The Line of Best Fit's Scores

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For 4,495 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 64% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 32% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 77
Highest review score: 100 Adore Life
Lowest review score: 20 143
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,040 out of 4495
  2. Mixed: 438 out of 4495
  3. Negative: 17 out of 4495
4495 music reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Tribute to 2
    James’ stark vocal delivery resonates on both an emotional and socio-political level on Tribute to 2, and, although he's is begging the world to unite and come together--something that, in the current political landscape of 2017, seems damn near impossible--at least music fans from all around the globe can agree on something: James has never sounded so elegant and in control.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    The Thrill of It All
    Whilst The Thrill of it All isn’t a complete departure from the artist we all know and love, it is clear that Smith is in a new phase of his career and is encompassing what it means to be a ‘soul’ singer.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Good Nature
    On the whole Good Nature brightly evokes the feeling of leaving your room and opening the doors and stepping outside.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Always Ascending
    With Always Ascending’s sharp menace and mad genius, Franz have rescaled the mountain and made it back to the top.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    All That Emotion
    While you can identify his signature guitar looping motifs on the records, providing a subtle backdrop for Georgas’ expressive vocals, it's her willingness to open herself up on such a bare naked level that gifts All That Emotion its titular promise.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Search Of The Antidote
    Wrapping the messiness of post-breakup emotions into rule-bending pop cuts, it once again proves that nobody does heartbreak anthems quite like FLETCHER.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    The Flower Lane
    For the most part, then, The Flower Lane is a glowing ember of a record that shares much of the spark of Mondanile’s “day job” band, but also a little of their occasional tendency toward stylistic appropriation over dedication to content and originality.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Night the Zombies Came
    If a track is below three minutes, it’ll be a modest barnburner that fizzles too fast, and if it’s above that, then you’re in for Black Francis impersonating a middle school vocal recital. .... When the distortion is flowing like beer on V-E Day, The Night the Zombies Came proves to be a modest party record, beneath the fat.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Era
    Era joins the other three albums as a missed opportunity.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Positions
    While thank u, next is probably her best work – and it will probably remain that way forever – Positions is Grande’s most carefree, most playful, most mature work to date.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unwanted
    Unwanted has genuine highlights even if it grows boring and repetitive as an album.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Policy
    Although the sometimes scattergun approach to genre-hopping has its drawbacks, what’s great about Policy is the future possibilities it allows Will Butler.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cut and Paste
    Overall, Cut and Paste is a fine collection of Oscar’s old lemons made into lemonade--it’s refreshing pop music, but with a floppy fringe and a tote bag.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Glasshouse
    When you hear it, you can tell that these songs were bursting to get out of Ware; that she’s delivered them with such nuance and intelligence lends considerable credence to the idea that her more devoted followers have proposed ever since Devotion. She is, by a distance, Britain’s most underrated pop star.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stunning Luxury
    Snapped Ankles make music to soundtrack the apocalypse, and you can’t help simply sitting and enjoying the ride.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Have U Seen Her?
    Overall, Have U Seen Her? strikes a great balance between rocking out with piercing, lacerating soundscapes and soothing nerves with heartfelt songwriting encompassed in diverse melodies. The balance falters at points but it’s never irreparable as ALMA rights it again with the natural magnetism of her music.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Is the Is Are
    The nature of a double album means it’s either a glorious artistic statement, or a sprawling mess of self indulgence. An act such as DIIV is so unassuming that it couldn’t be the former, but nor is it the latter.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ripe
    Ripe is much less coherently pieced together than a Field Music record--as much as one can be, finding something special in the loose construction around a common idea--but therein lies the magic.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    What the World Needs Now
    On pretty much every track, the instrumentation is formulaic and predictable.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    God First
    There’s nothing quite as personal as digging through someone’s record collection and God First feels almost exactly like that. From funk and soul to chilled out electronica, the entire spectrum of Steadman’s eclectic record collection has been mined here.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cranekiss
    By taking a sharp turn into the light, the shades of grey of her older material have been splattered by blasts of glorious technicolour, a move resulting in her best album to date.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cosmos
