Blurt Magazine's Scores

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For 1,384 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 57% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 40% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: 100 George Fest: A Night to Celebrate the Music of George Harrison [Live]
Lowest review score: 20 Collapse
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 950 out of 1384
  2. Mixed: 427 out of 1384
  3. Negative: 7 out of 1384
1384 music reviews
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    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Stand Up: The Elevated Edition [Box Set]
    Steven Wilson has remixed the entire original album for this “Elevated Edition,” so Tull trainspotters will no doubt thrill to the opportunity to debate, anew, the myriad sonic nuances, nooks, hooks, hobbit-holes and crannies afforded by contemporary studio technology compared to a decade and a half ago. In one sense, the Swedish show is the main draw here--it’s been bootlegged extensively, but never with sound quality this superior.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Forward Constant Motion
    By not serving up familiar musical touchstones the band have risked plenty but the payoff is a work of art that is brimming with aural intensity and potent creativity, just begging for a listen.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heart Song
    Williamson’s voice is arresting, a haunted amalgam of Karen Dalton and Tanya Donnelly, but don’t it distract you from her very fine guitar work.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Autumn
    They hit their stride midway through on a trio of sweet ballads--“Rock in the River,” “Jackie Boy” and “All That’s Left”--and although the surrounding songs keep to the same tone and tempo, those three numbers give the album its emotional imprint.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No. 6
    You won’t be able to resist this delightful album’s charms, either. Don’t even try. Gabba gabba hey.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Requiem
    Needing to prove nothing, Goat have created one of the most definitive musical statements of 2016.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heads Up
    Heads Up could easily pick things up right where the band left off, as it elaborates upon the Warpaint dreampop while bringing in purposeful elements of dance-pop and post-rock.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mangy Love
    For a primer in what went right in the ‘70s prior to punk and hip-hop, you won’t find many LPs as successful at recapturing the diversity of those rich sonic playgrounds as Mangy Love.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
    Golden Sings both celebrates and transcends ordinary existence, finding revelation in small, perfect turns of song.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Dub
    This set has definitely been lovingly culled together for fans seeking out a very specific side of Wobble.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Become Zero
    It’s a tour de force performance that never revolves around technique--instead Chesley channels her rage, sorrow and acceptance into sometimes soothing, sometimes serrated devotions of pure, unadulterated feeling.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Peak
    Beautiful stuff, strange and arresting.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eve
    It’s not as bleak as it may sound, though--there is freedom and catharsis in the acceptance of those human traits, a key element in Eve.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Skeleton Tree
    Skeleton Tree is a testament to his art, his flaying honesty and his persistence in the wake of devastating loss.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cosmetic
    They come back hard and a bit more focused on this terrific sophomore effort.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    High Bias
    High Bias is the best Purling Hiss album yet, channeling a tidal wave of noise into songs that you can remember almost immediately and even hum to yourself later when the album’s out of ear shot.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Little Seeds
    Whether they’re tearing through a raucous house burner (“Buffalo Nickle”) or serenading in quieter moments (“St. Anne’s Parade,” “This Ride”), Shovels & Rope manage to deliver a nearly flawless record. Yet again.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    22, A Million
    All the Bon Iver albums sound like little self-contained islands, and this is the one that sounds the most like a fire ravaging through the greenery and growth of the previous two. Sit back and let the flames burn bright and beautiful.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Eyes on the Lines
    He’s cut a broad range of material to date, everything from Delta blues to free jazz to blazing psychedelia. All that and more surfaces at various points on Eyes On the Lines, ultimately making the album a culmination and a celebration.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Animal Races
    If you like drawling guitars and the springy thud of basslines, if you prefer sunny melodies dredged in fog and dissonance, Cool Ghouls is as good a bet as any.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Human Performance
    Examining the duality of our motivations and emotions elevates Parquet Courts above most of their peers. Not only do they avoid the Vinyl-style embalming of their source material, but the songs transcend the romanticized hipster baggage that the city--and Brooklyn in particular--currently carries with it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Of Monkees & Men
    The result is a musical summit in which all assembled sound like they’re having a whale of a good time. Indie rock was never so joyous.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    True Sadness
    Ultimately, True Sadness is a confessional set of songs, revealing in many ways and vulnerable in many others. However, honesty has always been an inherent element in their sound, so in that sense this album’s no different.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Arts & Leisure
    His writing has the kind of laconic detail and precision of a Paul Simon or Loudon Wainwright.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Scheherazade
    Twenty-five years in, how well these two sides of a sung coin fit together and complement each other remains remarkable.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lovers
    On Lovers, Cline is effective at making re-interpreted songbook selections his own.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not
    They’re as vital, fresh and relevant as they’ve ever been in 31 years.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Modern Country
    Like its MCA spiritual predecessors, Modern Country shows what a great musician can do when he decides his skill is the least important part of the package.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Glowing Man
    Consolidation more than innovation, The Glowing Man still presents the current incarnation of Swans in its best light, as if this is the record the band has been working toward these past seven years.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Carolina
    Carolina is a gorgeous record, enticing and attractive, giving you its heart to hold and trusting you to treasure the experience.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Good Times!
