Mojo's Scores

  • Music
For 10,561 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 42% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 Hundred Dollar Valentine
Lowest review score: 10 Milk Cow Blues
Score distribution:
10561 music reviews
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In the category of great rap reinventions, file it next to Daniel Dumile's post-KMD rebirth as MF Doom and Ultramagnetic's MC Kool Keith re-training as Dr. Octagon. [Aug. 2011, p. 94]
    • Mojo
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ritual Union feels like the point at which Little Dragon's lyrical stride finally gets in step with their musical ambition. [Aug. 2011, p. 93]
    • Mojo
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Johannsson's austere musical settings continue to conjure up a world in which the old trade union slogans which give these pieces their titles .. are not so much throwbacks to a lost ideal of altruism, as mantras that we all might still live by. [Aug. 2011, p. 93]
    • Mojo
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Holland's singing identity still shifts disconcertingly. [Aug. 2011, p. 92]
    • Mojo
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This stylish set quantum leaps from the title track's ethereal doom disco to the acid-damaged dreampop of Tokyo Wonderland via robo-glam rave-up Party Boy, and deserves to find these most playful of veterans a wider audience. [Aug. 2011, p. 92]
    • Mojo
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Affirms that Boris can bench-press myriad weighty sub-genres in their sleep. [Aug. 2011, p. 92]
    • Mojo
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Horrors manage to balance vinyl excavation with experimentation and a huge dollop of pop magnificently. [Aug. 2011, p. 90]
    • Mojo
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is Coldplay getting in, delivering the tune, getting out, influenced by the discipline of cutting-edge R&B but still capable of testing arena acoustics with some supermassive bluster, glitterball lustre and classic Buckland glide'n'twiddle. [Dec 2011, p.46]
    • Mojo
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This newly winged Barn Owl glide on through celestial panoramas, a tempestuous sonic asteroid belt and heady, intergalactic drift. [Oct 2011]
    • Mojo
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    To some, Hurts lugubrious, gruff delivery might jar with the LP, but it's entirely intentional--they cast the beauty and simplicity of the melodies into even sharper relief. [Oct 2011, p.96]
    • Mojo
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Amy Winehouse it ain't, but we can take a certain pleasure in a man who at least possesses the sort of grainy Sam Cooke mellifluousness that, down the ages, has redeemed blue-eyed-soul boys the world over. [Oct 2011, p.94]
    • Mojo
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Simpson's Indian summer roars on in an irrepressible blend of the English tradition and an unerring instinct for American material. [Oct 2011, p.106]
    • Mojo
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Inside The Ships is one of their most entertaining yet confounding albums. [Oct 2011, p.101]
    • Mojo
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Even when she blinds her audience wit science, though, Bjork's vision remains remarkable. [Oct 2011, p.97]
    • Mojo
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Like Eddi Reader's Sings the Songs Of Robert Burns, this is bard bigging-up of note. [Oct 2011, p.97]
    • Mojo
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's an immersive, and inevitably cinematic, ambient gem. [Oct 2011, p.105]
    • Mojo
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Black Rainbows is a pretty good dress rehearsal. [Oct 2011, p.97]
    • Mojo
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The 14 tracks here represent just a fraction of what he produced in his prime, so beware that it may be habit forming. [Oct 2011, p.110]
    • Mojo
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Here, the tunes are dubbed to within an inch of their lives, reduced to fiddly-for-fiddling's-sake electronic bleeps and riffs. [Oct 2011, p.100]
    • Mojo
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The wait has been worth it. [Oct 2011, p.98]
    • Mojo
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Metals is the product of a stock-taking pause, it's clear the former Canadian indie scenester had rediscovered her bearings. [Oct 2011, p.106]
    • Mojo
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You're left with a record that few will better this year. [Oct 2011, p.101]
    • Mojo
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Like all the best dreams. [Oct 2011, p.100]
    • Mojo
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Witty, touching, adored by everyone from Bjork to to Jon Snow; the wait is over. [Oct 2011, p.100]
    • Mojo
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Brit rapper Rodney Smith takes a big step towards national treasure status on sobering fifth album. [Oct 2011, p.99]
    • Mojo
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Zig Zaj corrals its celebrity cameos within a strictly ring-fenced aesthetic. [Oct 2011, p.98]
    • Mojo
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The tunes are all there but the mood is woozy, the arrangements spare and programmed to hypnotize. [Oct 2011, p.98]
    • Mojo
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fallon tempers the rancour with expertly crafted tunes. [Oct 2011, p.97]
    • Mojo
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    An admirable attempt to try something genuinely different has compromised an otherwise fine album. [Oct 2011, p.94]
    • Mojo
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An entire LP of these earthy yet cerebral pop constructs would have been no hardship whatsoever. [Oct 2011, p.92]
    • Mojo
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With very few exceptions, there's a real sense of unity throughout the album. [Oct 2011, p.106]
    • Mojo
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The deadbeat look befits an album that travels from slacker pop to a kind of desolate, beautiful blues in a series of quite astonishing songs. [Oct 2011, p.104]
    • Mojo
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As usual, it mixes vintage country, soul and R&B. Be cool, however, listen on, and it comes together. [Oct 2011, p.106]
    • Mojo
