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For 287 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 42% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.4 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Bow Down To The Exit Sign
Lowest review score: 30 Unified Theory
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 196 out of 287
  2. Mixed: 90 out of 287
  3. Negative: 1 out of 287
287 music reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
    Nonetheless, while more ambitious than almost all of today's metal-flaked rock competition, the 19-track Holy Wood is not without its problems. On numbers such as "President Dead" and "Cruci-Fiction in Space," the band seems to be just rehashing old terrain. And, while The Wall may be a worthy role model, Manson and company don't quite have Pink Floyd's lyrical or musical range, adding to the rote feeling that troubles some of this overlong (60+ minutes) disc.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Warning
    Green Day's melodies are as delicious as ever, and the band continues to integrate acoustic guitar into its sound without getting all granola on us. But as a songwriter, Armstrong's neither here nor there, unable to fully abandon his goofball roots but not stretching far enough to score the breakaway great album he's always seemed capable of writing.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bedlam Ballroom
    On their fourth album, Bedlam Ballroom, the Zippers have concocted another stew of lively dance music. Problem is, with so many people having jumped on the swing revival bandwagon, the group's new material sounds dated. And not in a good way, either -- it merely recalls a fad, rather than evoking the bevy of twentieth-century American music styles the Zippers have long been in love with.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Id
    Even though one can hear echoes of everything from "The Threepenny Opera" to Bitches Brew here, the funk is in her DNA.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Good, the Bad, and the Funky
    Replete with tasty elements borrowed from jungle, drum & bass and contemporary Afro-pop, their fifth full-length album manages to blend and synthesize all their disparate source material better than any previous effort save their startling 1982 debut.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Disappeared
    Incorporating free-jazz squonk into sultry bossa nova with tempo-defying breaks and ethereal atmospherics is no easy feat, but somehow, the London duo pull it off.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Donnas Turn 21
    While they've evolved into a band that can actually, like, play more than a handful of chords, they wisely stick with what they know best -- trim, fast-paced, crunch-guitar-filled songs about sex and partying.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sugar Ray
    Sugar Ray actually sound like a band -- a quality missing from most of their earlier work.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Uh-Oh!
    Tipsy's second album, Uh-Oh!, doesn't just rehash the mid-'90s martini-music comeback, it recasts it, ushering the exotica percussion, soaring strings, tinny organs and surf guitars of Combustible Edison and Esquivel into a brave new world of looped breakbeats and laptop trickery.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Gorillaz
    Much of the album has the odd, rehashed sound of a Blur record produced by the Automator, but the diverse guests keep at least every other song fresh and new.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Take Back The Universe (And Give Me Yesterday)
    But if it verges on generic pop-rock, Take Back... also has more hooks than a bait and tackle shop.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    TP-2.com
    TP-2.com isn't the masterpiece Kelly seems capable of, but it's as strong an R&B album as any since, well, since R., balancing the carnal and the spiritual as convincingly as anyone's done it since Prince in the 1980s.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Invisible Band
    The album would have benefited from a few less midtempo grooves; the closest drummer Neil Primrose and bassist Dougie Payne get to really rocking is on the peppier rhythms of "Follow the Light" and "Flowers in the Window" -- not surprisingly, two of the album's highlights.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Breach
    Jakob Dylan and his team have fashioned an album that's longer on big guitars, crunchy grooves and cool changes than overt confessionals. All told, Breach is a subtle, seamless effort with nary a lull or misstep -- in contrast to its multiplatinum predecessor, the second half of which suffered from a series of pedestrian songs.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub)
    In sharing its predecessor's desire to cover every musical base, Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub) suggests a continued identity crisis.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Comfort Eagle
    Cake at times manage to counterbalance the smart-aleck cynicism with skilled musicianship, and when [John] McCrea drops the monotone bombast and actually sings, the songs really work.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Scorpion
    None of these songs are as ear-catching as the first album's "Gotta Man." And to play up Swizz Beatz's contributions is to point out how frequently Eve gets lots in the beats when they're slamming, and how she never enhances them when they're not.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    2000 Watts
    Looks and charm can only do so much, and without a distinctive sound or banging tracks, Tyrese tends to get lost in the shuffle...
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Flowers
    With Flowers, Ian McCulloch finally finds the proper musical vehicle for the older-but-wiser (but not that much wiser) persona he's been trying on for the last few years.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Go Plastic
    The album is short on the wistful melodies and jazz overtones that have made Squarepusher stand out from his fellow post-everything experimentalists, making Go Plastic -- notwithstanding "My Red Hot Car" -- something of a disappointment.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Electric Mile
    Here, country twang knocks against rap, funk basslines and blues harmonicas, and liberal lashings of reggae, ska and dub are added -- all adding up to a groove jam congealed into a multi-faceted but consistent and accomplished sound.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Trouble in Shangri-La
    All told, eight producers (including Nicks) were involved in the production of Trouble in Shangri-La, and not everybody is up to the challenge.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Alone With Everybody
    There's almost no drama to be found on Alone With Everybody... [t]he songs don't turn corners, and they fail to elicit any real emotional response.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Matriarch Of The Blues
    Though many of the songs here are associated with male artists, James usually succeeds in injecting her own womanly strength and style into her renditions, making the tunes indisputably her own.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Binaural
    It's an uneven mix that frustrates by offering just samples of what Pearl Jam increasingly does best, namely, provide clear and, yes, quiet stories about the travails of everyday life.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bloodflowers
    This is classic Cure music, straight up (or should that be straight down?): lengthy songs (most more than five minutes) with plenty of cold, alternately chiming and grinding guitars, fluttering keyboards and, of course, Smith's mournful yowl, which hasn't sounded this intense since the The Top's "Shake Dog Shake" in 1984.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Platform
    MCs Evidence and Rakaa's shortcomings are amendable because they do have a great scratchmaster in DJ Babu. The problem is that this inventive DJ is allowed to shift gears and twist and crawl only after the rappers have said their pieces.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    More
    One of the best things about Ms. C as an artist, especially considering her indie-ish background, is that she hasn't been afraid to embrace plastic pop as a vehicle for self-expression. More importantly, though, having found success within this genre , Vitamin C here takes chances instead of relying purely on formula.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sneak Attack
    He delivers all this with passion and booming authority: the teacher is back in front of the classroom, where he belongs.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    All About Chemistry
    But if "Chemistry" is a pure-pop sugar rush, much of what follows is equally sour, often falling into the thematic trap that snares so many post-hit albums: lots of songs about how success is really hard on rock stars and their girlfriends.
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