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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    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Under the Savage Sky
    Greenberg again contributes a handful of songs to the toughest sounding Savages recording yet.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Trackless Woods
    As the songs unfold, the nuances in DeMent's vocals become more apparent, as painterly as the poet's words.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful
    Georgeson was a key architect of the new Millennium's folk renaissance in indie-rock with his productions for Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart, among others, and his thumbprint is all over Morrissey's songs, for better and sometimes worse.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Star Wars
    It's impossible to assess an album this thick with twists and turns in a few hours. But at this early stage, it feels rich enough to reward more listens.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Currents
    Though still dense and detailed in a way that lives up to Parker's reputation as an obsessive studio hermit, Currents also feels more spacious and danceable in its finest moments.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Freedom
    He's a master of weaving his overdubbed vocals into rapturous gospel heights, as on "Flesh," and his cry of "Should've known better" amid the heartbreak of "Leaves" resonates long after the track is finished.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Still
    Thompson's new album arrives as another example of how a mature artist can continue to innovate.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Surf
    Surf integrates a mish-mash of sounds, genres and guests into a relatively coherent whole, textured and nuanced in ways that demand repeat listens.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
    It's a voice built for drama, and on this album its emotional range has never been wider.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Ratchet
    Ratchet refines the rawness of the EP only slightly, its punky minimalism echoing some of the outsider edginess evinced by early '90s house innovators such as Green Velvet.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Fun Rises, the Fun Sets
    The songs marinate in sexual imagery, but it's more sensual than explicit.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Traveling Kind
    There are few surprises, but these two enduring artists have a sure grasp of their strengths, and they sound rejuvenated in each other's presence.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Magic Whip
    It's actually quite good; not exactly a return to the band's mid-'90s Brit-pop peak, but a welcome progression beyond. Blur delivers a stranger, more atmospheric but still melodic brand of electro-folk salted with rock guitar and orchestral sweep.
    • Chicago Tribune
      • Posted Apr 27, 2015
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sound & Color
    The drama is all in the way she uses her voice; the key instrument on an album brimming with new Shakes sounds and colors.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Kindred
    At times, the singer-producer's one-man band approach can be wearying.... Yet the singer's blend of tones from his stacked vocals and keyboards is more often strange and surprising.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ivy Tripp
    Crutchfield keeps her songs concise, and weaves in subtle forget-me-nots.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Kintsugi
    Though the potential for melodrama is strong, Gibbard and his bandmates play with restraint.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
    Somehow, the Australian singer-guitarist has made something fresh out of everyday vignettes performed on everyday instruments (guitar-bass-drums). She sounds like she's day-dreaming out loud instead of singing, but she's deceptively incisive as a lyricist. Her guitar-playing, while never particularly showy, can be subtle or scalding.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    To Pimp A Butterfly
    Though not quite as instantly catchy as its predecessor, it expands on its widescreen musical reach and introspective intensity, and sharpens the political perspective until it draws blood.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Fantasy Empire
    Its records can be exhausting listens, buried in mulch, but Fantasy Empire cleans things up a bit without reining in the intensity.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rebel Heart
    Her best album in the last two decades, "Ray of Light" (1998), was also her most atmospheric and inward-looking. And Rebel Heart is in many ways a distant cousin, an unusually personal album that seems less about keeping up and more about taking stock.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Rose Mountain
    It's likely that guitar-rock fans who have never heard Screaming Females before will find this a solid introduction to a great band. Here's hoping they are intrigued enough to discover the richer rewards to be found in the trio's back catalog.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Restarter
    Torche perfects its volatile mix, a work that at least matches the potent Meanderthal (2008) as a career peak.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    If You're Reading This It's Too Late [Mixtape]
    The album doesn't lift off until it's nearly over.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    I Love You, Honeybear
    Misty's music cushions some of his most outrageous observations in plush wordless harmonies, strings and orchestral-pop melodies, sometimes to a point where he melts into background music.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Vulnicura
    As the songwriter and coproducer (primarily working with Venezuelan-U.K. DJ Arca, who has teamed with FKA Twigs and Kanye West), Bjork is in peak form, creating a thematic and sonically linked work that flows seamlessly from track to track.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
    The melodies flow in relatively concise arrangements, which makes the album feel less weighty than earlier Decemberists' releases. At a minimum it could stand a little pruning. But several songs show a new, equally engaging side to Meloy's songwriting.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    No Cities to Love
    No Cities to Love& is not a complete triumph, the totally devastating statement of revived purpose that they might have intended, but it's not for lack of trying.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Black Messiah
    Black Messiah miraculously doesn't sound overcooked. It's as if D'Angelo spent all that time building tracks up and then editing them down to their raw, spontaneous-sounding essence.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Monuments to an Elegy
    A more concise Pumpkins isn't what anyone was expecting at this point in the band's career, but on its own limited terms, Monuments to an Elegy affirms that Corgan remains defiantly in his own lane.
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