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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    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dark Horse
    Dark Horse is attractively adorned, but don't expect any sort of wild ride.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    That's It!
    That’s It! is no radical departure, sonically speaking. Will these songs stand the test of time? Maybe, maybe not; but they sound pretty good right now.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    50 Words for Snow
    Those cameos [Elton john & Stephen Fry] aren't exactly intrusive, but they do weigh down an album that's otherwise content to drift as gently as the snow in question.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lip Lock
    The crossover “Make It Out This Town” is too obvious a stab at pop psychology and chart topping but that’s a rare misfire. The set is filled with quotable lines and tough but inviting beats.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone
    The tracks vary from astonishingly good--Gregory Porter taking up residence inside “Sinnerman” with a palpable desperation, the urgent instrumental track matching the calamity of his emotion--to acceptable, as when Mary J. Blige renders “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood” a sort of edgeless quiet-storm jam.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Red
    It's not Bob Dylan, but the songwriting is leagues ahead of where Swift was as recently as two years ago.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    36 Seasons
    Despite some padding (an instrumental, unnecessary vocal cover) and ragged musical edges, the most prolific member of the Wu-Tang Clan continues to set the standard.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Berkeley to Bakersfield
    The 73 minutes of music on Cracker’s new double album would fit comfortably on a single disc, but Berkeley to Bakersfield is an intentional act of musical centrifuge that separates the band’s rock and country elements into separate containers.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Talk That Talk
    We turn to Rihanna for kicks, sure, but also, thanks to a voice whose limitations give her a supple vulnerability, for a tinge of bittersweet pain. Talk That Talk is at its best when it's working that angle.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Time
    His music takes the spare depth of Lorde and Tove Lo as a starting point, adding a sharp precision that--along with a floating tenor alternating between a less-sappy Sam Smith and a steelier Jeff Buckley--fuels the tense urgency of “Riot,” and sells even insubstantial material like “Love You Crazy.”
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nomad
    New elements like keyboards and lap steel guitar are deployed carefully, filling out the sound rather than leading it astray.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Don't Look Down
    Befitting someone who has worked with artists as varied as Dre, Duncan Sheik, and Linkin Park offshoot Fort Minor, Don’t Look Down suits varied moods.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Big Music
    Some other songs miss the mark, including the clumsy “Concrete and Cherry Blossom” and the annoying “Kill or Cure,” but diehard fans will still find plenty to like.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Songs About Girls
    Mostly, this rubbery, hit-laden set follows the blueprint of his recent production work and the BEP's music. He has become a supreme craftsman of pop-funk fluff with little on its mind beyond keeping the party going.
    • 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.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Place for My Dream
    This new record is a return to his trademark jazz-and-funk Afro-beat grooves but is solid throughout if you appreciate energetic big-band arrangements, a theatrical backup chorus, and Femi out front wailing from the heart and giving hope to the voiceless.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Someone To Watch over Me
    Someone To Watch Over Me has the makings of a perfectly solid mopey-piano-girl album, largely eschewing chest-beating for a coarser-grained approach that serves the singer rather well.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Sermon On Exposition Boulevard
    The overall hush of "Sermon" occasionally leads down some sleepy roads. But with a real sense of creative spark at its heart, "Sermon" is a worthy entry into the Book of Rickie Lee.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Echo
    Taking its title a bit too literally, the album sticks to the winning formula that made “Spirit’’ a runaway success. Problem is, we already know these sides of Lewis’s talent.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Freight Train
    There isn’t anything revelatory or strikingly different here--just the solid, precise craftsmanship of an artist now deep into his career.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We're All Somebody from Somewhere
    Much of Somewhere sounds remarkably consistent, even organic. Tyler, who co-wrote all of the album’s strongest material, proves a solid storyteller with a gift for melody.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Coexist
    There's enough ingenuity on Coexist to remind us why the xx was a game-changer three years ago; with any luck it will end up a blip on a resume of more inspiring releases.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Colin Meloy Sings Live!
    Albums like this are tailor-made for devoted fans, but in this case, Colin Meloy Sings Live! gives you a glimpse of what makes the Decemberists frontman tick.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Southern Voice
    It turns out to be a solid enough representation of the sort of music McGraw has been making for most of this decade that falls short of the best of what he’s been doing.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    David Archuleta
    Happily, in a genre where the urge is to err on the side of overwrought, someone smart decided to stick with tasteful, understated production. Archuleta's delivery is likewise low-key and attractive, if predictably generic.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Good Girl Gone Bad
    What the songs lack in lyrical innovation they more than make up for in transporting rhythms.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    All The Lost Souls
    Blunt has turned his attention away from his sound hole and his sensitive soul, refocusing his energies on the '70s and unearthing a measure of depth and ingenuity.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lux
    It's an acquired taste, but is undeniably calming with its softly vibrating, reverb-rich piano and synth improvisations, enhanced by exotic Moog guitar from Leo Abrahams and treated violin-viola textures from Neil Catchpole.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?
    A couple of pleasant but less memorable midtempo numbers are saved by O'Connor's still towering voice, one that conjures rage, humor, grief, joy, and unbridled passion in a way that still grips the heart and amazes the ears.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In the Grace of Your Love
    With its meat-and-potatoes disco-punk beat and rousing keys, it feels like it's reaching beyond the known universe of the typical club scene.
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