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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Cross The Universe
    Here, the pre-recorded sequences of fan favorites "DVNO," "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," and "D.A.N.C.E." are born again; flipped and redecorated with aggressive house beats to the point that they feel fresh, but they still retain enough familiarity to get fists pumping and mouths singing along.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Call And Response: The Remix Album
    This wide net says more about Maroon 5's fashion than it does their music--they're sharp and smart enough to know what will get them club play and blog mentions--but it's nice to have a band so big try to tie together these two niches, even if neither the R&B nor the indie rock winds up relating to the happy mainstream hooks of the group's hits.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition
    All this extra material may not carry the same deliberate weight as so much of Brighten the Corners, but it enhances the album considerably, bringing it closer to an album that can stand with Pavement's first three classics.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Finally LP
    The bottom line here, of course, is if you are a fan, you'll need this and won't debate its merit one way or another. If you're new to Kozelek, you'll no doubt be wowed by some of this and bored by the rest.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    OnMyRadio
    A couple dramatic moments don't quite take full flight, and a handful of tracks are tepid and unmemorable, but OnMyRadio is mostly another set of sturdily constructed laid-back R&B.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We Mean Business
    As far as guest rappers, old friends like Teddy Riley, Keith Murray, Redman, Havoc, plus an especially on fire KRS-One are here, making this album short on new developments but greatly appealing to those who long for the way it used to be.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Circus
    If she feels marginally more connected here than she did on "Blackout," it's a Pyrrhic victory, as Circus never feels as sleek or addictive as its predecessor.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Freedom
    Akon sounds more comfortable than expected, and he reduces the lechery in favor of longing ("I wanna make up right now") and awe ("When I see you, I run out of words to say"). At times, the tensionless backdrops don't inspire Akon to do much with his pen.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Emeritus
    Emeritus is not the usual, very serious good-bye record, but in so many ways, it's a typical Scarface record. It's just better than usual with the rapper sounding liberated by his decision to move on.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
    This is unfettered joyful listening, and in its own small way, even profound.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
    "Hold on Now, Youngster" is still the more magical of the two records, it's the one to play when you want to feel joy, but We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed has more depth and feeling.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Electric Arguments
    There are more twists and turns, more textures, than on any other McCartney album in the last 20 years, and if it's a little messy, so be it: it's better to have Paul letting it all hang out instead of hanging back.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    808s & Heartbreak
    For anyone sifting through a broken relationship and self-letdown, this could all be therapeutic. Otherwise, no matter its commendable fearlessness, the album is a listless, bleary trudge along West's permafrost.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Theater Of The Mind
    While his previous effort, 2006's "Release Therapy," was much more the thematically tight album and deserved a concept, this loose set of tunes is all-together more entertaining, thanks in no small part to a highly inspired Luda and all the punch lines he lands.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Prospekt's March [EP]
    None of this is major but it is enjoyable, worthwhile for the devoted--and it's nice they can get it separately instead of plunking down cash yet again for a deluxe edition.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Happy In Galoshes
    Happy in Galoshes isn't quite as textured or bright as "12 Bar Blues"--the smaller budget is evident in its muted colors as well as Weiland's sleepy delivery--but it has the same emphasis on churning psychedelia and clomping glam.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    X
    If one wants to really hear the gifts that Adkins is endowed with as a vocalist, one that can reach people in the marrow of where they live, toss away the hits and listen to the rest.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Alone II: The Home Recordings
    Cuomo still doesn't allow himself the freedom to venture in these directions on Weezer's albums, and that's what makes both volumes of Alone quite valuable: they're as eccentric as they are accessible, portraits of a pop hermit letting his mind wander wherever it may take him.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tapes
    Enjoyment of the Rapture's Tapes necessitates unfamiliarity with the majority of its contents, indifference to acute sequencing and, naturally, deep interest in what the band views as classic and fresh.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Day & Age
    The nice thing about Day & Age is that not only is Flowers' voice relatively buried, the Killers are unwittingly comfortable with their ludicrous, outsized pop, which turns the album into terrifically trashy pop. Not the serious rock they yearn to be by any means, but these fashionable threads fit them better anyway.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In The City
    In the City gets by on hooks and hugeness, like an irony-free Andrew W.K., Timbaland working with Aerosmith, or a jaded version of the Jonas Brothers now willing to drop the F-bomb.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chinese Democracy
    It's a good album, no less and no more.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968
    It's a marvelously intimate performance, unguarded and open-hearted, unique in its delicate touch: it's Neil Young before the myth crystallized, and listening to it anew, it's easy to fall in love with him all over again.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Am...Sasha Fierce
    Beyonce's third solo studio album is as concise as 2006's B'day, but it is divided into two discs as a way to emphasize the singer's distinct personalities. It's a gimmick, of course--a flimsy one.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Dark Horse
    Dark Horse was constructed entirely from the group's standard templates of bleating power ballads and dulled hard rock.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Safe Trip Home
    There are melancholic edges, but it's not haunting, it's comforting, reassuring music that's quietly powerful, music that Dido hinted at before but never quite made.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The BBC Sessions
    Of course, the songs are amazing, but just as impressively, Stuart Murdoch's vocals are heartbreakingly sincere and soulful, and the band definitively belie their image as shamblers by sounding tight and together.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    David Cook
    David Cook [is] remarkably similar to the debut of his AmIdol forefather, DAUGHTRY, but where Chris Daughtry wallows in his stylized amorphous angst, Cook is a friendly puppy dog, eager to please.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Startin' Fires
    What he isn't, however, is an album-oriented artist, and that's clear on Startin' Fires, his fifth studio release. There's a little bit of everything here, and that's part of the problem.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The New Game
    With a winning opener (the familiar but nonetheless brutal "Fish Out of Water") and a handful of other keepers (including "A New Game" and the surprisingly subtle "Never Enough"), fans looking for a repeat of L.D. 50, Beginning of All Things to End, End of All Things to Come, and Lost and Found will be more than pleased, but those looking for actual growth would be better off cleaning out their refrigerators.
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