Glide Magazine's Scores

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For 1,116 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 65% higher than the average critic
  • 8% same as the average critic
  • 27% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 79
Highest review score: 100 We Will Always Love You
Lowest review score: 40 Weezer (Teal Album)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,069 out of 1116
  2. Mixed: 47 out of 1116
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1116
1116 music reviews
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    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    O Monolith
    The band found the perfect balance of what they know and what they hope to become, making O Monolith a considered sophomore effort that proves Squid’s placement as one of the most exciting bands in years.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Weathervanes
    Lyrically, this is mixed but has its strong points. Few write with his kind of insight. Yet, musically it fails to generate enough sparks with most of the songs stuck in similar mid-tempo modes. The true ballads are strong.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tomorrow Never Comes
    Despite coming in at 16 tracks – normally a bloated affair for an album – the band’s tendency to careen from one song to the next at breakneck speed, keeping most tracks to about two-and-a-half minutes allows Rancid to hold the listener’s attention until the very last distorted chord rings out.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bunny
    Bunny deserves credit, like each Beach Fossils album, for challenging an aspect of Payseur’s process, even if it was less effective this time around.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shadow Kingdom
    This man long ago taught himself to recognize the lasting value in a good song and here, over the course of some fifty minutes, he deftly applies those lessons to an unusual range of his very own.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lucky for You
    Her artistic identity is on full display with each individual talent reaching a height we haven’t seen from Bully, and it appears there is no ceiling to hold her back.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Such Ferocious Beauty
    Along with bassist Alan Anton, the band’s lineup has not changed at all since their 1986 debut and, thankfully, though they’ve grown as musicians and songwriters over the decades, the core of the band’s sound is the same as it ever was.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    What Matters Most
    Folds is past aiming for radio airplay and mass appeal and focused more on creating experimental songs that appeal to his creativity. And sometimes those moments of inspiration take him back to the beginning and sound a lot like he did when he first started out.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Calm Ya Farm
    Cleaner and lighter than past efforts, The Murlocs Calm Ya Farm is their best full album yet as the good time sounds flow like free wine at a late-night afterparty.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amatssou
    They sound even more urgent now and, of course, Lanois’s production values have further enhanced the band’s captivating sound.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pieces of Treasure
    The slow tempos are fine in doses but that novelty wears off quickly. More variations in tempo would likely work better. When we get to the closer “It’s All in the Game” it just seems that Rickie Lee is stuck in that molasses-like groove. She’s intent on being a torch singer and she’s damn good at it although it takes plenty of hutzpah to take on the Great American Songbook.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In Between Thoughts...A New World
    Showcase[s] improvements from the highly publicized 2019 album, Metttavolution while seeming humble and curious. Rodrigo y Gabriela have never cowered away from the challenge of funneling their influence and experiences into one solid format but on this new album, they took their traditional style of doing so and implemented a sense of urgency that gives the album a certain zestfulness that is infectious.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Chicago Sessions
    So unassuming an offering it may very well sneak onto more than a few ‘Best of ’23’ lists, this LP certainly deserves such placement. Its forty-some minutes contain more than a few of those deeply stirring moments only truly great records possess.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wait Til I Get Over
    This meeting of varying experiments is at the core of Wait Til I Get Over, Jones is able to challenge himself while still keeping the narrative of the LP intact, an expedition that could’ve given us countless results. What we got was an album that sits in the middle ground of the past and future, toying with the present in order to give the listener a full experience rather than a simple collection of songs.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    That! Feels Good!
