Exclaim's Scores

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For 5,096 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 57% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: 100 Vol.II
Lowest review score: 10 California Son
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,315 out of 5096
  2. Mixed: 753 out of 5096
  3. Negative: 28 out of 5096
5096 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    El Dorado
    Despite the glaring transition on El Dorado, there's no identity crisis to be found — King is just as commanding as a crooner as he is with his guitar wailing through a cranked-up amplifier. It's unclear where King will go next, or how much of Auerbach's influence directed the sound of El Dorado, but King certainly has the versatility to make any shift worth listening to.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dirty Projectors
    Voyeuristic as it is, Dirty Projectors truly does feel like a record he had to make, not to mention one that's well worth our attention.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Suga [EP]
    This project is the high energy expected by a mare balancing sugar and spice just in time for the hotties — Megan's fan club — to warm up to for the summer.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Amygdala
    Amygdala manages to feel like a singular labour of love, a 78-minute piece that never feels laborious that is the accomplishment.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Androgynous Mary
    Girl Friday doesn't allow you to consume their music conveniently; you have to recognize the group of people who made it. They speak bluntly, demand respect, equity, and play a ton of enjoyable music.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mantasy
    Mayer's instincts, developed behind the decks, come subtly bleeding through on Mantasy, but his sophmore album also shows an artist that's comfortable with revealing lurking melodies and smearing the lines between genres as a producer.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I'm in Your Mind Fuzz
    As a whole, the album solidifies King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard as a truly ambitious band who balance classic songwriting with wild experimentation.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Miri
    While it lacks the political punch of 2015 album Ba Power, Miri stands on its own as a call for peace, mindfulness and reflection.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    DJ-Kicks
    While the mix is peppered with samples from Butler's yoga guru, Parahamansa Yogananda, aiming for a spiritual vibe, this set is really one big party.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Honest
    By all accounts, Honest reveals that Future's music was never a "right place, right time" story, but one that's unique and has staying power.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not
    Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not is another fine entry into Dinosaur Jr.'s ever-expanding catalogue. Whether or not the group are attracting new listeners with these releases is unclear, but they're certainly doing nothing to dissuade old ones.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Talkies
    Having only a few minor setbacks, The Talkies is an exciting new addition to Girl Band's discography with its refinement of their sonorous experimental punk style and its ability to stay intensely enthralling, avoiding repetition. Getting deeper and darker than ever before on The Talkies, it will be interesting to see what Girl Band do next.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sweating the Plague
    Sweating the Plague shows Robert Pollard achieving the near-impossible; stringing together a steady decade of such strong material this late into his band's career.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lost Songs
    It looks like there may be some wind left in this crew's sails after all.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Acquiesce
    Chami really does know how to use her voice to soothe, entrance and fascinate. This, combined with the uncanny synth melodies that she is able to concoct seemingly out of thin air, is what makes her music enjoyable, and practically ineffable.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Banned
    Some of its improvisations feel more impenetrable than others. But the album's unpredictable nature gives it some of its finest moments.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mark Kozelek
    Mark Kozelek is a skeletal record, composed almost exclusively with guitar loops and vocals tracks, designed to serve as a vehicle for his diary-like lyrics. Some may argue that Kozelek aims for quantity over quality, while others wait attentively for his next correspondence.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Foil Deer
    There was a sense that this record would be Speedy Ortiz's great leap forward. Instead, we get some tentative baby steps in the right direction, as the band settle for just really good instead of truly great.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    August
    There is a simmering sense of joy and positivity throughout, even while the lyrical content often remains affectingly bittersweet. Lay's voice is soft and lovely, and her vocals are more meandering than melodic. But her voice also carries an unpretentious gravitas that helps to ground the album.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cracker Island
    Cracker Island is the most focused and least eclectic instalment in the band's discography — and for that reason, it absolutely breezes by.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Networker
    Networker is like a clock; it never hesitates or loses its pace, and it's constantly ticking. Yet the record feels unhinged, wily and obscure — as if the clock is hanging so askew, it might just fall off the wall.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Haunted Man
    The Haunted Man is defined by a more refined sensibility, drawing back the playful clatter of her first two albums in favour of sparser arrangements and a slightly elegiac tone.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Boarding House Reach
    Even when an experiment fails, it does so in intriguing and unpredictable ways.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dark Lane Demo Tapes [Mixtape]
    As an appetizer to hold over fans until his album drops this summer, Dark Lane Demo Tapes serves its purpose. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but that doesn't matter. This album is a hit, whether you like it or not.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lucifer
    Whereas 936 introduced us to a wonderland of dub-infused psychedelia, Lucifer features a much wider scope from the duo.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sab Se Purani Bab
    Bizarrely infectious and never dull, this album of anarchistic yet spiritually reverent psychedelic experimental ragas is well worth checking out.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Colonial Patterns
    Unsettling and compelling in equal measure, Colonial Patterns is an album that not only requires repeat listens for it to slowly get under your skin, but one that leaves you little choice but to let it do so, like a sore tooth you just can't stop fiddling with.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    $ingle$ 2
    While most of these tunes have been floating around the Internet for the past few years, it's still nice to hear them on an LP that functions as a cohesive record, even if it wasn't designed that way.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    SUCKER
    More than a dozen collaborators--including Ariel Pink, Ariel Rechtshaid and Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij--helped realize these 14 tracks, but their voices never overshadow Aitchison, who is finally given the spotlight she's rightfully earned.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sideways to New Italy
    Sideways to New Italy is not only the perfect summer companion, but it also makes room for a reflective experience. As the band work to find what constitutes "home" again, digging into their individual pasts and the people and places who have shaped them, perhaps it can inspire listeners to look inwards and do the same.
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