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
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Cool
    Even considering the over-abundance of elaboration on all fronts, it's a credit to Lupe that he has made an album that cannot be processed after one or two listens, and if you have the time, its inscrutability turns into mere complexity.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
    Alone will stand as an idiosyncratic gem in his catalog, showcasing him at his eccentric best.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    8 Diagrams
    Whether they love it or hate it. It is a departure from previous releases and it does focus on melody and guitars and strings, but it is also lush and well-crafted and smart and addictive.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Face Off
    In stretches, it's perfectly entertaining, yet most of it goes in one ear and out the other, not leaving much in the memory.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Alive 2007
    As on their first two classic full-lengths, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo display excellent crowd control, pacing the record well, spacing the hits, and building the mood like the good crowd-pleasers they are.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Carnival II: Memoirs Of An Immigrant
    Carnival, Vol. 2 strives to give the immigration problem a face, turning those thousands of marchers seen on the news into a thousand personal stories of struggle and hope. It does so while pulsating with life and displaying an unabashed love of music that's rich, daring, and delightful.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Big Doe Rehab
    "Misstep" is certainly a word too harsh for The Big Doe Rehab, which is more "uneventful" than "wrong."
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Audio Day Dream
    ADD is certainly one of the more interesting AmIdol-related records, but so much commotion without construction is ultimately as forgettable as Jordin's pageant-winner trifle, and perhaps a little more tiring to get through, too.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall
    So while the performance isn't perfect, particularly toward the end of the show (where, after two hours of performing swing tunes and jazz standards, Wainwright is understandably low on steam), it's still nice to hear the singer in his element, crooning about dinging trolleys and zinging heartstrings with flamboyancy that only he can muster.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    M.A.D.E.
    M.A.D.E. is Scarface doing everything right, delivering those cold, hardcore rhymes over uncomplicated, soulful beats.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Boatlift
    The Boatlift [is] a fun floor-filler, but just not up to Pitbull's usual standards.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Frank
    Winehouse's record has the feeling of being allowed to grow on its own--without being meddled with and fussed over.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jordin Sparks
    On Idol, all this unformed youthfulness was endearing, but on this debut she just seems green, not quite ready for the big leagues she's been pushed into.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shelter From The Ash
    These eight songs may not be able to be covered by anybody else, but they are wonderfully constructed, beautifully textured, and exquisitely played.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    D-Sides
    While not all of the remixes hit these heights, overall it's a fun set, and a good complement to the eclecticism of D-Sides' first disc.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Free At Last
    Even with the amount of expectation-lowering context heavy on the mind, Free at Last sounds like a very strong follow-up.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Black And White Album
    While the balancing act between the Hives' new and old approaches is a little lopsided, making this album less amazing than "Tyrannosaurus Hives," The Black and White Album should satisfy most fans while giving them a few challenging moments to chew on, too.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Red Carpet Massacre
    While Duran Duran have worked steadily since their 1993 comeback, "The Wedding Album," they haven't always sounded as stylish and creatively tuned-in as they do on 2007's Red Carpet Massacre.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Taking Chances
    It's an album of its time: it offers extravagance in the guise of self-help, which can be alluring in doses--especially those bizarre blues-rockers--but it's just too much of a very expensive yet not particularly tasteful thing.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    System
    System goes down smooth, even if it's rather strange that it is so nostalgic for the pre-Clinton '90s, but this is so much a production piece that, apart from the acoustic 'Rolling,' the only song that stands outside of the sheer sonic gloss is 'Wedding Day,' a genuinely odd piece of kitsch duet with Heidi herself.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    As I Am
    And so even though As I Am is a flawed work--a little too poppy, a little too clichéd--it is also indicative of what Keys can and will do, and that she is someone, thanks to her curiosity, intelligence, and natural talent, who will be able to mature and grow for years to come
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sawdust
    Sawdust does indeed contain some moments of grand pomp, but its scattershot nature works against the band as it winds up emphasizing the lingering question from "Sam's Town," that the group has a hell of a lot of ideas but they just don't know what the hell to do with them.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ire Works
    It can be inaccessible and terrifying all at once, but in a genre overly saturated with formulaic groups, Ire Works is a true standout.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA
    The material tends to work best when they sound relatively relaxed, as opposed to when it is obvious that they are trying very hard to honor the originals while being over-demonstrative with their obviously gifted voices.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Intoxication
    With Intoxication, Shaggy has once again found that perfect balance of slick and streetwise, and added career-defining single number three as the cherry on top.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    American Gangster
    This is a very good Jay-Z album. He is, for the most part, doing what he has done before: what he does best.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hvarf/Heim
    Hvarf/Heim isn't the album to mark a musical departure for Sigur Rós.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I-Empire
    I-Empire is an easier record to like than "We Don't Need to Whisper," as it marks a very small, very tentative progression toward DeLonge realizing that he can expand his sonic and emotional horizons without abandoning the pop songcraft that remains his greatest strength
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smoke
    Smoke never sounds dated or rehashed--instead, it's a fresh, consistently creative, and consistently listenable debut.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Untrue
    If you can appreciate the style of dubstep employed by Burial, it's easy to fall head over heels for Untrue, an album on which there are absolutely no mainstream-crossover concessions, no ego trips, and no willful stylistic variation--an album where the music, a singular style of it, takes center stage with no distractions or sideshows, where there's never the urge to skip to the next track, because they're all part and parcel of the greater whole.
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