AllMusic's Scores

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For 18,323 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: 15,367 out of 18323
  2. Mixed: 2,930 out of 18323
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18323
18323 music reviews
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    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Complete BBC Sessions [Remastered]
    The 2016 triple-disc set The Complete BBC Sessions adds those songs as a third disc to a remastered version of the original 1997 compilation, an addition that doesn't greatly alter the overall picture of Zeppelin's BBC Sessions but offers a whole lot of additional value. Without those sessions, the compilation remains a stellar showcase of Led Zeppelin in ascendancy but with them the portrait deepens.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Light Falls
    Light Falls retains the epic nature of Wrekmeister Harmonies' earlier offerings, but the scope is much more intimate, direct, and accessible. As a result, it may resonate with some as even more powerful.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hard II Love
    This is the most pleasing Usher album in over a decade. In terms of ability, agility, and creativity, Usher's vocals still crush the commercial competition.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Psi
    As with any patten release, it takes a few listens to wrap your head around what they're doing, but taking the effort to decode their work proves to be incredibly rewarding.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Kindly Now
    The variety of instrumentation and the rare unorthodox entry provide some balance and relief to what would otherwise be a relentlessly bleak affair.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lady Parts
    Lady Parts is a fun, slightly chaotic album that captures the creative spirit of golden age rap, updated for the damaged attention span of a generation raised on social media.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fixion
    As a whole, Fixion is a logical progression for Trentemøller, whose music seems to cinematically expand and contract while remaining true to his chosen bailiwick.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pretty Years
    Fans needn't worry that the group's vitality has faded, however. If anything, it takes advantage of a broader palette as Cymbals Eat Guitars continue to dip into more styles without losing their warped, crunchy center.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    FurFour
    The duo's sad, passionate vocals readily recall peak-era Depeche Mode, but the instrumentation is much more organic, and the production is far more atmospheric and multi-layered, even verging on hallucinatory at times.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mystère
    With 15 tracks totaling over 70 minutes, including a 17-minute closer, Mystère's ambition will challenge the ears and endurance of some. Having said that, the album is well sequenced, alternating lighter and heavier tracks, and the whole presentation has that enviable je ne sais quoi--c'est cool.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sea of Noise
    On the whole, while its more serious tone may disappoint some fans of Half the City, Sea of Noise's performances are just as tight and as passionate, and even more impressive in their maturity and scope.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    AIM
    Even if AIM is more scattered than her finest work, at its best it plays like a scrapbook that pieces together over a decade's worth of sounds and issues.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Transcendence
    Townsend has set such an impossibly high standard and this is another excellent entry in a catalog brimming with them. That said, it extends the boundaries explored on Sky Blue, and delivers--in full--on the promise it presented.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Phoenixxx
    It couldn't be more dystopian. It's also a completely exhilarating thrill ride, and highly recommended for fans of other bass-heavy sound bombers such as Amnesia Scanner and Brood Ma.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Away
    The paucity of any full-on rockers may drive some listeners back to the group's more propulsive, earlier works, but the sullen, sweet, and soulful Away rewards a patient ear.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Skeleton Tree
    Even by Cave's dour standards, Skeleton Tree is a tough listen, but it's also a powerful and revealing one, and a singular work from a one-of-a-kind artist.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wild World
    Wild World proves that Bastille can build on their success with style. They're the kind of band that sounds better as they get bigger, and their thoughtful lyrics, jaunty melodies, and huge choruses could fill a Coldplay-shaped hole in listeners' hearts.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Live at the Hollywood Bowl
    Decades later, it's still thrilling to hear the band and the crowd feed off the excitement of the other.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cosmonaut
    The balance between these quiet, thoughtful songs, the needle-bouncing rockers, and the jumping Monkees-ish pop of tracks like "Stick Your Hand Up if You're Louche" makes for a thrill ride of an album, and a better example of modern guitar pop than Cosmonaut is pretty hard to find no matter where one might look.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Goodbye to Language
    Goodbye to Language is a powerful, intoxicating album and one of Lanois' best works in at least a decade.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Burden
    It's one full of warmth and engaging words and melodies, though, all guided by a voice that alone would prompt repeat listens.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Killer Road
    If Soundwalk Collective's music is often lovely but understated, Patti Smith's vocals give Killer Road the pale fire that makes it come alive; she never sounds like Nico, but she ably brings forth the voice of a poet facing her final crisis, and Smith understands that just well enough to communicate it to the audience.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The End of Comedy
    Many of the songs are free of artifice, boiled down to voice and guitar or left nearly naked to let the emotional impact of the melodies and words cut more deeply.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sunlit Youth
    While in the process of embracing more electronics they lose a bit of their organic warmth, particularly compared to their debut, Local Natives hang on to a significant amount of their quirkiness and rhythmic flair.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cosmetic
    Cosmetic is a strong step forward for Nots that builds on their strengths and gives their weirdness some new and interesting places to go.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kin
    What gives KIN its weight is Tunstall's craft. Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon proved that she could turn inward and be gripping but by turning that aesthetic inside out—this is an album about embracing the outside world--she's every bit as compelling.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016
    What impresses is the consistency. Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 not only is a strong set of songs but it makes it plain that White has been mining the same territory, finding something new within it for nearly two decades.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Going, Going...
    The album might not stand with their all-time best work, like Seamonsters or Watusi, but it's hard to deny the brilliance of a band that, so late in its career, can crank out an album as passionate, hook-filled, and flat-out fiery as this. That's the true surprise of Going, Going....
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Here
    Here is a ruminative, inward-looking album of folk-inflected beauty.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Schmilco
    Schmilco is clearly music for autumn, meant for cool nights, crunching through the leaves, and the occasional dark night of the soul. And it speaks volumes about Wilco that they could make two albums so different within such a short space of time, and both times giving us music that sounds like no one else.
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