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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    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sex with an X
    staying true to their party platform (sex, God, kissing, etc.), songwriters Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee remain the Ramones of sunbeam, patty-cake pop--even if they sound less like awkward twentysomethings singing about cats and bikes, and more like the countless post-'90s alterna-rockers who owe them gratitude.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Innundir Skinni
    Produced by Sigur Ros' Kjartan Sveinsson, Arnalds embellishes her debut's spare guitar-voice template with discreet overdubs, including brass and strings, enhancing breathtaking tunes like "Surrender" (which features Bjork adding a swirling countermelody). For those who consider Joanna Newsom too mainstream.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    You Are Not Alone
    Tweedy's influence shows primarily on the two songs he wrote, especially the stoic title-track ballad. Yet the album's best moment belongs solely to Staples--a spare version of Randy Newman's "Losing You" that might well stand as definitive.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sleep Forever
    Sometimes the results are stunning ("Hearts of Love"); elsewhere, the barrage of studio effects leaves you wondering if they're merely covering up crap songs. Either way, Sleep Forever never bores.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Penny Sparkle
    The trio are certainly equipped for the challenge, since they're already experienced purveyors of foreboding, romantic, minor-keyed dreaminess; but their dub-tinged candle-flicker sometimes trades haunting for drab.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Majesty Shredding
    Majesty Shredding does favor a more thoughtful pace at times, opening up room for the occasional ornate sonic touch--a horn riff, decorative keyboard figure, even viola.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Guitar Song
    Yet if Johnson seems uninterested in Nashville's warm-and-cuddly act, he agrees with its insistence on crackerjack songcraft, and that keeps The Guitar Song from hardening into tough-guy drudgery.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fields
    Fleshed out with sinister synths and laid-back drums, the Swedish folkie's songs breathe and groove like never before.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Barking
    Underworld is freed up to focus on crafting memorable tunes that hark back to their electronica heyday, as well as more personal, coherent lyrics. Earnest emotions surprisingly suit these dance-floor surrealists.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Album of the Year
    The crisp arrangements often overshadow his stiff, stentorian delivery, but he still manages to convey moments of both personal loss--the death of mentor/Slum Village rapper Baatin--and professional triumph.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Castle Talk
    The rhythm section no longer plays the shadows either, blurting out Black Flag–circa-'81 bluster as a deceptively simple assist for their leader's colorful wheedle and strident wail.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Drawing Down the Moon
    Drawing is occasionally eager and unstoppably pleasant, but just as often drifts as dazzles.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pop Negro
    Though the title hints at darker turns, the album never steps out of the glare.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Skit I Allt
    These adventuresome Swedes, led by instrumental virtuoso Gustav Ejstes, might be inspired by psychedelics, but they never leave anything to chemical-enhanced chance on their moody, lovely fourth album.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Interpol
    Interpol sounds both strangely distant and overly familiar, like a band struggling to remember who they are.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Personal Life
    Newly aching but still introspective, the Thermals remain a revelation.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Seeing Eye Dog
    Points added for the tiered release options, including a tour laminate for the most devout, and sticking with the drill-press guitar thing. Points deducted for inventing nu metal--still more for songs that won't let an audience forget it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everything Under the Sun
    Polishing the snappy pop of their 2008 debut, the Philadelphia-based trio crafts thoughtful tunes about relationship angst and introspective wandering, though it's often hard to get past drummer Jesse Kristin's fidgety beats and Ben Thornewill's hyperactive piano.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I'm Having Fun Now
    I'm Having Fun Now is all whimsical, tongue-in-cheek cutesiness, but with songs this sugary, it'd be churlish to complain. Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and singer-songwriter/boyfriend Johnathan Rice have both had their moments of pure-pop confection in the past, but never as crazily delicious as here.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dream Attic
    Recording new material live in a series of concerts with his longtime road band is the best idea Thompson's had since he ditched soul-muting '90s producer Mitchell Froom.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Junky Star
    Bingham made Junky Star with Crazy Heart collaborator T-Bone Burnett, but the A-list producer mostly resists applying his trademark chamber-roots atmosphere.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Strange Weather, Isn't It?
    The sonic expansion is admirable, but perhaps a trip to Miami--instead of Berlin, where some of Weather was recorded--might've been a better atmospheric adjustment.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rivers
    Wallentin has reined in her seductive-foghorn voice, and Wildbirds & Peacedrums are a more subtly compelling band for it.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Teenage Dream
    Perry delivers the gurl-gone-wild stuff with requisite sass, but she actually sounds more engaged on "Not Like the Movies" and "One That Got Away"--quieter cuts that recall her singer-songwriter days at L.A.'s Hotel Cafe.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hawk
    Overall, Hawk faithfully follows its predecessors' dusty Americana blueprint, trading a standout Hank Williams cover for two by Townes Van Zandt.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cloak and Cipher
    This Montreal band's second full-length expands the abrasive post-hardcore and tender, tuneful poles of 2007's Some Are Lakes with help from members of Arcade Fire, Stars, and Besnard Lakes.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Orchard
    Here, they deliver the sort of mid-tempo, orch-pop fussiness that they'd been praised for transcending.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tomorrow Morning
    The wordless howl of delight on the exuberant gospel stomper "Looking Up" is Everett's most compelling statement yet.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pickin' Up The Pieces
    Guitar-less but heavy on the organ, sax, and hands-to-the-heavens claps, this home-recorded debut swings like demos of actual '60s hits. Lyrically, it's less finessed.
    • 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.
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