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
    Last Dance
    More important, the intimate atmosphere and the effortless rapport between Jarrett’s radiant chords and Haden’s eloquently simple bass lines remain.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    If I've Only One Time Askin'
    A magnificent, subtle reshaping of classic honky-tonk sounds and sentiment, fulfills that promise and then some.
    • 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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Morning Phase
    Morning beautifully captures what makes this album so rich: that delicate divide between grandiose and intimate.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Researching the Blues
    After 34 years of recording, the brothers think it's their best collection yet. Again breaking the artistic rule, they may be right.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life is Good
    Life Is Good, finds him humbled and reflective after his high-profile divorce from Kelis. This doesn't diminish his impact, as these songs mix anger, nostalgia, and insight.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Take Me to the Alley
    Again Porter delivers passion and craft in abundance, owing to the songwriting, the acoustic-jazz arrangements (by producer Kamau Kenyatta and pianist Chip Crawford), and his corduroy-warm baritone, pliant and powerful.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    They Want My Soul
    The brisk 38-minute, 10-song collection brims with sideways guitar pluck and twang, warbly keys, and earwormy tunes that demand immediate repeated listens.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    So Runs The World Away
    The result is this quite sensational new album that not only purges the darkness, but marks the finest music he has made.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fear Inoculum
    An 80-minute prog-metal fever dream that proves the band is back and better than ever.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blue Smoke
    This being Dolly, there are the occasional missteps (the silly “Lover du Jour,” the overly earnest “Try”). But even when Parton goes camp and piles on the gloss, there’s still a big heart beating beneath the album’s surface, much like the artist herself.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    R Plus Seven
    On tracks like “Americans” and “Along,” this reverence for the synthetic is almost indistinguishable from his zeal for the real, and it’s a tension that gives all of R Plus Seven a unique sheen--and some potent fumes.
    • 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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lese Majesty
    While there are songs of undeniable artistic invention (“Dawn in Lexor,” “#CAKE”) there are also moments of ostentatious indulgence, intellectual handstands that feel like ends in themselves. But then, that’s always a hazard with a band this original and audacious.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fur & Gold
    Even though Khan's music is not yet as ambitious as [Kate] Bush's best work, it has enough arresting moments and unique beauty to suggest that Khan is an indie songwriter and chanteuse to watch.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    99.9%
    The album’s title refers to the feeling of never being quite done, but “99.9%” oozes poise and confidence.
    • 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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Speak Because I Can
    Marling combines craft, instinct, and emotion for a collection of tunes that showcase a variety of mostly acoustic moods but coalesce into a hushed, beguiling whole.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The BBC Sessions
    This collection of live radio performances from the band's early years is like a letter from an old friend long delayed in the post.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Monomania
    For the album’s driving first half, the messiness is captivating, culminating in “Dream Captain,” reminiscent of T. Rex on “Bang a Gong.” The second half teeters on standard bohemian dissipation, but with a sly and rare self-knowingness.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Armchair Apocrypha
    The strength of this album lies in Bird's ability to write challenging, evocative lyrics, and then wed his erudite prose with joyous melodies.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Way Out
    If there's a lesson to be learned from The Way Out, it's that we need little more than the sounds of each other's voices to find comfort--or in the Books' case, to crank out yet another masterwork.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Short Movie
    She seldom raises her voice in anger or frustration, but imbues her words with emotional heft.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fortune
    His latest release, Fortune, weds his marvelous lyrical economy to music that ranges from spare acoustic guitar to a clanging junkyard sound, and proves once again that he’s a ringmaster at turning misery into art.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Learned The Hard Way
    I Learned the Hard Way is yet another work of impeccable late-’60s nostalgia by the flagship act of Brooklyn label Daptone, where soul revivalism is a way of life, from crack horn section to period recording tools to throwback art and typography.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    So Far Gone [Mixtape]
    His materialism threads throughout So Far Gone (champagne flutes, girls, BlackBerrys, more girls), but he chases that with soft touches of humor and honesty.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Maraqopa
    Maraqopa is melodious, sprawling in all the right ways, even a little ramshackle.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Don't Like Shit: I Don't Go Outside
    On an album as free of frill as it is of gimmicks, Earl Sweatshirt lets his music stand on its own merits.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Ecstatic
    The fleet-tongued 'Casa Bey' shows what Mos can do when he's focused, and it makes you wish he put together a whole record of songs as dynamic. But the album is also littered with tracks that sound like fragments in search of completion.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Islah
    The album doesn’t shy from its broad ambitions, offering a glossy club jam (“Kno One”) and an after-hours groove (“One Thing”), tracks that require Gates to ease back his flow and craft a knockout hook to carry the song, something he also does on the anthemic “2 Phones.” But as a lyricist, Gates is closer to Ghostface Killah or Beanie Sigel.
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