Chicago Tribune's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Dreamer/The Believer
    Between the we-shall-overcome optimism and the get-loose lustiness, Common and No I.D. combine to deliver a knockout track that defines the album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Unfinished Business
    She connects much more deeply with the country lament "Am I Even a Memory?," a duet with Earle. Her interpretation affirms that even at 74, she's still much more than that.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Letter Home
    Accompanied by Jack White, at whose studio he recorded on the Voice-O-Graph, Young sings with a perspective and appreciation that his 68 years undoubtedly bring.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Kaputt
    Kaputt is Bejar seemingly at his mellowest, drifting through a world shrouded in synthetic keyboard fog and saxophones.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    So Beautiful or So What
    He approaches it with a light touch and a skip in his stride. He turns the metaphysical into a series of narratives tinged not just with poignance but humor and groove.
    • 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.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Heads Up
    The band has become more adept at bringing its love of body music to the forefront and melding it with experimental impulses.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Nick Waterhouse
    Nick Waterhouse (Innovative Leisure) occasionally comes off as a little too clean and polite. But when he loosens his tie a bit, Waterhouse brings a spark to his songs that transcends era and genre.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Stronger With Each Tear
    Stronger With Each Tear, her ninth studio release, continues a string of releases that play like self-empowerment pep talks garnished by pop assembly-line producers.
    • 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.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    50 Words for Snow
    The singer does a lot of luxuriating on her 10th album; 50 Words for Snow spreads seven songs over 65 leisurely minutes, her multi-octave voice and piano mostly at the forefront.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Band of Joy
    If Plant does nothing more on this album than draw attention to that Duluth, Minn., trio's music, he deserves praise.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Slipstream
    The Henry-produced songs are so accomplished, the sonic chemistry so enveloping and hypnotic, that one wishes Raitt had taken the entire album in this direction.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Isles
    With its exotic instruments and spacious arrangements, this is a first-rate pop album that doesn’t sound quite like anything else on pop radio.
    • 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.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Yeezus
    On the surface, he’s created a polarizing album that practically demands to be loved or hated. But with West, it’s never quite that easy.
    • 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
    Hellfire
    He's a modernist at ease with mixing, matching and sometimes trampling as his heart dictates.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Odd Blood
    The album aims for pleasure rather than introspection, and most of the time, it hits the mark.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Your Future Our Clutter
    The songs sometimes meander in search of focus, but once they do, the band bangs away with a fierce, bulldog tenacity.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Robyn Hitchcock
    ather than reinventing himself, Hitchcock has made an album that underlines his strengths.
    • 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).
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Soul Punk
    Forget the punk and the old-school soul, this is a retro-leaning pop album--and a mostly good one.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Redemption
    A few songs fail to blossom beyond an initial intriguing burst of color. But the album's ambitions reward long-haul, continuous listening.
    • 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.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Emotion & Commotion
    In emulating great vocalists he has admired, from Jeff Buckley to Judy Garland, the guitarist conjures a serene lyricism. Female vocalists drawn from the worlds of opera (Olivia Safe), swing (Imelda May) and soul (Joss Stone) provide window-dressing, and the symphony orchestra accompaniment is gratuitous.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bon Voyage
    If anything, Bon Voyage is even stranger than its predecessor, seven songs splashed in psychedelic colors.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
    The music is breezier, more relaxed, even as it wiggles beyond the contours of traditional pop. It’s the aural equivalent of a sun-kissed afternoon swaying in a hammock, the mind and the songs drifting away on their own quirky paths.
Page: