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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    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Hate
    Every track on Hate surpasses the high standards set by its predecessor. Go buy it right now.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One Bedroom
    While the disc's increased emphasis on electronic textures, balanced songwriting and non-linear production is a welcome breath of fresh air, it lends itself to a feeling of sameness that becomes increasingly apparent as the record progresses.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mount Eerie
    It is a more intimate and more cohesive work than anything else he has done, but it is decidedly difficult, tossing aside more ingratiating effects in favor of a haunting, ethereal mood and a single, thematic narrative.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Can You See The Music
    The technical skill and creativity at work here are enough reason to give DJ Me DJ You more than a passing listen, even if the songs don't make your head bob up and down and your feet tap.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Last Night
    Last Night is a perfectly serviceable mellow slow-jam R&B record -- and that's a damned shame.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Whip It On
    There's probably nothing here you haven't heard before, but it's all wrapped up in a particularly appetizing package and garnished with lots of artful discord.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.
    It's a languid and elaborate affair -- a throbbing amalgamation of wiry, Au Pairsian art-funk, steely Gang of Four resolve and Cabaret Voltaire-inflected industrial howl.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Loose Screw
    There are no sweeping creative revelations -- are there ever, on eighth albums? -- but nothing here sullies the group's legacy either.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Start Breaking My Heart
    It's achingly beautiful without relying on maudlin sentimentality to win the listener over. Genius.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    American IV: The Man Comes Around
    He's at the height of his powers here, as vital and relevant as ever.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Machine [EP]
    The brittle treble-heavy assault is replaced with clarity, greater exploration of texture and more "professional" recording.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Can Feel Me
    Yes, this is a funny record, but it's not a comedy record; Har Mar has an acrobatic voice that rivals pretty much any male in R&B today, and he writes some genuinely catchy, sticky melodies that lots of other acts would kill for.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Red Letter Days
    There's definitely nothing earth-shattering here... but there's nothing that's going to alienate the fanbase, either.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yanqui U.X.O.
    The band should be proud of Yanqui U.X.O. -- it proves that they're not hopelessly married to the fine-print details of their formula, and that they can still wring fresh ideas from familiar territory.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    ()
    An overblown, overhyped dreamy swirl of sound that can't commit itself to being anything.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    American Supreme
    A curious beast -- dark, confused, displaced and often hopeless.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    OST
    A watered-down mix of big-budget tricks and studio sheen.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Loud Like Nature
    Add N to (X) have retained their sense of direction and honed their sound into a powerful and persuasive entity.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Finisterre
    It may not be the best album of their career, but it's certainly the most interesting -- and a reliable cure for your indifference.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Original Pirate Material
    Though it sounds strange at first, Skinner's delivery is so absorbing that the accent issue will be an afterthought before opener "Turn the Page" has ended.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Out From Out Where
    [A] decisive step in a darker, weirder direction.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Happyness
    It's comforting, for sure, and you could very well fall asleep listening, or use it as background music, but you'd be missing a lot.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    RUOK?
    The disc is an absorbing listen, and a crucial weapon in any battle for subwoofer supremacy, but as far as generating an emotional response is concerned, it pretty much flatlines.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Velocity of Sound
    In terms of pure power-pop delight, Velocity of Sound is hard to beat -- it's one of those records that taps directly into your musical pleasure center and jabs repeatedly at the best bits.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Make Up The Breakdown
    Like their NYC peers Liars and the Rapture, HHH are adept at fusing dancefloor polemics with angular guitar atmospherics, yet their sound lacks the sweat-soaked sexual ardor that those groups flaunt so remorselessly.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Musique Automatique
    It's true that a lot of Musique Automatique can get old really fast.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Teaches of Peaches
    The Teaches of Peaches is as tacky and low-budget as a '70s porno flick...and just as much fun.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Power In Numbers
    As spiritual as Talib Kweli, as musically complex as Mos Def, as joyfully syncopated as the Roots, Power in Numbers sets the standard for intelligent hip hop.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Close Cover Before Striking [EP]
    Six of the seven songs are understated, melodic mid-tempo pieces.... The song that breaks the mold is also the album's best moment[:]"Astronaut."
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Richest Man in Babylon
    The tunes just circle like SUVs in a parking lot; there are traces of a head of steam, of a nod towards explosive tune-structures, but it seems the ball is dropped at the last minute in favour of a holding-pattern approach -- the familiar bassline and chorused keys. It's a letdown.
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