Exclaim's Scores

  • Music
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:
5096 music reviews
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's bound to thrill longtime fans, and anyone looking for some relief from the suffocating smoothness of most mainstream country.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The result is a far livelier and live-sounding album than one would expect from a group this deep into their career.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    While Tomorrow's Harvest makes for a wonderful listen, and a perfect gateway album for new fans, it's not the revelation many devotees were hoping for.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This Is Why is undoubtedly Paramore's strongest work. At only ten songs and a 36 minute runtime, they left little room for error and made not one mistake.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    His lyrics are varied, vivid and heavily inspired--by novels, documentaries, history books and more--as he tests the boundaries of his literary creativity, exploring a vast range of narratives, perspectives and topics.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With this album, Gately set out to "capture the weird spikey nature of this kind of looming doom, but also to include some absurd colours," and the result is a swirling mix of eerie atmosphere, devastating emotion and brilliant sonic abstraction. It is Gately's best work yet.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    With URGH, Mandy, Indiana have crafted the first great album of 2026, one that rewards with each exhausting listen. In a time of crisis and uncertainty, URGH is not merely cathartic: it's exorcistic.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Astroworld shows the evolution of Travis Scott as an artist and is his most refined, imaginative, and rage-worthy project yet.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    He proves that he is a fully-fledged, multifaceted person who can do it all, and has all the makings of a modern yet ever-evolving pop star. He just remembers to have a fun, honest time while doing it.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On New Bermuda, Deafheaven's myriad ideas are expertly, logically organized across five tracks. It's more proof that it's hard to hyperbolize when it comes to praising Deafheaven, a band that's nearly peerless in its ability to craft fascinating, forward-thinking aggressive music.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Are Eternity is a remarkable accomplishment in sound design.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fertile Crescent sees Homeboy Sandman adding another project to his growing library, and it's one worth repeated spins.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Baroque in complexity and dripping romantic drama, Altered State is a strong move in the right direction for TesseracT.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    WYW
    Wear Your Wounds' debut is a masterpiece of emotion and tension.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    async is the work of an authentically great artist that may well be entering a rich new phase of his 42-year career.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unsurprisingly, the music they select is beautiful and carefully crafted. The album features such acts as Boards of Canada, Stereolab, River Tiber, Thundercat, Delegation, Charlotte Day Wilson and the Beach Boys, to name a few.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    While the Black Dahlia Murder have always been an impressive band, Nightbringers finds them on top of their game and performing better than ever before. The album has elements of their earlier material, but present them with a polished and perfected vibe across the board.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Freed from the studio sheen that bogged down much of the material in the post-Berry years, the songs are given the room they need to breathe, and make a case for R.E.M.'s second act being filled with overlooked gems.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Basking in the Glow is an album for fans of the courteous yet invigorating style of emo that Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Eat World made popular. Oso Oso's latest is a brisk invitation to savour the small stuff, to embrace insecurities, and to hang on to those head-rushing moments.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Even if the tracklist isn't quite 10-for-10 in terms of quality, much of the appeal of I Don't Live Here Anymore lies in the little sonic details rather than the songs themselves.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Miss Universe is an intriguing and smoothly constructed record. Groove and melancholy exist simultaneously in Yanya's work, providing listeners with no single answer to the questions she poses.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beyoncé is better than good, slickly packaged, created with the best of intentions yet still comes off as a postmodern mash of hubris, sincerity and gloss. It will be a hit regardless.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The amount of technical and emotional ground that YOB are able to carry across these four tracks is phenomenal, and makes Clearing the Path to Ascend the album that marks the band's return to the height of their power.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    While retreading folklore's ground, evermore deepens and enriches its older sister's world.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On Memento Mori, Depeche Mode turn this philosophical reminder into a beautiful, raw, and passionate rebirth.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    With On the Line, she leans into the deeply personal, and gains a benchmark addition to her catalogue.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mirror Reaper is certainly an outstanding accomplishment in the Bell Witch catalogue. It may be their most emotionally stirring and musically ambitious record to date.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Amo
    Unfortunately, while amo has moments of absolute brilliance, highlighted by "Nihilist Blues," "Ouch" and "Fresh Bruises," it feels like BMTH weren't ready to fully commit to either sound and, as a result, we're left with a mixed bag of tracks that offers a little something for everyone but never quite enough.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    If Selfless had the producer disappearing into the commotion of modernity, sublimating himself among multiple narrators, here, he's retreating inward to rediscover who he is, each swirling entry rendered from a more subdued place of quiet contemplation.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The record's weakest moments often come when Amstutz flexes her pipes. .... Still, the record has enough shimmer and verve to keep it afloat. Amstutz has made a chart-friendly pop record that never loses sight of what made its central character so compelling in the first place.