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's no great leap forward, but it's a decent return on the band's early promise. [Oct 2011, p.105]
    • Mojo
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Whitmore's sparse new songs brilliantly realised. [Oct 2011, p.105]
    • Mojo
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    We're on such familiar territory here that Wildfire is as much homage as innovation. [Oct 2011, p.105]
    • Mojo
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is possibly the most remarkable album Finn has been involved with in a decade. [Oct 2011, p.99]
    • Mojo
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Gravity the Seducer aims to be the great leap forward but still falls a little short. [Oct 2011, p.98]
    • Mojo
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Luke Pritchard and co attack each of their songs with crisp, clean confidence, brisk guitar lines and open vowels. [Oct 2011, p.97]
    • Mojo
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kasabian have always talked a great album, but Velociraptor! sees them deliver with verve and imagination. [Oct 2011, p.94]
    • Mojo
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Buckingham's pop ear is still highly attuned. [Oct 2011, p.106]
    • Mojo
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Portamento does not convince. [Oct 2011, p.105]
    • Mojo
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Can be hard for mere mortals to swallow. [Oct 2011, p.104]
    • Mojo
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Strange Mercy is the shimmering, expansive sound of an artist defiantly coming into her own. [Oct 2011, p.104]
    • Mojo
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While Wu's trademark kung-fu film samples can't help but sound dated some 18 years after their breathtaking debut similar charges crumble to dust against the renewed evangelism of Ghostface Killah. [Oct 2011, p.104]
    • Mojo
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's cleaner, but still killer. [Oct 2011, p.101]
    • Mojo
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's a technical leap forward...but she wears this transformation easily. [Oct 2011, p.101]
    • Mojo
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dolly steps up as America's cheerleader, to help fight the recession blues. [Oct 2011, p.100]
    • Mojo
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nearly a decade later, their new album attempts to recapture the moment of dancefloor serendipity and only occasionally do they succeed. [Oct 2011, p.99]
    • Mojo
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The album is most notable for the man's glorious undiminished tones. [Oct 2011, p.98]
    • Mojo
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The frat-boy humour is wearing a tad thin. [Oct 2011, p.97]
    • Mojo
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    [Bridges] convincingly inhabits a batch of mostly self-penned story songs that radiate a weary gravitas and wry existentialism. [Oct 2011, p.96]
    • Mojo
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    From the title's Depression-era jokes onwards, Cooder protests like it's 1939. [Oct 2011, p.96]
    • Mojo
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Studded with occasional gems...it's also weighed down by a handful of jokey throwaways and partially realised pop numbers among its 24 tracks. [Oct 2011, p.94]
    • Mojo
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Where her self-titled debut was intense and socially conscious, things are groovier now. [May 2011, p.107]
    • Mojo
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As the Crow Flies feels like a more personal work. Both a soundtrack to dreamlike childhood summers and an imagined government guide to the cycles of the seasons, complete with liner notes by historian and folklorist Ronald Hutton. [Sep 2011, p.101]
    • Mojo
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is resilient, tough, exultant music that just didn't push thorough a t the time. [Sep 2011, p.113]
    • Mojo
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    13
    Nothing unfamiliar, yet distinguished by granite totem-pole vocals and mesmerically ominous axe. [Sep 2011, p.97]
    • Mojo
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stars offers deep dreamlike comfort, undercut by the melancholy violin of founding member Noel Sayre, who tragically died during the album's recording. [Sep 2011, p.96]
    • Mojo
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The cosy and intimate songs, sung in the disarming, high-pitched tenor so admired by Sufjan Stevens, are pleasant enough, but it isn't until the Cajun-tinged shuffle of Ophelia and late-night bar lament You Belong To Heaven that it gels. [Sep 2011, p.95]
    • Mojo
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The results are melodic, gently atmospheric indie rock that often fits the neo-shoegaze paradigm. [Sept. 2011, p. 101]
    • Mojo
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They return with an album that tries hard to please, its brace of ultra-catchy, bubblegum dance-pop tracks constructed from teh same building blocks as Tom Tom Club's playground. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]
    • Mojo
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A lot happens on Eleven Eleven -- all of it good. [Sept. 2011, p. 106]
    • Mojo
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Track by track, these are nuggets of brilliance. As a whole, it's baffingly eclectic. [Sept. 2011, p. 106]
    • Mojo
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stranger Me is accurately titled. It's both intriguing and entertaining throughout. [Sept. 2011, p. 106]
    • Mojo
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The long, swirling guitar patterns remain, as the bandleader enjoys letting a groove stretch right out before demonstrating his blues-rock credentials. [Sept. 2011, p. 104]
    • Mojo
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    California five-piece coming soon to a stadium near you. [Sept. 2011, p. 100]
    • Mojo
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everything you could want from a wizard, a true non-star. [Sept. 2011, p. 100]
    • Mojo
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    In the end, caution and Horn's glossy production smother the early Yes's spirit of oddball experiment. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]
    • Mojo
