AllMusic's Scores

  • Music
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:
18282 music reviews
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As per usual, the record is immaculately crafted, but a bit "proggy," which could serve to disappoint listeners who have been waiting patiently for the artist to return to the engaging, patchwork pop/rock of 2005's Illinoise. Fans of the quirky, less immediate moments from that album will find a great deal to love on this precursor to October's full length Age of Adz.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Final Frontier still brings Iron Maiden closer to their aesthetic legacy and triumphant year 2000 rebirth than its two predecessors.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This debut only strengthens Lissie's potential to become one of folk music's newest sirens.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    David Gray doesn't really purport to be anything other than a contemporary folk-pop singer, and Foundling finds him doing what he does best.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    While fans of Darker My Love's earlier albums may be a bit put off by this sudden sea change, Alive as You Are marks a pleasant sonic shift for the band, offering anyone willing to listen a love letter to San Francisco's psych-pop past and the sounds of the paisley underground.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    That Black City is Dear's most creative and individual album is not, however, up for debate.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nearly everything else here is loving, sincere, and worthy of hearing by fans of the Beach Boys or Broadway.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As a record in 2010, the ten songs are an unapologetic throwback, not quite distinctive enough to suggest that a reevaluation of the band is in order, but certainly pleasing for fans -- and even if you're not a fan, it's hard not to be a little pleased that this forgotten chapter in the band's history has been published.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Better Than This proves that good songs need very little to communicate instructive narratives and complex emotions, and that primitive recording methods are still sometimes the best ones.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cowboy's Back in Town reveals that this singer can do one thing well; but he does it really well -- and that's offer tough, utterly masculine, contemporary country-rock -- check the closer "Whoop a Man's Ass" -- convincingly.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise is a mixed bag. There's fine stuff here to be sure, but as a whole, it feels unbalanced; too much of one sound makes it drag a bit. Given that this is his debut as a producer, it's not unexpected; but after his previous trio of fine recordings, this one feels anticlimactic.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sometimes, this careful approach serves as a detriment to the bandmembers, who'd do well to crank up their amplifiers once in a while and see what their pop sensibilities sound like at high volume. On the other hand, Let It Sway is the sound of a band doing what it does best, and it's nice to hear SSLYBY get their groove back.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    His voice is clear over the sparse arrangements, and his words are more direct than before.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The real drums are a key here: the band doesn't sound as sequenced and hemmed-in as it did in the past; there's a messy, urgent pulse to the music. All the same, Trouble isn't that far removed from Short Bus.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Camu Tao's thoughts and structures are more fully fleshed out, more songs than just ideas and sketches, and here, what he was and what he could do, and could have done, seem so much more fully whole.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Earnest, melodic, and slow to unfold, there's not a bad song on here, but surprises are few and far between.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Come and Get It!--his third LP and first for a major label--feels a bit like an unearthed relic, built on songs and sounds that could pass for unheard gems if it wasn't for Reed's unapologetically white voice, free of affectations and ticks.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All About Tonight wasn't recorded to reach a new audience, so much as shore up Shelton's fan base while furthering his chosen marketing experiment.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The better surprise is his heavy dose of talent that doesn't necessarily dazzle but does charm, and is deep enough to keep things interesting for a whole album.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As pure music, Black Label Society remain as effective as they ever were on Order of the Black.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Somehow, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World's music remains true not just to the comic, but to the work of everyone involved in the story at every stage, with plenty of fun and heart to boot.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This third chapter in the Budos Band's legacy is a giant step forward. That said, for band and listener alike, nothing is lost in this gambit; everything just gets deeper and wider and the payoff is nearly immeasurable.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Despite their changes, PVT remain as hard to pin down as ever, and Church with No Magic is admirable, if not exactly embraceable.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's serious without being preachy, cynical without dissolving into apathy, and whimsical enough to keep both sentiments in line, and of all of their records, it may be the one that ages so well.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wavves sometimes gets carried away--"Neon Balloon" and its sea of synth gurgles and helium vocals is near silly--but when Williams finds his stride and carves the tube of punky psych sonics, the results are totally awesome.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On Tin Cast Trust, Los Lobos prove that tough times don't last, but tough music does, and those are words we can all live by.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As it stands, Transit Transit is a beautifully executed work that would have made the band solid contenders if it had been released back in 1992.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This is the sound of seasoned veterans still finding new ways to play old favorites.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This isn't just a logical follow-up to 2008's excellent The City That Care Forgot, it's close to a career-defining summation from one of America's most important musicians.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    While this hardly supplants those originals, Spot the Difference is a fun spin for the devoted and a good advertisement for Squeeze's reunion tour, proving they still have the knack to entertain.