Chicago Tribune's Scores

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For 566 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: 100 I Like to Keep Myself in Pain
Lowest review score: 25 Graffiti
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 456 out of 566
  2. Mixed: 97 out of 566
  3. Negative: 13 out of 566
566 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Food
    Just as eating well should be a sensual experience, this album layers its flavors.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Do To the Beast
    The album plays more like another iteration of Dulli's solo career than the next chapter in the band's history.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Both
    It's a unified album, in which sound is every bit as crucial as craft. Despite the formidable solo careers involved, The Both improbably sounds like the work of a band.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Teeth Dreams
    Overall, hits outweigh the misses in what adds up as one of the band's darkest albums.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lost In the Dream
    It would be difficult for any album to consistently live up to those peak moments, and Lost in the Dream doesn't. But Granduciel is on to something with this more band-focused release, and that new dynamic deserves an even deeper exploration next time.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    G I R L
    For most of G I R L, the singer reins in his freakier side for something more accessible, a logical, frothy if somewhat risk-averse follow-up to last summer's chart-topping singles.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Somewhere Else
    Somewhere Else [is] her third and best album.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Morning Phase
    Beck’s blend of acoustic instruments, twinkling percussion and wordless vocal harmonies feels weightless, evanescent, sometimes lovely. But when David Campbell’s strings make themselves heard, Morning Phase becomes something more than just a sequel to Beck’s best album.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Burn Your Fire for No Witness
    Burn Your Fire for No Witness boasts an even more robust presence [as her 2012 debut, "Half Way Home"], thanks to production by John Congleton.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Transgender Dysphoria Blues
    The music--a volatile mix of crashing guitars, drums and pile-driving bass funneled into shout-from-the-balcony choruses--destroys any hint of self-pity. But as Grace searches for a world that would allow her the freedom to be herself, she finds solace in the album's most subdued moment, and it's beautiful and moving.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    After the Disco
    Had Broken Bells combined the best songs from their two albums, they would have made a heck of a statement. As it is, they offer promising glimpses of what might have been.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Grass Punks
    Grass Punks, from Los Angeles-via-North Dakota singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau, sounds at first like the perfect album for winter shut-ins: a quietly seductive combination of acoustic stringed instruments, serene melodies and pristine vocals. But the songs are too prickly to be reduced to background music for a gray, melancholy afternoon.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Warpaint
    Even though Warpaint's songs take their time, once they sink in, they stick around.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    High Hopes
    Little wonder the two finest moments ["Hunter of Invisible Game" and "The Wall"] on this otherwise ho-hum Springsteen album are by a considerable margin its most understated.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Beyoncé
    The merger of trap beats, punk defiance and feminist theory may not be destined for the top 10, but boldness like this can’t be measured by chart positions.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Black Panties
    Kelly is best when he is at his most absurd, comical and over-the-top.... Sometimes, the jokes go too far.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Britney Jean
    An army of producers, including will.i.am, Diplo, Dr. Luke and David Guetta aim to keep Spears centered in the hit parade, but don't take many chances.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Skull Worship
    It’s the sound of the Warlocks finally burning out on the most inward-looking album of the band’s career.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cupid Deluxe
    It’s an atmosphere soaked in deceptively mellow and melancholy neo-soul, another take on the worlds created by Sade’s whispered regrets and the Weeknd’s decadent obsessions.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    ARTPOP
    For all that firepower, the music is catchy but tame--she's cozying up to chart-topping formulas rather than disrupting them.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Marshall Mathers LP 2
    The sense that we’ve all been here before, twice, is exacerbated by the tired samples and interpolations.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Reflektor
    The finish provides a slow comedown from the buzz of the album’s first half--which by itself ranks with Arcade Fire’s best, most challenging work. The textural experiments of Part 2 can’t keep pace.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Prism
    Though not exactly spiritual, Prism does come off as a more serious--if no less formulaic--album than its predecessor. But being taken seriously may be Perry’s greatest challenge yet.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    New
    For the most part it works, though McCartney never quite digs as deep as he did on the sturdy "Memory Almost Full" (2007), his last studio album of completely original material (or his adventurous 2008 side project as the Fireman, "Electric Arguments").
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lightning Bolt
    Three brisk, blood-pumping rockers pick up where the band's previous album, "Backspacer," left off.... Things falter when the band's love of '70s classic rock turns musty.... Inspiration returns on the title track, which rides Matt Cameron's roller-coaster drumming and richly layered guitars and keyboards.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Days Are Gone
    The lyrics flirt with turmoil--there are lots of songs about holding on or jumping into the fire, and so forth--but don’t really say much of anything.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2
    Artistic ambition is a wonderful attribute, but so is the ability to self-edit, and it’s in short supply. There’s a snappy single album of sharp pop music tucked inside the two 20/20 Experience bookends, but it’ll take listeners some work to find it.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Nothing Was the Same
    Drake’s increasing mastery of not just rhyme, but tone and inflection is readily apparent.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Wise Up Ghost and Other Songs
    Tempos drag in the Latin-flavored "Cinco Minutos Con Vos" and the static "Viceroy's Row," and the title track is a mood piece that never climbs out of neutral. But even these misfires feel like experiments that fell short, while the rest of "Wise Up Ghost" revels in its uneasiness.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Electric Lady
    The plot, such as it is, gets a bit murky, but it’s not a requirement for enjoying the audacious music.
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