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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    • 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.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Samson & Delilah
    Samson & Delilah casts the English singer and songwriter even further afield, a mesmerizing right turn into the murky waters of throbbing R&B and ambient dance pop.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Carter Girl
    This may be the best record this Carter girl has ever made.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pulse
    Clearly, this set is designed to show, and does indeed prove, that the singer has a pulse.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trees Outside The Academy
    The CD, recorded last spring, is a collection of tunes that sound more groovy than gritty.
    • 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.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Crack The Skye
    The album will be attractive to head bangers, math rockers, and now even classic-rock devotees thanks to guitarists Brent Hinds's and Bill Kelliher's deep devotion to the almighty riff.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mind Bokeh
    There's not a dud minute to endure in the dreamlike 52 of "Mind Bokeh,'' which sounds far less like a sixth album than a second wind.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Harrow and the Harvest
    Welch and Rawlings weren't in a hurry to make this album, and you hear their patience in its unhurried grace. As usual, the beauty lies in the fluid interplay between the duo.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Twins
    In exciting displays of versatility throughout the album, Segall grimes it up then unplugs, freaks out then holds back, wails then moans--all in utter confidence.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Day & Age
    Along with his bandmates and producer Stuart Price, Flowers makes sure that Day & Age rarely veers from the not insignificant mission of making a record that simply sounds good.
    • 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
    • 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.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    American Dream
    Full of irresistible grooves, quotable lyrics, and moments of spine-tingling beauty, American Dream is a worthy addition to the LCD Soundsystem discography.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Proud to Be Here
    Adkins remains unmistakably country, even when, from time to time, he throws a little blues or rock into the mix. No doubt that has something to do with his unmistakable baritone, which sounds undiminished here.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Radio 2
    The follow-up to Robert Glasper’s Grammy-winning breakthrough builds on its predecessor by reframing the sound of contemporary urban music.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Drive All Night [EP]
    The result is a soulful reading that, driven by the sax of the Big Man’s nephew and exhibiting Henry’s characteristic resonant ambiance, ends up on a corner where the Boss and Van Morrison meet.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Side Pony
    Side Pony is a confident, expertly played statement from a band that’s been honing its approach for more than a decade, and it clearly shows that Lake Street Dive is ready to make itself known to whatever audiences have yet to succumb to its many charms.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Once More 'Round the Sun
    The new music is more song-oriented, with a verse-chorus format versus some of the loosely knit, stretched-out mayhem of the past.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Diving Board
    The Diving Board succeeds where the others did not. It does so by putting John’s piano and voice front and center, offering memorable melodies, and scraping off the production glop to reveal again the musician, the vocalist, the emotional artist still alive under John’s shiny shell of professional fabulousness.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Release Me
    What is evident is the astonishing consistency of Streisand's tone, her sometimes goose-bump-inducing interpretative gifts, and her stunning power over 45 years.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Obadiah
    Obadiah is the archetypal sleeper: Its burnished songs--an unlikely marriage of plainspoken folk and blue-eyed-soul--wash over you on a cursory listen, start to percolate the second time around, and finally burrow deep into your brain.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
    An existential crisis has never sounded like so much fun as it does in Barnett’s songs.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tribute To [EP]
    Tribute To captures James’s sense of admiration, anguish, and awe for the quiet Beatle in an intimate solo recording that is three parts haunting reverb and one part pop melancholy.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    PHOX
    On this debut, not a single note is out of place.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shields
    Grizzly Bear has learned not to stress over its craft, and Shields feels all the more fresh as a result.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What's Your 20? Essential Tracks 1994-2014
    A well-curated hits collection.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Avonmore
    Avonmore is all lush layers and quiet urgency with songs of love won and lost, offering a mesmerizing combination of sophistication, melancholy, and danceability.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fantasy Empire
    Lightning Bolt’s subversive sense of songcraft flourishes in these new recording environs, creating their most accessible record yet from tones and concepts as challenging as any in their catalog.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Infinite Light
    For many listeners Webber’s descent into Cat Power-style calamity will be the hook; others may find it a precious affectation. Then again, some people can’t see any beauty in a lonely overcast day.
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