Spin's Scores

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For 4,305 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 47% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971
Lowest review score: 0 They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,099 out of 4305
  2. Mixed: 1,151 out of 4305
  3. Negative: 55 out of 4305
4305 music reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    In a Landscape
    While nothing here feels as urgent or frenetic as his 2002 debut, Memoryhouse, selections such as “And Some Will Fall” and “Late and Soon” rank among the most beautiful in Richter’s catalog. However, In a Landscape doesn’t always work. Richter staggers a series of nine “Life Studies” throughout the 19 tracks—comprised in part of tape delays, reverb, and vocoder, these short ambient sections break the natural flow of beauty.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Adrian Younge Presents: Twelve Reasons to Die II
    In the case of Twelve Reasons to Die II, the glass is slightly more than half full.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart
    She's more convincing as a moper, but the album's alternately punchy and slinky conclusion is heartening proof that's she's no quitter. [Nov 2008, p.102]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Documentary
    Almost lives up to the hype. [Mar 2005, p.92]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Grand Animals
    That tight, compressed punch [of staccato guitar rhythms] is augmented by subtle orchestrations whose airy ambience hints at the chameleon funk of David Bowie and the dance minimalism of early B-52's. [Aug 2007, p.106]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Opus
    Even haters will have to acknowledge Opus as being undeniable for what it is, an iconic collection of 21st-century house music that’s so expansive and far-reaching it outgrows its very genre, unable to be contained within any four-walled enclosure.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Man Made Object
    There’s not much artifice to be found in U.K. trio GoGo Penguin’s sophomore album, as even though the LP is a construction of jazz, classical, electronica, and trip-hop building blocks, it flows together naturally.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Visitations
    Visitations sounds more alive than anything since 2000's near-classic debut, Internal Wrangler. [Feb 2007, p.82]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Personal Life
    Newly aching but still introspective, the Thermals remain a revelation.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pink Graffiti
    From grandiose opener "Pink City" to the haunting mixture of reverberating voice and piano on the title track, it's evident that singer-songwriters MJ Parker and Charlie Cokey have closely studied Veckatimest's artisanal harmonies.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Beak 3
    >>> succeeds about half the time, but too often the band sounds conflicted between marching forward as the old Beak> and committing to a new direction.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tha Carter V
    What we have is an album that’s mostly pretty good. It’s certainly an improvement over Tha Carter IV--likely his least memorable album ever--but it’s also not a record that is going to reignite a second peak from Wayne, if that was the hope.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Stoop
    Only in the fire-hydrant-ready title cut, where an around-the-way girl reminisces about bodegas in Bed-Stuy, does Coppola seem like more than a confessional folkie playing funky dress-up.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Thunder Thighs
    Dawson keeps Thunder Thighs from becoming too precious or intense.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Jacksonville City Nights
    This completely non-shitty '70s-Nashville country record reminds you why Adams was once a big deal. [Nov 2005, p.101]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    MCIII
    Though it manages to be both lovely and adventurous, too often MCIII sounds like Cronin falls back on the string beds instead of utilizing them with the same fervor he used to reserve for crunchy, just-this-side-of-DGAF riffs.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Twelve Angry Months
    You start out rooting for Lucas when his ex keeps his Pretenders album. But the more mean-spirited he gets, the more his melodies fail him.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Trap Lord
    There's nothing on Trap Lord to suggest Ferg will follow A$AP Rocky onto the pop charts, but it's a rewardingly dark and grounded listen.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    WLIB AM: King Of The Wigflip
    Too bad inconsistent vocal performances from Prince Po to MED, tempt you to switch the dial on this hour-long jam. [Nov 2008, p.96]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Baby I'm Bored
    Frank folk-rock songs that are too sketchy to be great but too good to write off. [May 2003, p.116]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    She Loves You
    His interpretations seem both timid and presumptuous. [Oct 2004, p.120]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Standing In The Way Of Control
    Gut-wrenching, foot-stomping punk. [Feb 2006, p.87]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Everybody Get Close
    An anthology that holds its own against MacLean's "official" releases.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Born On Flag Day
    As deft revivalists of “country” in all its forms, the four guys in Deer Tick are entitled to wallow. Luckily, though, their second album delivers doses of pop buoyancy.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Miike Snow
    Both the production and Wyatt's shape-shifting croon are so butter-smooth that it takes repeated plays to sense the hurt that hides behind these dance-floor lullabies.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Phrazes For The Young
