American Songwriter's Scores

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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
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Metallic Spheres
    Basically, you know if you want to buy this album already, and if you do want buy this album odds are you will really enjoy it. But if you aren't familiar with either artist don't bother--there are better Orb records and there are better Gilmour records, and even though Metallic Spheres is quite enjoyable, we wouldn't recommend it for newbies.
    • American Songwriter
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Feels Like
    When Feels Like is at its best, it’s a reminder of how exciting it can be to plug into a distortion pedal and let it rip. In its lesser moments, that’s still more or less what it is.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Volunteer
    Despite a few missteps, Volunteer is a worthy next chapter for a group that continues do its best work when finding new ways to tell old stories.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Night Train
    With the exception of the occasional detour into heartbreak ("I Don't Do Lonely Well") or empathy ("Black Tears"), it can feel like he's doing the same stylized smalltown-conjuring over and over, to the point of hollowness.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    11 Past the Hour
    This commercial shift seems a deliberate way to attract a larger audience, sell more albums and raise her star profile. In doing so, it often, but not always, dissipates much of what made her talents so distinctive to begin with.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Westerner
    Like most of Doe’s solo work, this one grows on you.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Waiting on a Song
    Even though this is unlikely to appeal to hard core Black Keys or Arcs fans, the songwriting effort (the sweet, sensitive “Never In My Wildest Dreams” could have come from Burt Bacharach’s pen) and detailed creativity of the arrangements is impressive.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Arthur Buck
    The result is sometimes sublime, sometimes noisy and chaotic.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pint of Blood
    She's spellbinding when she's on--aided by her penetrating and often-literary lyrics. But when her singing meanders too long without focus, you forget she's there--her energy dissipates and she blurs into background, leaving her dependent songs with nothing to do but await her return.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    If All I Was Was Black
    You may wish the songs were a little tougher (the Wilco frontman might have spread himself too thin writing the entire album), but Tweedy’s words preach without sounding overly preachy. The backing musicians effortlessly find a funky/soulful groove and even at low boil, Mavis Staples remains a force of nature.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Thorn in My Heart
    Richey’s doe-eyed, bittersweet approach perfectly captures the hurt and regret in her material, but you may wish there were more glimmers of light to offset her somewhat bleak outlook.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cazimi
    There are enough moments when everything clicks to make this a pleasant, intermittently compelling listen. But it’s hard to shake the nagging feeling that it could have been much better with a starker instrumental edge and less processing.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Faster
    The best moments on Faster find a reasonable niche between Fish pushing her boundaries and including enough roots music to keep earlier followers from abandoning ship.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Ascension
    The Ascension, Stevens’ eighth studio album over all, and the follow-up to his highly lauded outing Carrie & Lowell, diminishes the accessibility factor in favor of a more amorphous imprint, one that finds all manner of effects and an ever-constant shift in sounds that drift through practically every selection.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everybody Works
    It’s an impressive start to what seems to be a promising career for Jay Som, an artist ready for the next step to build atop this remarkable and often striking self-constructed first release.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In Plain Sight
    Neal Francis’ balancing act of meshing a retro mindset with a modern sensibility doesn’t always work, but when it does, his music reflects a fresh, if not always compelling, perspective.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hard Bargain
    Harris' vocal approach to her folk-based songs, ballads or mid-tempo, is infused with the presence of a time-traveler, visiting modern America from a pre-pop-culture place where music is in the air rather than the airwaves.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Augustana
    Although Augustana may not be the year's most cutting-edged release, it is full of strong, if not extraordinary material, which is sure to leave an indelible impression on admirers of pop/rock.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mondo Amore
    At times, Amore sounds like a modern Goth-rock romantic tragedy, full of heartbreak and despair, but the pain Atkins expresses in her lyrics ultimately results in the album's most pleasurable moments.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Early Times
    This scrap of a record is nothing more than something a hardcore collector adds to the library for completion's sake.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Come Cry with Me
    It’s a fine line between revival and parody, and he walks it well, cowboy boots and all.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sondre Lerche
    All in all, the album feels like the slightest bit bloodless, the older, wiser Lerche a little less than the yearning teenager we once knew.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    And So It Goes
    At 10 tracks clocking in at about 35 minutes, it leaves you wanting more .
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Move Like This
    For a band that many hoped might come roaring back from Where Are They Now? purgatory with engines in overdrive, this is bound to be a letdown.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Local Business
    Some of his best observations get lost in the full-throttle approach of songs like "Ecce Homo" and "Still Life With A Hot Deuce And Silver Platter." It isn't until the album's second half that pace slows, some open spaces appear in the music, and Stickles' rants come into clearer focus.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ceremonials
    What's offered on Ceremonials is solid, even a cut or two above solid. But it doesn't move the band forward.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Roads Lead Home
    Taken in tandem, All Roads Home makes for an enjoyable outing, one that gives each musician an opportunity to take center stage while demonstrating a small sampling of their individual wares.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Speed of Darkness
    Although the songs on Speed Of Darkness have a heavy theme, this fifth album by the band is anything but sorrowful.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Charmer
    Charmer is at its finest during the most subdued, quietly detailed stretches, which veer closer to what we've heard from Mann on past efforts.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Night & Day
    This 30 minute set [provides] a crazed, occasionally unhinged yet always riveting experience.
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