AllMusic's Scores

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For 18,280 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: 15,329 out of 18280
  2. Mixed: 2,925 out of 18280
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18280
18280 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Deserve Love
    Everything is streamlined and stitched together with consummate finesse by producer Jay Joyce. None of this good-time, borderline silly music is going to earn the band any critical hosannas and anyone who had hopes that the group would ditch this sound and go back to howling garage punk is going to feel let down. That being said, people who don't take their music too seriously might find that You Deserve Love is just the kind of record to put on when some mood elevation is required.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Let It Burn
    GospelbeacH are a great rock band, but on this album at least, it's their softer, more stripped-down tunes that carry the day and provide Let It Burn's most memorable moments.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Juice B Crypts
    Battles pack so much into Juice B Crypts that, perhaps more than any of their albums since Mirrored, it needs to be taken as a whole to appreciate its constantly changing, consistently engaging sounds.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dawn Chorus
    As immaculately crafted as anything else in Greene's catalog, Dawn Chorus is a bleary but vivid journal of the thoughts clouding one's head as morning finally breaks after an earthshaking night out.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    War Music
    Ultimately, War Music doesn't sound especially innovative, particularly stacked up against their 1998 masterpiece The Shape of Punk to Come. But it speaks to a world still wrestling with problems that have divided society for centuries, and Refused aren't rehashing old arguments so much as they're launching one more campaign in a war they cannot bear to surrender.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Holiday
    Kim Shattuck loved rock & roll and was too grateful to her muse to take it for granted, and No Holiday is a joyous if bittersweet testament to her spirit and her gift.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Crush
    Crush certainly comes across as fragmentary, as if a dozen tracks, at least a couple albums worth of ideas, were truncated, quickly sequenced, and packed onto one LP. That said, it's hard to imagine more forethought and deliberation resulting in a listen more riveting than this one.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Somebody's Knocking
    More than a few of Lanegan's longtime fans will be puzzled by his transformation into the party animal of the dark side, but his vocals are typically strong, and he sounds fully engaged with the material, happy to be visiting the VIP section of the Place Where Nothing Living Goes, and he's excited and challenged in a way he's hasn't sounded in a while.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Surviving
    At a lean ten tracks, Surviving quickly makes its point, pushing through years of pain and emotional turmoil by setting sights on a stronger, more confident future.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    One Step Behind
    One Step Behind sees Garcia Peoples continuing their rapid, curious evolution. That the band can take such a huge leap from their previous material in such a short period of time points to an even more radical exploration of what's to come.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shiny New Model
    Shiny New Model definitely lives up to the title. The EP takes the best parts of the band's debut (their energy and snarky lyrics), adds dynamic tension and focus, and ends up being just a little better and just a little more exciting.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heavy Lifter
    The result is a more coherent set of tunes that don't veer far from Hovvdy's established ruminative demeanor.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There Existed an Addiction to Blood
    Daveed Diggs' rapid-fire verses are precise and unflinching, detailing gruesome scenes with pinpoint accuracy. Much of the album, particularly the interludes, is filled with field recordings, giving the sensation of being on the run and uncertain of one's fate.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    When I Say to You Black Lightning
    Artful, spooky, and fascinating, When I Say to You Black Lightning's beguiling contradictions are likely to compel repeat listens.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Vagabon
    The decision to make the album an eponymous one becomes more meaningful as lyrics reveal themes of both self-sufficiency and, as in the case of "Home Soon," a sense of belonging.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Screamer
    The music sometimes coheres on an individual track level, but Screamer pushes buttons too hard. All of its strident hooks and big beat confrontation wind up being exhausting: it sounds like a band screaming at you to pay attention for the better part of a half hour.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fabula Mendax
    Fabula Mendax is another winning installment of the Monochrome Set story that reaches the same heady heights as their recent work, and proves yet again that the group somehow remain as surprising, witty, and tunefully intriguing as they have been right from the start.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    High Water II
    It all adds up to a solid record, one that will surely appeal to Crowes fans who have no patience for Deadhead flourishes, but one that could use a little bit of flair on the edges.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Old LP
    Their skill at being witty but not arch, emotional but not overwrought, and calling out hypocrisy wherever they see it has only become keener, largely because Waronker is an even sharper, more articulate songwriter. ... A celebration of that dog.'s music that makes peace (or at least frenemies) with the past and proves, finally, that time is on their side.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Closer Than Together
    While the band sometimes flirts with modern sounds -- witness the overheated neo-new wave beats fueling "High Steppin'" -- they usually default to an affectless folk-rock that shows a considerable debt to Bob Dylan.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Devour You
    Starcrawler seem less like they want to lead you astray and more like they're acting out in hopes of getting their parents' attention, which isn't always good for these songs. But the music on Devour You is just raw and sweaty enough to conjure up some forgotten after-school special about falling in with the wrong crowd, and if that isn't hitting a bull's-eye for them, it's at least somewhere on the target.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    2020
    Richard Dawson is an eccentric but clear-eyed observer of the human condition, and just as he brought something fresh to the U.K. folk tradition on 2017's Peasant, 2020 reveals how he sees the details of everyday life in a way that slips past most writers. And if it isn't always fun, the honesty and passion in this music deliver more than enough reward for your time.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Home Record
    With its raw edges and open ends, No Home Record exposes the deepest levels of Gordon's art, and they're more thought-provoking and bracing than ever.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Carrying On
    As vocalists and songwriters, Kacy & Clayton have proven to be as consistently satisfying and emotionally resonant as anyone in contemporary folk, and Carrying On finds them making their homeland very proud indeed.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Giants of All Sizes
    Lands somewhere between the widescreen dynamics of their Mercury Prize-short-listed debut, the workmanlike grandiosity of Seldom Seen Kid, and the aching melancholy of The Take Off and Landing of Everything.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lahs
    There may be moments that give fans expecting another laidback psych record pause, but on the whole the band succeed in refurbing their template and coming up with something that's both extremely chill and interesting at the same time.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blossoms
    Logically, Blossoms doesn't have the sort of strangely human touch of Emptyset's 2017 releases, but it's still a compelling, somewhat frightening hybrid of organic and synthetic processes.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sonic Citadel
    A multi-faceted and especially curious collection of Lightning Bolt material, Sonic Citadel shows the band still growing and developing nearly a quarter century in.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Metal Galaxy
    Metal Galaxy tweaks the recipe just enough to feel fresh while maintaining the meticulous attention to detail and decibels that have made the group such an unlikely international success.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    KIRK
    While newer production tricks add some kick to DaBaby's formula, stagnant lyrics and monotonous flows present him as an artist unwilling to change; swamped by slushy imitations of his best work, the gems on Kirk aren't given the platform to shine.
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