    The effect is more Tokyo neon than Lower East Side leather. Surprisingly, the sonic leap forward intensifies Casablancas' greatest gift--melody.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Jim
    He refines his act. [May 2008, p.106]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Luminous Night
    While his guitar remains ulceric, songs such as 'The Ballad of Charley Harper' stew rather than combust.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I'm Having Fun Now
    I'm Having Fun Now is all whimsical, tongue-in-cheek cutesiness, but with songs this sugary, it'd be churlish to complain. Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and singer-songwriter/boyfriend Johnathan Rice have both had their moments of pure-pop confection in the past, but never as crazily delicious as here.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yours To Keep
    Like most of these top-shelf indie-pop tunes, ["101"] is cause for hoping Julian Casablancas loosens his songwriting grip on the next Strokes album. [Mar 2007, p.94]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heligoland
    Trip-hop pioneers give doom a romantic tinge.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Swimming
    By recycling and loosening up "Two Thousand's" best elements--inventive instrumental passages, rich harmonies, across-the-board emoting--French Kicks get both poppier and deeper.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jukebox
    The journey is less emotionally fraught than her best work, but just as revealing.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Duskland
    On Duskland, he veers slightly more into homegrown Kurt Vile territory, especially with the organ-saturated opener “Sundowner.”
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Spells
    The hooks are stronger, the production richer, and the scale grander. [May 2007, p.84]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    In Our Nature
    This sophomore set from the Swedish acoustic troubadour is undeniably pretty but ultimately doesn't hint at much more. [Oct 2007, p.102]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Inventions
    It's no "High Enough," but it is a damn fine collection of selected ambient works.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Colors
    It’s largely a plainspoken, cohesive work, closer in spirit to single-minded efforts like Morning Phases, Modern Guilt, or even Sea Change. And really, that’s fine.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    My Dark Places
    A stark, erratic, and perversely back-loaded collection. [Mar 2006, p.96]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Straight Outta Ca$hville
    Scarily single-minded in its depiction of a violent man coming of age. [Oct 2004, p.117]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Heroes & Villains
    There's more muscle in their moping this time around. [Apr 2003, p.107]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    So Much For The City
    High grade West Coast guitar pop. [Dec 2003, p.131]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
    With nothing fresh to moan about, it's like a seventh James Bond movie without any new gadgets. [12/2000, p.223]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Travellers In Space And Time
    The album also features songs written and sung by other Apples, and while they're perfectly pleasant indie pop, they only accentuate Schneider's mastery.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dark Sky Paradise
    More of the same, really, and what same is that anyway? His beats, hooks and musicality tread slightly above water.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Courage Of Others
    Even though the lyrics stay hippy-dippy, there are hard-earned moments of musical release.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    American Beauty/American Psycho
    It's more ideation than practice, which is why the too-cluttered American Beauty/American Psycho won't be this band's American Idiot.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Attention Please
    Farther into the cosmos is sister record Attention Please, the least "metal" thing the band have released to date, which focuses on icy rhythms and smoky moods, as if they're slinking up alongside the xx.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    My Old, Familiar Friend
    Though Benson’s fourth solo album is less distinctive and more finessed than the work of his money gig, it still puts his secondhand fame in perspective.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Astrological Straits
    The first album under his own name is stranger and more varied, a psychedlic/psychotic kaleidoscope worthy of early Animal Collective. [Oct 2008, p.114]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Here We Go Magic
    Luke Temple possesses both an eerily high-pitched cry and a facility for his adopted grooves that makes the results far more distinctive than derivative.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In Heaven
    For all its languid rookie charms, In Heaven might be best remembered as the harbinger of a more consistent sequel.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    A Color Map of the Sun
    The result has to feel like a studio adventure! Whereas Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories was lavishly rich, Smith’s treatment of his session players manages to flatten all human serendipity and rhythmic nuance.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    X&Y
    By ratcheting up their guitars and still singing about everyday themes, Coldplay are recasting their nerdy-student Britpop as Important Rock Music without sacrificing the homespun vibe that allowed Martin's fans to believe that he wrote a song for each one of them and called it "Yellow." [Jun 2005, p.99]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ghettoville
