American Songwriter's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
For 1,819 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 45% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.7 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Rockstar
Lowest review score: 20 Dancing Backward in High Heels
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,462 out of 1819
  2. Mixed: 353 out of 1819
  3. Negative: 4 out of 1819
1819 music reviews
view
per page
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Goes West
    A similarity to the material and an overall honeyed style dominate on initial listen, but the pieces become more distinctive after a few spins.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Reckless
    What matters is that this is a really good record, and while it would have been nice to hear some instrumental breakdowns--especially from banjo player Richard Bailey, who is way understated--it's nice to know that Nashville is capable of putting out something besides more bad pop.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Coffee
    Rather than an uninspiring photo copy of the previous collaborations, the fourth go-round of this feisty association shows that it’s getting better and tougher, whetting our appetite for the next iteration.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hardware
    There aren’t many surprises on Hardware, but with Gibbons now pushing into his mid-70s, should we expect any? He sells everything with his committed performance and sounds like he’s having a blast. At this late stage in his career, we shouldn’t ask for, or expect, more.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love Songs for Losers
    It’s a decidedly evocative album, one that ought to give hope and comfort to all those that may feel adrift in uncertainty and sadness while confirming the fact that they’re not alone. In that regard, it provides a shared service to us all.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Strays II
    Price’s ability to mesh elements from rock, soul, country, and beyond to craft her own modernized yet classic sound shines on tracks like “Where Did We Go Wrong.” Although the project is a departure from the traditional country sound of her early albums, every song feels authentic and distinctly her own.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Total Freedom
    While her singing remains strong and she is emoting about issues close to her, these tracks would benefit from more musical muscle. Regardless, even if Total Freedom isn’t her finest work, it’s encouraging that Edwards has returned to releasing new material and doing what she does best.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In Search [Reissue]
    If this sounds like something of a scattered mess, it is, but it’s a charming one and well worth a go-round for the more adventurous listener willing to let themselves take a wild and wooly trek back in history.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Songs
    When it’s all over, you listen again, with equal amazement. No, albums like this one don’t come along very often.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Great Chicago Fire
    Country rock done right, ie: without anyone taking themselves too seriously.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Lost Time
    There’s not a weak track in the dozen making this another candidate for blues release of the year from brothers who almost never got to play another note together. Making up for lost time never sounded so good.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Le Noise
    There are no enduring classics here like the songs on 2007's Live At Massey Hall, or anything to rival the material that helped define late '70s AOR from, say, American Stars 'n Bars or Rust Never Sleeps. But this is a record well worth having, and it's a blessing that we still have enduring artists like Neil Young creating such vital music.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Let the Good Times Roll
    Its title seems clichéd but there is nothing predictable about the exuberance or the obvious attention to detail McPherson applied to his rolling good times.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Outside Society: Looking Back 1975-2007
    Outside Society is necessarily uneven, but it's persuasive nevertheless, if only because it tells a clear story of an artist who fought to define and redefine herself constantly.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Treasure
    A Treasure is full of little disclosures like that, deeply personal without being confessional, engaging without trying to be, and revelatory because of his small observations and his uncommon insight into ordinary detail.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Believers
    What truly makes the album memorable--and what makes it arguably Bondy's best--is the atmosphere that pervades every song.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Follow Me Down
    With the release of a beautiful new record Follow Me Down, it's time to proceed past the astonishment of Jarosz's remarkable age and acknowledge her place among the prestigious group of musicians currently pursuing acoustic music to exciting and progressive new heights.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Reason to Believe: The Songs of Tim Hardin
    Even though most are not familiar with Pinkunoizu or many others that populate this thoughtful and often downbeat set, they recreate Hardin’s timeless melodies with deep respect, passion and an artistic vision all too rare for these types of tribute discs.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trouble & Love
    The eight songs, culled from a crop of 30 that came in the wake of a difficult breakup, become dirge-like if you put them on in the background. Shut out the distractions and bring them in close, and they become razor-sharp reflections of the long road out of purgatory.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    One Lost Day
    Existing fans will be thrilled with both the material and performances that show nearly 30 years down the line, the twosome finds innovative ways to keep their music fresh while maintaining the unique qualities that made it so distinctive to begin with.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Still
    With Still, Richard Thompson fans can rejoice in knowing all the aspects of his exemplary talents remain intact.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Prayer for Peace
    There aren’t any revelations on Prayer For Peace, but the energy, excitement and intensity poured into every performance makes this a standout in an impressive Dickinson brothers catalog that doesn’t have any weak entries.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Putting on Airs
    She effortlessly combines her vocal, lyrical and melodic gifts into a perfect storm on the shimmering and often spellbinding Putting on Airs.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Theatre of the Absurd Introduces C'est La Vie
    C’est La Vie is a welcome return for Madness, an outfit most wouldn’t have expected to deliver a project so musically or lyrically complex, and enjoyable, this late in their career.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Landing On A Hundred
    [Landing on a Hundred Years is] a much leaner, concise collection of rich and soulful tunes that takes in the last 50 years of funk, soul and R&B, and catalyzes that history into something warm and vibrant, yet altogether fresh.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nothing Is Wrong
    Dawes's second album succeeds on its own terms, and will appeal to fans of solid roots-rock songwriting.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Utopian Ashes
    Whether this is the beginning of an extended musical partnership or just a one-off, it’s a powerful and rewarding album. That’s especially the case for those who have been through the more challenging parts of the broken relationship mill.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Americana
    There’s a lot to chew on, but Americana is an overstuffed, first class offering from one of the UK’s most feted songwriters and a worthy entry into Ray Davies’ rightfully esteemed catalog.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rolling Golden Holy
    It’s adventurous and elastic, played and sung with honesty and a sure sense of the mutual lyrical, compositional, and especially vocal abilities of its three talented musicians.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Praise & Blame
    With guest artists like '60s organmeister Booker T. and Americana legends Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, Jones and Johns have made a real statement in the same way that Rubin, and of course T Bone Burnett, do almost every time they produce an album. That statement is that the same people who set the bar decades ago for so many of today's acts to measure up to are still making a lot of today's best music. Praise and Blame raises that bar just a little higher.
Page: