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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    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    New View
    Subtle hints at emotional undercurrents enhance the potency of Friedberger’s lyrics.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Easy Wonderful
    The Tufts-bred pop rock quartet is still interested in layering varied instrumentation- banjos and synthesizers, warped electric guitars and clanging bells--to achieve different textures, Easy just feels a bit cleaner and less symphonically ambitious. But that doesn't mean it's less diverse.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Going Out In Style
    This time out, there's a conceptual framework laid over the proceedings in the tale of the dearly departed, and fictional, Cornelius Larkin.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Victim of Love
    You hear him at the peak of his powers on the title track, whose acoustic soul reels in the band and lets Bradley tell his story, one wounded sentiment at a time.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Age of Adz
    Casual fans looking to prolong the artful mellow of the gently plucked art-folk and strutting orchestral pop the precious singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens laid down on previous records might be lulled into a false calm as this record opens.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Down to My Last Bad Habit
    It’s a pleasure to report that country music’s ultimate good guy has once again crafted an excellent collection of new music with his 18th album.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Break It Yourself
    On his 12th official album, the 38-year-old's impressive work habits have both loosened and deepened his craft.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Flux
    “Flux,” with its sharp focus and even sharper songwriting, could be a sign that the world is ready to focus — even if its residual chaos makes one need to let out a scream now and again.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Offend Maggie
    There are no "eureka" moments on Offend Maggie but plenty of small epiphanies.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sound & Color
    Sound & Color makes clear this success was not a fluke. This is the sound of a band that’s in it for the long haul, amplifying what worked the first time, and stretching in new directions to challenge both the performers and their listeners.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Future's Void
    When the fireworks gently pop and fizzle out in the last breath of EMA’s new album, it feels like the only way to close such an emotionally visceral set of songs.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Icky Thump
    It's fantastic.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Dotted Line
    The time away has done the California-spawned group good, as the conversation is familiar--intricate instrumental phrasing, pristine harmonies--but also full of fresh energy that lends everything from the buoyant gospel bluegrass of “21st of May” to the joyously bleary “Rest of My Life” an air of excitement.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Crying Light
    This deeply introspective album is vast in scope while retaining the intimacy of a concert-hall recital.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bloodsports
    Decade-long hiatus or no decade-long hiatus, Bloodsports finds Suede in exactly its element.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You Get What You Give
    He has a great voice, but most songs on this follow-up release fall into the sugary commercial country column.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ratchet
    n album of movement that reaches toward the sublime.... Ratchet meanders a bit near the end, but its haze also mirrors the slow awakening that marks the end of a night spent reaching for dance-floor ecstasy.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mirror Traffic
    He doesn't escape middle-aged insularity; he just makes it fun.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Band of Joy
    Co-produced by Plant and critically revered singer-songwriter-guitarist Buddy Miller, Joy is a mostly covers grab bag stitched together by Plant's sweetly urgent croon and finely crafted layers of sepia-toned instrumentation and vocals.
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bad Magic
    While drummer Mikkey Dee shines on an unexpected cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” That efficient if unspectacular borrowing aside, this potent record ranks among the year’s best.
    • 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
    Dye It Blonde
    The Chicagoans' sophomore full-length is tightened and scrubbed clean of a few of the layers of reverb that doused their debut, bringing to the forefront an ambitious and dexterous level of songwriting that belies their ever-so-slightly-post-adolescent ages.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Le Noise
    It builds a rich sonic arch around Young's voice and guitar, bottling the essence of what makes him such a compelling singer-songwriter at 64.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    From a Room, Vol. 2
    It’s a short, casual release, so much so that it’s easy to miss just how expertly crafted these songs are.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tassili
    With Tassili, Tinariwen reasserts its leadership through a return to roots - setting aside electric guitars and leaving off the female singers who added drive and bustle to previous albums, and going lean and acoustic in sessions recorded under a tent in the Algerian desert.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Night Falls Over Kortedala
    With such a sweeping sonic palette, it's a pleasant surprise that the record doesn't crumble under its own auspices.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Give My Love to London
    If it is indeed her swan song, it’s a triumphant sendoff that reiterates what a singular figure she has been in rock music. It’s among her broadest work, spanning intimate ballads (“Love More or Less”), apocalyptic art songs (“Late Victorian Holocaust”), and harrowing blues (“True Lies”).
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Treasure
    Older songs such as Young's "Are You Ready for the Country?" and Buffalo Springfield's "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong" sound made for this setting of shorter, tighter robust song arrangements. "Southern Pacific" and "Motor City" are nice revivals from "Re-ac-tor." But it's the batch of previously unreleased material that justifies the album's title.
    • 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.
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