AllMusic's Scores

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For 18,295 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: 15,344 out of 18295
  2. Mixed: 2,925 out of 18295
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18295
18295 music reviews
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    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Songs From a Zulu Farm
    Since the singing is in Zulu for the most part, the focus on nature, children, and animals may not be immediately apparent to an English speaker, who will hear the disc as a typical collection of a cappella singing, with Shabalala taking a lead part in front of the group's harmonies on short, repeated phrases.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Invariable Heartache
    Crucially, the band brings just the right touch to these performances, their obvious fondness and reverence for the material never getting in the way of a loose, expressive feel, with some very fine bits of soloing and lots of enjoyably breezy ensemble playing.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Best of Gloucester County
    If anything, Gloucester County proves that Smith is willing to let his unique style mature, which may at some point provide some insight into one of the underground's most elusive personalities.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We Live in Rented Rooms
    What matters is that this is some of the most economical and effective songwriting of his career, bolstered as always by his appealingly understated delivery and gorgeously crafted musical settings. In short: another astounding, resounding East River Pipe triumph.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Shapeshifting
    Sexy, transformative, and utterly impressive, Shapeshifting is a not simply a landmark album for Young Galaxy, but an unexpected joy to listen to again and again.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Babies
    While the record may just seem like a pleasant diversion for two friends glad to have a chance to hang out and make music, it turns out to be fun for everyone else as well.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Time for Dreaming
    Retro-soul aficionados who claim they don't make 'em like they used to will obviously be thrilled with this, but even contemporary R&B fans can't help but be moved by the emotion and passion evident in every note of this riveting set.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kmag Yoyo (& Other American Stories)
    These are the album's best songs, but the rest are good, too, and the whole is a worthy addition to the ever-growing catalog of sly Texas country-rock.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blow Your Head: Diplo Presents Dubstep
    Fans of his live sets will wish this was mixed, but with a Skream mix of Major Lazer, a collaboration with Borgore, plus a freaky Lil Jon team-up you don't want to miss, the Diplo faithful should be well satisfied.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    HONORS
    The lyrics are odd throughout the album but when they're dressed up with swooning harmonies, they always seem to make enough sense.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Return to the Ugly Side
    Malachai remain a fascinating, worthwhile, and essentially unique proposition, and there's still plenty to enjoy, for fans and newcomers alike, even in this somewhat diminished Return.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Rolling Blackouts
    If the Go! Team can make a record this much fun, with this much style and skill, with this many well-chosen collaborators, and with this many hit songs every couple years, by the time they are done we'll be voting them into the Brilliant Pop Hall of Fame.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Witch
    The change might not be as shocking as, say, when Bob Dylan went electric, but it's still something of a shock to hear the pastoral sound of the Cave Singers' past chopped down by plugged-in axes.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Magic Place
    Non-vocal tones do occasionally pop up here, most notably some well-placed piano lines, but Barwick's voice is undeniably the focus here, in all its evocative, otherworldly glory.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Friends for Now
    You'd be hard-pressed to find better noise pop/rock than this in 2011.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Banjo or Freakout
    He definitely deserves credit for going beyond the usual sounds you might hear on a modern singer/songwriter album and it works often enough to make the record a treat for anyone who wants something confessional and real but not boring.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Asleep on the Floodplain
    Asleep on the Floodplain stands as a brilliantly constructed bridge between SOOA's For Octavio Paz and Sun Awakens, yet moves deftly and pronouncedly forward into previously uncharted terrain.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light, Vol. 1
    Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light, Vol. 1 represents a further shift in Earth's evolution. It is darker -- even sinister -- and undoubtedly heavier than Bees, but it is more seductive with its mantra-like droning repetition and more elegantly detailed in its textural dimension.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    21
    The best thing the album does is to showcase Adele's titanic vocal ability, which -- more than a few times on 21 -- is simply spine-tingling.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ravedeath, 1972
    The overall effect of Ravedeath, 1972 is a balance between sheer sonic wooziness and a focused sense of construction; nothing seems wholly random in each song's development even as the feeling can be increasingly disorienting.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We're New Here
    [Jamie xx] accomplishes a difficult task in successfully (re)presenting Scott-Heron's music -- integrity intact -- in the present tense to a fickle yet discerning groove-centric culture without kitsch or excess.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Gathering
    The Gathering is Arbouretum's "bridge too far"; there is no return because this set is a destination, not a development.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Killing Time
    If you're a fan who may have been disappointed after the release of 2008's Shudder, this is the album you've been waiting for.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smart Flesh
    The songs are deliberately loose and minimalist -- intricacy tends to get lost in the booming, resonant halls of a factory -- but the substance that remains is strong, potent stuff.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Underneath the Pine
    The resulting record is a shiny, dreamy affair that retains all the hooks and feel of the first album but adds some energy and pop immediacy.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Little Joy
    What My Disco might lack in dynamics, they more than make up with atmospherics, showing again and again on Little Joy that sparse arrangements can feel just as spacious as grander recordings.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    12 Desperate Straight Lines
    For 12 Desperate Straight Lines, the songs are still there, only this time some of the looseness of the self-produced sessions comes into play and the end result ends up being a marked improvement.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Allo Darlin'
    Allo Darlin' is most reminiscent of these artists' earlier, scrappier efforts, but the sophistication is there, most crucially, in Morris' songs, which strike just the right balance of clever and heartfelt, wittily specific, and broadly relatable.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    En Form For Bla
    En Form for Bla feels of its own space and location rather than simply an addendum.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    House
    There are no embarrassing moments or dated sounds on House; just really great, slick and breezy pop.
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