Spin's Scores
- Music
For 4,305 reviews, this publication has graded:
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50% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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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: | Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971 | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | They Were Wrong, So We Drowned |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 3,099 out of 4305
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Mixed: 1,151 out of 4305
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Negative: 55 out of 4305
4305
music
reviews
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- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Nada Surf face everyday life's cacophony with a pleasant, unfaltering, even surgary approach. [Feb 2008, p.96]- Spin
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Johnson uses his brain instead, bumming over the war, airplane turbulance, and the widespread deterioration of manners on chewy, Moog-speckled ditties that reveal an arty streak he's kept secret until now. [Feb 2008, p.94]- Spin
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Kravitz's irony-free pastiches often satisfy like the best work of his rock and soul forebears; and considering his tastes, that's a remarkably high standard.- Spin
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District Line is essentially the same furiously melodic pop Mould played way back when. [Feb 2008, p.98]- Spin
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Their new songs are sunnier and jumpier than 2005's dirgeful "Feathers." [Mar 2008, p.100]- Spin
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Collett achieves both scope and cohesion on these tenderly twanging tunes, making his way assuredly through slow-burning swoons ("Henry's Song"), nimble boogies ("Charlyn, Angel of Kensington"), and back-porch laments ("No Redemption Song").- Spin
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Hynes stumbles into typical self-indulgent twentysomething pitfalls -- his ideas can be overdetermined, and he often misjudges the thin line between disaffection and narcissism. Still, his imagination is formidable.- Spin
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This Gift flags halfway through when an odd excursion into retro-'60s twaddle gums up the works. [Feb 2008, p.97]- Spin
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For the Volta, more is always more, but rarely has a band with this much potential been so willing to squander its strengths.- Spin
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Vampire Weekend have made a truely fresh, fun, and smart record. [Feb 2008, p.91]- Spin
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Gratuitously avant saxophone squawking mars some of the disc's best moments, but Xiu Xiu's knack for grafting lush hooks onto noisy post-rock remains seductive.- Spin
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Field Manual rests slight vocals atop memorable instrumentation, with surprisingly unshimmery production. [Feb 2008, p.98]- Spin
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Paring down his tuneful new-wave pop to a bare-bones piano-bass-drum lineup might not been the best idea for Joe Jackson. [Feb 2008, p.94]- Spin
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Keep Your Eyes Ahead maintains a dense soundscape with electronic tinges, but adds a fresh, succinct tone, trimming songs to four minutes tops.- Spin
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Here they effectively marry T. Rex's trash-glam melodicism to a relentless blue-eyed funk beat. [Feb 2008, p.95]- Spin
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A half-dozen times on their debut, the Shackeltons sound completely convincing, and that's about six more times than most bands ever manage.- Spin
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There are traces of reverb and chicken-scratch guitar, but the band's drill-press instro-rock lacks thegenre's spacial dislocation and sense of thematic possibility. [Feb 2008, p.92]- Spin
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Venus on Earth feels impulsive and rich, rippling with surf psychedelia and exultant brass swing.- Spin
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Black Mountain refine their position as the psychedelic hard-rock/goof-folk revivalists that you can actually stand for an entire album.- Spin
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The journey is less emotionally fraught than her best work, but just as revealing.- Spin
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[Patterson Hood] cedes too much of the spotlight to competent but less distinctive mates Mike Cooley and Shonna Tucker. [Feb 2008, p.92]- Spin
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It swaggers like prime Replacements, though with far better polish. [Jan 2008, p.103]- Spin
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What elevates this bove a cheeky tribute is the unselfish sweetness that Schwartz mixes with his smarts. [Feb 2008, p.94]- Spin
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When the messy, antic songs go pop (the Of Montreal-esque "Paperback Suicide"), they really pop; when they head into comedown territory ("Party Crashin'"), aimlessness ensues. Thankfully, Evening mostly partakes of the good stuff.- Spin
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Occasionally, you wish Peñate would just calm down already -- even the ballads feel a little rushed -- but his ordinarybloke vocals and eager hooks never fail to please.- Spin
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Sydney Vermont and boyfriend Dan Bejar have spent the past two years quietly assembling their debut album's sublime folk rock. [Mar 2008, p.102]- Spin