    The intensely moving track ["Don’t Be Afraid"]--and the entire album itself--perfectly illustrates the idea that we all have a magnificent universe within ourselves just waiting to be discovered, and that we should never be fearful of uncovering exactly who and where we are.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Science & Magic
    If this album was written and performed by humans I would say that, at best, it's a gratifying listen of retro arcade game inspired electronic music and, at worst, a whimsical yet unremarkable collection of instrumentals. Good fun, yet a little inconsequential.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Go Missing in My Sleep
    I Go Missing In My Sleep is certainly short on instant reward, paying out higher dividends with repeated and closer listens. While there are portions where the rewards don’t feel like they justify the effort, Wilsen has thrust their own marker in the sand with this debut and given themselves a wealth of directions in which to pivot toward for the future.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Give or Take
    Adding to the growing list of albums with a deeply personal approach released this year, this might be the most heartfelt and longing. The matured viewpoint of a growing artist is worth the due diligence alone.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shawn
    There’s a nice blend of folk, country, and while it’s a step in the direction for Mendes the Artist (and the Human), there’s a line between performance and genuineness. Mendes slightly oversteps it with an ill-fitting cowboy boot.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Augustines
    Whilst the narrative of Rise Ye Sunken Ships is gone, there is still a mood arc that runs through Augustines.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Quicksand Heart
    Too much of Quicksand Heart feels rushed, or perhaps consciously unambitious, eschewing bold creative strokes in favour of the kind of inoffensive consistency you might put on at a cheese and wine night to set the mood. Its best songs are worth a relisten; taken as a whole, though, it’s something of a disappointment.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blood
    All the component parts seem present, but they don’t quite add up to a greater whole.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Mogic
    Like many of Dawson’s projects, its effect is gradual but profound: it takes a little time to truly settle into Mogic, but it’s nigh-impossible to leave once you become accustomed to its mores.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lovers Know
    Burhenn’s remarkable vocal dexterity that allowed her to jump tempos and genres so easily there is still alive and well on Lovers Know, yet embedded here in a dense synthpop milieu.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Here Come the Rattling Trees
    Absent any actors to push the narrative along, Here Come the Rattling Trees can drift by during its more passive instrumental passages, but never less than pleasantly so.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Compassion
    As a whole, Compassion is very impressive. It’s a largely fat-free collection of club-ready Danish synth-pop.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ricochet
    These songs remain uncharacteristically conventional in structure and instrumentation as a disappointing result.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Badwater
    Drenched in minimal, slow and moody arrangements, Badwater, like Speck Mountain’s previous efforts, gives no apology for its intentional pace. In fact it revels in it.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Intermission [EP]
    Outside the relative intensity of “City Dweller”, sample-heavy “Do My Thing” and “Pulse”, “Gently” and “Deep Breathing” provide musical sorbets between the action. It’s some of the softest production Saginaw’s put out before, and is a welcome break on the tightly-spun ep.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Blood
    The themes tackled on BLOOD have been tackled a million times, so the album is much more reliant on how it tells the story than what the story is. Luckily, how it tells the story more than makes up for the story itself. Milosh’s vocals are as beautiful as ever, and the lush tones that paint the album wash over you like a silk bedsheet.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Good Fruit
    It’s a challenge and a pleasure; a banger and a crooner; a lover and a leaver, and easily the best album of TEEN’s career.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    After the Disco
    A welcome comeback.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fall Forever
    Fall Forever’s bare-bones approach is perfectly pretty, but never vital; perhaps, sometimes, more is more.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Weezer (White Album)
    The White Album is, hands down, the best Weezer album since... well, since it became so hard to agree on what the last great Weezer album was.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful
    There’s plenty to suggest that she is still developing and searching for her true self, but there's more evidence that Flo is a captivating and striking new voice.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Waiting for Something to Happen
    There’s still plenty to bewitch the listener, particularly if your shelves are stacked with the likes of, say, The Darling Buds, Kirsty MacColl or Allo Darlin’, but it’s a more refined approach, shall we say.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Summer Camp
    It’s a charming record, but one likely to be appreciated to its fullest only in the dingiest times of the year, those days when you find yourself in need of a reminder of sunnier months just to keep going.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cry Mfer
