Splendid's Scores

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For 793 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 65% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 33% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: 100 Humming By The Flowered Vine
Lowest review score: 10 Fire
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 654 out of 793
  2. Mixed: 119 out of 793
  3. Negative: 20 out of 793
793 music reviews
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Flow
    The downside here will be fairly obvious to anyone familiar with Thirlwell's previous output. While Flow's integration of big band jazz and other "external" musical styles is some of Thirlwell's most accomplished work to date -- creditable not only to better technology, but to the growth of his already respectable skills as a conventional composer -- its thematic elements remain the same.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Mouse And The Mask
    Rather than detract from the funkified weirdness, the guest spots from the Adult Swim crew actually add to the craziness.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Picaresque
    Picaresque is dense and complicated, but only rarely threatens to tip under its own weight.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Akron/Family & Angels Of Light
    It is completely different from either Akron/Family's or Angels of Light's work from earlier this year, and in Akron's case, represents a startling pace of artistic development.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wilderness
    It's complex, deeply melodic, carefully arranged and (for the most part) very satisfying.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Turn On The Bright Lights
    Buy Turn On the Bright Lights. It's great. You'll enjoy it. But don't mistake the next best thing for the Next Big Thing. Interpol still have a lot of proving to do.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Systems/Layers
    Despite its handful of flaws, Systems/Layers is rife with ideas, and delivers its message, however encoded, with elegance and ingenuity.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    604
    If Kurt Cobain had been popular in high school, Ronald Reagan had funneled billions of dollars into improving America's inner cities and the Chemical Brothers had found fulfilling positions in video rental management, all albums might sound like 604.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Set Yourself On Fire
    Vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan connect with their audience with the breathy ease of scenester storytellers, sketching out their tales in economical but well-chosen strokes, and the tunes behind them, invariably elegant, are often deceptively cheeerful.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These Are The Vistas
    I hope that These are the Vistas doesn't go down in history as "that record where the jazz guys played Nirvana", because it is much more than that.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rubber Factory
    Sounds like it's coming from bluesmasters who've lived twice as long and seen three times as much.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Milk Of Human Kindness
    The Milk Of Human Kindness grabs at elements of its predecessors, but they're often the wrong ones.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Double Figure
    Double Figure is as instantly memorable, not to mention listenable an IDM record as you are likely to hear this year.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Can Our Love...
    Can Our Love... is a minimalistic jewel, a soul wonder and an anomaly in a pop world.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Anniemal
    Annie has delivered a solid pop record that does a lot of things well, but -- and this is the important thing -- that's what we should expect from all of our pop records.... Anniemal isn't a high-water mark; it's a benchmark.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tanglewood Numbers
    Tanglewood Numbers' hummable songs and often-arresting lyrics are impressive, but Berman would be nowhere without a little help from his many friends.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Less Than Human
    A dance record for people who never leave their apartments, a rock record for the rave set, Less Than Human is the sound of people high on energy and sweat.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Penance Soiree
    The band refuses to stick to simple, repetitive rhythms; the guitars regularly squeal with feedback, humming with distortion as they lay down thick 'n' meaty power chords.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Insignificance
    Rarely has the indulgence of rock ‘n roll dreams sounded this concise.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Something Wicked This Way Comes
    A winning combination of hip-hop beats, horns, strings and cinematic soundscapes, the album is spiced with precise scratching and effectively abrupt changes in direction.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All Is Dream
    Mercury Rev's unique talent lies in their ability to take a page from nearly every book and mold it into their own nuanced brand of music.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Heart
    Heart is an exceptional sophomore effort, bursting at the seams with pop content, but the prism through which it travels bends it, taints it and humanizes it in ways that are at once soul-clenching and unpretentious.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Akron/Family
    Blending the real and the imagined, live performance and tape manipulation, traditional instruments and skewed found sounds, Akron/Family carves an eccentrically lovely niche for itself in the ever-expanding psych-folk landscape.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cedars
    An album of didactic power and limitless ambition.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Humming By The Flowered Vine
    This is a wonderful album, full of heart, skill and intelligence, and sure to be recognized as a classic.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sanddollars [EP]
    Rarely has such a painfully awkward adolescence led to such B-boy-ish eloquence, but as he always has, Wolf makes fronting his own band look effortless.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Tigers Have Spoken
    A short but vibrant live album... Tigers captures the boisterous good cheer of Case's live show, proving once and for all that there's more to her music than dead bodies, wounded relationships and creepy, palpable stillness.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Little Deeper
    It all adds up to a noble, well-produced and strongly-realized debut for a woman who obviously has more on her mind than becoming a pop star and cruising her neighborhood in a Bentley.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Silence Is Sexy
    While I'm thoroughly satisfied with the maturity and elegance of Silence is Sexy, I can't help but wish they'd push the sonic envelope a bit more aggressively and try to add a bit more discomfort to the listening process.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Sunlandic Twins
    The relentless sweetness may be off-putting to some... but it'll be difficult for all but the most jaded listeners to avoid being charmed by Of Montreal's appealing melodies and whimsical innocence-recaptured lyrics.
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