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Skillful if occasionally rickety, Lightning showcases a confident, evolving voice.- Spin
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The album's finest moment comes on an aching version of Ray Davies' 'I Go to Sleep' that improves on the original (and the Pretenders' cover) by rendering it as a slow-motion, piano-splashed lament.- Spin
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The subdued exception 'Blue but Cool' aside, the pretentious poetry and overwrought riffing induce numbness, not transcendence.- Spin
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Fiasco approaches his second album as if it's his last chance to get all his conflicted ideas out into the open.- Spin
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Many emotions clearly still linger, but as a songwriter, he seems to lack the desire that he once had to simply be sincere. [Feb 2008, p.95]- Spin
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It's a relatively solid record, but without any of the spectacularly gritty flashes the Wu are known for.- Spin
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Few can both formulate hooks on the ecstatic level of 'One More Time' and then tweak them into noisy oblivion. [Dec 2007, p.119]- Spin
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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]- Spin
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Made sounds dirtier (i.e., more Southern) than its polished predecessor, though it still relies on a bevy of soul samples. The best is the Hall & Oates bite on 'Never.'- Spin
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Despite Shelter From The Ash's transcendent drones and trippy, Eastern-inspired guitar figures...[Chasny's] vocals too often kill the buzz. [Dec 2007, p.125]- Spin
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For simian disco, electro-pop remixes by DFA and Hot Chip stand out amid Disc 2's uneven DJ fodder. [Jan 2008, p.98]- Spin
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The Hives want it all, so they've risked everything on an album that audibly fights to earn it. [Nov 2007, p.113]- Spin
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Justin Timberlake, Timbaland anf Timbo's partner Nate "Danja" Hills, provide a reasonably good return on investment. [Dec 2007, p.118]- Spin
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On her melodically powerful third studio album, she matures into the matriarch of her genre. [Dec 2007, p.120]- Spin
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It's Dillinger's willingness to constantly incorporate new sounds--even commercial ones-- that makes Ire Works an experimental-rock touchstone. [Dec 2007, p.126]- Spin
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Both halves are gripping, but Heim's unplugged conceit--which spotlights vocalist Jonsi Birgisson's high, ghostly howls--showcases the band's eerie pull. [Dec 2007, p.125]- Spin
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I-Empire still makes you wonder what constituency DeLonge hopes to attract with such an anti-fun platform. [Dec 2007, p.112]- Spin
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For all the squiggly melodies and bumpy computer beats, however, Smoke's strength is his spacey chameleon voice. [Dec 2007, p.126]- Spin
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Despair rules on this Liverpool threesome's crackling debut, wrapping loneliness in spiffy power pop.- Spin
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It's never sonically engaging enough to stand out amid a rack of backpacks. [Dec 2007, p.112]- Spin
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With tighter, mercifully shorter songs, like the Slayer-meets-slash trasher 'Almost Easy,' they're now defiling America's youth with more substance than style. [Nov 2007, p.114]- Spin
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Keenan sometimes winks too much, but he knows when to pull back from the brink of ridiculousness. [Dec 2007, p.125]- Spin
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Under the Boards, finds [Conley] in a surprisingly dark and newwavish mode, bobbing through spare, angular arrangements that overemphasize the off-key bleat that's his albatross as much as the band's signature.- Spin
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Shotter's Nation is still clotted with half-realized melodies and gutter-poet grime. [Nov 2007, p.117]- Spin
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The layered results are mesmeric, giving their introverted noise a new, laserlike intensity. [Nov 2007, p.114[- Spin
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No World For Tomorrow should ensure that 21-year-old dudes in women's jeans will gooble up reissues of "2112" for years to come. [Nov 2007, p.116]- Spin
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Tankian may be taking a break from System of a Down, but his solo debut hardly favors wimpy love songs over political jeremiads. [Nov 2007, p.125]- Spin
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Instead of psychedelic pop or Princely funk, they regurgitate limp fake reggae, crappy country yee-haw, dorky Eurodance, and nasty New Age. [Dec 2007, p.126]- Spin
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Yet with its detours into slick synth pop, weepy roots rock, and big Broadway music, the sprawling Genre proves that emo needn't be boxed in by stylistic dogma. [Dec 2007, p.120]- Spin
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While his whispery vocals work well amid the woozy atmospherics of 'Strong Animal' and 'Three Months Paid,' it's a shame someone else can't sing Raposa's dour, sketchy tunes. [Dec 2007, p.112]- Spin
