Magnet's Scores
- Music
For 2,325 reviews, this publication has graded:
-
60% higher than the average critic
-
3% same as the average critic
-
37% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.1 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
| Highest review score: | Comicopera | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Sound-Dust |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,874 out of 2325
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Mixed: 380 out of 2325
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Negative: 71 out of 2325
2325
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
It's not difficult to hear everyone from John Cate to Ryan Adams in the soundtrack. And yet, it's always distinctly Margot. [No. 108, p.57]- Magnet
Posted May 19, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Get lost in this stuff and you won't find your way back out. [No. 109, p.52]- Magnet
Posted May 16, 2014 -
- Critic Score
There's a feeling of (relative) calm, with bouts of refined clarity to accompany the album's sage rage outbursts. [No. 109, p.52]- Magnet
Posted May 15, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The record's two pieces are fields of rhythm that seem to pull away from your reach like a curtain blowing in a breeze, yet swing back to knock you on your ass. [No. 208, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Apr 25, 2014 -
- Critic Score
3rd is somewhat overstuffed at 18 songs.... But it's still an ideal soundtrack for the dead of winter, when you're pining for pitchers and catcher to report, or when your team's out of the race by the dog days of August. [No. 108, p.54]- Magnet
Posted Apr 23, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's the sort of record today's 15-year-olds are going to feel embarrassed about owning five or six years from now. [No. 108, p.56]- Magnet
Posted Apr 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's unclear whether even Kotche really knows what's happening half of the time, but it's a delightfully puzzling ride nevertheless. [No. 108, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
This LP does little to propel her anywhere near the ranks of the big-name women of contemporary pop/rock. [No. 108, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The Take Off is not all that remarkable the first few times around, but it nonetheless hints at rewarding repeat visits. [No. 108, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Not every song justifies Herring's bold imprimatur, but enough do to make them stand out in a catalog that wasn't wanting for impact tracks. [No. 108, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
While it's a deeply cathartic break-up record, it's both personal and political. [No. 108, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Perhacs' light touch contrasts with the often heavy-handed lyrics. [No. 108, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
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Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
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Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Forcefield achieves a sound, which--despite the title--is all allure, no repellant. [No. 108, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
He cranks up the palm-muted and Edge-delayed guitars for an eight-song chaser, that, again, miraculously never fades into stasis. [No. 108, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
By no means is this debut original, but the hooks are sharp enough and the no-Frills, overdub-free presentation shreds hard enough that it doesn't really need to be. [No. 108, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's not a pretty album, but it will evoke reaction on either side of the coin. [No. 108, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Their stinging, smart wordplay is dependably knotted and sneered, and even though it's difficult to separate their cadences, the collective passion present is undeniable. [No. 108, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's when things slow down that Tare and Co.'s melodic intentions (and intensity) gets a better, clearer outing without losing their daring noisiness. [No. 108, p.58]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
An enticing record emerges, boasting intricate instrumental latticework with the smoldering focus of slow jams. [No. 108, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Beyond often rings with the bumbling awkwardness of a band taking itself too seriously for the first time. [No. 108, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
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Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The band's flair for drama comes to the forefront on the "be My Baby"--quoting "Algiers" and intensely epic closer "These Sticks." [No. 108, p.53]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The melodies are arranged with a cinematic sweep that elevates small moments of self-doubt and heartache into something bigger and more universal. [No. 108, p.53]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The alterations and differences may be slighter and more comparable to alt-music's lexicon, but that's bound to happen after a decade and a half. Still, the redefinition continues, and so does the compelling art. [No. 108, p.51]- Magnet
Posted Apr 18, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Daughter OF Everything fits neatly alongside recent work from guys like Mikal Cronin and Ty Segall, and untethered garage rock like this never goes out of style. [No. 107, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Apr 8, 2014 -
- Critic Score
There was more to the melody of Unwound than just a few simple, catchy primitive riffs. [No. 107, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Mar 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
[The] only complaint is that the rest of the LP doesn't quite sustain the power of these two tracks ["Petrichor" and "Sharp Stones"]. [No. 107, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Mar 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
You've got an odd, lovingly produced hybrid of old Nashville and new Americana, with a batch og forgettable songs surrounding a few that deserve a place in the canon. [No. 107, p.52]- Magnet