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Metheny returns with a beautifully understated acoustic album whose virtue is its bare-boned simplicity. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]
    • Mojo
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Third album proper for San Fran psych quartet. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]
    • Mojo
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The reference points suggest Cerebral Ballzy care little for innovation, but they've nevertheless created the best US punk debut for some time. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]
    • Mojo
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hearts is meta-shoegazing, a melody-driven dive into mist, where focus is difficult. [Sept. 2011, p. 97]
    • Mojo
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's music for dreaming, the keyboard equivalent to shoegaze, reinforced by its song titles and vocals mostly mixed beneath the waves to gorgeously woozy effect. [Sept. 2011, p. 97]
    • Mojo
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Reliably familiar punk pop by enduring Japanese trio. [Sept. 2011, p. 96]
    • Mojo
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Viva Brother lack much of Blur's charming artyness and all of the Gallaghers' battering rock immensity and football terrace touch. [Sept. 2011, p. 96]
    • Mojo
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Two Of Everything is a sure-footed progression from 2009's self-titled debut, thanks to the warm co-production of Dan Auerbach (Black Keys) and the pair's willingness to push the sonic envelope into the outre zone, even embracing bagpipes. [Sept. 2011, p. 96]
    • Mojo
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For a record about a lonely planet, it makes all the right connections. [Sept. 2011, p. 96]
    • Mojo
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fab follow-up to 2009's Tomorrow Is Alright from the San Franciscan collective. [Sept. 2011, p. 95]
    • Mojo
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A striking mix of rock and electronics on Philadelphia group's second record. [Sept. 2011, p. 94]
    • Mojo
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Canadian power-poppers celebrate hyper-melodic 20th birthday. [Sept. 2011, p. 94]
    • Mojo
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    LP1
    She's got soul all right. [Sept. 2011, p. 94]
    • Mojo
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Where the previous LP put them on a higher plane and widened their audience, this broadens the palette and consolidates their status. [Sept. 2011, p. 92]
    • Mojo
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The boy done good, again. [Jun 2011, p.100]
    • Mojo
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Duets with Stevie Nicks and the latest country sensation, Colbie Caillat, lift the proceedings--but the tracks that stand out are those where he sings with more personal reflection. [Jul 2011, p.114
    • Mojo
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In less accomplished hands it could have spiraled into pastiche. Instead, by being so dedicated to the past, Wilson has shaped a delicious future. [Aug 2011]
    • Mojo
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's sometimes easy to lose sight of the humanity in Randy Newman's songwriting. Some redress is afforded by an album which--as with its 2003 predecessor--sees 67-year-old Newman pare back songs spanning four decades to voice and piano. [Jun 2011, p.92]
    • Mojo
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The tone is wistful and serene more than sad and heavy, but principal singer Nona Marie Invie still sounds like a femme fatale, with a coiled, spectral charm that suits the band's name. [Jun 2011, p.104]
    • Mojo
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    On first impression If By Yes sound floaty and melodic. Ideal for backdrop sounds at classy fashion outlets. Yet it;s more than that. [May 2011, p.109]
    • Mojo
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Young set up a tour with a fine country band playing at state fairs and rodeos. This set includes live, countrified version of Re-actor, Old Ways, Harvest, even Buffalo Springfield and five previously unreleased songs. [Jul 2011, p.120]
    • Mojo
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The more successful versions tend to be of recent, less iconic songs--John The Revelator, Fragile Tension--but, despite the invention throughout hours of listening, not one version matches the original. [Jul 2011, p.112]
    • Mojo
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There are moments when things don't quite work as they should. But the Blind Boys, left to their own devices on the funky Jesus, Hold My Hand, do what they do best. [Jun 2011, p.104]
    • Mojo
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These are his silkiest arrangements yet, but shadowy undercurrents ensure the tension never lets up. [Jun 2011, p.104]
    • Mojo
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    2
    2 is the sound of war, famine and pestilence wiith a spoonful of sexual frustration; often silly but always fun. [Jul 2011, p.106]
    • Mojo
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    For this album she as worked with a breathtaking array of collaborators, with varied results. [Jul 2011, p.115]
    • Mojo
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Imelda May can voice rockin' blues, slap-bass rockabilly and smoky torch jazz and she can do it incredibly well. [Nov. 2010, p. 102]
    • Mojo
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They've fleshed out the colourful sketches that make up the bulk of their last album. [Feb 2011, p.96]
    • Mojo
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's difficult to ignore Total's hoovering synths, filtered drums, glam rock rhythms and punkish snarl, such is its fizzing energy. [Jul 2011, p.115]
    • Mojo
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A sameness about these developments diminishes the album's appeal, but given a presence in the ether, airwaves, clouds and such, the Pierces' obsession could become addictive. [Jul 2011, p.114]
    • Mojo
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Reaching a jubilant, freak-flag waving climax with the garage sloppiness of Where We Go, what's left is a quieter set of herbal spirituals that continue to link strands of country, folk and blues with the group's own beautifully wayward sense of direction. [Jul 2011, p.105]
    • Mojo