Resident Advisor's Scores

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For 1,177 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: 100 Biokinetics [Reissue]
Lowest review score: 36 Déjà-Vu
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,018 out of 1177
  2. Mixed: 158 out of 1177
  3. Negative: 1 out of 1177
1177 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Escapology
    Sometimes it feels like one of the best records I've heard in recent memory, other times I wish it would just get to the point faster. But I think that's by design. ... To appreciate Escapology is to look at it as one piece in the puzzle, not an album so much as it is a single cog in Goodman's latest piece. It asks more questions than it answers, but poses them like few other artists could.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In a Dream
    With In A Dream, Maclean and Whang have crafted some of most expertly tuneful music of their career.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    International
    Imperfect as it is, International is proof that the group's future is limited only by the force of its wanderlust.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Black Girl Magic
    While the record is a joyous, uplifting listen, there are not many surprises. After hearing Dijon in full effect on her previous LP, it left me with residual disappointment about the album's untapped potential. But there are still moments to be excited about on the album's B-side.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Room(s)
    While, in a sense, Room(s) is by definition an amalgamation of most of the trends and ideas floating around in the electronic music sphere at the moment, it sounds like nothing else, and its execution is so cutthroat and streamlined that it's nearly flawless.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Food
    Food might sound pretty, but it's weaker than the sum of its parts.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Escapements
    If there's a new sense of release in Beacon's music, the same can't be said of their lyrics. A familiar atmosphere of heartbroken reflection and pent-up frustration prevails.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    DJ-Kicks
    DJ-Kicks lays out each of his influences piece by piece, almost like listening to a deconstructed Lone album. For fans of Cutler's singular music, it's an essential entry in his discography.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    LP.8
    It's a much less linear journey than we would expect from Owens, but it's also a welcome shift, an intriguing pivot from the very human themes of Inner Song. This time around, she invites the listener to wade through the fascinating depths of her imagination. It's hard not to close your eyes and surrender to the figure-eight flow.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Nothing
    The mechanistic form and function can feel totally lifeless, but there's a layer of mourning beneath the gleaming metal.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    New Blue Sun
    This album can work when it's in service of something other than itself. Listened to in smaller stretches, it becomes a bit easier to digest, and opens up a bit.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Bodied
    [Blood Rain is] the track on Bodied that best reflects the influence of soundtrack work on Myson, music that feels powerful without being obvious or obtrusive. The rest of Bodied feels like a film score made for a blockbuster that isn't there. The LP's sculpted sound, dreamy sketches and haughty melodrama rarely feels like more than the sum of its often stunning parts.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shelter
    There's a near-perfect EP buried in here somewhere, and an inventive musical personality waiting to burst out, but Moiré's debut album does a better job of showcasing his potential than realizing it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Butterfly
    The LP's concerted efforts toward eclecticism feel more like a frantic effort towards containment, playing out like rote exercises in proving Snaith's stylistic mastery rather than genuine moments of strobe-lit inspiration.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Visitor
    You may not always know what's going on or why, but that hardly matters when it's such a joyous whirl.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    SBTRKT
    SBTRKT isn't going to break down any barriers in the obsessively experimental world that it was birthed, but it's a thoroughly solid listen all the way through. Which is a lot more than his supposed peers could say about their debut albums.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Azari & III
    Those of you disappointed in similar efforts this year by Hercules & Love Affair or, say, Jessica 6 will find many of their itches scratched here.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    And
    & is essentially a compilation of disparate tracks. There are a few good moments, enough decent efforts and some failures.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shrines
    As a closer [song "Shuck"], it's an interesting moment and one particularly reflective of Shrines' strengths and its dualistic intrigues: the serenity of Roddick's buoyant, burbling synths amidst James's hallucinatory full-moon visions.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Masterpiece Created by Carl Craig
    Even with an album's worth of new material, there's something missing here; the format might be Herculean in scale, but Craig's efforts don't match up.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    32 Levels
    What's most disheartening about 32 Levels is how it floats by anonymously for 37 wishy-washy minutes, which is especially hard to take from a producer whose tracks used to command your attention.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Warmth