    That! Feels Good! nimbly catapults Ware from being beholden to What’s Your Pleasure?, to cementing herself as one of the most agile and important dance artists working today. ... A punchier and more immediate album than What’s Your Pleasure?, slicker and far funkier, but equally iconoclastic.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Driving Just to Drive
    His soft voice and natural sense of melody give these songs enough musical prowess to keep up with the best while still seeming innocent and green to the world around them. Maltese’s vulnerability makes him one of the more relatable and pure artists working today and his fourth album further proves that we are far from hearing the last and best music Maltese has to offer.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Savoy
    Taj has a one-of-a-kind personality. and the arrangements are solid in what potentially could be a great album. However, although the background vocalists are not on every track, their presence on enough of them mars the album. For whatever reason, they just don’t match the vibe and are incompatible with Taj’s vocals. His phrasing and Simon’s arrangements are the real pluses.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    First Two Pages of Frankenstein
    First Two Pages of Frankenstein feels like a return to The National we fell in love with 20-plus years ago while still being creatively ambitious and providing new context to a band who never fears away from putting themselves out there.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Spectral Lines
    Ritter delivers a thoughtful, impressionistic work that is almost abstract and direct in equal measures. Yet, it’s difficult to absorb in just one listen, or to even single out individual songs. His well-crafted work is in essence a symphony with subtle treasures, both musically and lyrically, within the movements.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Safe to Run
    She covers emotional and relatable ground with a fun blend of Americana and pop music. She also weaves personal experiences throughout the songs. ... That mix of the deeply personal with the relatable is a powerful combination.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blondshell
    The combination of strong, ear-catching musicianship, confessional in-the-moment lyrics, and engaging vocals makes Blondshell’s debut an invigorating success.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Angels in Science Fiction
    Though the album is unequivocally emotionally rich, with most songs building to vibrant climaxes after mellow beginnings, as a whole it lacks the power, swagger, and singalong aspects of vintage soul records.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Defiance, Pt. 1
    There’s little sense of genuine band unity on Defiance Part 1. But ultimately that’s no serious liability because as the focal point of the project, Ian Hunter evinces a stubborn independence that overrides this album’s slight blemishes.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Somewhere Under the Rainbow 1973
    The recording of Somewhere Under The Rainbow (by Pete Long who also contributes an essay on the four-page insert) radiates palpable resolve and despair in almost equal measure, plus an air of genuine catharsis, all this despite the murky audio quality remaining in the wake of mixing and mastering by the artist himself and long-time technical collaborator Niko Bolas.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    High Flyin'
    Neil Young is having a bit too much fun to sustain anything genuinely intense over the course of these nearly two-hours on stage and in rehearsal with his cohorts. Still, it’s hard not to become caught up in the joy of it all before it’s over, because songs like “I Am A Dreamer” are infectious by their very lack of affectation. Both of these two-CD ‘Official Bootlegs,’ each in its own way, reaffirms that the seeming vagaries of Neil Young’s career are not random anomalies, but rather a pattern of purposeful behavior.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    72 Seasons
    72 Seasons is an impressive metal album, not just for a band 11 albums and 41 years into its career, but for anyone. It packs a punch and doesn’t let up on the assault for over an hour of menacing guitars and head-banging rhythms. In the end, that’s what we want from a Metallica album, and that’s what 72 Seasons delivers.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Exotico
    At times the album succumbs to bloated overload, the occasional instrumental placeholders like “Sultry Air” and “Movements of Time“ are not necessary on an already long-running album while the AOR pop of “Slow Days” feels a bit like running in place with fine, yet dull, overall results. However, the band’s chilling-on-a-space-age-beach attitude also results in some grand successes.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A River Running to Your Heart
    [“Rushin’ River Valley” is] up there with the solid indie pop mid-tempo “Waking Up in Los Angeles” and the charming “Tacoma,” (see two more geographical references!) as some of the record’s early highlights. Those tracks serve as a counterweight for some of the mellower numbers on the album.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Who with Orchestra: Live at Wembley
    In more ways than one, these renditions fulfill the duo’s ambition to avoid just cranking out the hits.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rides On
    The result is a freer flowing record that admittedly takes a few sessions to really stick, but once it does, you realize that it just might be – song for song – their strongest album yet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Plastic Eternity
