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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    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Highwomen
    The voices and the hooks can’t easily be denied, and Shires injects some playful sassiness on “Don’t Call Me.” But the potential for what could’ve been a harder-hitting roadhouse-style album largely goes unrealized.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Twins
    It's another strong entry in his fuzz-garage/acid-punk free-for-all, if not quite as ferociously relentless as its predecessor, "Slaughterhouse" (In the Red).
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hey Mr Ferryman
    In a sparser framework, the singer and his songs flourish. Eitzel's spite and self-deprecating humor rub shoulders on "The Road" and "In my Role as Professional Singer and Ham."
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Robyn Hitchcock
    ather than reinventing himself, Hitchcock has made an album that underlines his strengths.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Lazaretto
    It's only when White breaks through the more familiar framework that the album sparks.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Invisible Way
    The trio again puts a premium on space and intimacy in the arrangements, which works especially well this time because of the uniformally high quality of the melodies.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
    There's no rage in this music, but it feels unsettling all the same, and that's a major step for a young artist as he starts to find his voice.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Under the Savage Sky
    Greenberg again contributes a handful of songs to the toughest sounding Savages recording yet.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Sound & Fury
    Distortion-saturated guitars, synthesizers squealing like tea kettles and tribal drums give country tradition a swift kick in the back side. This carnage doesn’t belong to a genre, it’s more like a feeling: Side 2 of Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s “Rust Never Sleeps,” ZZ Top demos after three cases of Tequila in a Texas roadhouse, a hurricane.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Swanlights
    On Swanlights, Hegarty's fourth album under the Antony and the Johnsons moniker, the darkness lifts, and the singer sounds almost buoyant.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Fun Rises, the Fun Sets
    The songs marinate in sexual imagery, but it's more sensual than explicit.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Ship
    An album that has few direct antecedents in his vast discography and arrives as a late-career landmark.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Near to the Wild Heart of Life
    At its best, "Wild Heart of Life" approaches that recording's [2012's "Celebration Rock"] peak moments, but it too often undercuts them by trying to pull the duo out of its minimalist arena-punk corner.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Brill Bruisers
    Brill Bruisers sounds like a bunch of friends reuniting for a long-overdue blow-out.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Biophilia
    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.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Hope Six Demolition Project
    It all builds masterfully to a powerful, closing one-two punch.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Unseen In Between
    At times in the past, Gunn’s songs felt like they were skimming the surface of multiple genres. On The Unseen in Between, the guitarist more fully submerges himself--and by extension, his listeners--in his most personal songs yet.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Coexist
    The melodies aren't quite as immediate as the best songs from the debut, but Coexist functions as a near-perfect mood piece.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Dirty Pictures, Pt. 1
    Dirty Pictures (Part 1) (Contender) comes close enough often enough to qualify as a worthy substitute for one of the Philadelphia quintet's bar-room blowouts.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Post Pop Depression
    For all of Pop's well-earned reputation as a bare-chested banshee in concert, he has an expressive, even sonorous baritone voice, and a pithiness as a lyricist. His words brim with battle-scarred imagery and humor.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Schmilco
    Wilco has made a weird little folk record. It not only sounds different than the band's previous album, but slightly out of step with the rest of its discography.
    • 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.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    American VI: Ain't No Grave
    The music casts long shadows, packed with foreboding. But Cash's voice isn't particularly morbid or self-pitying. Instead, it's tinged by longing--not for what he's leaving behind, but for what's next.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Blessed
    Williams lets the songs burn slowly and sensually until there's nothing left but smoke and ash.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Psychedelic Pill
    The foursome may be interrupted by time and circumstance, but whenever they find themselves in a room together with their instruments they pick up the conversation exactly where they left off.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Live in London
    Beneath the energetic exterior, a steely resolve informs the songs.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Nothing Was the Same
    Drake’s increasing mastery of not just rhyme, but tone and inflection is readily apparent.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    National Ransom
    As with many of his releases the last decade, National Ransom is kind of a mess, with enough scattered gems to reward deeper investigation.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Strict Joy
    Producer Peter Katis (who has worked with The National and Interpol) ornaments the duo’s foundation--Hansard’s battered acoustic guitar, Irglova’s piano, co-ed harmonies--with nuanced orchestration and a spacious mix that flatters the singers’ interplay.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Soldier Of Love
    But mostly “Soldier of Love” presents Sade as a genre unto herself; after 25 years, she remains alluring and subtly rewarding, while still keeping the listener at a safe distance, as if she had even deeper secrets to guard.
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