Absolute Punk (Staff reviews)'s Scores

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For 811 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 86% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 13% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 8.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 81
Highest review score: 100 Harmlessness
Lowest review score: 5 Fashionably Late
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 757 out of 811
  2. Mixed: 48 out of 811
  3. Negative: 6 out of 811
811 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Keep You
    This is not disposable music--it’s exhausting and exhilarating and desolate and hopeful all at once--and there are layers both musically and lyrically that’ll reveal themselves with each subsequent spin. Pianos Become The Teeth’s third record is the most captivating and rewarding record of 2014--one that will be remembered as a classic within the genre and a gateway to those outside it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    My Favourite Faded Fantasy
    Rice hasn’t changed his sound much, but his writing is still every bit as visceral as it always has been, and his long-awaited third album, called My Favourite Faded Fantasy, absolutely lives up to the legacy of his previous work.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 97 Critic Score
    Hang
    Take the time to listen to this album, front to back. Pick up on the subtleties and metaphors, because you don't hear this kind of poetry from a band every day.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Pleasant Living
    Pleasant Living is anything but a happy album, but that doesn’t mean it can’t point us in the direction of better times.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Resurrection
    It's under-produced on essentially all aspects of the musicianship, while Jordan Pundik's hyper-nasally vocals are mixed poorly and too sugar-coated.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Absent Sounds
    Absent Sounds is one of those records where favorite songs change by the hour. And it’s also a record that understands your perceived meaning is the most important one.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    1989
    Taylor still crams an awful lot of herself into these verses and choruses, to the point where most of these songs hit a new sound, but are still unmistakably her.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Hesitant Alien
    Within its contents the album very much feels like the debut record from a solo artist trying to feel things out on his own as a songwriter.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    I'll Be the Tornado
    The beauty of a record like I’ll Be The Tornado, which spends so much time in the devastating minutiae of heartbreak and pain, is its realization that the bad can still do lots and lots of good. It’s a fairy tale thought to think that life won’t get in a gut punch or two, and Dads have made a record that revels in failure for truly triumphant results.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Lift a Sail
    There are moments of despair, but on the whole, Lift a Sail rings as an uplifting testament to love and human resilience.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
    Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness is especially welcoming given that it’s probably his most consistent front-to-back set of songs since Transit.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I'll Keep You In Mind, From Time to Time
    It makes for a mixed bag of an album--occasionally the band sticks to their wheelhouse and sounds great, occasionally their normal stuff gets a bit stale; sometimes they experiment and it goes well, sometimes not.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Carry on the Grudge
    Full of tenderness and vulnerability yet also razor-sharp and raucous moments, it makes the record even more charming due to the relatable nature of the constant battle with internal monologues.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Hold on Pain Ends
    If you’re already a fan of the band, Hold On Pain Ends delivers in every way.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Too Bright
    It's a record full of beauty and heartache, confidence and fear, and these ends pull at each other for one of the most captivating records to come out this year.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Don't Dance
    I Don't Dance is a sprawling, thought provoking work from an artist who is just now hitting his stride.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Die on Stage
    Easily their most consistent release yet, it’s unquestionably one of the best albums of the year.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Foundations of Burden
    Foundations of Burden is the sound of an already excellent band reaching their potential, and in the process setting a new standard for the genre.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    El Pintor
    El Pintor is a well-produced album that proves Interpol are still a quality band, even without the extreme hype to back them.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songs of Innocence
    Songs of Innocence is a great record. Not a perfect one, mind you: for one thing, Danger Mouse, the record’s primary producer, uses a few too many of his tired stock tricks along the way, making the record sound more generic than it would with Brian Eno behind the boards.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Ryan Adams
    While Ryan Adams doesn’t take as many chances as some of the other records that Adams has made in the past decade, it’s also as cohesive and consistent an album as any he has ever made.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    10 Summers
    For a producer who had such a big hand in one of the best records of the year, though, 10 Summers is just too by-the-numbers to excite anyone.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    They Want My Soul
    On They Want My Soul, Spoon’s most wide-ranging and eclectic album of its career, this isn’t a band who are settling in to their collective stride, but searching for new places entirely.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Green Language
    Unfortunately, Rustie’s seemingly inherent need to zig when expected to zag has resulted in an awkwardly stitched together ragdoll of otherwise intriguing and successful pieces.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Ultraviolence
    A shake up in the lyric department would be nice to see next time around, but on this outing Lana Del Rey is able to sell it with striking vocal performances and breathtaking compositions.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 5 Critic Score
    V
    Nearly every song on this record is misogynistic in some regard, from the obvious predatory ramblings of “Animals” to the Robin Thicke-level douchebaggery of “Feelings.”
    • 80 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The No-Hit Wonder
    Branan is a supremely confident songwriter who is not too proud to poke fun at both his craft and his profession. That sense of levity makes The No-Hit Wonder worth many repeated listens. Easily one of the best country albums of 2014.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Somewhere Under Wonderland
    In between, we get plenty of striking melodies, at least a dozen quotable lyrics (“Tomorrow’s the name we changed from yesterday to blame when the train just don’t stop here anymore” is an instant Duritz classic), and an arrangement that shows off the Crows at their loosest and most vibrant.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Lese Majesty
    Lese Majesty is an entirely different beast than Black Up, and the group manages to continue sticking out in the hip-hop world for their incomparable creativity.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    My Everything
    It’s all well and good to deal with tough topics through music, but My Everything puts on a breezy pop face that severely hinders the potential poignancy of Grande’s words, morphing them into a more disquieting figure.
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