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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    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Til The Casket Drops
    Malice and Pusha T are at the top of their game on most of the rest; even when they swagger on “Popular Demand (Popeyes),” the wordplay is so thick and weirdly inventive that it’s difficult to deny them.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sweet Heart Sweet Light
    There's nothing sappy or draggy about the music, though. It can be crushing and corrosive, with just a hint of sweetness and hope. That tension suits Pierce.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    thefearofmissingout
    thefearofmissingout makes for an excellent, extended mood piece, but its distinguishing moments and alluring melodies are almost too subtle for their own good.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Let's Go Eat the Factory
    This time the hits outweigh the misses.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Unbreakable
    The low-key approach may not be enough to storm the charts. But the mood suits her.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    case/lang/veirs
    The work is what counts, and it's the songs and their organic presentation that make case/lang/veirs resonate.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hawk
    It's a rich, insinuating sound, and there's plenty more of it on Hawk. But there are also several twists that make this much more than just a rehash of a proven formula.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hypnotic Eye
    Petty's music stands strong against a tide of new trends, fresh sounds, fabulous makeovers. His defiance underlines the music, animates it, makes it feel vital even if it may sound familiar.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Tell 'Em I'm Gone
    His well-documented spiritual quest, prime fodder for his songs even when he was pop-star Cat Stevens, remains his primary subject, but there is a toughness here that we're not used to hearing from the reflective singer-songwriter.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Unsound
    With Unsound, Conley, Miller and Prescott have now made four good to great albums since returning from a two-decade hiatus.
    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bankrupt!
    Though the instant hits are lacking, Bankrupt! is more cohesive than its best-selling predecessor.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ladytron
    A carefully integrated mood piece, and the mood is bleak.
    • 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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Little Dark Age
    Little Dark Age does return to some of the “form” of “Oracular Spectacular” with its greater pop accessibility, but it also embraces a less obvious and more intriguing path on several songs.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Olympia
    It's luxurious as all get-out, and yet vaguely disturbing – this is mood music designed to unsettle as much as soothe.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Moon Shaped Pool
    A casual listen or two might consign A Moon Shaped Pool to the latest in a series of Radiohead releases post-“Kid A” (2000) that are more about texture and arty experimentation than guitar rock or pop structure. But as with most Radiohead releases, there’s something more going on.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Harrow and the Harvest
    It's difficult to fault the songs or the performances, but the hand's off presentation is conservative to a fault, as if the duo were trying not to break the fine china.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Heartworms
    After a decade-plus in which they've evolved from cult heroes to respected major-label denizens, the Shins still prove capable of delivering a few surprises.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    One True Vine
    Staples is reaffirming her place as one of the great voices of the last half-century.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    El Camino
    "El Camino" is all about instant gratification: guitar riffs, handclaps, slinky keyboard textures, walloping beats, wordless sing-along vocals, and even more guitar riffs. It sounds like it was written with the express purpose of rocking the arenas that the Black Keys will be headlining next year.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ready to Die
    Ready to Die holds up as an unexpectedly sturdy late-career coda.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2
    The Beasties fling boasts and nonsense with verve: MCA's raspy brio, Mike D's fine whine, Ad-Rock's comical incisiveness. All heritage acts should age with this much humor.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Random Access Memories
    In many ways, it is the least forward-looking Daft Punk recording, but also the most ambitious--a concept album that plays like an alternative music history, with an emphasis on styles and sounds that don’t usually fit into the Baby Boomer-dictated pop/rock canon.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964
    Even in this raw setting, the best of these songs transcended his Northern Minnesota upbringing and crackled with subversive wit and the acute anger of a young man not just making his way in the world, but intent on changing it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Humanz
    Amid a series of electronic soundscapes that incorporate club, dance hall, R&B and hip-hop rhythms and textures, Albarn packs the album with songs that speak to the instability of uncertain times.
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