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Preparations will leave you dizzy and wondering what it all means-- which may be the point. [Nov 2007, p.124]- Spin
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At his best, Miller follows ex-bandmate's Jack White's example....Other times, those traditions, however vividly evoked, come off feeling--well a little blanched. [Nov 2007, p.114]- Spin
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Philippe Zdar handles most vocals, sneering through the propulsive dance-punk single 'Toop Toop' but failing to sustain the drones that dominate this overlong disc's second half.- Spin
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The record is crisply produced, with jittery, epic songs that just happen to be about getting older and maybe a little more cynical. [Nov 2007, p.125]- Spin
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The results are fairly stunning. [Nov 2007, p.125]- Spin
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The album succeeds because all that cold, clinical lab work hasn't eliminated the warmth from their music. [Dec 2007, p.111]- Spin
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Beirut actually rock, in their extremely geeky way. [Nov 2007, p.114]- Spin
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Widow City goes on for a while--maybe too long. But it's quite a trip [Oct 2007, p.106]- Spin
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Their creepy, absorbing third album brims with the brittle pop practiced by everyone from Sparks to Arcade Fire. [Nov. 2007, p.125]- Spin
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Each sound lingers, and each stretched-out moment is welcome. [Nov 2007, p.114]- Spin
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It's his so-twee-it-hurts delivery that'll make you feel you're at a roadside bingo hall in rural Scandinavia, waiting for someone to holler, "B8!" [Nov 2007,p.121]- Spin
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If singer Justin Warfield had a sense of humor about himself, that wouldn't be such a bummer; as is, Forever seems to go on for about that long. [Nov 2007, p.124]- Spin
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The CD is like spending a cloudy afternoon on Jupiter with the old man, his quizzical sonic tricks at arms reach, his singing as ageless and haunting as the ammonia rain. [Dec 2007, p.128]- Spin
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Schmersal's guitar artfully complements the melodies, instead of screeching to compete with them. [Nov 2007, p.118]- Spin
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Slight echoes of her past work seep through, but mostly she's casting a refreshing new spell. [Nov 2007, p.125]- Spin
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More classic-sounding raveups like 'Last to Die'and 'Livin' in the Future'--a perfect hybrid of 'Tenth Avenue Freeze-out' and 'Cover Me'--work on their own merits, but we already know what these merits are. [Nov 2007, p.122]- Spin
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Sure, there's hurt everywhere, but Carrabba sticks with the pain he knows. [Nov 2007, p.121]- Spin
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They return to what made them one of the '80s most reliable rift-heavy outfits. [Oct 2007, p.99]- Spin
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The rest of the album buries otherwise thrilling moments. [Oct 2007, p.108]- Spin
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Her crack band of Dap-Kings have enlivened everyone from Kanye to Amy Winehouse, but their most natural habitat is in Jones' Aretha-like tales of sex, independence, and the good Lord himself.- Spin
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There's a coiled power here equal to Harvey's more muscular stuff. [Oct 2007, p.95]- Spin
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Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace is another quality entry in a fantastically average career.- Spin
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The real orchestration is in Beam's voice, a sigh so angelic it masks the religious turmoil within. [Oct 2007, p.106]- Spin
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This is Barnhart's least discursive outing yet. As a result, it's also his most predictable. [Oct 2007, p.108]- Spin
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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
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The edge is smoothed down here, the bitterness outweighs the resignation, and strangely, the two sound stronger on their own. [Oct 2007, p.112]- Spin
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This sophomore set from the Swedish acoustic troubadour is undeniably pretty but ultimately doesn't hint at much more. [Oct 2007, p.102]- Spin
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Recalling the stridency of Soul Asylum without the rock ferocity, Two Gallants are a minor annoyance. [Oct 2007, p.112]- Spin
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John K. Samson's imagistic descriptions of loneliness, desperation and yearning--which avoid the goofiness that plagues, say, Fountains of Wayne--are fleshed out with chiming guitars and warm synths. [Oct 2007, p.112]- Spin
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Last Light still follows a logical, workmanlike path, but detours into arch, twitchy guitar and languid, countrified ballads that show a poised sincerity. [Oct 2007, p.108]- Spin
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The indie Tina Turner follows up her tightly wound 2005 comeback, "I've Got My Own Hell to Raise," in the company of Drive-By Truckers and Muscle Shoals vets, whose mannered blues shuffles unfortunately sound like they're backing a beer commercial.- Spin
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