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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    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Should Be So Lucky
    You Should Be So Lucky is distinguished by that casual professionalism, and the album is so comfortable, so easy to enjoy that it can take a few listens to realize how deeply Tench's original songs sink in--it's not just that ballads like "Today I Took Your Picture Down" start to resonate, but the pop hooks on "Veronica Said" and the title track seem stronger and cannier -- and how soulful this whole affair is.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kindly Bent to Free Us
    While Cynic's songwriting here is far from simple, their ability to create cohesion between the many elements at work in their music is a boon to the listener, providing the opportunity to enjoy the depth and complexity of the music without needing to spend an excessive amount of time trying to make heads or tails of it.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cult
    While fans will appreciate a self-aware look behind the curtain, there's enough raw energy and emotion here to hook in plenty of newcomers.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cilvia: Demo [EP]
    Easy access it's not, but track by track, this is excellence and an appetite-whetting experience worth any progressive hip-hop fan's attention.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Digital Resistance
    Slough Feg have always been the heavy metal equivalent of Guided By Voices (minus the supernatural prolificity), and Digital Resistance does little to tarnish that reputation, as it plays as fast and loose with the genre as it does venerate it.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Guilt Mirrors
    Despite the album's daunting length, Harte rewards listeners with some of his most affecting and expressive music yet.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blame Confusion
    It's too easy to call Blame Confusion a solid first album; nevertheless, it's still a consistently entertaining and impressive debut.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Music Speaks
    Given the dominance of slow material, the album is a bit stifling; Glover loosens up a little for only "In the Middle," co-written by Fantasia Barrino with a touch of "Ting-a-Ling," yet even that has some heartache.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wave 1 [EP]
    His half-hour Wave 1 EP supplies more of the robust, wide-eyed synth pop/funk for which he has been known, albeit with a few slight tweaks.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Past Life
    With Past Life, Lost in the Trees have risen to the occasion and crafted a record that's no less haunted, but decidedly more open to interpretation.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Motivational Jumpsuit
    Rushing by with a distinct sense of economy in less than 40 minutes and heavy on counterpoint between Pollard's robust fantasy rock and Sprout's careful sentimentality, Motivational Jumpsuit is easily the most satisfying full-length of GbV's reunited, overproductive 2010s phase.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Brink
    Mary's revelatory, palpable desire and seemingly newfound strength permeate all of The Brink, leaving you with an impression of the Jezabels as a band that's (in spirit) one part singer/songwriter, one part stadium rock god, and, ultimately, all woman.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Somewhere Else
    It's anyone's guess where Loveless will go from here, but she's already made an album that's genuinely dazzling, and Somewhere Else sounds like a real contender for best album of 2014.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Burn Your Fire for No Witness
    The album seamlessly strolls from soaring numbers like "Lights Out" into a more stripped-down second half before ending with the gorgeous and inspired "Windows."
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Love's Legal
    Even though the album's well-intentioned concepts don't always work, Rostron remains an artist with bold ideas.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles
    Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles is a welcome return by an artist who has remained stubbornly true to herself and only records when she has something new to say.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Voices
    Voices is filled with catchy, emotion-packed songs that will sound great booming out of radio speakers, soundtracking late nights spent alone and wondering, and anytime some really powerful modern pop is needed.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lo-Fantasy
    Word has it that Roberts wrote these songs, not solely in his Montreal basement studio, but primarily in a sun-soaked house on a hill in Andalusia, Spain. True or not, it's certainly a warm, brightly hopeful album.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Small Town Heroes
    Throughout it all Segarra struts her stuff without the slightest bit of arrogance (most of the arrangements are spare, but never willfully so), offering up a confident, yet ultimately amiable set of millennial-informed, urban crafted, Woody Guthrie-inspired, contemporary hobo-folk anthems that play fast and loose with genre tropes without losing the essence that makes them universal.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kin <-->
    Kin (<-->) proves that the Unity Band is the next evolution of what Metheny -- and Lyle Mays--began with PMG. Musically, this unit's musicality derives as much from feel and freedom as it does sophisticated form and function.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    NAP: North American Poetry
    North American Poetry is at its best, however, when Wauters strips away the slight clutter and lets his most introspective thoughts, questions, and feelings flow.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hard Working Americans
    Hard Working Americans picked 11 cover tunes which deal with the hard truths of life among the working class, some recent compositions, and other, older songs that have remained relevant with the passage of time.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Galore
    Constructed with flawlessness in mind, Galore succeeds in its ability to sound intensely produced and polished but never sterile.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Morning Phase
    The abiding impression left from this album is one of comfort, not despair, which makes Morning Phase distinctly different than its companion Sea Change.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The U.S. Albums [Box Set]
    It's hard to argue against the use of the 2009 remasters, as this is the best the Beatles have ever sounded. And not only does this sound good, it looks good, so it's a handsome way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Beatlemania, although anybody who owns the 2009 boxes in addition to the 2004 and 2006 sets may find it hard to justify another purchase.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lights from the Chemical Plant
    The Lights from the Chemical Plant is an inspired, mercurial record, by an artist who cares deeply for tradition, but refuses to be bound by it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    True Love Kills the Fairy Tale
    Exciting and moving, the songs on True Love Kills the Fairy Tale would work just as well stripped-down and spare as they do in the intricately produced electro-pop forms presented here.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hotel Valentine
    To say that the album sounds like Hatori and Honda picked up right where they left off downplays its specialness, but there's no denying it sounds like Cibo Matto had never stopped playing together.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Animal Heart
    Neither a denial nor a rehash of Persson's past, Animal Heart is a welcome reflection of her changing life and art.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Death After Life
    Working in long phases of slow development, Death After Life manages to pull energy from the darker corners of several splintered fields of techno to craft a strange and menacing hybrid that reaches dizzying places of both ugliness and resolution on almost every track.
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