Spin's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
    His proud croon and the band's surging folk rock mean the emotional effect is closer to rebirth than suicide, but by the time the fourth song to feature a metaphorical drowning rolls around, the string parts start to matter more than the sentiments, which was probably not the intent.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Come to Life
    An inspiring “is this even rap anymore?” record.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Remember That I Love You
    You'll find [it] either icky or inspirational. [Jul 2006, p.83]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cassadaga
    Oberst's countryish genre studies have deepened with a very adult loneliness. [Apr 2007, p.89]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Loose In The Air
    Their fatalist slow jams get more rickety as the minutes pass, but they're prettiest when they break down. [Sep 2005, p.109]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Busted Stuff
    The best album of Dave Matthews' career--the most coherent and graceful, the least wanky and aw-shucks messianic. [Aug 2002, p.107]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rancid [2000]
    Rancid is a roots record, scouring off any glossy residue left from the Alternative '90's by returning to pure punk... [Nov. 2000, p.209]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Handcream For A Generation
    Unlike When I Was Born, which made similar pileups sound subversive, Handcream often feels mapless. [May 2002, p.122]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
    The sound remains crisp, ensuring that its rough-hewn beauty shines through. [Oct 2006, p.104]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pretty Little Head
    That she succeeds on a record as sophisticated as the self-produced Pretty Little Head is not only a testament to McKay's talent, it's also a tribute to her artistic sense. [Jan 2006, p.90]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
    Musically, his sixth Silver Jews album is a low-key treat, country-inflected folk rock goosed by melodies that conjure both the Velvet Underground ("Open Field") and Johnny Cash ("Candy Jail").
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
    Here they expand their primarily folky sound, importing rhythms from abroad and morphing electronic ticks and stutters into a field of chirping crickets.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Fame Monster
    It's comforting to learn that Lady Gaga's supposed dark side--The Fame Monster offers a flipside to The Fame's sexy fun--is just as fun-loving and club-rousing as the songs that made her famous, because, really, her playful façade is a huge part of her appeal.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Leaders Of The Free World
    Rife with acid-burn guitars, levee-breaking drums, and vocals that recall Peter Gabriel at his wooziest. [Feb 2006, p.87]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Pageant Material
    On her excellent second album, she brings us the whole block.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lovers Rock
    Lovers Rock is an airy album, demo-like in its simplicity. It has none of the agression of a "comeback." In fact, Sade has never put out anything quite so ephemeral. [Jan 2001, p.114]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    World Painted Blood
    Tom Araya's shriek has grown ponderous, and not until rosary-ripping closer 'Not of This God' do the four mid-fortysomethings bypass their rigid polkacore hopscotch for a devastating groove.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Original Faces
    The warmth feels sweeter the longer you’ve spent inside.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Transnormal Skiperoo
    Jim White's Joe Pernice–produced fourth record deftly melds Southern-flavored soul with California twang.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Desire Lines
    Desire Lines sits with remarkable ease next to Camera Obscura albums released a decade ago.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Employment
    Frontman Ricky Wilson is an average singer but an extraordinary melodist. [May 2005, p.102]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Comfort Of Strangers
    Unerringly lovely, but best when the drums heat up. [Feb 2006, p.87]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    No Wow
    Romantic defeatism can be charming if you infuse it with enough daydreaming, art-school blues. [Mar 2005, p.92]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    30 Year Low
    For a band named after a benchmark of mediocrity, it's fitting that they bow out consumed by matters so ordinary. [Sep 2007, p.134]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Death Magnetic
    The album is more a rebirth, with Metallica exploring what they've learned durig their 20 years at the top of the heavy-metal slag heap. [Nov 2008, p.96]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Genuine Negro Jig
    Erasing the gap between the 1930s and today, this striking North Carolina trio brings a modern sizzle to the legacy of classic African American string bands like the Mississippi Sheiks, with fiddles, banjos, and even kazoos sparking an electrifying ruckus.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sleeper
    Her voice and her lyrics are just a part of what makes Sleeper such a gripping listen. The record evinces a rumpled bohemian chic resembling a Purple Fashion editorial come to life, but behind that effortless cool is an impeccable sense of craft.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Colour In Anything
    If there’s a downside to Anything, it’s the exhaustive length: 17 heart-trying wisps-of-songs that near the 80-minute mark, akin to needing a tissue and buying a Costco pallet of Kleenex.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Marshall Mathers LP
    Funny how so much controversy can spring up over an album that is, musically, not all that noteworthy.... what could have been a brilliant statement, instead elevates Eminem to the rarified air of true platinum rappers: ie, those that drop outstanding rhymes over frustratingly mediocre beats.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Stimulus Package
    On his Rhymesayers debut, Philly's bearded battle rhymer gets consistently meaty beats from producer Jake One, whose soul-stirring tracks perfectly match Freeway's energetic musicality on breathless anthems such as "Know What I Mean." Problem is, proclamations that he's "about to bring that '98 hip-hop back" gradually unravel into bizarrely dated dismissals of other rappers.
Page: