AllMusic's Scores

  • Music
For 18,293 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:
18293 music reviews
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Black Velvet is a collection of odds and ends and not a proper album, and sometimes it sounds that way as it moves from track to track. But it is full of the heart, soul, and spirit that Charles Bradley summoned every time he stood before a microphone, and this is a moving reminder of how much he gave us, and how much we have lost.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ghost Forests offers listeners an expansive offering of the duo's strengths in improvisation, songwriting, and interpretation. Yet, for its considerable imagination and creativity, there is also an elegant restraint that allows listeners access to an interior world of sound and poetry perhaps previously unimagined.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    B.E.D, is a delight. The performers work to fit their individual skills into a cohesive unit.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With some of the best and most interesting flashes of library music's colossal archives, Unusual Sounds offers a look at an arcane avenue of music that will engage those previously unfamiliar and well-versed fans.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    As a vocalist and songwriter, Miller is in solid form here, though as with most of his solo work, this lacks a bit of the heart and soul he brings to the Old 97's. But The Messenger has a stronger individual personality that most of Miller's solo work, and he and Sam Cohen make a good team in the studio.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lover Chanting--the band's first release for underground stalwarts Ninja Tune -- maintained the productivity with three new songs.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There's both a sadness and warmth to Streisand's performances on Walls that befits the album's subject matter and speaks to her own ability to communicate to, and often for, her audience.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    He might have made an album that doesn't follow the Blues Explosion's template so clearly. If you dig Jon Spencer, you'll have a good time with Spencer Sings the Hits. But probably not as great a time as you had with him before.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Only the less impressive closing song "Fingers" sounds primed for mass appeal with traditional hooks. More compelling are the moments that showcase Lil Peep's unique relationship with self-expression and self-destruction. His delivery, lyrical choices, and sincere examination of difficult feelings seemed curious when he was alive, but take on a profound significance in the pallid wake of his death.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    As good as Martin's remix is--it may not be as revelatory as his stereo remix of Sgt. Pepper in 2017, but it does manage the trick of sounding rich and bold without betraying the feel of the original--the real appeal of this deluxe reissue is the unreleased material, all presented in sparkling fidelity. This high fidelity is especially welcome on the Esher demos. ... Taken on their own, the session tapes are absorbing listening, but they also have the side effect of making the finished The Beatles not seem like a mess, but rather a deft, cleverly constructed album that accurately reflects the abundant creativity of these sessions.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Holy Hell is both a teardown and a rebuild, and while it isn't always an easy listen, there is some hard-won catharsis to be found in its attempt to distill the messiness of grief into four-minute blasts of sonic demolition.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The group takes pains to be able to fit onto every kind of playlist imaginable: rock, pop, electronic, soul-any popular sound that can be sculpted and shaped by a streaming service. As such, listening to Origins uncannily re-creates what it's like to experience-or maybe more accurately, consume-popular rock-oriented music in 2018: everything sounds vaguely familiar, vaguely connected, all designed to function as a soundtrack to whatever task you'd like.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Elastic Days is another example of the strength and confidence he's gained from turning down the volume.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When combined with the gut-level hooks, this barbed wit results in a record that's simultaneously immediate and enduring: the first listen demands attention, but it's the left turns, in both the lyrics and melodies, that makes Bought To Rot so satisfying.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Taken in as a small cache of excellent songs by three of the more talented songwriters of their era, Boygenius is a wonderful starting point, setting the scene for future collaborations that push into places each member couldn't get to on her own.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    While Simulation Theory might appear to be overly polished mainstream trickery--all part of the simulation!--it's purely Muse at heart, successfully merging electronic-pop songcraft with their typically urgent, stadium rock foundation.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Listen underneath that gloss, and it's possible to hear Davies working out his ideas in a space free from the spotlight. Such seclusion may have meant he wasn't as focused to deliver songs with pop aspirations, the way he was in the '60s, but that's also the appeal of the collection: it's a polished version of a notebook from a strong writer, so it's by nature fascinating for anybody interested in the music of Dave Davies.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    If Only There Was a River rewards return listens with a deepening flow of new revelations and curiosities, as the power of the songs grows more apparent with each spin.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Time 'n' Place might not be quite as cohesive as Bonito Generation, but it offers a fuller portrait of Kero Kero Bonito's music without losing any of the spark that makes them special.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    What makes Interstate Gospel so invigorating is hearing how Lambert, Monroe, and Presley mesh as both songwriters and singers. Their time apart has only strengthened their bond, resulting in a fully realized and resonant record that is their best to date.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Negative Capability is a testament to her journey and what it has taught her, and it reminds us she's still a talent capable of drawing our attention.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ultraviolet is a remarkable album that blurs the lines between jazz improvisation, modern composition, and ambient electronic music, forming its own musical language.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    By any measure, More Blood, More Tracks is a monumentally important document in the history of popular music and a gem in Dylan's catalog.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She Remembers Everything is a challenging and rewarding set from an artist who is at the peak of her abilities, and if anyone needs to be reminded that Rosanne Cash is one of America's best and smartest songwriters, all they need to do is spend some time with these songs.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The album is charmingly pretentious, confounding, and a good time all at once. Closer "Pebbles" is the only song here borrowed from their debut EP, Gothenburg, released six months earlier.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The release feels like what could've been, whereas Centres actually was, but it's still a beautiful, mystifying recording.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As an unofficial soundtrack for ritual madness, religious ecstasy, sex, winemaking, and song, Dionysus excels.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This may be familiar to the dedicated whose allegiance never wavered, but for those who believed R.E.M. faltered after Berry's departure, R.E.M. at the BBC is a gateway into the band's last act.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    While familiar-sounding, the soundtrack brings something new to the table instead of being a pointless retread, and in general, it just sounds amazing. Definitely worthwhile for any Carpenter or Halloween fans.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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.