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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    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Intra-I
    Whereas Fyah relied on jazz and funk as twin lines of harmonic and rhythmic inquiry, Intra-I multiplies their import by strategically locating them inside a far deeper, wider mix to create an original music that looks squarely at the future.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lily We Need to Talk Now
    Given its mercurial disposition and fleeting playing time -- nothing here reaches the three-minute mark -- Lily We Need to Talk Now ultimately feels like a sampler, if one that whets the appetite for more.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Hushed and Grim
    While Hushed and Grim tracks the stages of grief, it also reflects on the soul's journey after death. Musically, Mastodon illuminate the emotional heft of their subject matter in gorgeously architected compositions rendered with abundant creativity, massive power, and searing honesty.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ocean to Ocean
    Like Native Invader before it, Ocean to Ocean is a late-era standout for Amos, who reaches through the dark cloud of collective grief to be that supportive presence for listeners, healing with familiar touches and a timely message.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Don't Live Here Anymore
    On top of the more accessible production, this record also boasts some of Granduciel's most immediate songs, making it some of the best work from a band with a near-spotless track record.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Absence
    Absence is a mutative and nuanced album, but one which rewards both casual listening and extended deep dives.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cracks
    Cracks is an illuminating exploration of cyclical energy, both inside and outside the body.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Future Past
    Duran Duran are taking some calculated risks here which sometimes means they stumble -- occasionally, the ballads feel a shade strident -- but the restlessness makes for a kinetic, exciting album.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Far In
    Tour de force might be too weighty a term for an album so seemingly effortless, but from its unhurried flow to its wealth of songs, Far In is a glorious showcase for all the aspects of Helado Negro's music.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wayfinder
    A midtempo set almost from beginning to end, among Wayfinder's relatively livelier, full-band entries are "A Lot to Ask" and "Big Fan," which features wide-ranging backing vocals by Jay Som's Melina Duterte. Even still, the album never quite steps out into the sun.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Existence Is Futile
    The band's grandiose hellscapes can sometimes feel like horror-fiction cosplay, but in trading some of the myth and magic for the genuine torment of existential dread, they've managed to produce their most humanistic work to date.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them!
    It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! is superior work from a great rock band. If this is going to be typical from this point on, we're all pretty fortunate.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle
    It's a startling performance. The package design is simply stellar and the liner essays by critic/historian Ashley Kahn and Coltrane biographer Lewis Porter are educational, authoritative, and indispensable.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My Morning Jacket
    My Morning Jacket is MMJ's most satisfying work since 2008's Evil Urges, and a splendid example of what can happen when their group mind is in sync.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shade
    With its balance of eras, sounds, and short and extended songs, Shade has the depth of a career retrospective and the freshness of a new album, both of which make it especially appealing to new and longtime Grouper fans alike.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Actually, You Can
    A manifesto that only Deerhoof could create, Actually, You Can is a perfect example of how they achieve what seems like the impossible time and time again -- and with its heroic doses of fun and optimism, it reminds listeners that actually, they can too.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fantasy Island
    Sometimes beguiling, sometimes bewildering, Fantasy Island is a strange album even by Clinic's standards. While it's hard to shake the feeling that its sunny vibes are just a mirage, it's still immensely entertaining for anyone game to follow the band into their oddest musical terrain.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    And Then Life Was Beautiful
    Once Nao enters on the finale "Amazing Grace," an ethereal original that shares some lyrics with the popular hymn and delivers another message of salvation, it becomes more clear why the title song, an ideal closer in just about any other context, starts the album.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chansons d'Ennui Tip-Top
    Intriguing from beginning to end, Cocker's lush, emphatic takes should delight fans of vintage French and Baroque pop.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    -io
    Fohr's lyrics draw from personal experiences as well as scientific phenomena, and she elevates them with her dynamic, sometimes earth-shaking arrangements.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ookii Gekkou
    Perfect listening for solitude, Ookii Gekkou discovers strange beauty within the mundane -- and once again demonstrates that Vanishing Twin's imagination is boundless, even when the world only extends as far as the walls around them.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mercurial World
    That Magdalena Bay also augment their capital "P" pop melodies with industrial textures, shoegaze flourishes, and plenty of funked-out bass grooves means that Mercurial World offers both sugary melodic highs and deeper sonic layers to explore.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fun House
    Largely due to Duffy's restrained, inward-facing vocals, Fun House is at its best on songs with soft-spoken, atmospheric designs, but the experiments here are far from missteps.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eternal Home
    Chaotic yet tightly controlled, Eternal Home is boundlessly creative, and up there with Skinless X-1 as Marcloid's best work.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Una Rosa
    With other songs featuring Psycho-like slashing string effects and whirring bass echo ("Darkest Hour"), robotic vocal distortion ("Did My Best"), and spoken-word broadcast recordings ("Cógelo Suave"), Una Rosa has a kitchen-sink, blown-out-speaker quality to it that will alternately alienate or excite.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sympathy for Life
    Instead of party-starting excitement, the band refracts echoes of Can, Bowie, and the Talking Heads at their most abstract for an album that feels tense and bleary, like a party that's still fun but has burned on for so long that the sun is coming up and things are starting to get weird.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lifeforms
    While certainly one of the most robustly guitar-centric albums Angels & Airwaves have made, there is still plenty of synthy, otherworldly shimmer glowing at the edges of Lifeforms, and cuts like "Rebel Girl," "Euphoria," and "Spellbound" bristle with a vibrant blend of punk and dance-rock energies.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mod Prog Sic
    Mod Prog Sic finds Black Dice pushing themselves even further into a place of singularity, making music that's gross, funny, captivating, scary, and beguiling at once, and finding new details in the extremes they've been exploring for decades.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Eternal Blue
    While late-era Evanescence is definitely a touchstone, fans of TesseracT, Deftones, and Meshuggah will have plenty to enjoy, especially with tracks such as the swirling "Circle with Me" and the haunted title track.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Roadside [EP]
    At a scant four tracks, The Roadside EP hardly marks a major release from the veteran artist, but in lead single "Bitter Taste," he presents one of his better late-career offerings. ... The other two cuts, "Rita Hayworth" and "U Don't Have to Kiss Me Like That," are well-executed, if forgettable tracks that harken back to the singer's '80s heyday.
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