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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    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook
    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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kidsticks
    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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Phrazes For The Young
    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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Small Craft On A Milk Sea
    It's the kind of hair-raising music that one wishes occurred more frequently on this overly subdued collection.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Marshall Mathers LP 2
    The sense that we’ve all been here before, twice, is exacerbated by the tired samples and interpolations.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Blood
    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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Collapse into Now
    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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Wrote a Song for Everyone
    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.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sea Of Cowards
    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.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    King Animal
    They sound more like singer-songwriter leftovers from his solo albums than the stuff of which big rock-band comebacks are made.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Twilight Saga: New Moon [OST]
    Much of the rest is mid-level and middle-brow, from respected artists who have done better work elsewhere.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Girl on Fire
    Despite being hyped as her most "personal" album, Girl on Fire is really just more of the same.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    VIEWS
    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.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
    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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Harry Styles
    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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Nostalgia
    Clearly, these songs are standards for a reason, and Lennox does nothing to tarnish their legacy or expand it.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sonic Highways
    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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Come And Get It!
    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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
    Like the similarly star-studded (but bland) "Twilight" and (insufferably twee) "Juno" soundtracks, Scott Pilgrim is something less than the sum of its parts.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Comedown Machine
    The production on most of Comedown Machine is off-putting in its chilliness.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Joanne
    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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Perfectamundo
    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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Femme Fatale
    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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    High Hopes
    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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Scratch My Back
    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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Uno!
    Armstrong sounds detached, despite a stream of curse words, and the band plays with a machine-like efficiency.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hemingway's Whiskey
    He's a troubadour for the suburbs, a guy who sings about middle-class life with a plainspoken mixture of wistfulness and humor.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Everything Now
    ["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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Junk
    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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Party Ain't Over
    Her voice often sounds overly pinched, and the horns come off as gimmicky.
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