For 566 reviews, this publication has graded:
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51% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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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: | I Like to Keep Myself in Pain | |
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Lowest review score: | Graffiti |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 456 out of 566
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Mixed: 97 out of 566
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Negative: 13 out of 566
566
music
reviews
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- Critic Score
Bon Iver is moving on, but to where exactly? Even Justin Vernon doesn't appear to know, which may be why this transitional album sounds so muddled and the songs so elusive.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 3, 2016
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The large-scale orchestrations rarely complement the mood. Instead, they barge in, a river of syrup that drowns the sense of betrayal in “Stones,” gushes through “The Wayfarer” and inspires some of Springsteen’s most egregious Gene Pitney-style over-emoting in “Sundown” and the disastrously overdone “There Goes My Miracle.”- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jun 14, 2019
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- Critic Score
Overall, though, the songs don’t measure up. ... And it’s clear why. The master songwriter simply ran out of time.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 22, 2019
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The musical detail is impressive, if not quite adding up to as many catchy songs as on the debut. A greater concern is that after two albums, it's pretty apparent that Vampire Weekend doesn't really have a whole lot to say.- Chicago Tribune
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The arrangements only rarely bring out the drama in these interactions. The intimacy becomes wearying, with spoken-word interludes, interstitial pieces and hushed vocals stretching the 16 songs to 64 minutes, an experiment in search of a direction. The most radical album of the National’s career is also its most disappointing.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 17, 2019
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With Praise & Blame, Jones dials down the camp and tries to act his age--he turned 70 in June. So what we get is a more refined, more serious Jones, and that's no fun at all.- Chicago Tribune
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Much of “The Center Won’t Hold” doesn’t sound like the old Sleater-Kinney, which is precisely the point. Brownstein and Tucker prefer to go charging into the future, but at the expense of some of the very attributes that made them so compelling in the first place.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Aug 16, 2019
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Only "Virus" connects in the way Bjork's best work can, uniting the fundamental optimism and wonder underlining this project with music that sounds otherworldly yet welcoming.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 10, 2011
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- Critic Score
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.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 8, 2013
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- Critic Score
It's all competently done, but none of it matches the invention of Grohl's drumming in the last decade with Queens of the Stone Age, Probot or Them Crooked Vultures.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Apr 11, 2011
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- Critic Score
He's written some resonant songs. But he lost his nerve as a coproducer, going for stadium bombast instead of the unadorned grit these stories of hard times demand.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 5, 2012
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- Critic Score
The 28-minute length of this album adds to the impression that this feels more like a demo, a collection of fragments woven by Russell into a cautionary mood piece, rather than a major comeback.- Chicago Tribune
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The problem is that the songs all have a similar arch, with instrumental grandeur substituting for the previous album’s emotional punch and tears-of-rage specifics.- Chicago Tribune
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It sounds like it was made by the last survivor on a dying planet, a final transmission from an underground bunker.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Sep 3, 2013
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Many of the songs address the notion of transition and change, of leaving one part of life behind and moving into another, and Depression Cherry sounds like the work of a tentative band working through its own transition, unsure of its next move.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Aug 24, 2015
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In many ways, West and Jay-Z are saying something similar on their new album. But their approach is not to shine a spotlight on their community. Instead, they urge listeners to "watch the throne," and gaze in awe on their good fortune.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Aug 8, 2011
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- Critic Score
The album's attempts at shaking up the down-tempo, down-hearted mood fall short.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Apr 28, 2014
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- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Feb 15, 2016
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- Critic Score
It was a promising evolution, but four years later the Scottish band's new album, Write About Love, sounds like old news.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 21, 2010
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Lanegan remains a master of mood, his baritone croon one of rock's most inviting instruments. But even that voice can't patch over the weak spots on this inconsistent album.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 6, 2012
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- Critic Score
Ultraviolence almost qualifies as a parody. Unfortunately, there's not enough punch in the songs to make listeners care whether she's joking or not.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jun 17, 2014
