AllMusic's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Be the Cowboy
    Rather than being a disappointment, Be the Cowboy's point of view provides a brilliant twist, one that channels all the unease, unpredictability, and intuitiveness of Mitski's previous work--even for those who don't take in the lyrics.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    xx
    While the band's subtlety and consistency threaten to work against them at times, XX is still a remarkable debut that rewards repeated listens and leaves listeners wanting more.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Let Me Do One More
    Let Me Do One More makes the leap from "very good" to "great," and this is pleasurable and full of grand surprises in the way that great pop music connects with the listener. You need to hear this.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A Place Called Bad [Box Set]
    On the whole, the music on A Place Called Bad makes a strong case that the Scientists were one of the '80s best bands, especially during their swamp noise years. They had the look, they had the songs, they had the sound, and everything they did burned with the white hot fire that only the very best groups are able to harness.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ágætis Byrjun
    At its best, the album seems to accomplish everything lagging post-shoegazers like Spiritualized or Chapterhouse once promised. However, at its worst, the album sometimes slides into an almost overkill of sonic structures
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ohms
    A dizzying display of a band at peak performance.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Electricity
    Ibibio Sound Machine have always sought to get listeners onto the dancefloor. Electricity reveals that they won't have to coax. Here, they have taken their songcraft, production, and rhythm science to an entirely different level without sacrificing their Afrocentric roots.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Jaguar II
    Jaguar II nudges contemporary R&B forward as it mixes inspirations spanning continents and generations.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Snipe Hunter
    The 13-song set, which includes the streaming hits "Oneida" and "Nose on the Grindstone," combines Childers' alchemical blend of country, bluegrass, and folk with rich gospel harmonies and immersing ambient field recordings.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wet Leg
    While Chambers and Teasdale are still discovering what they can do, they're having a lot of fun finding out, and Wet Leg more than delivers on the promise of their viral beginnings.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gala Mill
    Brilliant.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Random Access Memories
    Random Access Memories is also Daft Punk's most personal work, and richly rewarding for listeners willing to spend time with it.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Soil
    Soil captures a passionate, complex artist coming into his own.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Neon Bible
    It's as decadent as it is tasty -- theatricality has never been a practice that the collective has shied away from -- but there's no denying the Arcade Fire's singular vision, even when it blurs a little.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Umbilical
    While Umbilical is still a nightmarish depiction of destroyed emotions and blind rage, its combination of production subtleties and light nods to '90s influences peel away just enough intensity to make the album Thou's most coherent and engaging work yet.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Boy Who Played The Harp
    TBWPTH is skeletal, grandiose, and contemplative, a web of contradictions where answers come with questions of their own; caught between darkness and light, the U.K. legend wrings out some of his most compelling meditations yet.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
    While their songs still maintain the loose intimacy that was apparent on their debut AM, the music has matured to reveal a complexity that is rare in pop music, yet showcased perfectly on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Congotronics
    Part traditional, part African rhumba, part smart avant-garde electronica, Congotronics is the sound of an urban junkyard band simultaneously weaving the past and the future into one amazingly coherent structure, and not only that, you can dance to it.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Norman Fucking Rockwell!
    The patient flow, risky songwriting choices and mature character of the album make it the most majestic chapter of Lana Del Rey’s continuing saga of love and disillusionment under the California Sun.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This Is a Photograph
    One of the best chapters in an already impressive catalog; one that finds a new artistic depth as it faces some of life's eternal concerns.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stumble Into Grace
    What's most heartening is that Harris is not only making some of the finest music of her career at a time when many artists would be treading water, but she's delightfully confounding our expectations at the same time.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Phrenology
    Phrenology is the hardest-hitting Roots album to date, partly because it's their most successful attempt to re-create their concert punch in the studio.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Celestial Lineage
    Wolves in the Throne Room continue to do the genre proud with contributions such as this.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
    While it's just as thought-provoking as the Soft Pink Truth's other albums, there's something magical in how the emotional dimensions and deep beauty of Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase? reaffirm that positivity and creativity are the most powerful weapons against hate and darkness.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In a Poem Unlimited
    Sprawling and complex as In a Poem Unlimited's structures and styles are, it's U.S. Girls' most immediate collection to date, in terms of both sound and message.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Annie Up
    The camaraderie of the Pistol Annies cuts deep--they're a gang, encouraging the other two not to talk about Tina, praising sobriety, realizing life goes on even when love leaves--and that gives Annie Up a bruised, beautiful richness.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Is Survived By
    Is Survived By features more of the Los Angeles hardcore outfit's furious, passionate, intensely personal sound.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    American Ride
    American Ride is every bit as strong as Innocent Ones, if not more so.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    What News
    With its beautifully chosen material and unorthodox construction, What News has that rare timeless feeling to it, effortlessly placing the ancient within the present as only the right group of artists can manage to do.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Cleansing
    In the end the album is strangely uplifting and yes, cleansing, as he washes out the sadness, pain, and suffering he's been through and ends up on his feet, bruised but still ready to carry on. By the end of the record, listeners are liable to feel the same way. There are no barriers or guardrails here, it's an unblinking gaze into the abyss, and victory over that bleakness, that can be shared by anyone brave enough to tag along.
Page: