AllMusic's Scores

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For 18,282 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: 15,331 out of 18282
  2. Mixed: 2,925 out of 18282
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18282
18282 music reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Live
    Their detuned sound and tales from the darkside are even more sinister and gripping on the concert stage, as evidenced by this 14-track set.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Strangest Things
    Echoes of classic U2, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Swervedriver resonate throughout.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tulsa For One Second
    Thrives on its mixture of fuller-sounding productions and relatively traditionally-structured songs with vocals.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Where Shall You Take Me
    A small triumph, but a triumph nonetheless.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rain On Lens
    This album is a study in repetition and rhythm, the same kinds that Callahan first toyed with on songs like "Bloodflow" and "Justice Aversion" from Dongs of Sevotion.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yeah Yeah Yeahs [EP]
    Yeah Yeah Yeahs cram more ideas and attitude into five songs than most bands express in an entire album.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Looks At The Bird
    Sometimes it sounds like Ennio Morricone, sometimes the Penguin Café Orchestra. Mostly it sounds like its own thing.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Imperial
    The weightless drones and light filigrees are as mesmerizing and familiar as ever when folded into each other.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    18
    He has created a record that might not be as wildly eclectic on the surface as Play, and it certainly lacks club-hits on the level of "Bodyrock" or "South Side," but it's a warm, enveloping, humanistic record with real emotional resonance, which surely is a noteworthy artistic step forward.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A New Morning
    Song for song, it's better and more consistent than Head Music... thanks partially to Stephen Street's focused, flattering production, but also due to a sharp set of songs.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Attention
    Occasionally, the album's spare, simple approach feels chilly and monotonous, but when it all comes together, as on the percolating, insistent "Your Moves Are Mine,"Attention reveals itself as a stylish, strangely romantic collection of club music.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dirty Dancing
    Impossibly crisp production, impeccable interplay between rhythm and effects, and the most difficult quality for any electronica producer to nail down: a crucial, distinctive sound.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Discovery of a World Inside the Moone
    A return to their early-'60s Beatlesque sound...
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Faces & Names
    While Faces & Names lacks the same physical power as Soul Asylum's best work, the best songs here manage to sound comfortable, magnetic, and passionate all at once.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Read & Burn 01 [EP]
    On the vintage foundation of simple, minimal patterns repeated to often-hypnotic effect, Wire builds a beefed-up, contemporary wall of sound.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Read & Burn 02 [EP]
    Read & Burn 02 shares its predecessor's hit-and-run aesthetic: it's a post-industrial punk rock barrage of buzzing, stinging guitars; chunky bass lines; and clockwork beats littered with terse, strangled vocals that fall somewhere between bolshy, pre-brawl aggression and football-terrace chants.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pause
    Organic as dirt, and full of an acidhead's sense of space, this one's a winner from start to finish.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Electric Circus
    Electric Circus does suffer from that which ails many contemporary hip-hop albums -- too many guests and a generally lengthy program drag this one down a tad. Nonetheless, Electric Circus is a brave and ruthless statement wrapped in sincerity.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    lemonjelly.ky
    At best, a rich man's Air. At worst, tedious, superfluous, hippy-dippy, overly ironic trash. Lemon Jelly .KY can be both, of course -- often at the same time...
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Light & Magic
    Light & Magic is a logical, elegant progression for Ladytron, balancing their pop and experimental instincts even more ably than their debut.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Long Walk Home: Music From The Rabbit-Proof Fence
    It's not a splashy comeback, then, but a quiet return to something Gabriel does best -- creating soundscapes that are at once alien and familiar, eerie yet comforting.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    More Than A Woman
    If there's any problem with More Than a Woman, Toni Braxton's fourth album, it's that its so consistent, so much a continuation of its predecessor, Heat, that it may be hard to pinpoint distinctive characteristics.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stephen Malkmus
    No, it's not quite the same as another Pavement album, but its literate, funny eclecticism is almost as irresistible.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Little Deeper
    The album's a bit more edgy than any of her American contemporaries, but it's still not too far from [Lauryn] Hill and other neo-soul figures.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Optometry
    Riff, vamp, timbral fractures, lyrical tension, splintered harmonics, and a constant, seductive sense of groove permeate this jazz album, opening up a door onto a brave new future for a free jazz with soul -- Spooky has exceeded all expectations here.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Now You Know
    When he sticks with the slide guitar, Martsch's combination of downhome blues and meandering indie-rock is a winning one.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She Has No Strings Apollo
    The band's tendency to start a song quiet, loose, and lovely and then slowly sweat it into a faster, intensified crescendo is familiar by now, but somehow remains vividly evocative.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In The Afternoon
    An undeniably pleasant and ultimately rewarding, if not immediately accessible, listen.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Supper
    His last two albums also reflected his ongoing growth as an artist, but Supper's settled but intriguing warmth is an even bigger step forward.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tomorrow's Sounds Today
    Even though there's little stylistic maturation in his approach since his first release in 1986, Yoakam's songwriting craft keeps improving, and any track from this album could be a hit single. With Tomorrow's Sounds Today, Dwight Yoakam has fashioned a contemporary roots-conscious country album whose qualities, like the artist's distinctive style, are timeless.
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