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Bowie at his best was both a crowd-pleaser and provocateur, a pop visionary and an avant-garde subversive. The crowd-pleaser is on full-force display at Glastonbury 2000, but the facets of his stage persona that made him the most unsettling of rock stars are nowhere to be found.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 7, 2018
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- Critic Score
The hooks are more pronounced and the bottom end beefed up, which gives Barnes' R&B leanings a lot more dancefloor appeal and makes songs such as the buttery Solange duet "Sex Karma" sound better than anything Prince has come up with in years. But the affectations remain troubling.- Chicago Tribune
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Maybe working on a novel distracted Earle, but the feisty dust-kicker of old appears to have taken this one off.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Apr 22, 2011
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It's an album that would be far improved if it were chopped in half.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 18, 2016
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- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Sep 25, 2015
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- Critic Score
Unfortunately, the ambitious concept proves too unwieldy to work as a consistent album.- Chicago Tribune
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Most of the songs are so flat that the singer sounds constrained.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 30, 2012
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Much of Welcome to Oblivion feels like a 65-minute placeholder akin to a remix album rather than a major new direction for Reznor to pursue.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 5, 2013
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- Critic Score
The album definitely could’ve used a little more friskiness; as it is, a horn-spackled version of Derek and the Dominoes’ “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad” and a brisk run-through of the Beatles “The Word” are the only moments where LaVette busts loose from her always heart-felt, but sometimes overly earnest, introspection.- Chicago Tribune
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- Critic Score
Mostly the arrangements feel amorphous and vague, and matters aren't helped by the way Orton's voice is positioned in the mix. Her tone veers between conversational and angelic, just another texture in a scattered and shapeless series of musical pieces.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 31, 2016
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With the Strokes, Casablancas exploits the tension between his behind-the-beat, just-woke-up vocals and the band’s hurtling rhythms. On Phrazes, the slower-moving tempos match the unhurried pace of his distinctive croon, and the melodies and arrangements aren’t strong enough to make up for the loss in urgency.- Chicago Tribune
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- Critic Score
It's the kind of hair-raising music that one wishes occurred more frequently on this overly subdued collection.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 1, 2010
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The sense that we’ve all been here before, twice, is exacerbated by the tired samples and interpolations.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 4, 2013
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Rather than a personal statement, the music becomes an exercise in smoothness. Even La Havas' vocal power plays don't translate as an emotional imperative so much as a pop formula.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jul 28, 2015
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What better band to cover R.E.M. than R.E.M.? That's exactly what the longtime Athens, Ga., trio sounds like it's doing on its 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 4, 2011
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- Critic Score
It's almost impossible to screw up Fogerty's sturdiest numbers, but some of his collaborators sound like they're trying too hard to put their thumbprints all over them.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 28, 2013
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But as with “Horehound,” “Sea of Cowards” is all about the volatile vibe rather than songs. When the vibe works, it’s a decent approximation of the band’s top-shelf live show. But beneath all the “Hustle and Cuss,” the tunes just aren’t there.- Chicago Tribune
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They sound more like singer-songwriter leftovers from his solo albums than the stuff of which big rock-band comebacks are made.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 12, 2012
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Much of the rest is mid-level and middle-brow, from respected artists who have done better work elsewhere.- Chicago Tribune
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Despite being hyped as her most "personal" album, Girl on Fire is really just more of the same.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 26, 2012
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Views is ostensibly set in Drake's hometown of Toronto, but most of it sounds like it's being narrated from a shuttered room at 3 in the morning. The moodiness seeps into a weary, bleary series of recriminations tinged with bitterness and petulance.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 2, 2016
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Gallagher never turns these slight detours into genuine departures. By not veering far from the Oasis blueprint, he invites unflattering comparisons to his best work.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 7, 2011
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As debuts by boy-group alums go, Harry Styles goes bolder than expected. It establishes that Styles can pull off a more mature sound and style, but it lacks the hooks and pop appeal of One Direction's big hits.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 15, 2017
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Clearly, these songs are standards for a reason, and Lennox does nothing to tarnish their legacy or expand it.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 21, 2014
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Twenty years deep into its career, Foo Fighters could've used a bit of a shake-up, if not a makeover, to re-energize its music. But Sonic Highways provides little more than window-dressing on business as usual.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 7, 2014