    Being a summer release, the sun really shines down on tunes like “Good Times,” with it’s go-go beat, “She Makes Me Laugh,” “Our Own World,” “Gotta Give It Time,’ and come on get happy with “You Bring the Summer.”
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Westerner
    With The Westerner, Doe’s reached another milestone, a rugged, reliable individual who reflects the sturdy independence that characterizes the west at its best.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Max Jury
    There is not a single track on this record that doesn’t belong, each nearly flawless in their own way.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Wanna Go Back to Detroit City
    Raw in places, expansive in others, and rife with Williams’ patented street-corner-talking, pimp-swagger style, I Wanna Go Back to Detroit City is as good a postcard for the Motor City as you’ll likely find all year.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Colvin & Earle
    Steve Earle and Shawn Colvin sound remarkable together, sharing vocals and guitars on all 10 tracks.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Mystery Lights
    Follow Me Home sounds like 1966, but like it’s happening all over again, organically and without premeditation, and it rocks.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Earth
    These songs are striking in a musical sense. Young, never the most dynamic vocalist, is remarkably expressive here.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Solid States
    True to its title, Solid States is, again, a solid workman-like affair, flush with resolute integrity, catchy choruses and songs that sound tailor made for instant gratification.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wolves of Want
    This is a feel good album about terrible times.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Another Splash of Colour: New Psychedelia in Britain 1980-1985 [Box Set]
    Another Splash of Colour: New Psychedelia in Britain 1980-1995, has plenty of meat on the bone for the uninitiated as well as the seasoned psychedelic music listener.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hold/Still
    Taken in one extended listening session, Hold/Still proves titularly prophetic because you’re left exhausted from all the foregoing textural and tempo twists. One could liken the experience to ingesting a handful of lysergic tablets and then deciding to run a marathon that lasts all night. Once you’re done, you’re done for good. Hold still, kids.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Singing Saw
    The songs, then, range from spare, acoustic folk blues to full-fleshed extravaganzas, yet even the most dizzying tracks have an introspective cast.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    World War Willie
    Willie Nile, at 67, can still paint a picture with words and burn the house down from the stage. Savor it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Atomic
    Because it’s a soundtrack, where the music works in support of narrative and imagery, Atomic remains subdued.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    George Fest: A Night to Celebrate the Music of George Harrison [Live]
    While this faithful tribute doesn’t lessen the sadness, it does remind us that genius is timeless and that the memories of those triumphs will linger long enough to inspire us forever. The fact that these performances serve to remind us of that fact is reason enough to rejoice.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Upland Stories
    He may not be looking to “kill Saturday night” anymore but, with Upland Stories, Fulks has composed songs that are richer and more rewarding.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    2
    The Gloaming is different because it gets at the lovely essence of the Irish tradition without sentimentality or dumbing down--and also isn’t afraid to make it modern.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Né So
    As with so much African music, Né So favors hope over despair, proud defiance over inchoate anger, and stands as the most trenchant portrait of the African musical spirit so far this year.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Marlowe's Revenge
