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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    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    My Best Friend Is You
    Now 22, she's full-on pissy and proud, pulling from some reliable forebears on this fascinating follow-up.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sky Full of Holes
    Sky eschews the occasional decade-hopscotching of 2007's Traffic and Weather, reaching a new, raw sincerity and cohesiveness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Freeman
    He sounds comfortable with his new band, a pristinely recorded quartet that frames his lyrics with music just interesting enough to not overwhelm them.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Hundred Million Suns
    It's not a radical departure--there's no 'Kid A' in their future--but rather an engaging sidestep for a band that does triumphantly normal better than almost anyone.
    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Loose Screw
    The best Pretenders record since 1994's Last of the Independents. [Dec 2002, p.141]
    • Spin
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Vapours
    Call it Nick Diamonds Gets His Groove Back. Former Unicorn Nick Thorburn went a bit dark and dreary on 2008's "Arm's Way," but with Vapours, the transplanted New Yorker relearns his playfulness.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rockin' The Suburbs
    In many ways, this is his 'Nylon Curtain.' [Sep 2001, p.160]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Coming Home
    What it does best is address the simple lament of not having anything to twist to in too long.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    England, Half English
    England's exoticism is offset by plenty of tough and tender ballads, and even the most stridently worldbeat numbers are joyous, well-made, and never patronizing. [Apr 2002, p.117]
    • Spin
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mad Season
    Each song isn't particularly interesting or life-changing, but, damn, if every one of them doesn't boast a hook that sticks in your head until you're humming "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" just to exorcise it. For better or worse, this is talented songwriting...
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Silver Lining
    Sound[s] like a band that's discovered how to enjoy itself again. [Aug 2006, p.85]
    • Spin
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Friend Opportunity
    Deerhoof's... most ambitious record, but it's also their most familiar. [Feb 2007, p.85]
    • Spin
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Telling the Truth
    Warm, soulful, occasionally political, Wright was a private-press gem who deserved more.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Yonder Is The Clock
    Playing songs about cops on the take and dying in Penn Station with a hurtling forward motion that prevents the music from sounding (entirely) like a book report. Killer accordion solos, too.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    More
    Every space on More hums with blip-skipping bonus beats, phone-sex coos, and backing vocals boingin' like bungee cords. [March 2001, p.148]
    • Spin
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heligoland
    Trip-hop pioneers give doom a romantic tinge.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fluorescence
    Fluorescence, their fourth studio album, has an overwhelming brightness.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    X
    More often than not, X's hooks, tunes and Minogue's bubblegum-perfect hum achieve candy-coated ecstasy. [Mar 2008, p.106]
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Alice And Friends
    Regardless, boppers as cheeky and infectious as these sound like sacraments in the church of lo-fi fun.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Songs for the Ravens
    A quick dip into glitch seems like a novice move, but all that slide guitar and glockenspiel give Sea of Bees a seasoned sorrow.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By
    Lovage's schtick wears pretty thin by album's end--but if it works like it's supposed to, you won't need to play it that long. [Feb 2002, p.108]
    • Spin
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hot Shots II
    It's hard to find a heart beneath the haze.... [Aug 2001, p.129]
    • Spin
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In Stormy Nights
    An ecstatic, angry, gorgeously mournful manifesto. [Jan 2007, p.89]
    • Spin
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    100 Days, 100 Nights
    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.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wig Out at Jagbags
    The contentment Malkmus expresses here is so cozy you might feel a little corny calling it wisdom. But you wouldn't embarrass yourself too much if you called it perspective.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Day & Age
    They remain fascinated by heartland mythos, but by becoming more comfortable with their glitzy roots, they've actually found the pulse of something more authentic.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Puzzle
    Puzzle gels the Kinks/Beatles sound the group obviously adores with something less dusty. Think the Sea and Cake playing with the Stone Roses. Or a chartier Belle and Sebastian.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Warm Heart Of Africa
    The trio’s official debut further expands their musical palette to include triumphant synth rock (“Chalo”) and woozy G-funk (“Julia”).
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Add Violence [EP]
    At its best moments, the EP is experimental and detail-oriented. At its worst, it sounds like an empty pastiche of ideas drawn from a time-tested deck of Reznor-patented Oblique Strategies. ... If consistent, headline-grabbing smaller releases are the way to keep music fans listening and interested in Nine Inch Nails, then keep them coming.
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