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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    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Slideling
    It's honest and raw in the sense that McCulloch is cool with where he's from and unconcerned with where he's headed.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Seven's Travels
    Bristles with the independent spirit that put both punk and hip-hop on the map.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Taste The Secret
    The total effect is less a spin through 3 Feet High and Rising than it is an hour of Yogi Bear cartoons -- fine when you hear any one track, but much too much over the course of a full album.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Monaco
    One of the best New Order albums they never made.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Wanna Buy a Monkey?
    Wanna Buy a Monkey? shows off Nakamura's ear for a great track as well as his deft turntablist skills.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ratatat
    The band's sound is both fresh and nostalgic, and so pretty that it seems overly harsh to criticize them too much at this point. It's just that Ratatat is good enough to suggest that, with a little more diversity, the group could do even better things.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Get Ready
    Even for fans not needing much convincing, Get Ready is a "grower," an album whose focus on sublime songcraft and introverted delivery reveals its secrets slowly and after many listens.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Rising Tide
    It's some of the band's fullest-sounding work, rich with strings and keyboard flourishes... The Rising Tide is one of Sunny Day Real Estate's -- and 2000's -- most impressive albums.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Maladroit
    So, it's essentially a harder-rocking version of the last album. But you know what? It doesn't matter because the band is at a peak.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fast Future Present
    Fast Future Present is a self-assured and often fascinating collection of songs that artfully blend the standard elements of post-rock with unexpectedly melodic pop.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    '64 - '95
    It's breathtaking and essential listening for all fans of electronic music.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Let Them Drink
    A cohesive blend of intelligent '60s rock and power pop that sounds like an extension of New Pornographer A.C. Newman's Slow Wonder as played by Cheap Trick.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Souls Alike
    Gone are the big washes of sound that Don Was added to her Grammy-winning recordings, and the sound Raitt has chosen for herself is a bit edgier, far more adventurous than Silver Lining.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Resilience
    It's a collection of simple but warped electronic pop music, where Kid606 spins a tight hook into five or six minutes of chugging or swinging bliss. No more, no less.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Descended Like Vultures
    With Descended Like Vultures, Rogue Wave have become just another indie rock band, one that has delivered a strong album without a weak song on it, but a real band just the same.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Free At Last
    Even with the amount of expectation-lowering context heavy on the mind, Free at Last sounds like a very strong follow-up.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Around The Bend
    As always, that easy touch is Travis' greatest strength, as it gives the best songs authenticity and makes the weaker songs palatable--and as Around the Bend is a fairly strong set of songs, it's easy to enjoy Travis' gentle authority.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    See You Happy
    The McGregors are ultimately at their best when their dynamic isn't overpowered by too many musical ideas.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    At 89
    As you might expect from a Seeger album, the songs on At 89 take on some of the problems faced by America in 2008, and while the music is sometimes touched by melancholy, Seeger's faith in his fellow humans shines through clearly.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Point Of It All
    At least a third of the album's contents would have to be part of any representative introduction to Hamilton. In fact, this puts a cap on a three-album run as remarkable as any other in 2000s R&B.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Killswitch Engage [2009]
    Where 2006's "As Daylight Dies" hinted at an accelerated focus on the more melodic aspects of extreme metal, Killswitch Engage cements the notion.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strange Cousins From The West
    Even if it's a little less lively, it's still pretty typical Clutch: always heavy, always solid, and ideal background music for driving a semi-truck through a swamp.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Somewhere Gone
    Somewhere Gone is a different animal from Cervenka's acoustic music of the late '80s and early '90s, at once simpler, riskier, and more confident, and it captures one of the great wild talents of her generation in strong and impressive form, still unafraid to take her talent in new directions after more than a quarter-century of blazing trails.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New Clouds
    Impressively impressionistic, New Clouds is a rare mix of restful and engaging, and a significant step forward for Forkner.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    European
    By and large, European strikes a nice balance between genuine and theatrical, shambling and shiny.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pictures
    Pictures is one of the rare albums that manages to hold tight to what is good about a band (in this case, energy and hooky songs), and add on new things (wider instrumentation, better arrangements) without compromising their strengths.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Light Chasers
    The 16 songs sequentially chronicle an astronaut's journey from liftoff to landing, and Minowa seems as on top of his game as ever as he deals out uplifting lines like "All our anxieties are in a box I mailed to Pluto" over imaginative soundscapes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Post Electric Blues
    On Post Electric Blues, they're a worldly pop/rock band, showing off their Scottish roots on the Celtic numbers and channeling the American heartland.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Zodiac
    Valentine's lyrics are delivered with a rigorousness that seems like it's meant to assure the listener that the only thing the Electric Six take seriously is having fun. It feels good to know that someone out there is fighting for our right to party.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Excitement of Maybe
    It's safe to say no one was expecting a mid-career renaissance from Cervenka when she signed to Bloodshot Records, but with Somewhere Gone and The Excitement of Maybe she's made two of the strongest and most impressive albums she's recorded outside of her work with X, confirming her status as a one of a kind talent with plenty of welcome surprises up her sleeve.
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