AllMusic's Scores

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For 18,274 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: 15,323 out of 18274
  2. Mixed: 2,925 out of 18274
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18274
18274 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    And Your Song Is Like A Circle
    A song like "Maelstrom" lets loose with a thundering bass drum and more-distant syncopated snare. For the most part, though, tracks levitate above ground along webs of acoustic guitar, piano, layered vocals, and atmospheric shimmer to the point where it's sometimes difficult to distinguish one song from another.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Some Like It Hot
    Equally poised and unpredictable, Some Like It Hot's poetic, mischievous, raucous, and heartbroken songs come close to a definitive statement from a band in constant motion.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    THE BPM
    Virtually every element, whether played or programmed, is in service to Parks' sybaritic visions, and they all stimulate movement free from restraint.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Deadbeat
    His thoughtful pacing doles out thrilling moments worth waiting for, while the slower segments allow for the energy to build again.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    From The Pyre
    These are all big-hearted songs dreamed up in small rooms, and painted in bold Broadway strokes.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    UY SCUTI
    While there are some faint echoes of that personality and complexity on UY SCUTI, the essence of what made him so special is largely lost in a clutter of disconnected or only partially realized ideas.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kaleidoscopic Visions
    He delivers a modern jazz recording constructed from sounds, strategies, and sonorities collected across his decades-long career and uses them to create something bracingly different.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Begging The Night To Take Hold
    As always, Pollock's rich and deeply resonant songwriting is elevated by sweeping chamber pop arrangements and the emotionally attuned production of her husband and ex-Delgados drummer, Paul Savage.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ace
    Where Revealer occasionally spilled into showy musical prowess, Ace finds balance and takes Cunningham's art to the next level.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Getting Killed
    Geese at their most chaotic, delivering an assured yet jarring set of no wave-tinged art-rock missives -- "Trinidad," "Cobra," and "Taxes" -- that are as unnerving as they are affecting.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Cords
    The Cords LP easily lives up to the hype. .... With the charm factor at 11, plenty of bah-bah-bahs, and a couple early-Beatles harmonics thrown in for good measure, The Cords is an all-ages bop fest that welcomes everyone but the creeps, poseurs, and haters.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Liminal
    So far, Liminal is the strangest of the Wolfe/Eno collaborative efforts, playing around with sonics and textures while still retaining an air of familiarity.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Disquiet
    Even at over three hours, Disquiet holds together exceptionally well, from idea to execution, in a spontaneous, otherworldly flow.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Corporal
    Corporal is a stunning reinvention for the duo that will please those who like their psychedelia spiked with unhealthy amounts of real danger and devil may care sonic experimentation.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A Lifetime Of Riding By Night
    This doesn't sound much like anything Miller has released in the past, and that only adds to its power; this is a chronicle of a man pondering an uncertain future with both courage and trepidation, and A Lifetime of Riding by Night is the most powerful solo effort he's ever made.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    40 [Box Set]
    Ultimately, 40 is a delightful way to sum up the career of a band that's been constantly surprising and surprisingly constant for far longer than a band has the right to.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fatal Optimist
    Throughout its first ten tracks, Fatal Optimist offers occasional philosophical gems, like "Sometimes a good thing can break you/Sometimes a bad thing can save you" from "Good Lair," a song that also wonders, "Is it really that bad to cover up the sad?"
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Barely Know Her
    On I Barely Know Her, the 20-year-old star takes a magnetic first step.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bleeds
    The back and forth between quiet and loud numbers softens the focus of this music, and Bleeds doesn't have quite the same cumulative impact as Rat Saw God. That said, Bleeds is a ferocious, sometimes deeply moving collection of songs, confirming the strength of the music and revealing Hartzman's continued growth as a songwriter.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Hard Feelings
    No Hard Feelings holds together perhaps even better than Blame My Ex, and there's a sense that the Beaches, who were in their early teens when they started out, are maturing into themselves and gaining a road-tested swagger. Yet they still know how to have fun.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Art Of Loving
    This is a couple cuts above her promising debut.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    SISTER
    Frost Children take less risks with style and production on SISTER, but they turn in a well-oiled and high-potency set of songs that are more accessible than outlandish, designed for both dancefloor nostalgia and memories yet to be made.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blight
    The cascades of noise and occasional glowing chamber sounds almost serve as a wordless balancing element to lyrics that can feel fatalistic, even if they're just accurate assessments of where the world is at present.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    SickElixir
    SickElixir is the most challenging listen in Blawan's catalog, which makes it all the more unexpected that it's his first album for such a high-profile label, but it still contains some fascinating material.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Not For Lack Of Trying
    Not for Lack of Trying is a gorgeously subtle, often transfixing album.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Belong
    Belong is full of lyrics about being on the outside looking in, a perspective that gives context to its skillful mix of angsty and dreamy textures.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nobody's Girl
    Nobody's Girl is sometimes tough to listen to as Shires pulls no lyrical punches, but it's never less than compelling, fearless, and brilliantly crafted. As an act of musical exorcism, it's breathtaking.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Lullaby For The Lost
    Lullaby for the Lost is the album made possible by a decade's worth of soul searching, and McCaslin's increasingly idiosyncratic, boundary-less, and masterful approach to modern jazz.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songbird
    Songbird doesn't tell us much new about Waylon Jennings, but it reaffirms that he was one of the strongest and most compelling country singers of his generation, and this is a welcome gift for fans who wish there was another fine 1970s Waylon Jennings album they'd never heard.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Life Of A Showgirl
    There’s some of that familiar production magic [of Max Martin and Shellback] in the instantaneous disco-pop hooks of “Wood” or the classic Swiftie melodic sensibilities and sonic detailing of “Opalite,” but nothing comes close to the poreless candyshell immediacy of “Bad Blood” or the undeniable catchiness of “We Are Never Getting Back Together.” Instead, these songs choose a more refined approach that’s slower to take hold but makes an impact nonetheless.
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