Exclaim's Scores

  • Music
For 5,105 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:
5105 music reviews
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Your Hero Is Not Dead is an impressively contemplative debut album, filled with quiet music that packs a surprising emotional punch.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The album-closing title track gets synthier, but also heavier, hitting listeners with a wave of doom. It's the best of what the two can do, both together and apart. If Mrs. Piss's first release is any indication, we can't wait to see what's next.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Too often, supergroup side-projects come across as ego-building exercises, yet Banks has managed to avoid this with both his collaboration with Wu Tang Clan's RZA (on Banks & Steelz) and now with Muzz.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beginners seems like an introduction to Hutson and his past: fears, anxieties and faults and memories. It's all packaged in a brilliant album that satisfies any cravings for well-written, subtle and resonant folk rock.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The current king of rap manages, yet again, to offer a searing insight into his life, past and present. The songs on Alfredo are fun even when the themes aren't.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The music is punchy, with electronic and analog elements, but, in contrast with Fucked Up, there is absolutely nothing abrasive about the vocals, which are sometimes dominated by beautiful harmonies, as the album's title suggests.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For more than a decade, Lady Gaga has encouraged us to 'just dance' regardless of the pain hidden deep within ourselves. While she may have veered off from her own advice over the past few years, Chromatica proves that Gaga is back and better than ever.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    In so far as 'vibes' and 'moods' become more important in hip-hop, Nav captures the feeling of boredom exceptionally well. Surrounding himself with hip-hop's most superficial, NAV somehow manages to represent even less.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    NO DREAM is punk rock that's fit for the masses without sacrificing any of its authenticity. For every catchy melody there's a brashness that says to the wrong people, "This isn't for you." But Rosenstock always makes a case for joining him in the good fight.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Although Dedicated might be a more comprehensive piece of work as a whole, Side B is so impressively strong that it could easily be a continuation of the album (its B-side, even). Side B is brimming with starry-eyed euphoria, glittery synth-pop confections and her characteristically odd lyrical syntax.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ultimately, while not pushing beyond well-worn genre expectations, Hollywood Park does present the Airborne Toxic Event at their most sincere and vulnerable.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    King Gizzard's offerings, by their experimental nature, are a disjointed product. Rather than fight this, Chunky Shrapnel thunders headlong into it. ... While this jarring approach may not give you the best sense of a King Gizzard show, it certainly captures what makes them so appealing.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Island represents a tender, more melancholic chapter in Pallett's repertoire, but one that offers a refined perspective.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    If Future Teenage Cave Artists is the only cultural artifact left behind in an apocalypse, future generations will at least have an interesting scripture to use to rebuild.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There are at least two too many instrumentals, and songs that stand apart on their own start to bleed together near then end. But the ambition and execution can't be denied. This is the 1975 operating at the peak of their powers.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Don't Let the Ink Dry is a promising debut that showcases true talent.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    This album feels like they need to take another walk in the trees to reconnect with their namesake.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Banana Skin Shoes is classic Badly Drawn Boy: Eclectic songs held together by heartfelt lyrics and rich instrumentation. The only thing that's changed is Gough has proved he can dance.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Instead of digging up coal like the miners grippingly depicted in these new songs, the Hardcore Troubadour and the Dukes unearth anthemic gems for America's marginalized.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Okkyung Lee has delivered an album so achingly tender that it is bound to stand as one of this year's best neoclassical releases.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    For each song where the more minimal sonic approach comes up short, there are places on Temple where it succeeds.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Although Jim White and Marisa Anderson never seem to give themselves enough time or space to truly stretch out, The Quickening nonetheless captures two masters at their most free.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Mosaic of Transformation is a generous record, a gift from Smith to those who need to lock into their body, to move quietly and deliberately.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pretty much the only complaint is that, similar to all of his releases since the infamous EVOL, it delivers and lives up to the hype, but it doesn't build and surpass his previous work. It remains to be seen whether he will ever create an album that is better than everything he's done so far, but this is still an extremely solid release.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Despite its brisk pacing, Starz still suffers from bloat. Songs like "Iceheart," "Dance in the Dark," and "My Agenda" could have been left off the track list and made the album more coherent and enjoyable to experience.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lovers Rock reflects the Dears' identity as a band, illustrating their development, both lyrically and musically, by intertwining a sense of being down in the dumps with intricate, euphonious melodies.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    All That Glue is a great compilation, and one that should please fans and newcomers alike with enough unreleased or B-side material to fill a full-length and enough strong picks from the band's past to give new fans a perspective on what to check out next.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It appears that Williamson is always fleeing from somewhere and yearns to live a life with no regrets with the time we have left. Sorceress is her personal but inspiring, magical journey to get to that point.