AllMusic's Scores

  • Music
For 18,327 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:
18327 music reviews
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Just like Kendrick's stunning Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Under Pressure is an autobiographical and odds-beating debut that arrives more fully formed than expected. Maybe all those mixtapes were all called Young Sinatra because the best was yet to come.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A beautiful collector's piece commemorating one of America's most vital indie bands.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Even if The Night Is Young could have been improved by better editing, it's still a welcome return from one of dance's most endearing acts.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    If Florida Georgia Line feel anonymous, that's not a bug: by design, they're playing to the largest possible audience, so nobody should be surprised that Anything Goes is so broad it avoids such messiness as personality.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blurred is unique, although akin to the old 808 State and LFO efforts where blue rooms met bass music and all the hoodies understood, but it's that same meeting happening in 2014, after house and bass followed their own indie and dubstep routes.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Honor is the first album where Rancid sound obvious, like on the heavy ska "Everybody's Sufferin'," where the lyrics about how everybody's suffering are delivered in cornball Jamaican accents. It's the first time they sound empty, too, like they're going through the motions with little or no passion driving them.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    If the first album was the supernova, RTJ2 is the RTJ universe forming, proving that Mike and El-P's one-off can be a going, and ever growing, concern.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nobody else can sing like Jerry Lee and it remains a pleasure to hear him sink his teeth into nearly any song, especially when he's supported by a team as sympathetic as he is here.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A record with an expansive world-view delivered with a kinetic kick and infallible melodies, a record that gives no indication of where it's going upon first listen but remains compelling upon further spins, after all the dazzle dissipates and Little Big Town's craft shines through.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ultimate Painting may not reach the commercial heights of either guy's main band, but it is fully the equal and in some ways more interesting.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave's naked emotions and sophisticated music mark a new high point for the Twilight Sad.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's an album less for blasting out of car radios and more for dusty Sunday afternoons and at times, it can feel a bit dulled by its own weight. Still, it's nice to hear the band stretching out and evolving, and even if Keep You requires a little more patience there is still much to like about it.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Although die-hard Beatles fans might see the album as a bit blasphemous, the Flaming Lips' treatment of the classic work makes it clear the band have a great respect for the Fab Four's legacy and influence, making the album a wonderful distraction that provides fans with a window into the influences of one of rock's most enduring and joyously weird bands.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tell 'Em I'm Gone confirms that Yusuf still has the talent and passion that made him a star as Cat Stevens, but the efforts to find a new sound for him don't quite work, and Rubin doesn't quite catch the light but emphatic touch of Yusuf's salad days; maybe a full reunion with Paul Samwell-Smith would be worthwhile for Yusuf's next album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Undoubtedly, she has the charisma and chops to be convincing on both bubblegum and ballads but 1989 is something else entirely: a cold, somewhat distant celebration of all the transient transparencies of modern pop, undercut by its own desperate desire to be nothing but a sparkling soundtrack to an aspirational lifestyle.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    While having their most celebrated drummer on hand adds an element of stability to what is a pretty far-out concept even for Primus, the addition of Bass and Dillon allows Primus to really push their sound to its creative limits, making Primus & the Chocolate Factory one of the band's oddest, yet most strangely compelling, releases to date.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    While the album's roots are deeply embedded in the past, the band has never sounded more present tense.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    His father's son through and through, Baxter Dury not only sounds a bit like his old man Ian, he is attracted to a similarly chintzy production that pushes attention away from the arrangements and to his words. This is especially true on 2014's It's a Pleasure.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    While Sound of a Woman is slightly too long and unfocused, at its best it's a potent reminder of how much fun this sound was--and is.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lennox has crafted an album that brings to mind the sophisticated, contemporary sound of her original studio releases while allowing her to revel in the grand popular song tradition.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A state-of-the art country-pop record, a modern update of urban cowboy that works because it never hides its soft aspirations but never makes a fuss about them either.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The energy she put into these versions helps make up for the vocal shortcomings and audible use of Auto-Tune.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What makes a difference here is the general lightness of his new songs and Was and Lee's sympathetic production; the two play off each other perfectly, turning this into the first latter-day Diamond record to feel quintessentially Neil Diamond.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Some of the styles are undeniably tacky but, hey, bad taste is part of Idol's legacy and Kings & Queens of the Underground touches upon that garishness along with his exaggerated swagger, fondness for hooks, and an irascible snarl, and that makes it an autobiography even if it never tells a story.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As defined here, Soused accurately means "drenched" in sound. Walker's and Sunn 0)))'s individual identities, while always on full display, are brought jaggedly and thunderously together in an enthralling recording that equals the sum of its mighty parts.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Listening to the album, it's clear that even though Slipknot aren't over the loss of a dear friend and colleague, they're able to channel their grief into a productive album, allowing them to continue moving forward while paying tribute to a fallen comrade with one of the strongest albums of their career.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Phantom Radio shows that a bit more production polish and digital styling hasn't fogged Lanegan's message, and Phantom Radio reveals the singer and his songs are as strong and as eloquent as ever.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Howard expects you to meet him on his own terms and provides just enough aural enticement to give him not just one listen but a second, which is when I Forget Where We Were really begins to sink in its hooks.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ware continues to express a multitude of emotions with superb elegance. The material, unfortunately, is on a lower plane.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bright, big, and Pharrellian, Paperwork still finds T.I. at the center of its well-funded variety show, allowing him to bounce back to his streety Trouble Man persona after schooling all the Iggy's and Macklemore's in such vital uptown slick.