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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    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I'm Your Empress Of
    It is not surprising that Empress Of has produced yet another gorgeous and memorable collection of songs, yet her consistency does not diminish the unique achievements of this album. This is a perfect album for finding comfort and beauty in the things and people closest to you.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Love the New Sky
    While I Love the New Sky would have been a near-perfect nine-track LP, it's a rare treat that Tim Burgess can give fans something so inspired and inspiring this deep into his career.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Should I Remain Here at Sea?
    rawing from many of the best aspects of previous Islands records, SIRHAS is an excellent distillation of all that Islands does best, and a return to form after 2013's somewhat forgettable Ski Mask.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You've Been Waiting For [Mixtape]
    Free I.H: This Is Not The One You've Been Waiting For is Illuminati Hotties defying the record industry while balancing purposefulness and playfulness at the same time.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Listening to Pictures (Pentimento Volume I)
    On Listening to Pictures (Pentimento Volume One), it's a treat to find Jon Hassell still fascinated and engrossed in the style of music he helped create.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bleeds
    Full of complicated emotions and sombre nostalgia, it confronts the darkness and the details, the granular and grandeur, the trivialities and the everything. That's just life, and that's just Wednesday: an exercise in horrible, wonderful contradiction.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Whitechapel
    Whitechapel have reinvigorated themselves without reinventing the sound they became known for and, in the process, produced an appropriate follow-up to their sophomore success.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cody
    Cody is undoubtedly Joyce Manor's strongest effort to date, the apparent result of meticulous revision that has tightened up their sound on all fronts.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Prey//IV
    On the whole, PREY//IV expresses a dance-when-you're-sad energy that Glass and Kath never quite achieved with Crystal Castles, and that Kath and Glass stand-in Edith Frances have yet to capture since the enigmatic former frontwoman's departure.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sun
    What makes Sun so exquisite is that Marshall finally sounds in control of her chaos.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As If
    On As If, !!! show that they've still got ideas, leaving listeners with one of the most enjoyable, if schizophrenic, dance albums of the year.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Once I Was an Eagle
    While her peers may be filling arenas with banjo anthems, Marling has long freed herself from that particular pigeonhole and presents another collection of songs that showcases her astounding talent.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Garden of Burning Apparitions
    While scanning the state of the world and all its grievous, haunting wonders, Garden of Burning Apparitions continues Full of Hell's exploration of scorched earth, and by sticking to what they do best, they've left another bold stamp on extreme metal.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Quarantine
    It's this theme of genuine imperfection that allows Quarantine to come off as an exposed, wounded masterwork.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My Method Actor
    There's a sophistication to the vocal phrasing on "Call It Love" and "Made Out of Memory," a newfound confidence that alone is enough to propel My Method Actor to heights not frequently reached on past albums.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    METZ
    Nirvana are actually a better comparison, not so much for the sonic similarities (though they are certainly there if you want to make them), but for METZ's ability to channel primal screams and squelching guitars into hook-laden earworms.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jubilee
    There may be plenty of the same things here, but they're executed superbly.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Con Todo El Mundo
    Atmospheric grooves is the order of the day with Khruangbin's latest; by way of psychedelic rock, Con Todo El Mundo's got the groove and grips it tight.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ancient Mars
    An immersive and atmospheric sonic experience, one made all the better by the group's much-improved songwriting chops.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Painkillers
    All told, Painkillers does many things well and few things poorly. It's not a Gaslight record, but it's one that fans will find familiar.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Air Between Words
    On The Air Between Words, Martyn comes off tranquil, playful and completely in control of his own kaleidoscopic world.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Karma & Desire
    Karma & Desire never comes close to being a dance record — it's much too opaque and fragile and weird for that. Instead, listeners are left with a longform thinkpiece that's expertly conceived, well executed and brilliantly sequenced.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Expanding Flower Planet
    Deradoorian's songwriting pulls together colliding ideas and sounds, and it works on the eccentric and restless The Exploding Flower Planet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Going Grey
    Certain synth melodies might be a tad too sugary for some, but they bolster the top-notch songwriting on Going Grey, and Sella's unique and unpredictable vocal phrasing keeps the proceedings distinctly Front Bottoms from start to finish.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We've Been Going About This All Wrong
    It's both her loudest record and her most inscrutable, burning away some of the welcoming intimacy of her earlier work for a galaxy of cataclysm and stillness all its own.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heartless
    Heartless continues to build on the band's reputation as one of the biggest acts in doom metal.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What Now
    What Now is accessible in every sense of the word, but after several spins, it'll pull you much deeper than one might initially think.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Torture
    Torture is classic Corpse. No complaints.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Meliora
    Ghost isn't for everyone; they are deliberately, deliciously over the top and unapologetically dramatic, but if you dig their smoke and mirrors, then Meliora is just the indulgence you've been craving.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Day Breaks
    A collaboration with names such as saxophonist Wayne Shorter, percussionist Brian Blade and bassist John Patitucci sees a the self-professed "jazz dropout" helm a strong project of original material, save for a sweet rendition of Duke Ellington's "Fleurette Africaine" and a bulletproof interpretation of Neil Young's "Don't Be Denied.
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