American Songwriter's Scores

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For 1,814 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 45% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Rockstar
Lowest review score: 20 Dancing Backward in High Heels
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,458 out of 1814
  2. Mixed: 352 out of 1814
  3. Negative: 4 out of 1814
1814 music reviews
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    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Overexposed
    The band's newest album is likely to alienate longtime followers and music snobs alike, but will undoubtedly excite newer fans who embraced their massive smash hit "Moves Like Jagger."
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Southside
    Hunt is at his most exciting when he fuses the past and the present (“Let It Down” truly shines bright) into ambitious creations that hint at even greater promise ─ but his second offering is largely a mixed bag.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Roses
    Where Roses shines the brightest is via the textures that gild the album's edges.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ride Out
    It’s encouraging that Seger is expanding his boundaries, especially this late in life. But a few more representative tough rockers interspersed in the album’s disappointing second half would have helped what starts out like a revitalized return to form from--here’s that car/Detroit metaphor again--running out of gas.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Sound of Sunshine
    The unrelenting earnestness of the album may appeal to some listeners and repel others, but in either case Franti has achieved his goal of capturing the "sound of sunshine"--and it seems like he's having too good a time to care what anyone thinks, anyway.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    World Peace Is None of Your Business
    World Peace is an album that rewards patience, and the deeper one goes into it, the more fun there is to be had.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lovelaws
    There are echoes of Bjork (a major influence), Depeche Mode and the earlier, more melodramatic tendencies of the Cure. While that references the older aspects of Wayman’s music, there’s also an enduring, durable and somewhat ageless vibe that keeps this from feeling retro.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland
    With their extended songs, complex– some might say obtuse– lyrics and Geddy Lee's piercing vocals, Rush largely plays to a cult audience.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Invisible Hour
    Those less focused might find their attention taxed, but this is a meticulously crafted and uncompromising work that shows Henry to be at the top of his game releasing challenging music not made for prime time.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Summer Skin
    Top notch session musicians including guitarist David Garza and Me'Shell N'Degeocello on bass along with a few namedropping guests such as Robert Plant and Patty Griffin help flesh out these eleven often moody, reflective tunes, making this her most accomplished album to date.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hey Clockface
    It might also be argued that Hey Clockface is Costello’s attempt to redefine himself as a more mature performer, one cognizant of the fact that he has an aging audience seeking subtlety and sentiment. Indeed, as the title suggests, time is ticking away, ensuring relevance becomes more a priority than rambunctiousness.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Director's Cut
    None of these cropped and re-imagined takes are drastic enough to add huge insights into Bush's output as they do her finicky outlook on her own work. Work that is, generally, great in any context.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Promise
    While it's not in the vein of his riveting, pulsating classics, it's a tough, often lyrically reflective rumination set to no nonsense, simmering, often swampy blues inflected rockers with an undercurrent of taut funk.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Birds Say
    All Birds Say plays like some east coast indie darling took his acoustic guitar out into the great west, met a kindred soul with a steel guitar and shared a few sweet and unambitious thoughts on life. Broemel chooses his instruments well, and if the album never raises its voice, with a consistency in tempo that approaches droning, it's still a pretty haze.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hands of Glory
    Bird is too much of a seasoned professional to release anything less than listenable, so although none of this is particularly compelling, it's all well performed in a relatively stripped down, acoustic setting.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Share the Joy
    Ultimately, this album will not convince any non-believers. But fans will find a lot to love, and perhaps even notice and enjoy the increased quality of musicianship as they bask in that all-girl garage-fuzz-pop glow and inch towards a future in hi-fi.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Body Wins
    The Body Wins stands as something of a transitional work for Jaffe, but it's an impressive album for wherever her musical journey takes her.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    V
    It may not be the Tiger Army fans were expecting or hoping for, but if you close your eyes, it will transport you back to a time when men smoked unfiltered cigarettes and women in frilly party dresses and pony tails swooned over them.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Over with You
    It's all lovely, melancholy, lyrically moving and beautifully performed. But older fans will miss the scrappy sparks Forbert used to effortlessly radiate on crackling live performances such as his spirited 1982 King Biscuit Flower Hour set.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Traveler
    If Traveler seems too random and scattered for its own good, it's never less than interesting.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Color of the Sky
    It’s all quite exquisite, gorgeous, charming… and a little bland. Each selection confines to the group’s established low key vibe. But that gets monotonous after a while, even as instruments drift in and out of the mix and tracks such as “Song of the Bell” and “I Lie Awake” up the energy and guitar reverb to include delicate, slightly edgy psychedelics.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    At My Piano
    Whether one considers it an intimate experience, an organic encounter, an essential additive, or simply a cash-grab, it’s ultimately up to the listener to decide its worth.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tyranny
    Those willing to take the plunge are likely to find enough here worthy of a future return to explore further and ignore, or more likely respect, its self-indulgent qualities.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hell-On
    There is a chilly, somewhat detached vibe that often overtakes the material, making it a challenge to unpack each of these dense selections on an album that’s easier to appreciate and admire than enjoy.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Colter Wall
    With a two-pack-a-day voice that combines the hard boiled/craggy rectitude of Tony Joe White, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and especially Waylon Jennings, anything Walls touches feels authentic and lived-in.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ukulele Songs
    Ukulele Songs is lovely as it breezes by, but it doesn't promise a very long shelf-life.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Love at the Bottom of the Sea
    In flirting with frivolity en route to the sublime, the Magnetic Fields too often sound frivolous.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Romantic Images
    Everything on the appropriately titled Romantic Images goes down smooth with any edges polished to a fine sheen. Those familiar with the music of Tennis will naturally gravitate to this collaboration.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Time
    Over production is a constant issue with these tunes, as Stewart (who co-produced) layers guitars, horns, backing vocals and too much of everything on melodies that, by and large, are strong enough to stand on their own in more stripped down arrangements.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars
    There aren’t any catchy melodies, the song structures are loose, often amorphous with a stream of consciousness flow, and the muted ambiance of the 32 minute, live in the studio set isn’t for everyone. ... Lindeman and her band play music as if no one is around and the tapes aren’t running. That’s a difficult task, but one this album accomplishes with class and style and an honest intimacy impossible to dismiss.
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