Spin's Scores

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For 4,307 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: 3,101 out of 4307
  2. Mixed: 1,151 out of 4307
  3. Negative: 55 out of 4307
4307 music reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
    A distinctively dark, insinuating aesthetic of measured instrumentation and abstract lyrics. Rather than sinking all its resources in squalls of feedback and distortion, the band diversifies its portfolio by adding canny production tricks and keyboard noodling to its impressive resumé of guitar innovations.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tour de France Soundtracks
    The deadpan humor that animated the band's early werk is missing. [Nov 2003, p.117]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    G.O.A.T. Featuring James T. Smith: The Greatest of All Time
    He fumbles the obligatory Canibus dis, and the self-aggrandizing title track, deftly strewn with fuzz-bass by London junglist Adam F, is mishandled by a don who's now too staid to come correct. [Oct. 2000, p.180]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Write Me Back
    Sometimes the best results, though, come when Kelly drops the exercise completely.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
    Pretty great for mindless pop-punk, in other words.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Personality (One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird)
    [Steele's] way-back machine is aimed precisely for 1985. [Aug 2006, p.85]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Dancing On The Wall
    It’s MUNA’s most cohesive, streamlined release yet, filled with hard-charging keyboard stabs, percolating beats and the head rush atmosphere of a night when you lose all track of time (and also your wallet). It feels like a readymade playlist of nothing but choice moments.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In the Mountain in the Cloud
    [John Gourley's] thin, inexpressive singing and gloopy lyrics lack the mumbo-jumbo grandeur of Marc Bolan, an obvious influence.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Twirligig
    It's crate-digging redefined for the chill age.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bubblegum
    The title of Clinic's sixth album cheekily nods to the surgical-masked Brits' current, revamped sound--a softer spin on indie pop with their usual gritty agitation almost completely scrubbed away.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Love Is Free [EP]
    The new three-piece is no supergroup. Robyn’s best work rises above mere competence, and while every song here will keep people on the dance floor, Love Is Free transcends nothing.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Attack Decay Sustain Release
    The duo's effortless ability to plunder electronic genres without losing their identity makes Attack consistently fresh. [Oct 2007, p.111]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    For Now I Am Winter
    The living, breathing aspect of Arnalds' music is more evident here than on his previous six years’ worth of albums and EPs, which makes Winter easily his most straightforwardly accessible and mainstream-leaning effort to date.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Get Guilty
    Get Guilty dwells on the past, and that pensive reflection mutes the second half, turning Newman's boast into a wistful memory.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blame It On Gravity
    Their seventh studio album bucks and chugs, balancing the quartet's original alt-country impetus with Rhett Miller's love of power pop. [June 2008, p.116]
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Knuckle Down
    She's become masterful at painting in the blues and grays of everyday emotion. [Feb 2005, p.92]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This Is Not The World
    This Is Not The World isn't quite the breathless playground once populated by robots and carnival kids, but 'Think Tonight' possesses a fist-pumping riff that's one piano short of an Andrew W.K. song. [July 2008, p.96]
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fidelity!
    Kudos to main Pretender Chrissie Hynde for changing the script: Her collaboration with young Welsh singer JP Jones feels fresher than anything she's done in years.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We Are The Pipettes
    A disco-swept dreamland. [Aug 2006, p.83]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Black Dirt Sessions
    Black Dirt delivers sulky dirges ("Blood Moon"), alt-country hangovers ("Mange"), and funeral ballads ("Goodbye, Dear Friend") with equal aplomb, as their leader's bedraggled voice groans with hard-earned heaviness.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Riceboy Sleeps
    Mostly wordless and free of Birgisson's trademark rapturous build-and-release, Riceboy Sleeps is more ideally suited for yoga poses or total headphone absorption.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shootenanny!
    This is the kind of bedroom folk pop E's done prettier--and weirder--before. [Jul 2003, p.111]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Tomorrow Right Now
    Tonally challenged singing, spastic electro beats, and boldly nonlinear, ideologically sharp rhyming. [May 2003, p.116]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    I Com
    She tries to be jokey, warm, even friendly on occasion--but she also sounds awkward. [Jul 2004, p.105]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Uptown Special
    As is, Uptown Special plays a little like a Spotify playlist on random--fun, and unexpectedly thrilling at times, but jarring and never totally satisfying.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Now Now
    A record that’s more reflective and human than you’d ever expect from a band of literal cartoons.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Human Ceremony
    Sunflower Bean have enough homegrown ability between them to draw up a series of immersing and original compositions.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Inside In Inside Out
    The Kooks... boast an ingenious pop-rock sound. [Nov 2006, p.102]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Earthology
    While some of the instrumental workouts (like "Safari Strut") are loose and inspired, it takes a handful of appearances from backpack-friendly rappers Percee P ("Reverse") and Mr. Lif ("The Gift") to keep Earthology from fading into lava-lamp background grooviness.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    La Di Da Di
    Unlike Mirrored or 2011’s underrated Gloss Drop, La Di Da Di is where Battles demonstrate their competence rather than their virtuosity; there’s never that moment of dominos falling to their death or the mutated instruments and real-time looping opening portals to parallel dimensions.
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