Spin's Scores

  • Music
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
Score distribution:
4305 music reviews
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    And if you've ever wondered what might happen if Jean Michel Jarre polluted the folk tradition of a Blue Ridge town, or you want to hear references to British pantomime, Bruce Haack, and Karen Finley within ten minutes-or if you're Japanese-this is probably your album of the year.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    For all his three relationships spanned and catchy tunes composed, Gibbard is too nice to dish it out, and too bland to reveal any meaningful lessons learned.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    His slumbery Jonathan Richman-meets-Beck vocals make every song a potential slacker lullaby. [Mar 2007, p.97]
    • Spin
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tinted Windows' debut is even less left-field; these hook-crammed power-pop jams are safe and bouncy enough for Jo Bros fans and Stacy's mom alike.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    His 18th, the recently released LP is modern country-by-numbers that will satisfy the faithful and mosey on under the radar of anyone else.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Drawing is occasionally eager and unstoppably pleasant, but just as often drifts as dazzles.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Geist keeps it coolly retro. [Nov 2008, p.91]
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Golden State merely sounds like Bush--not as buffed as 1999's The Science of Things, but slicker than 1996's Razorblade Suitcase. [Dec 2001, p.152]
    • Spin
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Though the hooks and melodies are spread a little thin... Lerche still has a convincing charm in his lighter, acoustic moments. [Feb 2007, p.84]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A clear attempt to re-create their most commerical sound--which works well on the ingrating antiwar titile track and the glistening time capsule 'Oh My Heart.' [Nov 2008, p.96]
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The songs appear to take chances--sweeping chord changes, symphonic progressions, darts into electronic sound--but there's little at stake.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    She lacks the flexibility that jazz demands--she simply can't swing. But when she interprets material (from downbeat bards Randy Newman, Colin Meloy, and others) that matches the drug-ravaged wreckage of her vocal chords, she kills.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A noisy, cranky piece of work. [Jul 2007, p.91]
    • Spin
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The sound misses the arenarific pump of 1999's Redd Kross-produced Get Skintight, and with that album's move from junk-punk to semi-pro metal now complete, the talent gap in the group has started to glare. [2/2001, p.108]
    • Spin
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's only when Pterodactyl embrace their underlying pop core and ratchet up the jangle--see the breezy "The Break" or the '60s sunburst "Searchers"--that Spills Out makes an effective splash.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    FWA is slicker than most mixtapes--and on tracks like the opener, his flow remains a spectacle--but there’s also the pervading sense here that he’s playing it safe.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A post-masterpiece puzzler where the kicks just keep getting harder to find, spread-eagle between pop limitations and artistic aspirations. [12/2000, p.214]
    • Spin
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Her... most streamlined effort yet. [Sep 2006, p.104]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    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.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Buried under reverb, distortion, and computer st-st-stutter, our pop astronaut mostly wastes the forward-thinking production with cringeworthy lines.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Their Discodeine debut is surprisingly devoid of frothy sensationalism.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ultimately, the album succeeds despite the extra fuss, not because of it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Maybe it's fitting that in the same year Wilco found a sense of humor, the glass of chief Bottle Rocket Brian Henneman is finally half-full.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The overly smooth production undercuts his righteous fury, suggesting the group harbors dreams of a Green Day-style commercial breakthrough.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    On Voyage to India, Arie is just another girl on the neosoul train. [Jan 2003, p.98]
    • Spin
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A jarring, but refreshing, makeover.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    After five dark, swift albums, they tread fretfully toward maturity and make it seem like walking into the light. [July 2008, p.92]
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Their debut shares Gnarls' yen for psychedelic weirdness and uncharacteristic (for hip-hop) emotional vulnerability, but with beats that are swampy, murky, and--when thumping below moaning guitars and spacey organ melodies--wholly disorienting.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nothing sounds new, and yet it has no parallel in the old Alice catalog, because they were just so much weirder than we remember.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nas' heart is in the right place but his mind is somewhere else entirely. [March 2003, p.119]
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