AllMusic's Scores

  • Music
For 18,345 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:
18345 music reviews
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It might take some time for Flying Dream 1 to fully grab you, but when it does, the album's measured, artful introspection is hard to shake.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    As a snapshot of this crucial turning point in the Radiohead discography, Kid A Mnesia presents a band taking its first steps into a thrilling new phase, one that would alter their trajectory and push them further into the unknown.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    TRU may have announced to the indie rock world at large that Ovlov had arrived; Buds lets everyone know they are here to stay.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The term "triumphant return" might be thrown around too casually, but it certainly applies to I Thought of You.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Toy features Bowie revisiting a bunch of songs he wrote in the '60s, most written and recorded prior to "Space Oddity." Hearing Bowie apply Hours aesthetics to swinging, mod-ish material is odd but mildly appealing; it's a slight record but it's nice to have it as part of the official discography. The rest of the box follows a familiar and comforting pattern, confirming that the '90s were a bit of a creative resurgence for Bowie.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These are wild, protean hard rock songs rooted in psychedelic folk and delivered with Green Man-worthy gusto. What's not to love?
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    While Brown's songwriting isn't always as sharply honed as it's been in the past, Time Flies is a fine example of just how much fun, and how therapeutic, well-crafted pop can be.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Happily, he retains the melodic sharpness that characterized 57th & 9th, his last solo album of straight-forward pop tunes. The Bridge isn't quite as crisp and clean as that 2016 effort, yet it moves along at a quick clip.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gordon and Nace never followed an obvious path with Body/Head's prior releases, but bringing in Dilloway presents entirely new possibilities that they use with fascinating, often haunting results on Body/Dilloway/Head.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    It doesn't aim to reproduce the ebb and flow of his usual concert experience, instead aiming for an all-killer, no-filler experience, and it leaves no doubt why the audience got so caught up in this music.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    His own hope for Deciphering the Message is to point new listeners toward the originals. As wonderful as that intention is, this album is a phenomenal listening experience in its own right.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Somewhere in the second half of this hour-plus album, the mostly sedate sequence of productions -- some without beats, others with dragging trap-styled percussion -- make for laborious listening. The trade-off is Walker's vivid and biting lyrics and knack for singing them with such grace that they please the ear as much as they raise eyebrows.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Windflowers is a wonder of detailed production and easy elegance, though it also suffers from a sameness in tone that dulls its overall impact. It's certainly comfortable, and maybe that was Efterklang's intent, but they are at their best when throwing in the occasional left-turn or sonic shake-up.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's too relaxed, too casual to be considered major. Its low-key nature is also the appeal of Willie Nelson Family -- it's the sound of an informal jam session by one of the best musical families in America, so it's easy to enjoy even if it feels decidedly minor.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The highlight of these is a ten-minute version of "All Too Well," a bitter ballad that was already one of the peaks of Red and is now turned into an epic kiss-off. This, along with excavated songs, are reason enough for Swift to revisit Red and they, not the re-recordings, are the reason to return to Red [Taylor's Version].
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    30
    Meeting titanic expectations, this linear journey of the heart is Adele's most cohesive statement to date, pairing her inimitable voice with a dozen engrossing vignettes, reminding us that all we can do is keep trying.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The result of these tweaks to both production and attitude is something more mature and approachable yet still impassioned, and it's Slothrust's most cohesive record to date.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mandatory Enjoyment is much more than a dusty museum piece, and while Dummy may be proudly retro, like their heroes Stereolab they make their love of the past sound brand new and exciting.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Though it's just over 20 minutes long, In Virus Times has plenty of the experimental openness and welcoming warmth of Ranaldo's other solo work for Mute, and artfully approximates the feeling of a live improvisation during a time when concerts were difficult at best.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Even when the bagpipes show up on "Welcome Tae Glasgae," Motorheart is all riffs and falsetto screams designed to forget reality and dream of crowds packed with headbanging, beer-soaked hedonists singing along to the same songs.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A mesmerizing 11-song set that pairs bracing hardcore with expansive symphonic and post-metal.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pilgrimage of the Soul is at once a sonic portrait of everything Mono has ever been, yet looks toward a future rife with possibilities as increased physical and sonic force are tempered by graceful subtlety, tense drama, and haunted lyricism.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Funky bass and Fender Rhodes are among the featured instruments on songs that feel jammier than his first two albums, though the mood remains mellow and languid, at least for the most part.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Consistently entertaining with a few flashes of brilliance, Book kicks off the band's fifth decade of music-making with substance and style.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Thanks to their renewed focus, their willingness to embrace new ideas, Cleveland's songs, and the symbiotic relationship between the group and Younge, this feels like a fresh start for the band and some of the best psychedelic rock around in the early 2020s.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unhurried and stark without being austere, The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows seems suspended from time but not place: as misty and evocative as it is, the music is grounded in a specific location, which gives this elegiac, enveloping album an emotional weight.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    While Imposter doesn't get the blood pumping as much as 2015's Angels & Ghosts, fans in need of a soundtrack for brooding will find this to be an ideal outlet.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Garbology isn't nearly as complex or conceptually driven as 2020's Spirit World Field Guide, but it still contains an abundance of memorable lyrics, and demonstrates Aesop's talent for spinning fantastic stories out of nothing.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Both a reflective sound bath and an ecstatic celebration of creative freedom, Space 1.8 is a singular, eye-opening debut.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The changes are subtle and even though the group's sound is a little less thrillingly raw here, they make up for it with stranger melodies and vocals. Overall, a solid effort from a band with the potential to make a great record someday.