    Never shy with their political activism, Plastic Eternity is a battle cry for those who share the band’s beliefs. For those who don’t, it’s still a fun alternative album that channels political fury into a fiery collection of aggressive rock.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    London Brew
    Except for a few tracks, London Brew, imaginative as it is, doesn’t evoke the level of energy that Miles’ original did. For all we know, though, that could be purposeful as this cast clearly put their own stamp on this project.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    the record
    An album that redefines collaboration on a spiritual level. ... 12 poetically moving pieces of art that focus on emotions and environments most would attempt to ignore. The Record hit our speakers with high expectations, and not a single second let us down.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Price of Progress
    The Price of Progress as a whole prove The Hold Steady is in a great space, shifting, experimenting, and willing to try almost anything while still delivering their brand of well-worn, classic rock-influenced sound.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Melusine
    Apart from McLorin’s Salvant’s singular voice and compelling musical arrangements, it’s her courage and imagination for such heady projects that set her apart from any contemporary singer.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Continue as a Guest
    Even without Bejar, there are enough pop hooks and interesting melodies to live up to The New Pornographers’ high standard.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)
    This feels like Tumor’s masterpiece, an opus that has been laying dormant deep in the artist’s creativity waiting to be freed at the perfect time. They pieced together a tracklist that, despite the frantic nature of these songs, stays consistently chaotic even in its most mellow moments.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth
    Messages of love and peace, so prevalent during the late sixties and early seventies come through stellar arrangements of “The Creator Has a Master Plan,” originally associated with Leon Thomas and Pharaoh Sanders as well as the traditional gospel chestnut, “Wade in the Water.” ... This recording will likely still emerge as one of the year’s most important.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fantasy
    The band crafted their most personal and revealing album to date by allowing themselves to play with minimalism in a way that creates an atmosphere of honesty. Fantasy has M83 at their most fearless.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    V
    Despite the otherworldly talent displayed on the album, there is an element of humanity hidden in there. By simply relaying their life story through whooshing production and swooning melodies, UMO created their most personal yet most relatable album to date.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Songs of Surrender
    The resulting unwieldy quadruple album manages to be overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Big Talk
    ["Goodnight" is] one of the strongest album closers heard recently and takes the edge off the hard-hitting statements that make up the bulk of this provocative, lay-it-all-out-there effort.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Islands in the Sky
    Death Valley Girls have softened musically with each release, adding more pop influences, and digging more into the spiritual hippy cosmos of the we-are-all-in-this-together vibe. They also have continually improved, as Islands in the Sky is their best album to date.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Colossal Waste of Light
    There is a comforting steadiness and calmness to Moen’s vocals that draw in the listener regardless of what he’s singing about; the songs have a tendency to be both haunting and melancholy at times yet also reassuring – not an easy feat to pull off.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Radical Romantics
    As a consistent work of songs gestating over many years, Radical Romantics is a remarkable composite of Dreijer as they exist in 2023 and of the emotions that brought them here.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Moving On Skiffle
    Most of the time Morrison plays the songs straight, some with different arrangements and a few with lyrical twists. ... This music is well-designed for live performance and early reviews of the shows are highly favorable. However, as an album listening experience, the weight of so many background vocalists with call and response or echoes in every chorus on these tracks becomes wearisome.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Hypnogogue
    Needless to say, long-term fans of this band should find The Hypnogogue a boon to their devotion. But it’s also true this latest work would function effectively as an introduction to this rock and roll institution from Down Under.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bless This Mess
    These songs find her shaping her thoughts on motherhood, romance, the universe, and death into some of the most accessible music of her career, telling the tales of our bodies and what comes after in a mesh of psychedelic funk and earworm hooks.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Should've Learned by Now
    Unlike the last two albums, there really isn’t really a strong theme to this record aside from the rowdiness of many of the tracks here (the slow tempo “Drunken Moon” and “She Leads Me” being the two big exceptions). But after a couple of strong yet musically restrained records, it’s fun to hear Lucero tapping into their more raucous side again.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Food for Worms
