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
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    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
    Sometimes the best results, though, come when Kelly drops the exercise completely.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pretty great for mindless pop-punk, in other words.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    [Steele's] way-back machine is aimed precisely for 1985. [Aug 2006, p.85]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    [John Gourley's] thin, inexpressive singing and gloopy lyrics lack the mumbo-jumbo grandeur of Marc Bolan, an obvious influence.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A curious collab from some unlikely bedfellows, these nine songs carry the propensity to become a gateway drug to discover legendary works from Lee Hazlewood to Scott Walker to Ennio Morricone to such modern askew prairie- and desert-dwellers as Jim White and Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It's crate-digging redefined for the chill age.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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
    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
    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
    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 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
    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
    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 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
    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
    A disco-swept dreamland. [Aug 2006, p.83]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    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
    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
    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
    Tonally challenged singing, spastic electro beats, and boldly nonlinear, ideologically sharp rhyming. [May 2003, p.116]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    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
    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
    A record that’s more reflective and human than you’d ever expect from a band of literal cartoons.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sunflower Bean have enough homegrown ability between them to draw up a series of immersing and original compositions.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Kooks... boast an ingenious pop-rock sound. [Nov 2006, p.102]
    • Spin
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    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
    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.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Thanks to KT Tunstall's compelling whiskey-and-cigarettes voice, everything she tackles demands to be heard -- though not everything here absolutely needs to be.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    the monster of folk's slow-jamming, white-suited funk would seem fresher and riskier (at least in this godless era) if Matthew E. White, another Southerner with that old-time religion/romance on his mind, hadn't carved out similar turf on last year's equally ambitious and somewhat superior Big Inner.