    The music on Warmth is among the duo's most powerful, and several tracks from the LP could come alive in the right kind of DJ set.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Traditional Synthesizer Music
    Venetian Snares albums are usually tough and intense listens, but Traditional Synthesizer Music can be fuzzy to a fault. It lacks the internal turmoil that defines Funk's best music.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    #N/A
    These short tracks hint at the more compact and engaging album #N/A could've been. But on "#2," the collaborators show they can also pull off long-form.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Plastic Anniversary
    Plastic Anniversary is just extraordinarily clever, something to be marveled at more than moved by.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    Dusk to Dawn, Pts. 1-3
    As things stand, there's a sense that somewhere along the line Nordström lost the capacity to self-edit. ... Nordström is mad for attempting this project, but even in partial failure Dusk To Dawn is among the more ambitious dance albums ever dreamt up.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Challenge Me Foolish
    An album that's alluring in passing, but might not have you doubling back for a closer inspection.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kick ii
    Here she pushes things in a more aggressive direction: on "Tiro," her vocals become increasingly scattered and dramatic, as the percussion warps into a mash of cracking whips, laser shots and grinding metal. On its back half, KICK ii dips into abstract territory, sounding more like a tangled web of overactive synapses than anything immediately recognizable as pop.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Grip
    Wise's third album is striking not only because of his unparalleled voice or his candid verse, parts of his artistry that already caught our attention on the last two albums, but because of the way these elements come together in such an assured way, in a space that demands swagger bravado from its virtuosos delivered with a welcome vulnerability.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
    Gonzalez outdoes himself on Hurry Up, We're Dreaming: a double album in tribute to the hefty documents of pre-digital, pre-iTunes yesteryear.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    LP [2018]
    Schofield often sounds downright uneasy, as if he's looking to cut the legs out from under his trademark style. When an artist slips into this mode, they rarely make perfect statements. What usually emerges instead are uneven collections full of experimental escape hatches that are engrossing for their very imperfections.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Isoviha
    Sharp and fiery, Isoviha lacks any restraint, capturing the paradoxical multiplicity and singularity that makes all of Ripatti’s output so memorable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Advancement
    This LP has the duo's best music; each track offers something to marvel at. But put them all together and it's like watching the world end 11 times in a row: what at first seems fearsome eventually turns mundane.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Drift
    It's another sharp turn in the road on the winding journey of a creative nomad.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    EUSEXUA Afterglow
    Although the album has energy in spades early on, its momentum crashes four tracks in by design—by the time it's over, you wonder if maybe FKA twigs should have just called it a night.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Curved Line
    The Curved Line is a pretty harmless, quirky listen, and enjoyable enough if you've got a bit of a sweet tooth.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Volume Massimo
    Volume Massimo embodies Cortini's deep connection with the Buchla. His commitment to melody, though it makes the album approachable, often detracts from the music's noisy (and more interesting) imperfections. Even if you follow Cortini's instructions to play the LP at "a very loud volume," the full heft of his sound fails to translate outside of its onstage setting.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Transmission Suite
    The album has bags of character and is big on ideas. Unfortunately, not all of them work. ... Jarring sounds and heavy-handed ideas dominate the album's second half and ultimately spoil the record.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Man Made
    A testament to her versatility and willingness to experiment, Man Made entrenches Greentea Peng's position as one of the UK's most exciting young songwriters.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ghost People
    Ghost People is the sound of Martyn cozying up to house music and mastering it, as close to focused and standing still as a restless artist like him could ever get.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Ambitions
    Unlike the space disco of his past, Thomas's music now hangs together not with laser bursts but with silken thread.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Liminal Soul
    Liminal Soul doesn't have the pop-fueled rush of her last LP, nor the lo-fi chill of her debut album, Ariadna. It displays her vast set of influences, brilliant vocals and ultimately, the infinite potential of Russia's dance music scene.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wander/Wonder
    See Birds, was a promising debut, but Wander / Wonder is the kind of record that can pull you into its emotional undertow from the minute those helium angels start singing.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Sunset Violent
    The results are unmistakably Mount Kimbie, showcasing their love for pop, R&B, electronica and Krautrock, while also forging a new identity for themselves within indie rock.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Remain Calm
