AllMusic's Scores

  • Music
For 17,183 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:
17183 music reviews
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The performances are vibrant and full of personality, heartbreak, and spirit.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Very much a product of their time, Brockhampton absorbs what they need from across genres, sharing honest confessions from their varied personal backgrounds (the most striking provided by group leader Kevin Abstract) and reflecting its mixed audience as a voice of their generation. Brockhampton have seized upon this defining moment with Iridescence, a defining peak in their young career.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Greatest Hits isn't arranged chronologically, which isn't a detriment; if anything, skipping through the years emphasizes just how consistent the Foos have been, always delivering oversized rock & roll where the hooks are as big as the guitars.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Each of these albums is full of Cooder's superb, goose pimple-inducing guitar work and rich musical thinking, but given how impressive his film work has been, Soundtracks is a fine collection but ultimately something of a disappointment.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The record may be a step below his best work with the Strands and Shack, but it's not far off and the album is a wonderful slice of modern guitar pop songcraft.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Altogether, the contributions of long-term Sullivan associates like Harmony, Salaam Remi, and Ant Bell, along with those from Key Wane and JoeLogic & Dilemma, give the album a relatively contemporary feel. Just as potent and lasting as Fearless and Love Me Back, Reality Show completes one of the most impressive first-three-album runs.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    ZUU
    In less than a half hour, Curry establishes himself not only as one of the most capable and exciting artists of his generation, but also worthy of a place in Miami's rap pedigree, right alongside the local icons who inspired this gem.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The overpowering guitars and relentlessly complex song structures that make up the majority of the album feel more like the sounds Hanson makes with Wand than something unique to his solo iteration, but he shares some new windows into his wonderfully mystifying psyche all the same.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    That Nirvana sound forceful isn't a surprise, but they also sound surprisingly tight--a little bit looser than they would sound within a year, but they're clearly marshaling their forces, gaining strength and skill.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All My Heroes Are Cornballs manages a mellow, even reserved instrumental tone without losing any of the scathing social commentary or frenetic energy that defined earlier work. If anything, the album is more intense, hiding biting and bilious (and often surreal) lyrical threats beneath a deceptively low-energy facade.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These soft, slow songs are surrounded by cuts where the darkness opens up slightly but significantly. It's enough to make Sleep Well Beast feel like a dramatic departure in the close quarters of the National's discography.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Organic as dirt, and full of an acidhead's sense of space, this one's a winner from start to finish.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Magnolia Electric Co. may not be the best Songs: Ohia album, but it is certainly the most approachable. It has a big, open feel certain to appeal to any classic rock fan, but retains the warm intimacy of previous albums.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Despite the fact that it seems more like a bunch of songs on a disc than a singular body, its impact is substantial.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These lost recordings represent an amazing mother lode to any Can enthusiast and certainly should hold more than enough interesting moments for even a curious new listener.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dauwd takes more risks on this album than on his prior releases, and it ends up being his most rewarding work yet.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What really makes this collection worthwhile is how these robust performances put the lie to the notion that acoustic Neil is sad, sensitive Neil.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She's channeling her own experiences so they speak to the universal, just like the classic soul she loves. The result is an extraordinary record, one designed to be part of a grand musical tradition, and it contains enough emotion and imagination to earn its place within that lineage.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tracks like "Clash," "War," and "Bomb" all maintain battle imagery, in multiple senses (musical, political, personal), and Fire as a whole is steadfast in its fury and perseverance.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Their rapid growth is as head-spinning as the songs themselves, lending a triumphant air to Comfort to Me that keeps Amyl and the Sniffers primed and ready to conquer the world -- again.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Un Verano is not only a seasonal statement-piece but a testament to Benito's singular songwriting -- across genres, generations, and even languages, he works to produce enduring landmarks that trace universal joys, sorrows, and passions.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    At this point, a Pretenders album is whatever she says it is and Relentless is a good one.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nitpicking aside, the risks they take on this album pay off: I See You is some of their most captivating music since their debut.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Although this monochromatic palette tends to highlight the limits of co-producer Jack Antonoff's bag of tricks -- nothing here feels surprising, even when he's playing with textures and teasing out the music's dream-pop elements -- the narrow focus is the main attributes of Midnights, as it plays to Swift's sense of control and craft: she may be singing about messy emotions but she sculpts those tangled feelings into shimmering, resonant songs.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ordinary Corrupt Human Love isn't going to change detractors' minds about Deafheaven. Instead, with its searing depictions of emotional and spiritual struggle in a relentlessly ambitious musical presentation, it should attract a new legion of listeners as well as deliver assurance and solace to those who found their earlier records so compelling.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Other songs like the sea-shanty-goes-Jacques Brel 'Italialaisella Laivalla' and the more openly indie-pop 'Tytto Tanssii,' with its guitar lope and synth-horn break floating over a softly rumbling cloud of melancholic, echoing textures, further add to the understated but enjoyable variety of a fine album.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On Helplessness Blues, he's just as interested in the landscape of the human heart. Still, it's the music that stands out, and the band's acoustic folk/chamber pop combo makes every song sound like a grand tribute to back-to-the-land living.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mezmerize doesn't fail to be unique.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    If hip-hop had existed in the days of the Filmore, Woodstock and the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Edan would have been right on the bus.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Though not as "experimental" as their previous couple of records, as a whole Purple is far more focused, and it's certainly more euphoric.