Posted Mar 20, 2014 -
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Posted Mar 19, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The Private World Of Paradise does have a somewhat rustic, indie-rock feel, though augmented with a greater wealth of instrumentation. [No. 107, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Mar 13, 2014 -
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Posted Mar 13, 2014 -
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Posted Mar 13, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Golightly's voice has the ability to inhabit a variety of characters in conversational styles, and her versatile guitar playing makes the songs come alive. [No. 107, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Mar 13, 2014 -
- Critic Score
["Are We Arc" is] a mid-album highlight to an otherwise mostly forgettable sophomore effort. [No. 107, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Sadie Dupuis' sweet voice offers very little respite from her defiantly uncatchy band. [No. 107, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
These 15 instrumental tracks come across as half exorcism, half jam session, but the result fits pretty well in line with everything they've done in their other bands. [No. 107, p.58]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
These songs, as punchy as ever, don't lean quite so heavily on unhinged, whiskey-soaked abandon. [No. 107, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Jumping The Tracks is a most welcome return to the glorious gloom the group has cultivated from the very start. [No. 107, p.56]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
If you don't smell the brimstone smoke of hell when listening to Nothin' But Blood, then you just don't get it. [No. 107, p.53]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
This is Wareham doing what he does best: making music he loves with people he holds dear. [No. 107, p.60]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
An eight-song album that flounders too much in mid-tempo purgatory. [No. 107, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
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Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The voice and lyrics still confound but it's the music on this concise third LP that demands notice. [No. 107, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's bold, colorful palette is wider and more enveloping than in the past. [No. 107, p.53]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Acoustic proves, once and for all, that BOH really is just a straight-up folk/rock band--and a pretty great one, too. [No. 107, p.53]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Morning Phase is ultimately a mood piece: a quiet triumph of feeling over form. [No. 107, p.51]- Magnet
Posted Mar 12, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The album's got its share of earnest torchers, but the upbeat "Salt Of The Earth" is the standout--spooky, yearning, bluesy, almost trip-hoppy and a little bit weird. [No. 106, p.54]- Magnet
Posted Feb 26, 2014 -
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Posted Feb 24, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Harrowing electronic soundscapes set the scene like a Cronenberg film with sputtering, stuttering drum machines, droning organs, witchy background coos and Stewart vocals. [No. 106, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The most trad of Williams trad-rock classics, as instantly recognizable as Sgt. Pepper. [No. 106, p.60]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's a captivating album, full of gradually shifting textures, meditative chants and brilliant guitar playing. [No. 106, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
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Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The Pack A.D. hews closer to the grunge side of the equation, playing with the slow-boiling fury of the geographical touchstones of the Pacific Northwest while never forgetting the history its forged. [No. 106, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The effect is rather like Post-Super ae Boredoms, which is a great sound to achieve, but they only nail it sporadically. [No. 106, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Their latest is another reliably pleasant, if inconsequential offering. [No. 106, p.52]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Touchstones like "No Depression" and "John Hardy," Farrar shows flair and dynamic skill, while Tweedy works the band's rocking formula on "Train" and guilelessly narrates small town life with "Screen Door." [No. 106, p.51]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The band reemerges from the California desert four years later with a self-titled sophomore effort that's every bit as satisfying as its predecessor. [No. 106, p.60]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Despite the heavy sonic resemblance, this road map back lands Jurado and Swift someplace new, slightly more thematic and worlds more dramatic. [No. 106, p.60]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
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Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
The songs are steeped in anguish and melancholy, distressing meditations on the loss and limitations that are coming to define life for many young people in these uncertain times. [No. 106, p.56]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Ridiculous packaging and intensely personal liner notes make this a must-have for fans. [No. 106, p.56]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Once it works its way through your ears, Too True won't leave your head anytime soon. [No. 106, p.56]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
This attention-grabbing sophomore grower beckons with a wicked lick. [No. 106, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's a transformative, fluidly orchestrated moodscape of dappled piano figures, synthesizer washes and swelling strings, horn and bell tones. [No. 106, p.54]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