    Even as an experimental playground, Remain Calm is clearly the work of two people with a lot of ideas, versatility and musicianship. This first release hints at what's possible for this dream pairing.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Guy
    There's so much clarity and hope to be found in Jayda G's marriage of production with songwriting that any cloying moments are easily forgiven.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Again
    It's an album that sounds less extreme than it has any right to, inspiring a cold and technical appreciation for Lopatin's craftsmanship, but not necessarily excitement.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sentielle Objectif Actualite
    This album represents an intriguing compromise between Fell's distinctive language and the friendlier environs of the contemporary dance floor.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Power of Anonymity
    Power Of Anonymity merely repeats the ideas first laid out on Yours & Mine, sometimes improved yet other times untouched.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Ultimate Care II
    This is all standard Matmos; nothing here upsets their musical applecart. But the washing machine conceit gives their sample trickery a dramatic edge. It sometimes feels like we're descending deep into the innards of the machine.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Mosaic of Transformation
    Though it finds Smith at her most reserved, The Mosaic Of Transformation feels like a breakthrough, melting the pop-savvy hooks of her past records into one gorgeous, rarefied sound, as invigorating and smooth as electricity flowing through circuits.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Elasticity
    Elasticity rewards repeat listens from start to finish.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn
    Bring Me the Head Of... will not win Dunn an army of new fans, you are either on his wavelength or you're not. It is, however, among his finest work to date and shows an ever-growing refinement and understanding of his chosen medium.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Queen of Golden Dogs
    What's most impressive, though, is Gainsborough's commitment to integrating classical music on Queen Of Golden Dogs. The results, far from being grandiose, are rough, eloquent and compassionate.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Edge of Everything
    Edge Of Everything, a harsh, relentless and evocative techno album, is an impeccable showcase of Temple's artistic voice.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jiaolong
    JIAOLONG is one of the year's most consistently compelling LPs, whether as home listening evening fuel or out and about in the sweaty rooms for which it was designed.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Carrier
    As expected, the Norwich-based producer's first full-length culls together another mass of genres, this time with the fresh additions of footwork and UK funky flavours.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pop Ambient 2017
    Kompakt's recent box set for Voigt's Gas project is arguably the ne plus ultra of emotionally resonant ambient music from the past two decades. Its influence looms over Pop Ambient 2017, but this music can nonetheless be its own soundtrack for daydreaming. On that level, the series continues to be worthwhile, but if its reach was just a little wider, it could be even more.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Delphi
    Overwhelming as Delphi's mood swings can be, they're worth putting up with. Douglas's production is full of elaborate ideas and strange tricks, even if it sometimes feels cheesy or overwrought.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Be Up a Hello
    Absorbing a Squarepusher LP in one sitting has always been for more adventurous or diligent listeners, but the dank final section means that, outside of more hardcore fans, Be Up A Hello will probably need to be navigated in exactly the right sort of mood.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Statik
    Actress is still working at something like the peak of his powers, and there's never a wrong step on Statik—never an idea that falls flat, never a moment where Cunningham feels like he's compromising his sound rather than simply choosing to work in a smoother style on his latest whim.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    End Beginnings
    A masterclass in brooding, uncompromising techno.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Early Riser
    Early Riser recalls '70s LPs by the likes of Herbie Hancock--with whom McFerrin Sr. collaborated--and actually evokes the process of remembering, insomuch as it's full of teasing hints and hazy feelings that ebb and flow throughout.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Homesick
    This is machine music for a machine-ruled future made by someone who truly loves machines.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Essential
    Essential isn't as essential as its title suggests, but don't let that stop you from seeking it out. It has more of the loveable chaos that once made Soulwax among the most important acts in electronic music. This time it's more controlled.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blondes
    A singularly impressive work.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Amok
    Though far from the full-on dance album Yorke's DJ gigs and 50 Weapons single had presaged, Amok does feel like a collection of tracks, not songs.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Wald
    This is a record of great technical skill and imagination, and one that's also nonetheless soulful and sincere.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Aa
    Aa isn't a disappointment, but clocking in at 34 minutes with a handful of tracks that feel unfinished, it's not exactly a home run either.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    hej!