    Again, this is no ordinary breakup record; it's a turbulent reflection full of complexity pointing toward hope – that farewells don't have to end in goodbye but could evolve into something deeper and more meaningful.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Poemss
    This album comes so highly recommended because it’s strung out, not drawn out; it’s melodic not chronic and ultimately it’s both pleasant enough to listen to a few times and suggestively dour enough to suck you from there.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pleasure Boy
    These eight tracks will reward familiar fans but Cohen’s music is worthy of a much wider audience.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Decency
    They haven't really taken a new direction with regards to the songwriting on Decency.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    And Then Like Lions
    This is a lovely record, prettily arranged and carried off with assurance, but it’s ultimately very difficult to escape the feeling that the real aim here was to deliver something of slow-cooked profundity.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Diving Board
    It’s about words and emotions rather than big pop moments; this is a slow-burner, which though possesses grandiose moments of musical glory, revels in the detail.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Half of Where You Live
    On Gold Panda‘s sophomore full length, moments of predictability are rare.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Doom Abuse
    The Faint have finally hit upon the idea of letting all of those varying sounds simply collapse in on one another, only to arrive at an album that sounds the most like them, even if we’ve never quite heard it before.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Foam Island
    Despite all of the duo’s lofty intentions, slick artwork and studio trickery, the soggy samples and limp singing guarantee you won’t go back for seconds.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pre-Human Ideas
    There is a somewhat disconcerting beauty to some of Pre-Human Ideas’ songs.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shake Shook Shaken
    It feels like a debut record in the sense that they’re trying to do so many new things without 100% confidence, but also like a good debut record, it makes you massively excited for the future.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Soft Will
    For all its faults, the heart and maturity at the centre of Soft Will feels more vital and important than their showy genre tourism ever did.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Convenanza
    Convenanza naturally operates best when Weatherall stays away from the mic.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fading Love
    By stepping into this unfamiliar territory, he’s not only proved that he’s the dynamic and hugely talented producer that those early EPs hinted at, but he’s ended up just inches away from making that record he’s aiming for.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Dew Lasts an Hour
    An adventurous artistic growth is surely on the horizon for this blossoming young band, but on The Dew Lasts An Hour, Ballet School quickly found out what technique works for them and where their creative strengths lie.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Black Pudding
    By plunging impassively into their own hearts of darkness, Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood have demonstrated that there’s still plenty of life lurking in the muddy waters of the blues.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Wonder Where We Land
    What we hear is a man playing conductor, curator, ringmaster, director--a brilliant facilitator, yet one never quite able to hold his own on the stage of his making.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As You Were
    As You Were is practically all comfortable, predictable, Oasis-without-Noel comfort food.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Croz
    The laid-back pace and contemplative mood then doesn’t really evolve over the 11 songs, and although Croz doesn’t outstay its welcome, there is a nagging feeling that the slickness of the production and instrumentation don’t play to Crosby’s strengths as a singer or songwriter.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Dreams
    There are a couple of great tracks, but a little too often you’ll find that it isn’t Norman Wisdom, Johnny, Joey or Dee Dee, but musical déjà vu that these dreams are made of.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kindred
    Kindred is a potent reminder of his prowess as a writer, delivered in a quick, forthright burst; it’s not the finest showcase for the sheer diversity he’s capable of as Passion Pit, but it does stake a claim--context considered--for his ongoing importance.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Restless Spheres
    Restless Spheres never settles on one kind of terrain for long, but it exudes the assurance of an artist who has explored a range of styles over time and found his consistency among all of them.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Dreaming
    The Dreaming is, overall, a diverse album that showcases new sides of Monsta X whilst also meeting the ideas and feelings that fans look forward to.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mellow Moon
    Whilst he floods creativity into the engine of his tracks to generate a powerful sound basis, it becomes apparent that sometimes Alfie needs to be refuelled in the lyric department. ... Mellow Moon acts as Alfie Templeman’s experimental wonderland that shows there is nothing that will halt his creative output.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New Last Name
    There's a distinct and purposeful artifice surrounding New Last Name that lends it enough intrigue and depth while still being able to simply say, "See, we can do this too." And you know what? They can!