    "R.I.P music," wrote Cunningham in the introduction to the album. As corpses go, this one is exquisite.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ahead Of The Lions
    Each track follows the Rage Against The Machine model: Make music for the masses without diluting it for the bosses. [Nov 2005, p.101]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Can't Go On, I'll Go On
    Drunk on ringing guitars, crashing drums, and swooning harmonies, singer Ross Flournoy and crew try to compensate for their shortage of fresh ideas with boundless enthusiasm -- and almost pull it off.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Song Of The Pearl
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Alela Diane & Wild Divine
    If Diane's songs are more accessible, they're still not easy, creating the Inception-like sensation of wandering around in someone's overheated brain, where urgency and a lack of clarity intertwine to disorienting effect.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Noctourniquet
    Taken as an hourlong whole, though, Noctourniquet really does feel like the band's most accessible effort in years.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Idlewild
    Idlewild grasps for a distinctive sound, departing almost entirely from rap per se. [Sep 2006, p.99]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Small Craft On A Milk Sea
    Eno unleashes tempests of breakbeats ("Horse"), electro exotica ("Bone Jump"), even roiling post-rock ("2 Forms of Anger"), creating a perfect storm.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Resistance
    They turn to the next logical ladder rung of pretension: symphony. And they may have finally found the perfect category to fuse with their ever-swooping brand of rock.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Black Cherry
    Goldfrapp downplay the "cinematic" strings in favor of buzzing live-wire synths. [May 2003, p.116]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Metallic Spheres
    Across two epic, messy tracks, the pair go around the world: classic ambient house, dated trip-hop, thundering drum loops, weird dub, even down-home picking, yet stay nowhere long enough for anything to really take hold.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Majestic Silver Strings
    In contrast to Miller's usual earthiness, this Americana super-session is sonically lighter than air--thanks to spectral six-string ambience from Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, and pedal-steel ace Greg Leisz, who adorn heavenly voices including Emmylou Harris and Patti Griffin.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Promise Of Love
    A little rockier, a little slower, and a little less transporting. [Jul 2003, p.110]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Anxiety Always
    Hipster-mocking songs like "Turn Your Back" aren't as funny as the scene they want to outsmart. [May 2003, p.116]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Too True
    As with so much of Too True, it's more Flowers in the Attic than Flowers of Evil. But it's also part of a glorious art-goth tradition: bookish rockers chasing pop into the dark, deep within the Hong Kong gardens, where all cats are grey.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lust Lust Lust
    All this willful messiness adds up to a funny and surprisingly touching mission statement. [Mar 2008, p.101]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Washington Square Serenade
    He's reworking his own territory. Which is why we expected the song about sweaty illegals to have a better twisted ending than "all of is are immigrants," and the tune about meth addiction to fell, well, lived in. [Oct 2007, p.100]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Big Mama [EP]
    Ellison has created one of his most concentrated and fascinating releases.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Night Work
    Four years on, Night Work finds the band mimicking Eurodisco on the cheeky title track, the Cars on "Skin Tight," Kraftwerk on the stiff "Something Like This," and Animotion's "Obsession" on pulsing first single "Invisible Light," just a step behind the times.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Marshall Mathers LP 2
    This album will never top MM1 or even 1999's Slim Shady LP for the visceral thrill of watching a celebrity twist and distort his own identity like a comic strip transferred onto Silly Putty. But we get rhymes. So many rhymes. More rhymes than some rappers manage in a whole career.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Saturday Night Wrist
    A sideways step in the right direction. [Nov 2006, p.97]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Thousand Shark's Teeth
    It's all quite mesmerizing, until you notice the overworked lyrics, which weakly describe heartbreak in terms of weather, stars, and, uh, hearts. [July 2008, p.100]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    God Is Good
    No matter the new producer (Steve Albini), new label, or new percussionist (Emil Amos replacing Chris Hakius), Om's droning bass/drum take on heavy metal still resounds.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dennis Coffey
    Coffey is the star, and on tracks like "Plutonius" and "Space Traveller," his monstrously psychedelic groove still kills.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Always Ascending
    Despite such surface gloss, it’s clear Franz Ferdinand are still finding their creative footing without McCarthy. The taut arrangements present on previous albums can occasionally give way to moody repetition (“The Academy Award”) or sluggish tempos (“Slow Don’t Kill Me Slow”), robbing the record of immediacy. This is a small quibble, however.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ciara
    This one is way, way, way better [than her last album], not least thanks to a quaint little ditty called "Body Party."
