Boston Globe's Scores

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For 2,093 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 66% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 31% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 City of Refuge
Lowest review score: 10 Lulu
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,670 out of 2093
  2. Mixed: 412 out of 2093
  3. Negative: 11 out of 2093
2093 music reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jukebox
    A tender fragility still touches her music, effectively so, but these strong interpretations feel like another step toward strengthening her own foundations.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Full Circle
    Through 13 glorious tracks spanning back-porch hootenanny sessions to countrypolitan elegance, Lynn proves that at 83 she’s a national treasure who still exudes the earthiness of her rural roots.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Push the Sky Away
    Sometimes his baritone carries lyrics that are blunt and tart, and others opaque and blurry, but never lacking bite.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Acid Tongue
    What it has in common with its superb predecessors is Lewis's invaluable understanding of what works for her.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Morning Phase
    Morning beautifully captures what makes this album so rich: that delicate divide between grandiose and intimate.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Rip Tide
    The Rip Tide establishes Beirut's music as not merely an ode to Condon's worldly bag of influences, but an entity that stands on its own.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pushin' Against a Stone
    As debuts go, this is a marvel by a singer and songwriter who has no desire to fit snugly into one category. Her talent isn’t that easily contained.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    MartyrLoserKing
    The often elliptical lyrics are both penetrating and hypnotic--the sounds of words are as vital as their meaning.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Cool
    Fiasco builds on that promise [in "Food & Liquuor"] exponentially with the triumphant Cool, which gets extra style points for bringing back the idea of the headphones hip-hop album.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Around The Bend
    His interpretive use of his rich, burnished baritone has never been better, and that remarkable voice is still a force to be reckoned with.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Good Evening New York City
    The two CDs sound terrific, documenting how gracefully both McCartney and his music are aging. His voice is robust, his charm on full blast, and the epic set of Beatles, Wings, and solo material is deepening with meaning and sentiment.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    North
    Frontman Rob Thomas has not lost his fastball as a craftsman. Listeners will be humming several songs off "North" before the second chorus even begins, whether they like it or not.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Uncovered
    Colvin struggles with the Band’s complex “Acadian Driftwood,” but otherwise shines.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dig in Deep
    Like her heroes before her, B.B. King included, Raitt is clearly in it for the long haul, and not content to rely on past glory. Instead, she wisely digs Deep and her listeners are the better for it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Modern Guilt
    With 10 songs clocking in at just 33 minutes, Modern Guilt feels fleeting, even temporal, and that seems to be the point. It's destined to be an artifact of an age that's rocketing, Beck suspects, toward oblivion.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Holding All the Roses
    While the touchstones are evident--you can hear wisps of everyone from Vince Gill to Steve Earle to Lynyrd Skynyrd--Blackberry Smoke has assuredly carved out its own spot.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault
    24 Karat Gold is Stevie at her Nicks-iest: a gold dust woman, caught mid-twirl.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bad as Me
    His first album of new material since 2004's "Real Gone," it's also one of Waits's most balanced works in recent memory.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pieces of Me
    The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter takes a major leap forward with this vivacious, smartly conceived work.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Most Messed Up
    Most Messed Up is a full-blown, album-length expression of the Old 97s’ vintage, railroad-beat careen stripped of all embellishments.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Loud Hailer
    An out of the ordinary offering, the disc proves Beck still hasn’t stopped growing.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everything Will Be Alright in the End
    While there’s a back-to-basics glee in the album’s geeky power-chord pop tracks, a largely instrumental three-song closing suite is neatly epic, triggering Pink Floyd chills.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Betty Wright: The Movie
    Betty Wright: The Movie doesn't reinvent its maker so much as it extracts her essence.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lust Lust Lust
    Their fourth record, the stunning Lust Lust Lust, retains the Danish duo’s fetish for early pop harmony and surf guitar, not to mention shoe-gaze buzz in their concise, fuzzy bursts of tragic romance.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Interstellar
    A major step forward, this new album sounds nothing like the work of her peers.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Woman
    The debut from the once-anonymous LA duo of Rhye--Danish electro-soul producer Robin Hannibal and Canadian vocalist-producer Mike Milosh--floats with ease on this wave [of R&B experiments].
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love And Its Opposite
    On her gently magnificent third solo album, Tracey Thorn--the beguiling voice of Everything But the Girl--tackles serious big-girl issues.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    People, Hell and Angels
    The Hendrix estate, along with Newton-based archivist John McDermott and producer Eddie Kramer, have done themselves proud here.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    200 Million Thousand
    Grimy and disheveled, clever and infectious, it's a sloppy heap of classic pop, psychedelic haze, spastic rock, and teenage disaffection mixed to lo-fi imperfection in some kid's filthy garage.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Beast in Its Tracks
    As personal as it feels, The Beast in Its Tracks, like the great breakup records before it (Beck’s “Sea Change” comes to mind), is universal in its scope.
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