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Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It helps that the androgynous vocals carry a hook here and there.... Otherwise, it's hard to pull any other redeeming qualities out of Galore. [No. 106, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Benji isn't for everyone--what great albums are?--but it's a career-defining statement by a brilliant songwriter. [No. 106, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
He's broadened his palette, finding the muscle to push against his lightness, the long, legato breaths to anchor his 30-second notes, and the heart to say all the things he can't say on his own. [No. 106, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
That the feel throughout is cruel New England winter suggests July is one hell of a break-up record. [No. 106, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's missing much of the quirkiness of its predecessors--and some fans will bemoan that fact--but Motivational Jumpsuit is the best, most consistent recent GBV effort. [No. 106, p.58]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
It's as crucial and cool as set of eternally intertwined new-wave voices as Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, and that's saying a lot. [No. 106, p.54]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
There's more to Cheatahs than throwback sonics, though it takes a few listens to really catch the complex melodies and structures in the album's strongest cuts. [No. 106, p.53]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Broken Bells' initial salvos may have set their parameters, but After The Disco expands, transcends and redefines them. [No. 106, p.52]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Ultimately, Olsen shows she can still be gripping, but with a much greater sense of presence. [No. 106, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Feb 21, 2014 -
- Critic Score
On his own throughout this compilation, he sounds like a ghost haunting the dream house of his youth. Simply gorgeous. [No. 105, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
The album, recorded mostly in one or two takes, reaches a deft balance of Simone's rich jazz settings and Xiu Xiu's avant-garde expulsions. [No. 105, p.61]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
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Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
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Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Boot! goes back-to-basics in terms of lineup and material, but sounds heavier than ever. [No. 105, p.59]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Jamaica Plain feels fittingly tentative and exploratory. [No. 105, p.58]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Lightning Bolt is only more competent than Foo Fighters, Vedder and Co.'s rival for the planet's straightest rock band. [No. 105, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
The pop hits sound as good as anything McCartney did with the Beatles, but it's the ballads that make this a winner. [No. 105, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
While it lacks the singular impact of their still flawless debut, it's still an object of languorous beauty, rather like the band itself. [No. 105, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Fantasy would be far more appetizing as a photo-negative of itself, with a dearth of feedback and studio obfuscation and Ambrogio's poetry as front-and-center spoken word. [No. 105, p.57]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
After a few tracks, you may find yourself seeking relief with your favorite method of self-obliteration. [No. 105, p.56]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
It's a place Dessner has visited before, both inside and outside the National, and though he's earned plenty of concert-hall cred over the last few years, these incomparable Kronos recordings represent a huge leap. [No. 105, p.56]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Their grandiose mini-operas and stadium-size choruses can thrill. But to hear the relentless string of outsized anthems in a row is exhausting. [No. 105, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
The Game Of Monogamy, was a real stinker, full of ham-fisted lyrics shoved into half-thought melodies. Adult film isn't nearly as inelegant as its predecessor. [No 105, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
You may smirk, but you're more likely to sing along to Some Things Never Stay The Same than to crack up at its extra-layering and gratuitous cymbal flourishes. [No. 105, p.55]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
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Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Assured and assertive, Night Time, My Time plays like the darker, dirtier counterpart to fellow category-co-founders Haim. [No. 105, p.54]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Bejar's fans will clearly identify his unique musical fingerprint, and may have no clearer understanding of these songs than anything else in Destroyer's incomprehensively wonderful pop oeuvre in the King's English. [No. 105, p.54]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Though Calvi hardly ever breaks from her aesthetic on One Breath, she owns it so well that you'd be hard-pressed to complain. [No. 105, p.53]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
The double-disc, dual volume album that results is one that finds the Canadian seven-piece sounding liberated, from stylistic and budgetary constraints both. [No. 105, p.52]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Despite valiant efforts at punking up "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and "White Christmas," this is starting to sound like a bad joke. [No. 105, p.52]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Cupid Deluxe paints him as a producer and songwriter with massive potential that's only just begun to be realized. [No. 105, p.52]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Matangi ends up being worth the wait, which in this case is high praise indeed. [No. 105, p.58]- Magnet
Posted Dec 18, 2013 -
- Critic Score
An overview with passionate, vibrant performances, Disconnected In New York City shows the band's history, talent and diversity with heartland rock, folk excursions, shuffling R&B and inevitable Latin rave-outs from many different points of its amazing career. [No. 104, p.58]- Magnet
Posted Dec 13, 2013