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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Watershed
    The mellifluous melodies and tasteful instrumentation fall in line with the adult-contemporary pop of previous albums such as "Ingenue" and "Invincible Summer."
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love Behind The Melody
    After his 2005 debut, DeVaughn ups the ante with a sprawling effort that works as a showcase for his lush vocals.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    District Line
    This album is an extremely provocative effort.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Working Man's Cafe
    Sonically, Working Man's Café is also a triumph.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Seventh Tree
    What keeps Seventh Tree from lapsing into music for looming by is Goldfrapp and Gregory's inventive instrumentation, which harvests the warmth of electronic pop and marries it organically to acoustic instruments.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Devotion
    It's transfixing in the moment and even more so once you've stopped listening.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Real Emotional Trash
    Real Emotional Trash isn't "Slanted and Enchanted" or "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain," but hey, you can't have a perfect sound forever. Besides, there are more than enough old-school indie touches here to flash you back to the halcyon daze of '94, or give you an idea what your older sis had on her headphones.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Good Time
    This is another Alan Jackson record that will stand the test of time.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Red Yellow & Blue
    Red, Yellow & Blue delivers a splash of color to a vibrant indie soundscape.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Asking For Flowers
    Edwards brings on none of the filler that watered down her earlier albums as she moves steadily from scathing to soothing, from rocking country to Gothic sketches, from strength to strength.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
    'We Call Upon the Author to Explain' goes the title of one song, but Cave offers no explanations and no justifications merely another lean, assured set of glamorously gloomy songs.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trouble In Dreams
    Luckily for him, his band Destroyer more than makes up for his occasionally strained croak, and "Trouble in Dreams," their follow-up to 2006's acclaimed "Destroyer's Rubies," is an unqualified triumph.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hold On Now, Youngster
    A welcome throwback to the raw energy of early Kill Rock Star bands, this delirious debut still boasts enough cheeky vigor to sound fresh and new.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rockferry
    Husky-sweet and preternaturally seasoned, Duffy's delivery is as pungent as it is unaffected, and the songs, which the singer co-wrote, follow suit.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Odd Couple
    Sometimes the pair slips into an uncomplicated groove, and the results transcend the duo's deep, signature whimsy to lift Gnarls Barkley into the realm of classic.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Unfairground
    Nudged out of retirement, the singer-guitarist has returned with The Unfairground, his first album in 15 years and best in more than three decades.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mountain Battles
    Alt-rock guru Steve Albini is back at the helm and once again proves the ideal midwife for the Breeders' fiercely independent vision.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mr. Love & Justice
    Bragg colors his brilliant Cockney-accented discourse with Appalachian folk on the Woody Guthrie-influenced 'O Freedom,' where he protests, "Freedom, what liberties are taken in thy name?" On 'I Keep Faith,' which features Soft Machine legend Robert Wyatt, he taps classic soul.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Attack & Release
    After four self-produced albums, the Ohio-based duo enlists Gnarls Barkley's Danger Mouse to infuse their guitar-and-drums minimalism with a fuller roots-rock feel, and the results are fresh, intriguing, and often inspiring.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Charmed & Strange
    Yoav proves that a guitar and his voice are the only instruments you really need to make powerful, versatile music.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shine
    Equally adept at slinging sharp rhymes and jazzy crooning, Estelle has a sweet sense of cool and charm.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    April
    April, the third Sun Kil Moon album by Kozelek and friends, has several such sweet spots, the kind we hope will never end.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Do It!
    No song is longer than three minutes and 30 seconds, and the band seems to be on a mission to get in, do it, and get out. It's that attitude that keeps Clinic a fixture, with an unsettling, enjoyable addition to its repertoire to boot.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lady Antebellum
    A rare find in any genre, the entire album holds up from stem to stern as the group deftly gives Nashville what it needs in terms of melody and production polish while mostly sidestepping assembly-line banalities.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Third
    Portishead's methods are hardly frozen in time. And that evolution is what makes these elaborately layered tracks such a knotty, mesmerizing listen.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Flight Of The Conchords
    The result is an album that is every bit as engaging as ear-candy as humor.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hard Candy
    Thanks to the blunt force of her personality, Hard Candy feels perfectly concerted, without a whiff of desperation.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Santogold
    Part of the appeal as with M.I.A.--is the attitude and defiant urban undertow that draw you in, and, while not immediately accessible, it's ultimately irresistible.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rising Down
    On the Roots' superb, inky-black tale of paranoia, 2006's "Game Theory," the walls were closing in. On the equally gripping Rising Down, the group's 10th album, out today, the walls are getting demolished.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Momofuku
    Costello gives us Momofuku, titled in tribute to the inventor of the Cup Noodle, and this collection goes down as easy and tasty as its namesake's ingenious snack.
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