    Food for Worms features shame’s strongest music in the pantheon of their short discography. They hit a new creative stride through the album’s dense textures and complex structure, allowing them to shape otherworldly arrangements for their evolved songwriting.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cracker Island
    Allowing themselves to become fully engulfed by their own creation created a creative energy that bursts through the LP, conjuring up a listening experience that requires you to close your eyes and surrender to the uncompromising vision of Gorillaz.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Follow the Cyborg
    Through its 10 tracks, we are introduced to an uncompromising artist whose trust in themselves creates moments of sonic bliss. The way they are able to bounce between tempos and moods with ease gives the album its colorful personality and shines a light on the writing talents of Miss Grit.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Workin' On A World
    The album is one powerful, deep dose of positivity, purposely overstated, with the whole bigger than any single song. Whether any of us need the tidal wave of healing power DeMent summons may be debatable but the album brings an indelible, lasting quality that few others achieve.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Desire Pathway
    One of the best bands playing today just keeps striding forward with confidence as Desires Pathway is yet another successful offering from the Screaming Females. The New Jersey trio continues to shift and create new sounds while keeping their hard driving style intact.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    7s
    Tare achieved something magical on 7s. The collection of music presented on the album changes with every listen, almost like watching a plant grow. The more your surrender yourself to the album’s intensity, the more you find solace in the hecticness.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dance Kobina
    Chambers is challenging us to hear the connections between the pieces, which are not always readily apparent. Yet, the harmonics, textures, and fluidity of the sound remain appealing throughout.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pollen
    Pollen has a subtle beauty to its short, 32-minute runtime. The layered instruments and crooned vocals are steeped in the kind of love that is anchored in more than a decade of marriage. As such, it might not have the passionate peaks and valleys of a brief fling, but it makes up for that in its mature craftsmanship and shared vision of creating and maintaining the art.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Breaking the Balls of History
    The power pop of Quasi is awash in distortion throughout the album, keeping hips shaking, heads bobbing and nerves rattling.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eye of I
    “Even the Sparrow,” however, leans more directly into gospel, with the unison lines of the sax and electric violin creating blissful harmonics. Yes, even this one explodes into shrill, combustible sequences as it evolves. These ten pieces are a preamble of sorts to the explosive closer, “Fear Not.” ... Yet the six sound seekers find an anthemic melody, after a beginning of restless chaos, reaching a surprisingly peaceful resolution.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dead Meat
    The Tubs’ debut album Dead Meat is a solid effort that showcases the band’s energy, attitude, and ability to blend punk aggression with melodic hooks. Fans of punk and rock music will find plenty to enjoy on this album, with its driving drums, snarling guitars, and impassioned vocals. The band is not afraid to take on difficult and controversial subjects and their lyrics are biting, politically-charged and true to their roots. It’s a must-listen for anyone who appreciates punk and rock music.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Anarchist Gospel
    A stunningly effective experience. ... The album, though emotionally weighty, offers a testament to moving on and surviving and makes for thoroughly unforgettable listen.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Say I Won't
    Collaboration is a good color on Bass Drum of Death as Barrett looking to outside opinions allowed for his ideas to take full form and provide us with 12 tracks of unfiltered rock with enough melody to plant itself firmly in your psyche and remind you of what album to throw on when you need to get lost in a cloud of harmonious garage rock.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smalltown Stardust
    On 2018’s The Other, Thomas was questioning and searching in sometimes morbid ways. Now, with the personally emotional Smalltown Stardust, he has found some solid answers in nature, love, friends, and hometown memories; King Tuff sounds gratifyingly grounded.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17: Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions 1996-1997
    Ultimately, Fragments is yet another thought-provoking installment of the Dylan’s discography, not only in direct reflection of its source material but also on its very own terms.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Electrophonic Chronic
    Masterful. ... The band has created a unique sound that is both modern and retro, and the album features a wide array of styles and sounds. It’s a must-listen for fans of rock, funk and soul music, and for anyone looking for an album that is both musically and emotionally satisfying.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One Day
    Despite it being one of their shortest albums, their feral-like energy continues to demand your attention for the full 40 minutes.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Power and the Glory