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Reed's second major-label album, Come and Get It! (Capitol), is loaded with terse, catchy pop-soul songs outfitted with sharp horn riffs, taut guitar fills and bouncy bass lines. It's all done well enough. But when he slows down and attempts a ballad such as "Pick Your Battles," Reed's gusto is no longer enough to mask his limitations as a singer.- Chicago Tribune
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Like the similarly star-studded (but bland) "Twilight" and (insufferably twee) "Juno" soundtracks, Scott Pilgrim is something less than the sum of its parts.- Chicago Tribune
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The production on most of Comedown Machine is off-putting in its chilliness.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 25, 2013
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Once a step ahead of everyone else in recalibrating what it means to be a pop artist, she made her appropriations and reinventions look like fun. Now she sounds like she's just trying too hard.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 21, 2016
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A number of songs feel underdeveloped, little more than chants fitted with a groove that has neither the fire of first-tier Latin music or the witty blues crunch of prime ZZ Top.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 30, 2015
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Over a clipped backdrop that at times sounds like white-noise static, bell-like notes accent an airy, almost vaporous vocal. The voice belongs to Spears, but it could be anyone's – an anonymous ghost in the dance machine.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 25, 2011
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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.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jan 13, 2014
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Gabriel’s decision to pay homage to the core essentials underpinning these songs is a noble one, he also sacrifices many essential ingredients: rhythmic drive, dynamic surprise, harmonic and textural variety. As experiments go, Scratch My Back ranks as a well-intentioned dud.- Chicago Tribune
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Armstrong sounds detached, despite a stream of curse words, and the band plays with a machine-like efficiency.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Sep 27, 2012
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He's a troubadour for the suburbs, a guy who sings about middle-class life with a plainspoken mixture of wistfulness and humor.- Chicago Tribune
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["Creature Comfort" is] one of the album's strongest moments, matched by "Electric Blue," in which Regine Chassagne's delicate voice floats over a wistful yet hypnotic electro groove. Much of the rest struggles to stay buoyant.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jul 28, 2017
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Junk, M83's seventh studio album, sounds chintzy--a bubble-gum snyth-pop album that indulges Gonzalez's love of decades-old TV soundtracks, hair-metal guitar solos and kitschy pop songs.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Apr 1, 2016
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Her voice often sounds overly pinched, and the horns come off as gimmicky.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jan 21, 2011
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Coldplay has a formula, and formula prevails on Mylo Xyloto despite Eno's presence.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 24, 2011
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Songs of Innocence comes off as flat and strangely complacent, even as it pays lip service to youthful inspiration, notably the punk and post-punk of the late '70s.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Sep 15, 2014
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Both Byrne and Fatboy Slim have built careers on beats, the imperative of activating the hips as much as the brain, and they touch on everything from salsa to Philadelphia soul on Here Lies Love. But too often the needs of the narrative supersede the music, and too much of "Here Lies Love" falls into midtempo blandness.- Chicago Tribune
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In search of the grandiose, Kings of Leon seem to have forgotten how to rock. It's as if the quartet wanted to become the next U2 so badly that it lost sight of how it got here in the first place.- Chicago Tribune
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"Talk That Talk" sounds like a rush job designed to keep Rihanna rolling through the holidays.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 21, 2011
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About half the album has West as a role player on tracks that suggest a theater scene, with a handful of voices playing characters (quite possibly all living inside West’s brain). The album moves from spoken-word monologues to more expansive musical settings that try to “take the top off (and) let the sun come in.”- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jun 1, 2018
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The real issue with Mumford & Sons is its pedestrian songwriting and predictable delivery.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Sep 28, 2012
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The pianist has a malleable voice, capable of swinging from poignance to sarcasm, though sometimes Hornby's dense wordplay can't help but sound awkward in making the transition from the page to the speakers.- Chicago Tribune
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- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Aug 26, 2011
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For an artist who has sold 30 million albums, his latest release is brutally short on hooks and, most of all, fun. The subversive humor is long gone, and his cultural references (David Cook? Austin Powers? Yet another dis of Mariah Carey?) remain dated.- Chicago Tribune
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- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Feb 6, 2012
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More problematic are the melodies and the songs themselves; they strive for rousing resonance, a deep sense of loss, but often settle for pat prettiness and easy sentimentality.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 25, 2011
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- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 18, 2012