    hej! is one of PC Music's most well-rounded records yet.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cellar Door
    Oft-delayed, long-overdue, but quietly, subtly worth the wait.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Under The Same Sky
    Under The Same Sky might not be the most original or ambitious album you will hear this year, but it's arresting, it moves quickly and it never looks back.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Love in the Time of Lexapro [EP]
    Both tracks [Love In The Time Of Lexapro and Last Known Image Of A Song], though, are dreamscapes of ineffable yearning. The EP's other cuts feel almost like a letdown, though only by degrees.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Calypso
    The haunting chorus and zither strings of "Cry Winds Or Flames," the distorted, swampy drama of "Enter Venus" and the propulsive "The Water Sibyl" all offset the LP's drowsy qualities. Perhaps most crucially, Calypso also feels personal.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Principe del Norte
    You can spot similarities and name-check influences throughout, but Principe Del Norte still stands as Hermansen's most distinctive and satisfying record to date.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Source: We Move
    By drawing energy from Garcia’s abundant source, these remixers try to answer those questions in their own respective sonic languages, offering intriguing answers and new ways to hear Garcia's potent energy.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Before I Die
    Hye Jin refines her sound, pulling from trap and boom-bap, not to mention dubstep and techno, to turn out a coming of age hip-house album. Before I Die is the clearest artistic vision we've heard from Hye Jin.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Sea of Memories
    Sadly, tracks like "Years Ago, Days Pass" or "Wired"--even with their intricate array of digital ornaments--remain badly in need of a proper tune; album closer "Nights," on the other hand, simply comes across as an anemic piano-led ballad: clocking in at seven minutes, it easily outstays its welcome and ends the album on a lukewarm note.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Swirlings
    From the way the melodies climb through the hanging atmosphere of "Ripples" to the Sasha-like glitter of "Cloud Refuge," Swirlings is full of lovely, considered music that sticks in your mind long after the synth fog dissipates.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Songs of Silence
    While Songs Of Silence succeeds as a rich and intriguing drone album then, it won't satisfy those hoping to learn more about one of British pop's great enigmas.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Belief System
    But even if it isn't brilliant all the way through, Belief System is still an achievement. 12 of its tracks are as electrifying and giddy as you'll hear all year.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mala in Cuba
    Mala in Cuba is a statement of consummate mastery-of a form, of a tempo, of a set of tools-shaped by the implacable creative imagination of one of the finest producers of his generation.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pearson Sound
    Coming from a producer who habitually finds new ways to dazzle, Pearson Sound is uncharacteristically average.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    On Vacation
    Trendy as Silver's interests may have become, On Vacation feels no less personal and awe-inspiring in its stillness.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hive Mind
    Hive Mind, follows in the vein of "Ital's Theme" by focusing on warm, softly throbbing textural slides over insistent 4/4 rhythms to forge a kind of day-drifted vagabond music akin to the work of acts like Blondes or The Miracles Club.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Who Are You
    The LP's initial tranquility gives way to a perkier second half, transitioning from sugar-dusted melodies to a fusion sound that feels more live.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Memory
    Lazer Sword's somewhat gloomy sophomore album does still represent a largely enjoyable body of work that packs in plenty of well-executed ideas.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    Disaster Piece
    When it comes to grime producers, there are two kinds: those who simply make music and those who act as creative directors, getting involved with collaborators, arrangements and often more. Judging from the unevenness of Disaster Piece, he needs both.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Murmurations
    Murmurations is as rewarding for the listener as it must've been for the artists.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    DJ-Kicks
    Cunningham focuses primarily on selection for his hour-long jaunt through murky technoisms. All too often, though, technique and sequencing seem to have been banned from the booth.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nothing
    The inclusion of dynamic percussion, as well as Darkside's openness, beckons music that is more kinetic, haphazard and melodic than anything the group has made before. .... Although it's hard not to miss the eerie glitchiness and endless meandering that made Psychic so explorable and viscerally unsettling, Nothing can be unnerving in its own way.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Folding Time
    Folding Time sounds so manicured and lovely that it's hard to find fault with its production value. If the album has a problem, it's that it makes a lateral move rather than a forward one.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Universes
    Though his abilities with oddball party jams are unquestionable, Davis proves he can be equally compelling when he tones it down a notch.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Runner [Original Soundtrack]
    There's a fine line drawn between pastiche and surefire songwriting, and the group straddle it deftly.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Bahdeni Nami
    It's a total weirdo crossover success, and perhaps Bahdeni Nami's standout if club fodder is what you're after.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Interstellar
    It's not about to break any new ground, but her attractively elegant mixture of dream pop, post-punk and luxurious atmospherics are a hard combination to resist.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Comfort
    Coles has a way of making her tracks sound massive and intimate at the same time, using reverb in a way that evokes both the expanse of an arena and the introspection of a bedroom.... Comfort has enough of these moments to remind us of her casual brilliance, but not enough to make it the complete knockout it could be.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kilo
    It's a testament to his stature as a leading purveyor of experimental electronics that the results of those pursuits, as seen once again on Kilo, are reliably unpredictable.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pangaea Ultima
    Pangaea Ultima is equally rewarding to those who dive in and devour every minuscule detail as it is to those who listen more passively.
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