    While their debut, The Power And The Glory, is not necessarily treading new ground, it is still a remarkably satisfying collection of straight-ahead college rock songs. Mantione’s vocals are solid, but it’s the unexpected lyrical turns that almost all of the songs take that make the band so compelling.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Anyhow
    These songs have a light-hearted nature to them that is overtly pleasant without sounding like they’re trying to be. While this approach doesn’t leave much room for experimentation, it does leave us with a consistent, exciting, easily enjoyable album that toes the line between spacious ambiance and robust arrangements.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Five Easy Hot Dogs
    Through its simplicity, Five Easy Hot Dogs achieved a level of beauty that redefines Demarco as a musician. Instead of relying on cheeky guitar tones and whispering vocal melodies, Demarco created a project that expresses his diversity without it feeling forced.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Never Going Under
    Musically the band takes some really big swings here on songs like “Hell On Earth,” easily one of their best tracks in years, and the beautifully soaring “Living In the Grey”; and those experiments almost always pay off. Impressively, the band pairs those musical gambles with some of their most personal lyrics yet, singing about fatherhood, expectations of masculinity and showing vulnerability. This new creative spark and lyrical enlightenment makes for Circa Wave’s most ambitious record so far in a career that is already pretty notable.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Live at the Whisky 1977 [Box Set]
    Rick Neilsen’s stage patter has the earlier, maniacal tone, Robin Zander’s vocals are sublime, Tom Peterrson’s bass sounds mammoth and Mr. Bun E. Carlos proves why he is truly irreplaceable. ... To quote the band’s paean to the faithful, Fan Club, these four discs are truly the sound of “four kings and an army strong.”
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Every Loser
    While perhaps not a major cultural statement, Every Loser is an extremely secure album for the legendary mercurial artist to deliver this late in his career.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Four
    Four stands among the tallest in Frisell’s storied catalog and should be destined for classic status.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Beware Of The Monkey
    If MIKE had released Beware of the Monkey a few months earlier, a lot of the “Best Albums of the Year” lists you’ve been reading would look a lot different. He gracefully navigates a new season in his life through vibrant instrumentals and heartfelt poetry that is as direct as it is artistically ambitious.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Me/and/Dad
    While Me/And/Dad has its share of some genuine knee-slappers, such as “Way Downtown” and “Dig A Little Deeper (In The Well)”, the album ultimately draws its strength from the emotionally charged performances heard on some of the more somber material. ... Me/And/Dad shines thanks to its stripped-down arrangements of traditional material that serve as a welcome counterpoint to the progressive-fueled musical fireworks that often accompany Strings’ live shows.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Live at the Fillmore, 1997
    Cuts like “Shakin’ All Over” illustrate how Petty and the Heartbreakers are individually and collectively rediscovering themselves as players and singers as they move out of their shared comfort zone. Even when the ensemble is sharing the stage, they transcend mere showmanship to depict their recommitment to the roots of their music.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Spiders in the Rain [Live]
    Wand is most at home onstage, and Spiders in the Rain does a proper job of delivering the group’s unique mix of noise/psych/jam/shoegaze/alternative rock to those who have yet to experience them in concert as well as those who want to relive the majesty.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Laminated Denim
    As on the previous record, these tracks are pieced together and arranged by bandleader Stu Mackenzie from group jams before being augmented with overdubs and vocals, and on Denim the band sound even less encumbered with the idea of traditional songcraft – though they manage to craft a great pair of songs here.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trios: Sacred Thread
    We’ve dubbed Lloyd a major spiritual force. There is nothing here to dissuade us from that. This could be arguably even a higher form of spirituality. It’s just a whole different trio offering than the previous two that shows the endless creativity and versatility of the inimitable Lloyd.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
    Weyes Blood’s And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is a revelatory baroque pop album forged in these recent chaotic days.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    World Record
    This forty-fifth studio album of Neil Young’s may not rank as one of his greatest, but it may well be the most true-to-life effort he’s ever released.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love Songs for Losers
    Though Love Songs For Losers has many of the familiar markings of the band, the album finds the trio at their most experimental, diverse in subjects and sound – all while still sounding very much like a Lone Bellow album.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tropical Gothclub
    Fertita pulls from all his edgy influences fortuitously throughout this solo self-titled debut, as Tropical Gothclub shakes with an infectious buzzing energy in line with Eagles of Death Metal and Them Crooked Vultures.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sentimental Fool
