010 tour; it's a vital addition to their already near-perfect catalog.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Hold On Now, Youngster
    Recommending this album seems too light a course of action; requiring it may be more apt. Consider Hold on Now, Youngster...highly required, then.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Somersault
    Anyone who thought maybe the band's moment had passed will be pleasantly surprised to hear that Beach Fossils are back and better than ever.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Plot Against Common Sense
    The Plot Against Common Sense shows that Future of the Left are still fighting the good fight, even if the ranks have changed a bit.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Horizon Just Laughed
    Profoundly authentic, nostalgic, and graceful throughout, The Horizon Just Laughed does nothing less than reaffirm that Jurado is one of the best songwriters in the business.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Neon Skyline
    Quite simply, there are precious few indie songwriters who can impress as easily as Andy Shauf, and Neon Skyline is the work of an artist delivering on their significant promise.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Deathfame
    Even as Quelle Chris' music grows more challenging, it's still highly compelling, and his lyrics are filled with sharp, powerful observations about life, death, success, and failure.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    angeltape
    Even though they lighten the mood ever so slightly with "Lip Sync," a collage of detached vocals and lurching blasts that's the closest they've come to a pop song, every moment angeltape announces Drahla as a band worthy of far more attention.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Major Arcana
    Many listeners may find themselves drawn in by the authentic retro indie style and musical similarities to bands like Bettie Serveert and Helium, but the daring, experimental mystique and whip-smart pop melodies ultimately make Major Arcana grow infectious with repeated listens.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fire from the Sky
    This is another step into the sonic and lyric terrain plowed on Retribution, but one in which SF's aggressive, thrashing abandon, musical sophistication, and melodies co-exist in near perfect balance.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    En Yay Sah
    En Yay Sah is easily the most auspicious--and original--debut album of 2012.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    1972
    If you say you've heard a better adult pop record this year, you are lying.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Summer Of The Shark
    Accomplished, varied, and rather easygoing, though not gripping, indie pop/rock.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Covers Record
    Marshall?s sparest album yet, The Covers Album uses guitar and piano as the only foils for her malleable, emotional voice.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Live At Shea Stadium [Live]
    There were some signs prior to this 2008 archival release that this particular gig was pretty good--some of the cuts surfaced on the posthumous live 1999 comp "From Here to Eternity" and the video to 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' came from this gig--but all the decades of disastrous myths help turn Live at Shea Stadium into a pleasant surprise.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Consolation [EP]
    There are not a lot of bands who do what Protomartyr does, and even if there were, the skill and fury of their music would still set them apart, and Consolation is a brief but potent reminder that they're a force to be reckoned with.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Awake in the Brain Chamber
    The result is a deeply felt production informed by the group's long-standing love of ambient music, psych-pop, and kinetic, '70s-style Krautrock.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Una Rosa
    With other songs featuring Psycho-like slashing string effects and whirring bass echo ("Darkest Hour"), robotic vocal distortion ("Did My Best"), and spoken-word broadcast recordings ("Cógelo Suave"), Una Rosa has a kitchen-sink, blown-out-speaker quality to it that will alternately alienate or excite.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Evangelic Girl Is A Gun
    In some ways, Evangelic Girl Is a Gun doesn't feel quite as personal as yeule's previous albums -- the lyrics don't always delve into specific subjects such as dissatisfaction with their own body -- and its sound feels a bit more comfortably retro compared to the dystopian future shock of the previous two albums. That said, it's easily some of their most accessible work, and one of the most potent distillations of their chaotic yet introspective songwriting style.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Returning To Myself
    With its comparatively restrained approach only reasserting Carlile's gifts as a confident, compassionate, and sympathetic communicator, Returning to Myself offers an equally compelling edition of the musician that may appeal to new, less country-inclined fans.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Empty Hands
    As a culmination of everything she's been building toward in the years since I Disagree, Empty Hands is a towering success, priming Poppy for the arena big leagues with her twisted and wildly engrossing style.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Carter Girl
    On Carter Girl, Carlene Carter has confronted the mighty legacy of the Carter Family's songbook and allowed it to strengthen her music rather than buckling under its weight, and this ranks with her finest recorded work to date.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
    The album's not faultless: as with Deerhunter, Cox has the tendency to try too hard to be profound, wanting so badly to say something important that he sounds trite and forced, and untrustworthy, but when he's able to forget about conveying some kind of meaning and instead focuses on the actual music, his message--one of pain and love and feeling lost, of trying desperately to understand--is undeniable.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    11:11
    11:11 reveals a true musical and sonic expansion without Rodrigo y Gabriela losing sight of their strength as an acoustic duo. Awesome.
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