AllMusic's Scores

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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
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amyl and the Sniffers
    Amyl and the Sniffers is a promising opening salvo from a young band who match a rabid hunger with the chops to back it up.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ecstatic Computation
    Intense, emotional, and often revelatory, Ecstatic Computation further establishes Barbieri as a truly visionary artist.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Plain Sight
    By the time she closes In Plain Sight's world of illusions and nightmares with the deceptively gentle "Harmless," she pulls off the trick of turning Honeyblood into a more cohesive, more imaginative prospect than ever before.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Full Upon Her Burning Lips
    Full Upon Her Burning Lips is sumptuous, a return to basics informed by Earth's decade-and-a-half period of discovery. The album's impeccable balance of those poles places it among the band's finest recorded offerings.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fever
    With near-peerless levels of confidence, fearlessly bold lyricism, and relentless, expertly crafted beats, Fever establishes Megan Thee Stallion as a figure in Southern rap. As she grows into a command of her strengths and her personality, she creates songs that are wilder, more raw, and more instantaneously exciting than most of her contemporaries.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Saint of Lost Causes
    The 12 songs on The Saint of Lost Causes coalesce into a larger story of malaise that's powerful without turning histrionic, and this is powerful music that's both timely and timeless.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Valley
    Though some fans wishing it were still 2008 may disagree, most fans will embrace Whitechapel's new progression as natural, necessary, and welcome.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Run Around the Sun
    It's another triumphantly jubilant album by a band who are second to none when it comes to that kind of thing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Apollo XXI
    Apollo XXI, his first album, is a little more refined, advancing his lazing, heartfelt mix of soul and funk with minimal varnish and no evident fuss.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Transience
    No one was likely to have guessed that Wreckless Eric would be on a creative hot streak four decades after he made his debut, but that is indeed what's happening, and Transience manages to be surprising while also reflecting what Goulden has long done so well.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tenderness
    Older, wiser and more concerned with the greater good than selfish excess, Duff McKagan's punk edge hasn't left him, but instead has been refined into a loving world view that believes there's still a chance for humanity. This bright outlook combines nicely with some of the strongest and most disarming songwriting of McKagan's winding career.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Boat
    At a time when so many bands co-opt various sounds of '90s indie rock and don't add anything new or interesting, Pip Blom make it work on Boat by basically becoming a '90s indie rock band and doing it better than anyone else around. Maybe even better than most of the bands they are borrowing from, too.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Omoiyari
    It's a moving album throughout, one by a multifaceted musician whose songwriting outshines even artful arrangements.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Anthology Of Interplanetary Folk Music, Vol. 2: The Canon
    While it might be easy to slap tags such as Fourth World or techno-primitivism onto Leon's music, his Interplanetary Folk concept seems to encompass a much grander scheme, and The Canon proves to be just as visionary as the first volume.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Small Mercies
    Small Mercies may not be quite as immediate as The Age of Anxiety, but it's fizzing with energy and ideas that prove that Pixx the right person to sing about what's wrong with the world.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings [Box Set]
    The concerts all have excellent sound. While this box is only essential for hardcore Dylanophiles, it's immeasurably valuable for the way it illuminates a wildly spontaneous period in the songwriter's career.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Madame X
    Madame X not only amply rewards such close listening, but its daring embrace of the world outside the U.S. underscores how Madonna has been an advocate and ally for left-of-mainstream sounds and ideas throughout her career.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Western Stars
    This isn't a piece of nostalgia on Springsteen's part, though. These references deepen a collection of songs that are sweet, sad, and searching, songs that feel finely etched on their own terms but gather a deep, lasting resonance when collected on this enchanting album.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Polymer
    Polymer is one of Plaid's most successful hybrids of organic and artificial sounds, matching its ambitious themes and concepts with enlightening music.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    1634 Lexington Avenue
    1634 Lexington Avenue is the album Smith through his wandering and woodshedding has been promising for decades now. It is retro to be sure, but free of artifice or false appropriation. He is personally invested in these songs and it shows. Essential.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ONDA
    Overall, Jambinai's third album is both grander and more restrained than its predecessors, achieving a vast, wide-open sound that is equally focused and direct.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Happiness Begins
    Happiness Begins feels immediate in way so many big pop albums of the twilight of the 2010s do not, but individual tracks are crafted to slide onto as many cross-genre play lists as possible.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tuscaloosa [Live]
    Tuscaloosa presents Neil and his band in a warmer mood, sometimes downbeat but far less confrontational, and the vibe here is generally positive.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Africa Speaks
    Africa Speaks is breathtaking in terms of energy and scope of vision.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Humanworld
    Both this record and How the West was Won would have been notable just because Perrett was still alive and making music again; the high level of the music he's actually making mean that they are both vital transmissions from one of the great lost talents of the punk era.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Renegade
    In widening the lens, LeBlanc has taken his Springsteen-esque narratives out of the woodshed and onto the open road, and has delivered his best offering to date.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Friday
    As a writer, Kempner's antennae are acutely tuned in to the heart's dizzying range of emotions, and with Black Friday, her connection remains as strong as ever.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nighttime Stories
    True to its title, Nighttime Stories' best moments appear late.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Midnight
    [Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face"] is an overhaul of the original that unquestionably makes it her own, but it still plays out like a bonus track rather than a curated finale in the context of the album. If that's the only blip on a 12-track set, Chura's in fine form again here--it wouldn't be an overstatement to call it a doozy.
    • 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.
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