AllMusic's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
For 18,310 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: 15,355 out of 18310
  2. Mixed: 2,929 out of 18310
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18310
18310 music reviews
view
per page
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    M:FANS
    If M:FANS represents a world that is colder and less forgiving than the time and place that spawned Music for a New Society, it also confirms that Cale is still a strong and vital artist, and one capable of offering two very different sets of perspectives on these songs that are both bold and compelling listening.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    99 Cents
    Though 99 Cents is Santigold's most accessible work yet, it feels like the mainstream meeting White on her terms rather than vice versa, and the results are often irresistible.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dying Surfer Meets His Maker
    Dying Surfer Meets His Maker showcases All Them Witches in complete control of their songwriting, arranging, producing, and performing. Slow-burning albums that provide this much weight, creativity, surprise, and enduring pleasure are rare.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Suicide Songs
    The crowning achievement is that all of the musical and lyrical poetry works together to make a haunting, howling album that, despite outward signs, is above all tuneful and engaging.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Catastrophist
    In some ways, The Catastrophist feels like a microcosm of the band's body of work; even though they don't repeat themselves, it all comes together in some of their most immediate music to date.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Goin' Your Way [Live]
    Goin' Your Way catches two top-notch artists in grand form, giving their best for their fans and seemingly having a lot of fun doing it, and this is an engaging souvenir of an inspired meeting of the smart pop minds.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Spilt Milk
    The music fits the moods perfectly and the low-key sound makes the songs even stronger. In that regard, it might be the best match of Astor's career. Even if it's not, it still makes for a pretty great album, one of his strongest and one of the strongest singer/songwriter albums one is likely to hear in 2016.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Triangle Time
    A superb set of smart and literate pop music that nods to the past, present, and future, In Triangle Time is another great record from a man who knows how it's done.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Coliseum Complex Museum
    A Coliseum Complex Museum is further proof that the Besnard Lakes are a band with big ideas and real vision, and just as importantly, they have the talent and focus to makes those ideas into something worth hearing.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Curve of the Earth
    Curve of the Earth wastes little time in setting the controls for the heart of the sun with the lead single "Telomare," a big, atmospheric blast of anthemic, mid-'90s stadium rock that segues nicely into the equally dreamy "Bombay Blue." From there things bounce back and forth between the bucolic and the sublime.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blue Neighbourhood
    It's exciting to hear someone so young and confident on the cusp of greatness.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Malibu
    Compared to the impressive and occasionally brilliant Venice, this album's mix of high and hard times has deeper resonance.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Basar
    Key track "Rhythm Is All You Dance" is the zeitgeist with a thumb piano plus a keyboard line that's kin to the Ohio Players' "Funky Worm," but this excellent debut is a journey worth taking from beginning to end, and often.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dystopia
    It's easy to appreciate the music on Dystopia; it showcases Mustaine and a crack new version of Megadeth at a creative peak.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Moth
    Even if said listener is inundated with shiny, R&B-based pop, as is anyone who has access to a radio or the Internet in 2016, there's something about the way Chairlift operate that helps them to stand out just enough to truly shine.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Ghosts of Highway 20
    After releasing one of the best and boldest albums of her career with Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, Williams goes from strength to strength with The Ghosts of Highway 20.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In the Magic Hour
    In the Magic Hour lives up to its title. O'Donovan's sometimes searing, always poetically rendered lyrics are matched by astute, economically articulated melodies.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pond Scum
    On Pond Scum, these songs seem to escape fully formed from Oldham's soul, even the no-frills cover of Prince's "The Cross," and if one has to take an educated guess about which Bonnie "Prince" Billy we get on this album, it's certain that what he has to say is well worth hearing.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Third Law
    Third Law is a startling, fascinating listen and another triumph for Porter.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bloodiest
    As extreme music, Bloodiest is excessive, unforgiving, and unrelenting. It's bent and twisted. As such, this album nearly dictates compulsive listening.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    MartyrLoserKing
    Williams remains the data-age Gil Scott-Heron plus a collaborator who elevates, as Reznor, and now Warfield, have both upped their game in the presence of such a radiant creative force.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Skilled Mechanics
    The whole thing comes off as an imaginary Tricky radio station where the DJ plays his own stuff and mixes himself into other artist's tracks, so if alternate views and unclassifiable collections are desired, Skilled Mechanics isn't a lark or a side project but a necessity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You're Dreaming
    A record that exists out of time but feels fresh in how it evokes portions of our collective past.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Anti
    By the end of Anti, Rihanna may not arrive at any definitive conclusions about her art but she's allowed herself to be unguarded and anti-commercial, resulting in her most compelling record to date.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pawn Shop
    Pawn Shop never dwells on such contradictions. It rolls along, easing from funky little workouts to immaculate ballads, the duo benefitting from a heightened sense of craft aided in part by the collaborations of such pro songsmiths as Craig Wiseman, Barry Dean, and Shane McAnally.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Something About April II
    Though a couple cuts aren't as quick to stick to memory as the sweet and sour soul displayed throughout the stunning 2011 album, this less novel but engrossing sequel is another worthy addition to the Younge discography.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Night Fiction
    Nugent may not distinguish himself from his influences on Night Vision, but, like fellow guitar slinger Ryley Walker, he couldn't care less. He's only interested in playing the music he likes and growing from what he learns in doing so. In the process, we get a killer rock & roll album.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Para
    Armed with sounds of vintage gear recorded at a hospitable Austin, Texas instrument shop, Anand created Para in a number of locations, yet the album sounds like it was made in deep, zoned-out concentration. Its track sequencing is fluid as well, even when the array of approaches verges on excessive.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Astonishing
    As demanding as it is, the story and music are worth the effort. Dream Theater have invested in the "album" concept (and in listeners' attention spans) even as the music biz doubles down on the notion that long-players are merely envelopes to hold singles.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Promise Everything
    Ultimately, with Promise Everything, Basement return from the brink of oblivion and deliver an album that more than lives up to its title.
Page: