The Boston Phoenix's Scores

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For 1,091 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Pink
Lowest review score: 0 Last of a Dyin' Breed
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 956 out of 1091
  2. Mixed: 88 out of 1091
  3. Negative: 47 out of 1091
1091 music reviews
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    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Not Too Late
    Too good to hate, not exciting enough to love, she still makes most of what’s out there sound like phony baloney.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    New Chain
    At this stage, Small Black are a charming but undeveloped outfit. Moving from an aquarium to a sea (or even a pond) would be an intriguing next step.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Return Of The Wu & Friends
    Mathematics conjures a distinct Wu melancholy that outsiders can only imitate. Most impressive here, however, is Method Man.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Diamond Rugs
    Despite the raucous vibe, Diamond Rugs is flawed - scattered, unfocused, and rather long, at 14 tracks.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Come And Get It!
    What separates Reed from his would-be contemporaries is just how much Come and Get It! is not a pop-crossover record -- a point that is the album's strength, as well as its potential weakness.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Turn The Lights Out
    It’s more polished and sonically ambitious. But it’s not a major departure.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Americana
    Loose, loud, and fun.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Valleys Of Neptune
    For a visionary guy like Hendrix, this glorified compilation isn't as imaginary as it could be.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rhythm and Repose
    Hansard gave himself a hard act to follow, but he pulls it off with Repose. He doesn't shun the sound that made the Once soundtrack a hit, but he does expand his palette and show off the breadth of his songwriting prowess.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    The Century Of Self
    Texas's Trail of Dead settle into a nice groove somewhere between the two on their sixth album.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Family Jewels
    The likes of Kate Nash and company have flitted through this piano siren/exuberant dance-diva territory, but never mind, because this gorgeous genre starts now.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    New Wild Everywhere
    Great Lake Swimmers' sugar-sweet ditties easily drift in one ear and, unfortunately, out the other.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Comedown Machine
    On Angles, the band tossed a few tunes out that sounded like carbon-copies of their first album, but on Machine they eschew that kind of market compromise in favor of following their strange muse, even if in the end most listeners will have trouble pegging down who it sounds like.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sinners Never Sleep
    Sinners Never Sleep is a transitional album, though such efforts rarely bode as well for the future as this does.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Good Time
    Good Time is old-school in the sense that he’s bypassed Nashville’s army of songwriters to pen all 17 songs himself, and modern in the sense that at least half of the 17 slide by your ears without making much of an impression.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lysandre
    Lysandre inevitably feels a bit skimpy. It's still an unnervingly tuneful warm-up: freed from his hipster shackles, Owens is harnessing the power of the incredibly uncool--and he's all the cooler for it.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Love at the Bottom of the Sea
    The disc largely lacks the memorable song- writing Merritt is known for, and that deficit is only compounded by the misguided production.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Noise Floor (Rarities 1998-2005)
    Noise Floor is a smattering of moods and modes all tied together by Oberst’s love-it-or-loathe-it voice.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Laugh Now...Laugh Later
    Hooks are competent and decent but never demanding enough for you to race out to get a song's lyrics embedded into your skin.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Steam Days
    Steam Days is usually pretty, but it's also a snooze.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Repo
    Fans will welcome the grotesquely titled 'Ultra Vomit Craze' and 'Gag Shack,' reveling in subtle mood shifts found amid the ferocious racket. Skeptics and nay-sayers will remain unconvinced of the genre's ability to move beyond bratty outbursts.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Songbird
    This latest entry in the old-icon-meets-young-iconoclast trend is lit up by the sparks between the principals.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Dancing Backward in High Heels
    Here, Dolls II make their move, surging forward while simultaneously nodding to a time that predates even that first über-influential incarnation.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Brilliant! Tragic!
    Argos's unrepentant superstar imitations aside, Brilliant! Tragic! holds some well-written standouts.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Land Of Make Believe
    Double-O and Nawledge were not yet capable of chopping up the sort of cuts that people sing in traffic. They are now--there's no boredom in Land of Make Believe.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Loud
    Part of the problem is Rihanna's essential blandness in a post-Gaga/post-Idol pop market, but mostly it comes down to the siren-song nature of her amazingly recognizable voice.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Femme Fatale
    As long as Brit keeps the ballads to a minimum and plays to her strength as a willing pop renegade (which she does here more than on any of her previous albums), she will continue to make exciting, groundbreaking modern music.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Love Sign
    Love Sign dips a little too far into the Fountains of Wayne kiddie pool.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Ornament
    Gold Leaves go about their dreaminess the au naturel way, and they're all the better for it.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Mockingbird
    Moorer takes an approach opposite to Lynne’s on the stripped-down Lovin’, giving each track its own distinct personality: Gillian Welch’s 'Revelator' is droning folk rock, Simone’s 'I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl' an organ-led torch song, June Carter Cash’s 'Ring of Fire' a drum-looped twang-hop. They all deserve a little spotlight.
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