AllMusic's Scores

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For 18,293 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: 15,342 out of 18293
  2. Mixed: 2,925 out of 18293
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18293
18293 music reviews
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?
    It's style for miles and miles unencumbered by hooks and accentuated by an attitude that carefully practices disdain for its audience, so if you're not inclined to buy into their gait there's not much reason to stick around.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songbird
    His easy delivery, contrasted with Adams wiry production, creates an emotionally honest, deeply moving recording with the best traits of both men shining forth.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Old World Romance
    It may not hit the listener over the head with theatrics or tormented confessions, but the subdued and personal nature of Church's songs here allow for a more intimate connection than on any Sea Wolf material that came before.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mind Over Matter
    They've found a capable formula that will appeal to many, but some more personality would go a long way to seal the deal.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Radlands
    Not a reinvention so much as an enjoyable detour, Radlands is a set of aural postcards from the Lone Star State that demonstrates just how much good a working vacation can do.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Reformation Post T.L.C.
    The way Reformation fights importance with such enthusiasm and muscle is what makes it such a fascinating album.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Friends for Now
    You'd be hard-pressed to find better noise pop/rock than this in 2011.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bell House
    Even the hazier songs have a melodic and harmonic allure, though, a trait that bodes well for any band. With ten tracks coming in at under 25 minutes, Bell House almost goes by too fast for its richness, like sample-sized bakery treats that deserve a full course.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dark Hearts
    Dark Hearts may not be entirely successful, but it's impossible to dismiss it as a failure thanks to the heart and soul Annie put into the lyrics and vocals. Also, not too many dance-pop artists are willing to explore the darkness that settles in once the bubble bursts, and she's to be commended for that.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fire Songs
    Watson Twins' first proper album, but Fire Songs at once confirms the promise of their earlier EP and their work with Jenny Lewis while staking out a stronger and more complex identity of their own, and hopefully it's the first of several personal and compelling albums from the siblings.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For True
    Ultimately, comparing For True to Backatown is pointless: they are of a piece. While you may prefer one over the other, they are, in essence, two parts of a compelling and dynamic musical aesthetic that is firmly in and of the 21st century, as they look back at history and forward to create it.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    8701
    8701 is more mood music than anything else, and while it does work fairly well on that level, it's not memorable outside of that mood.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sounds Good Feels Good
    For better or worse, that same sense of déjà vu pervades much of Sounds Good Feels Good, with the band borrowing liberally from its influences.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    "Pussy Cats" Starring The Walkmen
    A little messier than its inspiration but with the same freewheeling spirit, the Walkmen's Pussy Cats feels like a musical wake, rooted in just having fun making music with friends.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    100 Percent Publishing
    Maybe one rapper in 1,000 can rap effectively in 6/8, and Wiley is one of them.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Milk White Sheets
    [A] fascinating detour.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Recovery
    Recovery revisits Wainwright's back catalog and finds new meaning in the tunes he wrote as a young man.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Evolver
    Easily the least accomplished of his albums, Evolver is nonetheless a refreshing change of sorts, for all its faults, at least as far as missteps are concerned.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Barking
    Although this is hardly Underworld at their finest, the duo's songwriting fits the mainstream productions and results in a solid dance album for the 2010s--music for aging-raver activities like driving cars, pushing swings, or jogging on treadmills.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ghost Brothers of Darkland County [OST]
    It's difficult to say how good this musical is just from the songs and pieces of dialogue presented here, but the songs have a weary, inevitable flow to them, as if fate forced them into a dark room with little light or air or chance of redemption.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Boardwalk Empire, Vol. 2 [Music from the Original HBO Series]
    Rufus Wainwright's "Jimbo Jambo," an example of the jaunty exoticism of the age that might be a little troubling to modern listeners. On the whole, however, Boardwalk Empire, Vol. 2 is an expansive, entertaining soundtrack that captures just how thoroughly the show crafts its mood and atmospheres.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Season High
    The album is deficient in emotional depth and congeals into a mass of adequate mood music. It doesn't offer much more once the themes--including romantic fulfillment, solace, and longing, with a little materialistic frivolity, eyelash batting, and cutting loose--come into sharper focus.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dead Man Shake
    For simple gut-level satisfaction it's more engaging than the bulk of his post-Replacements catalog, though anyone expecting a masterpiece will be in for an unpleasant awakening.
    • 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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Richard Butler
    A mature, thoughtful comeback.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Roaring 20s
    Great things happen all over The Roaring 20s, an album where the cool kids become the smart kids while losing none of their baller status.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Monsters Exist
    Monsters Exist retains several hallmarks of the classic Orbital sound, but it isn't an album for '90s rave nostalgia purists pining for another "Belfast" or "Halcyon." Instead, it continues their tradition of making forward-thinking albums which reflect the present but glance excitedly, cautiously, and fearlessly into the future.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    WUNNA
    While WUNNA deserves points for its cohesiveness and impressive highs, its padding proves its downfall: the album's closing run means it remains a pick-and-mix affair, rather than a definitive statement.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Watch Me Dance
    Watch Me Dance is a triumphant speaker-blasting party record that cements Toddla T's reputation as the U.K.'s bass wonderkid.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Eyeland
    Eyeland's willingness to break the Dust Bowl minstrel mold is admirable, and it has enough moments that resonate to win back fans who may have drifted off to greener (or more sepia-toned) pastures during the band's long break from recording, but those listeners will have to be willing to sift through an awful lot of sonic detritus to find them.
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