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After all the hub-bub of recent weeks, one of Lee's greatest songs sums up Del Rey's grand entrance: "Is That All There Is?"- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jan 27, 2012
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Dylan’s craggy voice isn’t really equipped for crooning, so the sometimes middle-brow orchestration and singing--particularly the use of backing choirs--sounds like a misguided attempt to sweeten a dish best served lightly salted.- Chicago Tribune
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Strings, guitars and keyboards add color in carefully measured doses. The songs never develop much beyond their initial verse and chorus and rarely bother with contrasting bridge sections, but that’s the point: No jarring changes to throw off the mood.- Chicago Tribune
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His rhyme battle with Eminem on 'Psycho' has zero redeeming value, but the two old pros fire away with glee trying to out-psychopath each other. But about halfway through the album, 50 Cent detours from the street to the bedroom.- Chicago Tribune
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Variation, once a strong suit of Coldplay’s songwriting, isn’t much in evidence. Over nine songs, Martin and company create a mood and then stick with it--to a fault.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 19, 2014
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Kelly is best when he is at his most absurd, comical and over-the-top.... Sometimes, the jokes go too far.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 6, 2013
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For all that firepower, the music is catchy but tame--she's cozying up to chart-topping formulas rather than disrupting them.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 14, 2013
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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.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 21, 2013
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The orchestral Storytone comes off as a showy distraction. It's best ignored. Head for the acoustic version instead, which contains a handful of Young's better recent songs, syrup-free.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 3, 2014
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Mostly, this overstuffed album is about Jay-Z and the self-congratulation of his high-powered friends.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jul 9, 2013
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At his best, Wayne was positively psychedelic in his wordplay, capable of creating entire alternative worlds out of a few surrealist metaphors. But he sounds slower, more methodical, less unhinged on Tha Carter IV.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Aug 29, 2011
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On most of the album, Coldplay's relatively buoyant music tries to submerge the band's most annoying trait. But sometimes Chris Martin, lyricist, just can't help himself.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 7, 2015
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It’s an album that discourages sitting still. Too bad the icky lyrics ruin the mood.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jul 29, 2013
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You and I is more a raw sketch than a fully formed portrait of a 26-year-old artist still coming to terms with what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 9, 2016
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Songwriters Linda Perry and Billy Corgan (moonlighting from the Smashing Pumpkins), producer Michael Beinhorn--sand down her rough edges and turn Nobody's Daughter into a dreary piece of middle-of-the-road product.- Chicago Tribune
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Young remains a treasure because he refuses to bow to convention, and his inherent distrust of studio sugarcoating or polishing has led to some of the rawest, most powerful music of our time. But it can also lead to slapdash projects such as this one.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 12, 2016
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It falters beneath its own cynicism. Rather than continuing to forge his own sound in tandem with longtime producer Soundtrakk, he chooses to co-opt mainstream currency--the gangsta tropes of trap music, the club rhythms of EDM--and delivers a mix of parody and second-rate would-be radio singles.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Feb 17, 2017
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- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Feb 2, 2018
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It's not that Michael is embarrassing, it's just below par, a warehouse for songs that languished in the vaults for decades because they didn't quite measure up.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 13, 2010
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The gospel-singer moments (the stirring intro to “God Is”) and the verses by the Clips’ Pusha T and No Malice on “Use This Gospel” provide most of the musical sparks, with West allowing message to trump musicality. ... Otherwise, this sounds like a walk-through to West’s next destination, a tentative step that feels neither accomplished nor particularly memorable.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 25, 2019
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Greta Van Fleet now adds its name to the list of Zep disciples who have made albums that sound kinda, sorta and sometimes exactly like its primary influence. If nothing else, the quartet has demonstrated that guitar-rock can still be popular with a young audience that either hasn’t heard of Led Zeppelin, or prefers Greta’s version to their grandparents’ original.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Oct 25, 2018
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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.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 2, 2013
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With the relentlessly bland Live It Up, he becomes the latest in a long line of folk-pop singers air-brushed to melt into the pack, not rise above it.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 15, 2010
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Chris Brown's fifth studio album, Fortune, is a pure-pop candy cane, meant to be enjoyed, consumed and forgotten.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jul 2, 2012
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