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Transverse
    A magic carpet of woven steel, Transverse soars up and out, borne aloft on ghostly vocals and sheets of guitar noise.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Carnival II: Memoirs Of An Immigrant
    The former Fugee throws hip-hop, reggae, synth pop, and heavy metal into his trademark melting pot with little worry that the results might not blend. [Jan 2008, p.98]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Warning
    By design, the band doesn't rock as hard as it used to. Doesn't punk as hard as it used to, either. [12/2000, p.215]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Common Existence
    Rather than straining for pop sophistication, Fridmann simply brightens and focuses the band's darker, more obtuse corners.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    King of the Beach
    King of the Beach's specialty is Warped Tour–ready choruses, charred with noise and peppered with lyrics from a self-hating surfer teen who sees sunburn as spiritual penance for being a burnout.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Fuckin A
    Supercharged, furious, hopeful. [Jun 2004, p.107]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Tipping Point
    With Black Thought carrying the weight, the record buckles. [Aug 2004, p.101]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Positions
    Positions is less captivating than Thank U, Next and Sweetener, both of which felt more complete and unskippable. But for an album no one knew was coming until two weeks ago, it’s more than adequate.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Policy
    This is the birth of Will Butler, solo artist, whose career seems just as woozily unpredictable and captivating as that of his "day job."
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Glasshouse
    Each song is immaculately crafted and sequenced, yet with this many ballads, they blur: a play continually in its eleventh hour.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Black And White Album
    The Hives want it all, so they've risked everything on an album that audibly fights to earn it. [Nov 2007, p.113]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Flock
    The US debut of Damien Rice's former band turns sentimental mush into something palatable. [Mar 2008, p.97]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Is the Is Are
    It’s no wonder the process felt redemptive for Smith; to exorcise years of mounting bleakness is no doubt a relief, but the resulting record is one that’s compelling for the exact opposite reasons. It’s not a light at the end of a tunnel, but luminescence creeping through the crack of a doorway--illuminating just enough to let you realize just how dark everything still is.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Love's Miracle
    Qui's huffing skree just doesn't have the immediacy of the Lizard's Zep thud. But Yow's ragged bellow has aged nicely into a wheezing croon. [Oct 2007, p.108]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    What the World Needs Now
    By the time you reach the where-is-that-nicked-from riff of “I’m Not Satisfied,” it’s clear this is Lydon’s most listenable record in 30 years, though Album was a lot more fun and “Shoom,” the catchiest thing here, ain’t “Rise.”
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Enemy Mine
    The distinctiveness of these three weirdos and their democratic approach gives this unexpecedly harrowing album a remarkable cohesion.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Micah P. Hinson And The Opera Circuit
    [The songs] sound like woozy shanties for seasick barflies. [Nov 2006, p.100]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Catch My Shoe
    DeBoer's political poesy lacks his predecessor's acerbic wit, and his singsong delivery is much less bracing than Sok's full-throated rant.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Revolution Radio
    “Outlaws” is a surprising Revolution Radio standout, recalling some of the delicate, Queen-influenced moments from My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade—sensitive music that feels large. The rest of the record varies.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Combinations
    The vintage makeover suits them well. [Oct 2007, p.100]
    • Spin
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