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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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cost of Living
    Produced by Guy Picciotto of Fugazi in tandem with engineer Greg Norman, Cost of Living is a tougher and leaner effort than Full Communism, with the group's abundant energy even more tightly focused.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Poor David's Almanack
    It's very difficult to argue with what Rawlings and company have assembled here. Aside from one misstep (that, to be fair, others might find less wearying) ["Lindsay Button"is the set's longest track and it feels like it], it's every bit as good as Nashville Obsolete.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cage Tropical
    On these songs, and really all of the album, Rose isn't just using the '80s as a prop or making a novelty record. The big emotions need a big sound and the songs about returning to the city of her youth need the music of her youth to really hit home.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rainbow
    By slyly alternating between these two extremes throughout Rainbow, Kesha winds up with a comeback that's fully realized emotionally and musically.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bandwagonesque
    The best songs on Gibbard's tribute illuminate something new or codify what was essentially great about the original. Sometimes he even manages to do both, while essentially offering up slavishly executed re-creations of the original tracks.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Square One
    The release is certainly pleasant, but it often seems too laid-back and sluggish to really get excited about.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Foreign Light
    The album as a whole seems unfocused, and while the producer deserves kudos for making his most mature work yet, Foreign Light contains too few high points to warrant a recommendation.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Threshold of Faith [EP]
    The entire EP is haunting, surreal, and undeniably beautiful.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dark Matter
    Even the album's weakest cut, "It's a Jungle Out There," works in context, and the two numbers about the bonds of family, "Lost Without You" and "Wandering Boy," are thoughtful and genuinely moving. And the easy, endlessly reliable stride of Newman's piano remains one of popular music's most underrated pleasures.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pop Voodoo
    It's nothing more than a couple of old friends sitting around and cracking jokes to each other. If you happen to share their sensibility, it's a fun way to spend 50 minutes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sodium
    Sodium proves that at their best, Dasher are a truly powerful band.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Woodland Echoes
    Woodland Echoes can't be called a return to form for Heyward because he never lost his form; it just went unheard for years. Call it a welcome return instead, because the world of pop music always needs music this smart, tuneful, and unabashedly romantic.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Collection
    A brief teaser with only eight tracks that last less than half an hour, it's enough to make the promise of the young Nashville native evident.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Call It Love
    The giddy quality may stick more than do individual songs, but they succeed in capturing some of the wooziness of new love.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Eurgh!
    Despite the array of reference points touched upon, they manage to maintain a uniqueness in their work that's both confrontational and entertaining. Bands like Breakfast Muff are reclaiming punk from its heritage status, and molding it in their own image. The result is anything but ambivalent.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings [Box Set]
    Those consumers in the market for the earliest Elvis will be satisfied by this, as it not only has everything in one convenient box but the addition of the live material does provide a nice coda to the familiar Sun sessions.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fabriclive 93
    Not only is it a special volume of Fabric's impressive series, it's a living piece of music that presents Daphni at its most vital.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rotations
    Overall, while the album is varied, it's consistently absorbing as it reveals itself with a sense of suspense through its melancholy ambience.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Autobiography
    Some references to proper nouns come across as either misplaced or forced, and the set could do with fewer strained fairground-rock choruses. These shortcomings are nonetheless too rare and slight to prevent The Autobiography from being a remarkable first album.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A Black Mile to the Surface
    Based on the nuanced opacity of these lyrics and the artful moodiness of the music, the answer will likely remain an elusive puzzle for listeners to ponder. Thankfully, Manchester Orchestra have made an album well worth pondering over.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Power of Peace
    Power of Peace is loose, but everybody brought their chops to the party. This is what happens when great musicians gather simply to see what happens and enjoy one another's company.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everything Now
    Overall, there is just enough on Everything Now to appease fans and attract newcomers with accessible singles, but as an Arcade Fire record, it's unfortunately too inconsistent and ultimately hollow. Arcade Fire sought to make a Big Statement but instead produced one of their least impactful works.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Arthur Alexander [Reissue]
    This is beautiful, heart-wrenching music that no one with a heart and a soul can walk away from without feeling its impact.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Usual Suspects
    Wobble has been on a creative tear for decades with a few significant breaks. The Usual Suspects reveals its scope with sophistication, savvy, and humor. Essential.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan
    Dylan didn't need another covers record. Thankfully, Nile didn't give a damn and delivered one of the best.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Spooky Action
    Spooky Action is rollicking exercise in high-impact lo-fi rock that should more than satisfy anyone who has dug any of Loewenstein's projects in the past.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Our Pleasure
    It finds the group evolving while holding on to what was best about their first LP, and they remain a singular and bracing punk rock band for people who think they're too smart for punk rock. Well worth your time and attention.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Crooked Calypso
    From the heartfelt Irish folk tribute "Blackwater Banks" to the unstoppably hooky "People Like Us," this is an engaging and fun listen that is easy to repeat again and again.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Also Sprach Zarathustra
    It's spacious and fluid rather than rock-solid and rigid, but every sound and movement feels entirely deliberate. Nearly 40 years after their formation, Laibach remain innovators, and Also Sprach Zarathustra is easily one of their best works. Absolutely glorious.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Flower Boy
    While most of these songs are rife with anxiety and isolation, the open-hearted lyricism and wide-scoped productions, put together by an artist in peak form, make them immensely engrossing. Frank Ocean, Pharrell Williams, Kali Uchis, Syd, and Estelle are among 11 supporting cast members, not one of whom is inessential to the whole.
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