Record Collector's Scores

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For 2,508 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Queen II [Collector's Edition]
Lowest review score: 20 Relaxer
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,666 out of 2508
  2. Mixed: 836 out of 2508
  3. Negative: 6 out of 2508
2508 music reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Arthur Alexander [Reissue]
    Produced by Memphis Boys’ bassist Tommy Cogbill, who had also played on Pickett’s sessions, Arthur Alexander mixes greasy soul with country funk.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Spooky Action
    At its best, the record touches on a manic, countrified rock that very early Kings Of Leon might’ve deemed too farmyard to get away with. Occasionally it bleeds over into a blander, stadium sound that seems unbefitting of its creator. But it’s never dull, and in fact often white-knuckle. It’s just a shame it took so long.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Sounds of Crenshaw, Vol. 1
    While the relaxed vibe is continuous, the music isn’t repetitive but there’s nothing really new here: rather it’s an extension of what Sade’s band Sweetback and trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor were doing well over a decade ago. Even so, it’s an enthralling fusion of sounds and styles.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Paranormal
    Paranormal lacks both the nostalgia factor of its predecessor and a concept such as the one behind 2008’s Along Came A Spider. It also can’t claim to be a return to heaviness such as Dragontown from 2001. So what does it offer? Not much, other than a moderately listenable set of songs.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960
    Hhe serves up striking versions of some of his most famous Riverside-era compositions, including Rhythm-A-Ning, and Well, You Needn’t. Also featured is the only known studio recording of Light Blue. The second disc in this 2CD package includes alternate takes and rehearsal versions and is accompanied by an informative 60-page booklet, including an essay by Monk’s biographer, Robin D G Kelley.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Altar
    10 tightly produced co-writes with the massively influential polymath suggest they might finally strike lucky.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Times Infinity, Vol. 2
    The Dears handle such disparate moods, genre fluidity and instrumental complexity with an architect’s precision.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    1967: Sunshine Tomorrow
    The set mops up a satisfying amount of previously unreleased session material from 1967 and adds the first real stereo mix of the whole Wild Honey LP. ... But the real revelations come with the bonus tracks.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jean-Jacques Perrey et Son Ondioline
    It’s a tremendously playful collection that veers from the spectral spaghetti western of Visa To The Stars to Chicken On The Rocks; an screwball jaunt that’s begging to be used as the theme for an absurd Radio 4 panel show.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    We're All Alright!
    The most vibrant cuts here, Long Time Coming and Brand New Name On An Old Tattoo, rise above generic nostalgia, but very little else is worth a second listen.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Purple Rain [Deluxe Expanded Edition]
    While this release fails to be definitive, at least it’s a start for a discography that had been long neglected by its creator.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Abysmal Thoughts
    The problem isn’t simply that he starts the album fixating on his reflection in Mirror and rarely budges. It’s that without a foil to contribute drama or dynamism to his doldrums, Pierce’s echo chamber of mithering is all-consuming.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone
    Between Stuck’s bright indie-jangle and the layered guitars of the reflective Something Else, the result offers testimony to the robust flexibility of Chastity Belt’s alt. indie foundations; they make the evolution seem natural, not stretched.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Visionland
    Banditos light-heartedly plough a furrow of 60s garage-psych, soul, blues and country with a punkish good-time sense of savvy.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dear
    Twenty five years into your career, Dear is proof that heavy not only still rocks, but that under your [Boris'] charge, it is unlikely to get boring.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    B-Sides and Rarities
    Despite being a compilation, this collection has an immaculate flow--like all Beach House albums.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Truth, Liberty & Soul: Live in NYC: The Complete 1982 NPR Jazz Alive! Recording
    Overall, the sound is pristine--it’s been remastered from the original 24-track tapes by esteemed engineer Paul Blakemore--and is accompanied by a thick booklet packed with essays.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Take Me Home and Make Me Like It
    Walls are punched, tapes are stolen, idols are desecrated... but somewhere in this chaos are tunes worthy of the reputation Chilton tried so hard to ruin.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Best of Crime Rock
    The tunes might be a bit basic, but there sure ain’t any hackneyed love songs here, even Come Over having more of the feel of faux-cute early White Stripes material than drippy radio fare. Garage rock’s not dead.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Silhouettes and Statues: A Gothic Revolution 1978-1986 [Box Set]
    Another minor issue is the non-appearance of key outfits The Danse Society, Sex Gang Children and X-Mal Deutschland, though the welcome inclusion of hard-to-source rarities from underrated, short-lived acts Rema Rema, Modern Eon and Dublin experimentalists The Threat ensures that Silhouettes And Statues ultimately makes for a surprisingly joyous celebration of all things dark and deathly.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines
    While the concept may be suitably unhinged and the music boundary pushing, little of it ultimately sticks in the mind.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star
    While the concept may be suitably unhinged and the music boundary pushing, little of it ultimately sticks in the mind.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Out in the Storm
    Out In The Storm bares out the wound-baring pitch. The injuries remain, but its crunchy riffs, sharp melodies and forthright vocals comprise Crutchfield’s deepest, most direct emotional diagnoses yet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Moonshine Freeze
    This is their finest work to date.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Every Valley
    The cumulative impact on Mother Of The Village and Take Me Home (featuring the Beaufort Male Choir) is potent: packing robust poignancy, these lullabies for working-class pride deep-mine history with great storytelling skill, sensitivity--and, pointedly, a kick of sustained political relevance.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Reflections: Mojave Desert
    Anyone who likes instrumental prog will be pretty at home with this, which might just also turn a new generation onto the genre’s noodly stylings. Waverers may be persuaded by the four star film, making the CD package the best purchase.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hug of Thunder
    Occasionally the record can lose focus, without a standalone frontman/woman--and while that doesn’t make Hug Of Thunder bad, it can feel disjointed, like listening to a decade-spanning compilation, moving through genres and line-ups with discombobulating results. Still, better to have too much than not enough.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pop Makossa: Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon
    Funk is the dominant addition to the music presented here, with Mystic Djim & The Free Spirits utilising Latin rhythms on the punchy Yaoundé Girls and Bill Loko’s addictive Nen Lambo – apparently so popular it caused its creator to flee the country – adding liquid jabs of synth. On Sanaga Calypso meanwhile, Pasteur Lappe harnesses disco’s ubiquitous grooves. The best stuff here keeps the additions subtle however.
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