    While the album is generally melancholy, he is able to squeeze in a full spectrum of emotions around the same topic, allowing the album to flow naturally lyrically while Mann’s arrangement work provides new dimensions and textures, creating an undeniably smooth listening experience.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Changes
    Its seamless collection of earworm melodies and heady grooves make for a pretty compelling argument that it was well worth the wait.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rapscallion
    The Murlocs continue their steeped-in acid look back at the 60’s Nuggets-inspired offerings on the convincing Rapscallion.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Car
    The Car definitely keeps with the trajectory that Arctic Monkeys have been following since the release of Whatever People… and Favorite Worst Nightmare. Depending on what your outlook on the band’s releases has been will determine whether you think The Car is in keeping with an upward or downward trajectory.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Steady
    [Sloan] have certainly built up a solidly loyal following over the years but have inexplicably never been huge outside of their native Canada. Steady likely won’t do much to change that but is certain to make even the most casual fans of the band happy.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stumpwork
    Stumpwork is bright and more exploratory than what came before, the result of a band pushing the boundaries of its sound farther than just about any of their peers without losing track of their trademark lockstep groove.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shufflemania
    Robyn Hitchcock’s easy-going sense of whatever-will-be-will-be floats through the varied compositions on SHUFFLEMANIA! as the artist (with a little help from his friends) slips and slides around his Beatles inspired pop offerings.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Component System with the Auto Reverse
    Component System With The Auto Reverse has OME at his best, whether he is diving into his personal life or simply crafting clever rap verses, the seasoned artist hits it out of the park every chance he gets.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ForeverandEverNoMore
    As an album from a constantly evolving musician, one who is often as confounding as he is exploratory, Foreverandevermore is approachable in its bleak outlook. Eno captures the sound most definitive to himself, evokes his best work in the process, and manages to weave something of a concept album into the mix, which makes it one of his most fulfilling albums of the new millennium.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava
    The real joy in this album is found in the shared musical language that’s exhibited across its seven tracks. Instruments fold into each other and each player seems to relish the chance to explore these sonic spaces with true abandon together. These might not be King Gizzard’s tightest, or most immediately memorable pieces of songcraft, but their creativity and kinship is on full display here, which is ultimately what this band has always been all about (that and reminding us of impending heat death).
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rolling Golden Holy
    The perfect backyard, sunset watching summer folk album, Rolling Holy Golden faces west as Bonny Light Horseman enjoy those tender fleeting moments while they float through our collective consciousnesses, smiling the whole time.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Into the Blue
    The consistently heart-wrenching lyrics of Mercer combined with Danger Mouse’s ability to craft luxurious instrumentals give Into The Blue its colorful personality. Within the 40-minute run-time of the album, the duo explores new territory while Mercer’s poetic songwriting keeps Danger Mouse’s spaced-out instrumentals grounded.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Will to Live
    Like most of Stickles’ efforts, some editing would help tighten the flow of the record, but as it stands, The Will to Live is a success with Titus Andronicus channeling their punk core straight into the arena rock rafters.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Loose Future
    Yes, it takes some getting used to, but Andrews has another winner, just a different-sounding one.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bordeaux Concert
    Every Jarrett solo performance holds its own magical appeal and Bordeaux certainly holds its own with any of the others in his storied catalog.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Bad Plus [2022]
    The new The Bad Plus will take some getting used to but the harmonic ranges and explorative soloing from Speed and Monder are often intriguing. Suggest you take to the headphones for this one.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Empire Central [Live]
    Expressive solos from trumpet, violin, guitar, and keys keep the tune choogling along, with ever-active percussion as well. “Coney Bear,” from guitarist Bob Lanzetti begins with his funky strumming before blossoming into a mix of soaring synths and horns interspersed by frenetic funk passages from the rhythm section. The closer, “Trinity” from fellow guitarist Mark Lettieri takes its name from Trinity River that connects Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denton, the band’s hometown. It features searing guitar lines in a rather angular take with strong horn lines navigating several rhythmic changes, far less direct than many of the others in the set.
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