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Underneath the Rainbow
    The boisterous new record is filled with plenty of raucous glimpses of what has beat at the unsteady creative heart of this notoriously dubious band for over 15 unpredictable years.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hobo Rocket
    Hobo Rocket may not be the band’s best album to date, especially in light of their super-tight standout Beard, Wives, Denim--but, if the question is whether its rough, shambolic sound makes you think it’d be completely off-the-chart in a live setting... absolutely yes it does, and that’s really the aim of it.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heaven Upside Down
    [2015’s The Pale Emperor] was the most revitalised he had sounded in years. That energy hasn’t flagged an inch on Heaven Upside Down.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Redcar les adorable étoiles
    Notably absent from Redcar les adorables étoiles is the sense of exquisite, crystalline vision present in Letissier’s prior work. Perhaps this lack is only a function of the production style, featuring reverb-soaked vocals, rambling melodies, and spacey synthesizers.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Grapefruit
    With Grapefruit he’s has shown an ability to take the fabric of rock n roll to other dimensions, to surprise, to confound. At times this means it’s pretty heavy going but it’s never boring. It’s wildly ambitious, challenging and wonderful.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Making Time
    For a project Woon spent four years on, Making Time is a surprisingly breezy listen. It feels a bit slight at times, especially given the lack of variance in tempo, but it’s hard to find much fault with this collection of smart, soulful work.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Thr!!!er
    THR!!!LER is a significantly more organic record, one where picturing the band having the time of their lives bashing it out in a practice space requires no effort at all.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Master Mix: Red Hot + Arthur Russell
    At its worst, Red Hot + Arthur Russell shows up the limitations of the cover-album-as-form, but at its best, it's a thrilling tribute to a none-more-singular artist.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Lighght
    He’s produced his finest work to date.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Guadalupe Plata (2015)
    You might not speak Spanish, but great music is universal and this, is unequivocally that.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Machineries of Joy
    Learning the lessons of its predecessor, then, album number 5 is an intelligent distillation of everything that people cherish about British Sea Power and what makes them a truly Great British rock band.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Offering
    Draped in synths and bouncy, Top 40 bass lines, Offering turns out to be a lacklustre effort from a group once smothered in critical praise and year-end listings.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Civic Jams
    Though the album was written before the effects of a global pandemic bedded in, its motifs of isolation and distance speak clearly to our current moment – mourning for places to gather hit hard by the actual and symbolic sterilisation of public space.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Massey Fucking Hall [Live]
    What makes Massey Fucking Hall an overall success is that it represents a particularly visceral aspect of live performance - not the communion with other fans, or the technical achievement that comes with a particularly slick stage show, but instead the primal joy of noisy, boisterous rock and roll.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Heard It in a Past Life
    The magic by which we were all spellbound in those early days remains, now augmented by a newfound range of diverse influences. Rogers writes anthems for the modern age, with all the paradoxical feelings of empowerment, anxiety, heartbreak and growth that that entails.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Stealth of Days
    Even if its emotional distance pushes it a bit too close to an intellectual exercise for comfort, Stealth of Days remains a fascinating and rewarding listen, whether or not you’re an R&B nostalgist.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Suck My Shirt
    There are certainly traces of the band's past traits, except this time they err more on the side of being endearing quirks than being the slightly off-putting extras they once were.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Such Pretty Forks in the Road
    2020’s Morissette is as emotional as ever and her songs are incredibly heartfelt.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Afraid of Tomorrows
    A strong love and fight for life and its experiences drives this album forward.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Bass Drum of Death
    His self-titled effort amounts to little more than the sound of him treading water; it’s every bit as fun and energetic as GB City, and the chaotic live shows aren’t likely to see a change of pace any time soon, but there’s practically nothing in the way of progression here, either.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Forgiveness Is Yours
    It changes its arm in a myriad of directions, with only a few really working, but they remain a band set apart from those around them, even if here they stumble.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Past Lives
    The frustrating thing about Past Lives is that it simply sounds like good music. It is not bigger or smaller than the sum of its parts – it’s exactly that. The members got the recipe just right, but it doesn’t leave much of an aftertaste.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 35 Critic Score
    All Your Favorite Bands
    All Your Favorite Bands is plenty polished, but scratch the surface and there’s close to zero going on beneath it; it’s the kind of record that you’re in danger of forgetting before it’s even finished playing.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Black Radio 2
    Black Radio 2 just falls short of being anything more than generic sounding pop, produced by a jazz trio tinted by success.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Paper Mâché Dream Balloon
    The tempos are brisk, the mood is chirpy. No, make that chirpy chirpy cheek cheek. Keep it at, though, and much, much more compelling depths soon emerge.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Death Becomes Her
    In its finest moments, it demonstrates the potency of experimental club music--dynamic, disorderly and charged with emotion. Sadly, a chunk of tracks amount to more of an endurance test, one which some listeners will simply nope out of.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Pollinator
    The group’s first LP since 2014’s Ghosts of Download plays brilliantly on their talent for blending genres and turning melancholy into melody. It’s a winningly astute addition to a catalogue too clever to be pinned down to a definitive style.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Wrong Creatures
    Wrong Creatures has just enough of what made BRMC right, and a few tantalisingly brief flourishes to boot, but it's a balance that can only be struck for so long.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Finally Free
    While Finally Free has a handful of songs that are excellent and some that are simply okay, the vexing dilemma points back to Romano himself. It’s as though he isn’t quite sure the direction to take and that hesitance alone is off putting.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Man on the Moon, Vol. 3: The Chosen
    While it might take a few listens to make sense of the album's seemingly muddled introduction, one thing is clear: by the end of this hour-long journey, Cudi has reached his destination.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gumption
    Ultimately, for as talented of a musician as Miller is, her greatest feat on her first proper LP is creating a distinct feeling and sense of place that's possible only because every element here works in sync.
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