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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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    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Carnivorous Lunar Activities Of Lupine Howl
    Lacking Pierce's unifying vision, The Carnivorous Lunar Activities Of ... tries hard to make a virtue out of stylistic schizophrenia, and only partly succeeds.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Return Of Dragon
    While fans expecting "Thong Redux" might be disappointed, there are flashes of (dare one say it?) integrity and substance nestled deep in the banging beats and big-time excesses that make Sisqó, well, Sisqó.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Invincible Summer
    A strong rebound that finds lang supported by the sleek, techno-lite production of Damian leGassick?
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Conspiracy of One
    Despite their retro stylings, this Orange County, California band has served up a sixth album that is better (by leaps and bounds) than the punk-by-numbers that dominated their first two albums, 1989's Offspring and '93's Ignition. Further, Conspiracy has more well-written, hook-laden songs than anything found on their fluke indie hit, '94's fittingly titled Smash, or their too-boring-to-be-a-sell-out 1997 major label debut, Ixnay on the Hombre.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    2000 BC
    It's ironic that for all of his intelligence, passion and obvious talent, Canibus chose to stoop to the caveman mentality so apparent on this release.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Golden Lies
    Many of the 14 songs here are laced with the type of psychedelic lyrics that have always characterized Kirkwood's writing...
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mink Car
    Mink Car is all over the map, an ideal piece of entertainment for listeners simultaneously blessed and cursed with high IQs and attention deficit disorder.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    V
    V doesn't bring Live right back to earth, but it does find the group playing to strengths, experimenting with recording techniques, and striving for renewed relevance.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Milk Cow Blues
    Fortunately, for most of the album, the soft-but-solid Austin backing band assembled by guitarist/co-producer Derek O'Brien is as well seasoned as Nelson, and shares his gift for making a little go a long way. And, ultimately, the best tracks may well be those sung by Willie alone.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Malpractice
    For the most part, Malpractice unfortunately matches Redman's pro forma boasts and refreshing modesty with pro forma music and not-so-refreshing beats.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pain Is Love
    Rule's scattered third album mixes love and war with uneven results, as his simple lyrics and unimaginative storytelling outweigh the stellar musical moments on this 16-cut collection.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Glitter
    While Carey has never been a particularly confessional musician, Glitter seems a step in a more cathartic direction, from which subsequent albums should no doubt benefit.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Righteous Love
    Righteous Love turns out to have been worth the five-year wait, as it boasts a higher percentage of good songs than Relish, a more organic instrumental sound, and a singer whose vocal finesse now matches her raw power.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    First of the Microbe Hunters
    For the most part, the seven new tracks on The First of the Microbe Hunters, which is technically an EP, feel all too similar to last year's Cobra Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night...
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    OST
    Between the songs sung by the cast and those by famous popsters, Music From Baz Luhrmann's Film "Moulin Rouge" has a split personality, but this purposefully assembled collection is more cohesive than you'd think -- and that's something that can't really be said for most modern film albums.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Maroon
    A borderline adult-contemporary sound that's catchy and exuberant enough to gloss over the intermittently dark verse.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Balls
    At once epic, playful and a little bit strange, the duo's latest effort perpetuates the brothers' patented geek-chic, though things come across as more introspective and ambient this time around.... Alternately excellent, kitschy and lackluster...
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Beat 'Em Up
    His most consistently slamming release since 1990's Brick by Brick.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Devil's Night
    Devils Night is nothing special, and it's only saved from the slush pile by Eminem's inventive, cutting-edge raps and Dr. Dre's so-funky-it's-evil production.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    My Favorite Headache
    On this excursion into the noodle-prone mind of Mr. Lee. True, all the lyrics are his and his alone, but after all this time, plenty of Peart has rubbed off on him, resulting in much impenetrable mumbo jumbo about the universe and its "secrets" ("The Angels Share") and the workings of the mind...
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Funk Odyssey
    The album never truly develops, as the group prefers to rehash old stuff rather than break new ground.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    2000 Years of Human Error
    Like a legion of goths before them, singer Jason Miller and Manson have many of the same obsessions: the death of God, suicide, the return of God, the slow descent into hell and icky piles of dirt. In Godhead's case, all of that terrain is covered in just the album's opening track, the NIN-meets-New Order new wave rocker "The Reckoning."
    • 58 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Unified Theory
    Unified Theory play melodramatic art rock (with a capital AOR) in a Meatloaf-meets-Jane's Addiction kind of way. Their music plods along with all the grace of a Pinto sans muffler, substituting grandiosity for grace and thus failing to achieve the dramatically transcendent sounds that Roy Orbison and Jeff Buckley once made.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songs From an American Movie Vol. One: Learning How to Smile
    While love- and life-torn Alexakis might lyrically be working familiar terrain here, he has the smarts to place his odes to abuse and regret into an intriguing assortment of different contexts, making this album well worth listening to
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Human
    Just as Stewart's last major hit wisely spoke directly to his generation, Human unwisely seeks to plug him into the present one.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mad Season
    A relatively bloodless album, a work that seems formatted to satisfy the demands of the marketplace without really transcending them.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mi Reflejo
    With its superslick production and Mariah Carey-esque vocal histrionics, the "Latin" elements in Mi Reflejo are more sanitized than Santana-ized...
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mandy Moore
    Mandy Moore is a pop album to be proud of: every song has a good melody, a solid hook, and dramatically improved singing from its star.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Twisted Tenderness
    Twisted Tenderness hits its turning point on the title track (RealAudio excerpt), a solitary, surefire progressive-house hit that recalls the Pet Shop Boys' 1999 album, Nightlife. From that point the album's energy improves considerably -- so there's the twist: It's not new, but it's improved.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Live at the Mark, Tom & Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back)
    This collection is a sugar-high set, adrenalized even more than Blink's souped-up studio albums by the waves of Cheap Trick Live at Budokan-like female screams pouring from the audience. And the playing offers plenty of evidence to quiet anyone who thinks these guys are just three-chord wonders.... But young audiences love Blink shows in part for the wiseacre, self-deprecating quips, and this album is full 'em -- and not just between songs, as there are (count 'em) 29 extra tracks of banter lasting over 10 minutes at the album's end.
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