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: 100 Comicopera
Lowest review score: 10 Sound-Dust
Score distribution:
2325 music reviews
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There's something about the sixth full-length from this Icelandic experimental electronic outfit that feels like exciting new territory--and something about it that feels like home. [No. 102, p.58]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    More than ever, Magic Potion hears the duo transitioning from blues to blues-based. [#73, p.87]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    "It's not sad, but it's not OK," sings Emil Svanangen on Hall Music, neatly delineating the album's emotional landscape, a narrow isthmus of calm stretching into a sea of sorrow. [#81, p. 57]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A surprisingly deep album that fleshes out the vaguely krautish electronica the band only touched on in previous efforts. [No.88 p.59]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Occupied With the Unspoken plays as a chopped and staggered descendant of Fripp & Eno's Evening star, whose beauty is buried beneath a thicket of alien noises and reverb. [#89, p.54]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    What it's missing is haunting songs--calamity songs, the kind of songs that used to proliferate on Decemberists albums like soot-smudged Victorian orphans. [No. 150, p.49]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While some songs drag, others are absolutely enchanting. [No. 95, p.55]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Worship makes solid use of driving pop and new-wave inspirations straight out of the sort of black-lit club that doesn't open until 2 a.m. and practically serves absinthe on tap. [No.89, p.58]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Often, there's a subtle, troubled uncercurrent that pulls the cheer back when it threatens to turn saccharine. [#52, p.103]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 65 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
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Well worth a listen. [No. 108, p.61]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ease My Mind has some sharper edges and fewer lush arrangements than the last Shout Out Louds album, 2013's equally excellent Optica, but the changes are slight. [No. 146, p.61]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 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
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The more he pushes these various personas, the less sense we expect him to make and the more rewarding he becomes. [Fall 2007, p.90]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Especially in today's digital context, the album feels torn between big-P pop a la La Roux or happy-mode Goldfrapp (or, at least, Annie circa 2004) and the darker, broodier likes of Ladytron.[#81, p. 55]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The hooks fail to sink in, and Kinski is occasionally too clever for its own good. [#68, p.100]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Although the harmonies and pickin-skills are still top-notch, Carry Me Back falls short in songwriting. [No.90, p.59]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    This is a fresh, auspicious strike into new territory. [No. 114, p.61]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    He [Emil Svanangen] has a high, expressive tenor that often slips into a keening falsetto that fights to be heard over the sound of the dark, frequently overwhelming synthesizer symphonies that fill the background. [No. 147, p.55]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Their command of sonic mood is commendable, but without something more to grab hold of, Annabel Dream Reader is just a relentless gut-punch. [No. 112, p.61]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Many of the songs meander, and the constant back-to-the-'60s vibe loses its charm. [#55, p.94]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    N.E.W. proves that Death is still ahead of the curve. [No. 120, p.53]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The result is Animal Collective at its tightest, most coherent and poppiest, even as the band draws on '60s psych/pop, rudimentary techno and three-chord punk to build on its ever-evolving sound. [No. 128, p.53]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They focus more on freeform jams than commercial song structure. Then, as now, it makes for indulgent and difficult listening. But, if the path of wisdom lies in such excesses, then the Larsons are certainly well on their way. [#81, p. 59]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fans of either Glass or the remixers won't be too disappointed, but they won't be blown away, either. [No. 93, p.60]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Completists will be sated - as they invariably are - by this fun, beat-happy collection. As for the less fanatical fans, caveat emptor: This is a return to the primitive.[No. 85, p.60]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A neat, consistently solid 34-minute record unconcerned with peaking or hits. [No.99, p.61]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There is a surprising amount of vitriol pent up--ever so politely--in these songs, and when that vitriol squeaks out into the universe, it is very genteel, very well-mannered vitriol. [No. 125, p.53]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Unpatterns is indeed mostly patterns, in fact - moody, bloopy instrumentals that don't really fit into one subgenre box because they barely muster the strength to be defined by a category. [No.87 p.59]
    • Magnet
    • 69 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    What Is This Heart? certainly isn't done any favors by Krell's stock, dejection-by-the-numbers lyricism and the baring of his overextended falsetto against the array of muted synths, strings and drum machines that crop up from song to song, as the album cycles through every tired adult-contemporary R&B trope in the book. [No. 111, p.55]
    • Magnet