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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    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Am a Problem: Mind in Pieces
    Wolf Eyes’ travels through the depths of noise and despair sound like they end up at a place where the gates read “Abandon All Hope,” but the group’s ability to put across its artistic vision with such totality should inspire at least a flicker of optimism.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Son Little
    His self-titled debut on Anti- Records requires several listens before it comes into focus as a shape-shifting exploration of identity both personal and universal.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    South Broadway Athletic Club
    This 11th album is slighter than the group’s finest records yet there are enough emotionally true narratives here brimming with soul and bruised wisdom.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Liberman
    Fueled by exploration and musical experimentation, Carlton’s reinvention finds her a long way from “A Thousand Miles”--and in a better place, artistically.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Divers
    On Divers, her breathtaking follow-up to 2010’s “Have One on Me,” the singer, songwriter, and harpist affirms her stature as a visionary. It’s the most streamlined of her four albums.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Storyteller
    There’s plenty on Storyteller that will sound familiar to Underwood fans, and a few filler tracks. But a little stretching goes a long way, and this might be her most interesting album yet.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sermon on the Rocks
    Singer-songwriter Josh Ritter is moving fast on his eighth album, but he never puts a foot wrong. The 12-track collection, produced by Trina Shoemaker over two weeks in New Orleans, is positively giddy with wordplay.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Things That Can't Be Undone
    For all the lyrical power of those songs (and others here), the album’s most affecting moment may be its most plain-spoken: At the set’s end, Lund shares a song about a young niece who died of cancer, “Sunbeam,” that brims with quiet, heartfelt beauty.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Revival
    A forthright album of pop songs that make it clear she is ready to be honest and even vulnerable in her music.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Incidental Hum
    Among 12 originals there are a couple of failures (“Winslow” is soft, creamy, and dull), but the vast majority insinuate themselves into your brain with repeat listens. Not much commercial potential, but a job well done.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fast Forward
    Whether he is grappling with his confusion with the modern world in the searching title track, mulling the delightful aggravations of relationships on “If It Wasn’t For You” and the joys of making up on “A Little Smile,” or working up a froth on his rage, rattle, and roll version of Television’s “See No Evil,” Jackson is in peak form.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Uncovered
    Colvin struggles with the Band’s complex “Acadian Driftwood,” but otherwise shines.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Stories
    Stories drags a bit at the end, the low point being a reggae-lite track starring former Fugee Wyclef Jean and the fusion-minded Matisyahu, but when it hits, it hits big.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New Bermuda
    What’s surprising isn’t that the band takes such leaps, but that it nails its landings so surely.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Unbreakable
    Unbreakable is much closer in sound and spirit to her peak self, and her most solid release in years.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Holding Hands With Jamie
    By reinventing the idea of what a guitar-centric band should sound like from the bottom up, Girl Band has established itself as a much-needed force in rock, and Holding Hands With Jamie is among most exhilarating opening salvos of 2015.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cass County
    While the contributors are many, Cass County is a Henley vision down to its bones.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Music Complete
    This overflows with ideas and intricate synth patterns while maintaining the emotional resonance of the band’s best work.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    B'lieve I'm Goin' Down
    Now six solo albums in, Vile sounds like no one but himself.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    1989
    If you didn’t already, it even makes you appreciate Swift’s stealth songwriting, particularly when scaled to its essence.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rattle That Lock
    Gilmour’s fourth solo record summons a heady dose of the grandeur he brought to Floyd.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    La Di Da Di
    The players clearly thrill in wringing every possible sound out their instruments, making La Di Da Di one of the year’s most satisfying trips into the sonic unknown.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hollywood Vampires
    [A] fun, star-studded tribute, recorded with new Vampires Johnny Depp and Joe Perry
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ones and Sixes
    The album is assured and seductive, to the point that the despair underpinning so many of the songs isn’t immediately obvious.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Cry When I Laugh
    Glynne’s first solo album (which has already hit No. 1 in the UK) is a bit all over the place stylistically, but flaunts her formidable pipes and undeniable talent for injecting a lyric with vulnerability.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Faith in the Future
    Finn’s second solo album is packed with songs rich in street intelligence and wry humor.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Can't Fly Without Gravity
    His formula-defying sixth record probably won’t provide his breakthrough [in the United States], but it’s an undeniable creative triumph.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Book of Souls
    The Book of Souls is a triumph, packed with instantly memorable songs and riffs, vocal heroics, triple-guitar fireworks, and vital, committed performances.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yours, Dreamily
    Coproduced and primarily co-written by Auerbach and Michels, Yours, Dreamily satisfyingly careers from gauzy, reverb-soaked late-night soundscapes to raucous, fuzzy freak-outs.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz
    Her latest has a surplus of them [uniformly great songs]. It suggests Cyrus, at 22, has figured out how to present her views in a way that’s still powerful but also musically interesting and cohesive.
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