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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    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Scandalous
    The thoroughly engaging Scandalous certainly satisfying one's hunger for some stick-to-your-ribs rock 'n' soul music. The band, however, seems approaching a crossroads. They definitely demonstrate their skills at successfully reviving these retro sounds but they are still striving to find their own special voice.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Alexander
    On Alexander, Ebert proves he's just as capable on his own as he is sharing a stage with nine other musicians.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Several Shades of Why
    Even without his electric axe (and accompanying pedal board and crater of Marshall stacks) Mascis is still a virtuso.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Dancing Backward in High Heels
    Dancing Backward sounds more like a Buster Poindexter album than a Dolls one.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Middle Brother
    Middle Brother is a prediction of great things to come. It's a promise that a new generation of songwriters is rising up to carry and brilliantly build on the tradition.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Majestic Silver Strings
    This record is way cool. It may not seem like it upon first listen, but after a couple spins it's hard to forget.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Invariable Heartache
    For their part, the band is spotless. The majority of the record adheres to the lilting and forlorn brand of country that one might expect from an album called Invariable Heartache.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Different Gear, Still Speeding
    This album, produced by Steve Lillywhite whose credits include U2, Dave Matthews Band and The Smiths, shows this band is ready to ready to compete for world-class status. Rock on.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Long Player Late Bloomer
    Long Player, Late Bloomer is a record certainly worthy of being played for a long, long time to come.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Go-Go Boots
    For folks new to the Truckers, intrigued but a little overwhelmed by their rather expansive catalog, this is the album to start with.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Own Side Now
    The crooning background vocals rise and trade phrases with a simple guitar solo that follows the melody of the main vocal line. It's a flush and full sound in perfect pairing with a sentiment that defines the entire album.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blessed
    Blessed ultimately remains an optimistic record that juxtaposes her typically heartrending croon.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    HONORS
    While perhaps not the most ambitious of albums, Ben + Vesper's Honors is the kind of record that shows that the artists behind it know where their strengths lie. The duo works fast and works well together, with lush, transportative harmonies that cannot be denied.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smart Flesh
    The Low Anthem are desperately trying to say something, even if that message is not always crystal clear.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The King of Limbs
    The King of Limbs is Radiohead's Sky Blue Sky–a reliably enjoyable record that follows a heightened run of musical genius.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Let England Shake
    Since PJ Harvey is a veteran artist who, in her 20-year career, has yet to either make a bad record or repeat herself, to call her latest, Let England Shake, one of her strongest efforts to date is a bold statement, but it's true--this a brilliant record by an artist impervious to aging.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Palace Guards
    Though nothing here (not even the one cover, Dutch band Mint's "Ah, You Left Me") wanders far from the work he has done with Cracker or Camper, this intimate album is a welcome addition to the Lowery catalog.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    White Wilderness
    With the orchestra, Vanderslice is able to maintain the best-friend-telling-secrets feel of his previous work, while expanding the sound to make it feel more like an orchestral soundscape of all your best friends telling you the same secret. Or maybe the secret is just much, much grander.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The People's Key
    As much as this album sounds like a final chapter, a loose-end knotting affair designed as a summary statement, there are no subplots left unresolved.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bella
    Bella is a flat-out stunner, the work of a completely original songwriter and performer, and one of the young year's most startlingly eclectic and thoroughly fascinating albums.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mission Bell
    Mission Bell is hopefully a transition record for Lee, one that shows him at the crossroads of polished, packaged pop tunes and the grittier gut-wrenchers of artists like Nelson and Williams.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Degeneration Street
    Twelve members and five records in and the Dears have made their best album yet -– Degeneration Street is one of the rock albums to live up to in 2011.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tell Me
    Contradictory emotions push against each other in each line and verse, pulling the listener between envy and pity for the characters that inhabit each song, and often with envy/pity switching sides on each additional listen.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tao of the Dead
    There's plenty more on Tao of the Dead that works. After years out in the cold as music critic whipping posts, this should go a long way toward reclaiming some lost luster for Trail of Dead.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    City of Refuge
    In a word, Abigail Washburn's City of Refuge shines. It is a folk-pastiche that draws on all of Washburn's past successes and crafts them together into a lovely and sometimes mysterious work of art.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mine Is Yours
    The lack of thematic diversity strikes another blow. Certainly, songs about being unhappy with relationships are nothing unusual. However, the ability to write anything meaningful or refreshing about the subject is quickly exhausted on Mine Is Yours.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Live: The Storyteller
    Like many a great singer-songwriter, Snider possesses neither an exceptional voice or above average guitar skills. What he does bring to the party, though, is his own inimitable point of view: a wry, self-deprecating, seemingly slightly stoned, hilarious, and authentic persona.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Party Ain't Over
    In the end, this album just doesn't make it.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Steel Magnolia
    On their self-titled debut album, country duo Meghan Linsey and Joshua Jones Scott deliver a sound that is familiar and cozy, as if the songs have always been there.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Content
    As far as this legendary foursome's new offering, Content, is concerned, well, at least they're not simply cruising on the laurels of their formidable back catalog, and to be fair, Content is no worse than other recent comeback albums by fellow post-punkers Mission of Burma, The Buzzcocks, and Wire.
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