AllMusic's Scores

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For 17,253 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 64% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 31% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 The Marshall Mathers LP
Lowest review score: 20 Graffiti
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14,370 out of 17253
  2. Mixed: 2,861 out of 17253
  3. Negative: 22 out of 17253
17253 music reviews
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    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
    The main complaint voiced by critics of Godspeed's music is that their works just repeat the same pattern: start out sparse and slow, build-build-build, crescendo. While there are certainly crescendos, there is no such predictable pattern repeated among the works on Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven -- it's loaded with dynamics, unexpected sections, strong emotions and beauty.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Penance Soiree
    As serious as things get on Penance Soiree (and the choppy "Spit On" gets pretty serious), there's the happily nagging notion that Icarus Line just want to entertain, and that they're damn good at it.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sunshine Hit Me
    Their familiarity with vintage instruments and addictive laid-back swagger help them avoid the pretension that sometimes follows the Beta Band.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Gallowsbird's Bark
    A fantastic debut album that only gets richer and better with more listens, Gallowsbird's Bark is more fully formed and daring than most second or third albums from many bands.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    No!
    Ultimately, No! is one of the group's most creative albums in years, and undoubtedly one of 2002's best children's releases, because it says yes to fun and individuality.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In Exile Deo
    Listeners who came of age during the alt-rock revolution and were disappointed, even outraged, at Liz Phair's Matrix makeover in 2003 should find In Exile Deo is exactly what they were looking for.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Phrenology
    Phrenology is the hardest-hitting Roots album to date, partly because it's their most successful attempt to re-create their concert punch in the studio.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Happiness In Magazines
    Happiness in Magazines feels like Coxon's first true solo album -- it's the first to present a complex, robust portrait of him as an artist, and the first that holds its own next to what he accomplished in Blur.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    I Get Wet
    Refreshingly simple and cleverly stupid, I Get Wet makes indoctrination fun again.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Join The Dots: B-Sides And Rarities, 1978-2001
    It, admittedly, may be a bit too much for someone who isn't quite a big devotee of the band, but it's a veritable godsend for those who've been waiting for this for years.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    One Word Extinguisher
    A set of electronica that's nearly as challenging as Autechre's relentlessly academic beat manipulation but just as funky and instantly gratifying as a Fatboy Slim flag-waver.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Tres Cosas
    Far more than someone like Beth Orton -- who seems positively conventional in comparison -- she's creating a new paradigm for singer/songwriters, with electronics an integral part of her sound, rather than an afterthought.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Up In Flames
    His tracks are vibrant and imaginative, calling on fuzzed-out guitar solos and summer-day vocals that recall a raft of solid shoegazers.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Veni Vidi Vicious
    Plenty of fuzzed, struttin', propulsive guitar work on this disc to assault your ears.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    23rd Street Lullaby
    23rd Street Lullaby is a wise, grown-up record, yet it is guided by an untamed, wily heart.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Team Boo
    It could be the most innocent, charming and believable record of 2003.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Argument
    Being both ear shattering and spine tingling at once, this is Fugazi at their "musical" best.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
    By not just defying but denying the expectations about what their music should be like, the Liars have created one of the most fascinating, confrontational albums of the 2000s.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bachelor No. 2 (or, the last remains of the dodo)
    To call Bachelor No. 2 a masterpiece may be overstating the matter somewhat, since an album this intimate and unassuming (but not unconfident) doesn't call attention to itself the way self-styled masterpieces do. However, it isn't hyperbole to call it the finest record Mann has made to date.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Things We Lost In The Fire
    Things We Lost in the Fire's slowly rising warmth and subtly hopeful tone not only make this Low's most cohesive, compelling collection, but one of 2001's best albums.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    My Private Nation
    Creatively, My Private Nation, Train's third album, is the moment this band has worked for since it started making records.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Ugly Organ
    The Ugly Organ is greater than the sum of its parts, with tracks that flow into one another seamlessly in spite of the wildly varying tempo and stylistic changes, not surprisingly like a classical piece in that regard.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Elk-Lake Serenade
    Built on acoustic guitars with little splashes of color like handclaps, tooting horn sections, and subtle strings, the record sounds remarkably large in its smallness.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    You Forgot It In People
    Although listeners who found the first Broken Social Scene release a nice ambient pop treat may be put off by this one's all-over-the-map approach, it's certainly a much more accessible release overall and there's bound to be something in here that you'll enjoy.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Beginning Stages Of...
    The sheer joy of their music is undeniably persuasive, evoking the otherworldly brilliance of everything from Pet Sounds to The Soft Bulletin.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Melody A.M.
    Picking up the ball right about where Air dropped it after Moon Safari, Röyksopp produced one of the most intriguing downbeat albums of the year.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Once In A Lifetime
    If Once in a Lifetime does run out of steam toward the end, it has to be said that it doesn't outstay its welcome, and apart from a track or two at the very end, this is a compelling, entertaining listen from start to finish.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Electric Sweat
    Like a long lost Fluid disc, Electric Sweat proffers primordial MC5 riffs with a healthy dose of soul as only four white guys in leather jackets with every Motown record in their collections could manage.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Earthquake Glue
    If Earthquake Glue isn't a masterpiece, it's as close as this band can be expected to get, and is the rare Guided By Voices effort that's imaginative enough for longtime loyalists and tight enough for dabblers at the same time.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Vespertine
    Vespertine isn’t so much a departure from her previous work as a culmination of the musical distance she’s traveled...
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