AllMusic's Scores

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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:
  1. Positive: 15,331 out of 18282
  2. Mixed: 2,925 out of 18282
  3. Negative: 26 out of 18282
18282 music reviews
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    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Return To Form
    With this album, Major Stars show their talent as songwriters, creating a collection of songs that manages to rope you in with a solid rock foundation before attempting to blow your mind with fuzzed-out fretboard acrobatics, making the title a statement of purpose rather than empty posturing.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Hope, No Future
    No Hope, No Future doesn’t always play to the band’s proven strengths, but it shows that Good Shoes are a thoroughly independent, even contrary band that's unafraid of change, even when it’s difficult.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In This Light & On This Evening
    While it seems they will probably never equal the majesty of their debut, Editors have dug themselves out of their artistic cul de sac at least long enough to plan their next move.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Colossus
    The Colossus finds Rjd2 back to doing what he did when he first began recording: simply curating excellent productions instead of wooing a new audience by creating expressly written songs or telling a story with his full-lengths.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Transference
    Given Spoon's reputation for consistency, it's not a surprise that Transference is good. However, it manages to be good in surprising ways.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    End Times
    This is a dark, sparse, elegantly--and enjoyably--somewhat mopey, paradoxical album. It’s emotionally raw, but devoid of self-pity. It's charming in its sense of irony and self-awareness.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Real Life Is No Cool
    Just about all of the new tracks would make fine A-sides, though they all fall into place as part of a flowing album.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My Dinosaur Life
    Even after ten years of navigating the new millennium's punk-emo scene, Motion City Soundtrack sound positively hungry. My Dinosaur Life is a sugar rush without the crash at the end, just the insatiable need to hear it all again.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Behave Yourself [EP]
    Streamlined, confident, and cohesive, Behave Yourself finds Cold War Kids getting their groove back.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Turn Ons
    It’s a hell of a good time and it does what a great covers album should: the band never lets their deep, enduring love get in the way of inspiration or imagination.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    %
    It’s hardly a consistent listen, and sometimes the journey seems directionless, but the battle between spastic outbursts and atmospheric slosh keeps the listening experience as thrilling as it is challenging.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sweet Heart Rodeo
    What any of this has to do with rodeos (although they come up in the lyrics) is anybody's guess; Dawn Landes is no cowgirl, but rather a quirky indie singer/songwriter with a light touch.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Graphic As A Star
    While all of Foster’s work is provocative, this proves the warmest, loveliest, and most beautifully articulated recording in her catalog.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    OST
    Musically it’s the performances by Bridges that are the most arresting here.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You & Me
    You & Me makes sure his six-string gifts remain in the forefront of the listener's mind. And while the reigning mood of the album is one of warm, Southern California breezes and sun-splashed sojourns to the Pacific Ocean, other influences pop up along the way, particularly a fondness for British folk-rock.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pizza Box
    Pizza Box is a long way from the punky bluegrass of the Bad Livers, and may be the best album Barnes has ever made.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pictures
    Pictures is one of the rare albums that manages to hold tight to what is good about a band (in this case, energy and hooky songs), and add on new things (wider instrumentation, better arrangements) without compromising their strengths.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Contra
    With Contra, Vampire Weekend make Auto-Tune and real live guitars, Mexican drinks, Jamaican riffs and Upper West Side strings belong together, and this exciting lack of boundaries offers more possibilities than anyone could have expected.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky
    They resisted the temptation to knock out another collection of power pop and instead hibernated for a few years, eventually teaming up with Dave Fridmann--a former member of Mercury Rev best known for his production work with the Flaming Lips--with the intention of reinvention, resulting in the mildly bewildering Of the Blue Colour of the Sky.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Y Not
    There is charm to Starr’s tried and true: exciting it is not but it’s as comforting as an old friend who doesn’t change, he just stays the same.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heartland
    It’s a wide, spacious, summer storm of a record that bounces around genres like an open-world RPG game, and while there may be only 12 locations you can fast-travel to, there is enough treasure in each to keep the adventurer occupied for a month of afternoons.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    July Flame
    There are no wasted notes anywhere on July Flame, neither in Martine's production nor Veirs' tightly written (but still expressionistically poetic) compositions.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rain On The City
    Rain on the City lacks the consistency of Johnston's masterpiece, "Can You Fly," or its follow-up, "This Perfect World," but unlike the albums that followed, this collection is a beautiful example of Johnston playing to his strengths and reminding us why he's one of the best and most singular American songwriters at work today.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    You Break Our Hearts, We’ll Tear Yours Out
    The band are an almost classic example of one element working incredibly well and another almost tripping it up as it goes. What works is the group's collective ear for those previously mentioned sounds and styles, which the trio plays excellently throughout.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is No C)
    This leathery roots record contains music that bridges the gap between frail flesh and powerful spirit ruggedly, sensually, and honestly, making it a work of high art.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Music Scene
    Everyone makes sample-based music these days, but very few people use found sounds and prefab musical snippets as creatively and thoughtfully as Blockhead does.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ollusion
    An album that thrives on sparse, tickling productions that are more about atmosphere than anything else.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Animal
    Snooty taste makers and parents should avoid Animal at all costs, but with so many fun, “TiK ToK”-type tracks, the album has plenty for both brats and the bratty at heart.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    VH1 Storytellers
    Like all the other installments in the series, this one makes a nice addition to a hardcore supporter’s collection.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Unbroken
    On Idol, McPhee always favored middle of the road over modern, and Unbroken returns her to that course, bringing her somewhere within the vicinity of Paula Cole (who co-writes the title track), Rachael Yamagata (who co-writes “Keep Drivin’”) and Mandy Moore’s stylized ‘70s throwback, flavored with the slightest traces of modern sounds, including a vague borrowing of Beyoncé phrasing.
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