No Ripcord's Scores

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For 2,825 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 Strawberry Jam
Lowest review score: 0 Scream
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,983 out of 2825
  2. Mixed: 765 out of 2825
  3. Negative: 77 out of 2825
2825 music reviews
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mutant
    The record’s lack of organization and resistance to stasis work against its accessibility. Those willing to mine such a dense work will be rewarded in a visceral sense, but may be left groping in the darkness for a specific, externally-fabricated meaning. Either way, the abstractness and wandering abandon of Mutant define not only the album, but Alejandro Ghersi’s approach to music.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
    It's all powerful stuff and it can only be GY!BE.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Key Markets
    Key Markets doesn't disappoint. Their commitment to their aesthetic and their ability to use it to say new things is unflagging.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Room Inside the World
    The album is strong but is a marked change in direction, nonetheless.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Boca Negra
    My high expectations for Boca Negra, misguided as they were, have been consoled, if not met, by the realization that if any act can legitimize avant-jazz beyond its narrow niche (never mind my aforementioned doubts), Chicago Underground Duo have the verve and creativity to enable it.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Maraqopa
    Despite minor quibbles what you have here is one hell of a late-night record, with plenty of wistful longing and just enough sunshine to keep you off the suicide hotline.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    James Blake
    James Blake is an absolute treat for the ears.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hadsel
    He rarely reveals much of his true intent throughout, relying upon platitudes that, while truthful, make Hadsel sound a little thin in places. But Condon knows his audience well, resorting to a heavily cinematic atmosphere that will have his listeners contemplating their own aspirations rather than focusing on his. Just like he intended to do.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    World Eater
    It may be Power’s most fatalistic declaration, but also his most engagingly diverse, and his marked exasperations do reflect a not-so-distant dystopia that suitably aligns with today’s societal disconnect.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Showbiz!
    Not everything works here and I found my attention wandering at times. But it is bursting with promise and MIKE's arrival feels both imminent and inevitable.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Systems/Layers
    Rachel's albums are consistently greater than the sum of their parts.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Warnings
    Lindén had some false starts in trying to realize her true vision with Warnings, and it shows—the effort she went through to craft a sound this painstakingly meticulous requires time and patience. And though we know how far she and Balck can push themselves, we're still not quite sure who exactly they want to be.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Occulting Disk
    If you hear ten seconds of any given song then you've heard its entirety, yet you haven't experienced the song. It's that sort of an album.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Torres
    For a debut album from a gal who can’t even legally rent a car by herself, this is very impressive. She attracts to a wide audience, displays restraint and obscurity at appropriate times.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Three
    Bloom is a little over 21-minutes of relentless noise pool of percussion and clatter that’s somehow relaxed by the gently pressed piano keys that methodically pierce its surface, a contrast that rests the mind over the length of this track when it might otherwise induce anxiety.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Paradise
    They've deftly struck the balance between breaking new ground and retaining their sound while making a record that has – bold statement alert – NO bad songs on it.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Money Store
    The Money Store might be the very definition of acquired taste, and will most likely alienate the vast majority who attempt to give it a spin, but it's undeniably an extraordinary record.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Androgynous Mary
    They play to a more jangle-pop register on the bouncy Public Bodies before bringing back the fuzzy guitars and haunting tones on What We Do It For. The only throughline here is that the songs themselves are interesting indie-rock.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Old Flowers
    One of her most consistent and wonderful collections of unique, heartfelt, and depressing songs yet, even if it’s somewhat hampered by the need to make it “as cathartic and minimal as possible.” While Andrew Sarlo’s production is occasionally sedate, the writing is still exemplary.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
    Overall, it’s an improvement over the yawnfest of "Takk," but not nearly as consistent as one would like.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ruff Draft [Reissue]
    Picking highlights is futile; the record might run for less than twenty minutes but it burns brightly for the whole duration.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Forest
    Those looking for a sombre accompaniment for the wintry evenings ahead could do a hell of a lot worse than pick up this superb record.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mangy Love
    The creative zeal McCombs displays on Mangy Love, and his willingness to take some chances, even if low stakes, engages both the heart and the mind.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Strange to Explain
    Woods consciously goes for simplicity, not depth. The musicianship complements that goal appropriately on Strange to Explain, an album that hazily focuses on themes of dreams and sleep. The wah-wah guitars, Mellotron, and gentle, upbeat drums match the laconic subject matter to relaxing and pleasant, if forgettable, effect, sort of like a dream.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ode To Joy
    The most striking aspect of Ode to Joy is how weary Tweedy sounds. From upfront political themes (Citizens, which wavers and rumbles with minor harmonies, lines about white lies, and distorted guitars) to thoughts of personal tragedy (White Wooden Cross), there's one clear conclusion: Tweedy is beaten down. But Tweedy is at his best when he's processing that exhaustion.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    See Through You
    If APTBS have fallen off your radar in recent years, then this is the one worth reintroducing yourself to their work.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future
    From the thumping, industrial charge of I Exhale to the sublimely hypnotic techno of Low Burn, Underworld are in full form, giving meaning and substance to every single minute with hardly a wasted moment.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    12 Songs
    It’s not that Diamond has recorded a masterpiece, since quite a good portion of this is decidedly B material. It’s that the good stuff represents Neil at his best, exploiting his considerable knack for melody and structure to the fullest.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Oh My God
    While his music has reached new heights of production and depth, his penmanship remains pedestrian.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fake It Flowers
    Keep It Flowers is an edgy, brash, and well put together statement that mostly goes down easy.
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