    Stuart cut a slew of tracks at their studio, handed the results to J.D. Foster for mixing duties, and wound up with one helluva platter that’s even better than The Deliverance of… and, as fans will realize upon the first spin, slots perfectly into his Green On Red oeuvre.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Cure for Loneliness
    Not as prolific as some of his peers, it’s easy to forget what a great musician Wolf is. Thankfully, this new one serves as a fresh reminder.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Can't Go Back if There's Nothing To Go Back To
    Dire and descriptive, You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To numbing melancholia is uncommonly compelling.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Narrows
    The result is a fantastic record, powerful in its calmness.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Little Windows
    A terrific beginning, Little Windows offers its audience a perfect view.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Azel
    If your idea of African music is Paul Simon playing out his colonial lord fantasies amid a bunch of syrupy melody and chipper rhythms, well… this note’s for you. And there are some surprises awaiting.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lost Time
    Spend enough time with Lost Time and you’ll find yourself singing snatches of lyrics about the west coast tsunami (“I Love Seattle”) or misogynist trolls (“The Internet”) in the shower. And, weirdly, it’ll be fun.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Forever Sounds
    Forever Sounds (Shake It/Damnably) is a kaleidoscopic, sonic soundscape, engagingly recorded at John Curley’s (Afghan Whigs) facility, Ultrasuede Studios.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Marlon Williams
    It’s the weird stuff that’s stirring on this non-native take on American folk and country, the eerie distortions that you get from being outside looking in.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson
    Thanks to this well-constructed compilation CD (including a very informative booklet), his legacy will be exposed to a new generation of musicians, and music fans.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heron Oblivion
    One of the strongest debut albums in recent memory.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    I Abused Animal
    I Abused Animal is a real shocker and definitely an album you won’t easily forget.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Still in a Dream: A Story of Shoegaze
    This is a very enjoyable round-up of shoegaze, shoegaze influenced and vaguely-similar-to-shoegaze bands, including some material you’ll know well and some that will likely be less familiar.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Ghosts of Highway 20
    It’s hardly an easy listen, but it’s a compelling one just the same. And if it’s not exactly a conclusive journey, it’s still one worth traveling all the same.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Going Down in History
    Going Down In History is pretty much what you’d expect from the genre veterans; catchy three-chord country with some distorted guitars and plenty of punk rock attitude and smart ass lyrics.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Above the Prairie
    Above the Prairie unfolds as a series of shimmering, seductive soundscapes that effectively convey the other-worldly imagery asserted in its title. Within this beguiling set of songs, a dream-like scenario with a nocturnal gaze unfolds.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Adore Life
    With Adore Life, Savages have built on the visceral, gut-shock impact of their first album with stronger songs and more varied writing. It’s an impressive step up for an already promising band.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nevermen
    [A] sensational self-titled release. Mixing the album’s overall tone with soul, rock, electronic, and hip hop, the album has a vibe that is something close to Mike Patton’s baby Peeping Tom.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Find What You Love and Let It Kill You
    A journey as personal as Lowe’s can only translate into universal messages that people receive in their own way, regardless of which way their winds blow.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cayamo Sessions at Sea
    Like many a good party, you wish it would have last longer (the other minor qualm is that there isn’t a mention of when the specific songs were recorded).
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Coliseum Complex Museum
    This band stirs a noisy pot of rock sounds, but vapors that escape smell delicious.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Jet Plane And Oxbow
    The bold artistic statement that is this record will have people talking about it for years to come.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pleasure
    Club 8 may have just made their best record yet (no mean feat in a band with a catalog of great records). It’s true.... this is one of 2015’s best.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Under Branch and Thorn and Tree
    Under Branch & Thorn & Tree is a hypnotic sojourn to be sure, one that rewards repeated listens with a sense of lofty liberation.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    South Broadway Athletic Club
    Here’s an album from guys who have been making trouble for more than 20 years, and if they haven’t gotten better behaved with time, at least they’ve gotten better at it.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ork Records: New York, New York
    Ork Records: New York, New York opens a window to the past that you can’t go through or even really see through, but it is just wide enough to let the music in and that is a very good thing indeed.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    It's Great to Be Alive! [Live]
    Somehow It’s Great To Be Alive seems like the essential set, given that it boasts some 35 tracks spanning all phases of their collective career. It shows them in their true element--raucous, raw and unapologetic, a combination certain to appeal to diehard devotees and practically anyone else whose taste in music is generally affirmed by frequenting sweaty beer joints and any local roadhouse bar.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Metalmania
    These salad days have been solid days for the Salad Boys, no matter how you toss it, making them a sterling addition to their musically rich NZ heritage. Pleasurable neural sensations are guaranteed.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    American Man
    The band, seemingly surfacing out of nowhere has turned in an impressive dozen tracks with their first offering.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Skeleton Closet
    An artist of ample prowess, Salim Nourallah can take pride in yet another in a line of outstanding efforts.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Tape Hiss
    This is a portrait of a band firing creatively on all cylinders. Their time is now. Don’t miss out.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rehumanizer
    If you’ve ever fantasized about Hawkwind going motorik, Rehumanizer is your dream come true.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For Use and Delight
    Promised Land Sound are clearly onto something special, and it’s going to be a fun ride to watch ‘em develop.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Grief's Infernal Flower
    With Grief’s Infernal Flower, Windhand goes from strength to even more strength, taking doom to the next level by refining tradition, rather than radically altering it.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hollow Meadows
    The quality of the songs and Hawley’s ability to completely inhabit his songs make Hollow Meadows another triumph in his remarkable discography.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Agent Intellect
    This album is a triumph, and with it, Protomartyr has pulled off the unlikely feat of making the rock record of the year, twice in a row.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything: 1970-1975 [Box Set]
    1970-1975 You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything is as inspiring as its title implies and absolutely essential to boot.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Harmlessness
    Something so well crafted by a group of individuals that bleeds music and emotions makes me thinks/hopes this is just the beginning for The World Is A Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid To Die.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Weirdo Shrine
    Weirdo Shrine is everything that the debut was and more.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songs to Play
    Quite simply, Songs to Play is an excellent Robert Forster record.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Miles Davis at Newport: 1955-1975 The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4
    Hearing it all together, over four discs, his innovations don’t seem as radical as they might have been considered at the time, but they’re nonetheless fascinating to devour.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Something More Than Free
    Something More Than Free is like a novel set to music, each of its 11 songs a separate chapter that, when absorbed in full, leave you with the same kind of psychic shift a good book sets into motion.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Illegals in Heaven
    With electronic pop maverick Lawrence English producing, they have, if not exactly tamed their sound, at least neatened it up.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    John Howard & the Night Mail
    Taking the classic British penchant for hiding burning emotion with sardonic reserve and painting with expertly sculpted craft, Howard turns & the Night Mail into a new classic.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Under the Savage Sky
    I like the tumult and ferocity of the album’s first half, though I’m not sure the world needs another “Everybody do the [insert dance move here]” song or anything else entitled “Rock and Roll Baby,” ever again.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stupid Things That Mean the World
    With breathy singing and lush production as the connecting skein, Stupid Things That Mean the World puts Bowness firmly on the same level as David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel and other masters of adapting high art to accessible pop.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pain
    The album is brimming with originality. There are hints of Sonic Youth, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and the Swell Maps in the songs.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    White Reaper Does It Again
    With 12 songs in about a half hour, the record kind of blazes by you but gives you plenty of room for multiple listens--it’s not a ‘deep,’ layered record to warrant that but one that gives you a rush of grime and song each time you do race through it.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Helio Sequence
    Filled with some genuinely memorable moments The Helio Sequence show that if a band is open to experimentation and letting the light of the new day shine in, fascinating things can truly happen.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Array 1 [EP]
    Like its celebrated, quarter-century old predecessor, Array 1 is the culmination of the group’s furious fusion of psychedelic crunch, ambient moan and motorik vroom, and a reminder of just how brilliant Loop is and always was.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Works for Tomorrow
    Eleventh Dream Day acknowledges its past and could fit in comfortably with the big dogs.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shirley Inspired
    It’s a wonderful soul inspiring, mournfully imbued compendium of her songs that will hopefully continue to inspire an even younger crop of musicians on into the future.
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