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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    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Wildflower
    Daydreams don't get much more vivid than the Avalanches iconic debut album, but Wildflower is a worthy--if not quite as revelatory--sequel.
    • 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.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Deserted
    The Mekons thread humor and poignancy through songs that crackle, veer, swoop and combust.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Scheherazade
    Fortunately, the music and, above all, the voices of the two singers fight through the darkness. The voices complement, converse and contradict, like sisters finishing or amplifying each other's sentences.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Nothing Feels Natural
    It sounds fully formed and wickedly confident, the work of four people who had to get a few things off their chest.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Grinderman 2
    Cave dials down the fiercely vivid imagery for a stark meditation on sex and death that leaves almost everything to the listener's imagination, accompanied by little more than the crackle of static.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Wounded Rhymes
    Her producer and co-songwriter Bjorn Yttling (of the Swedish rock band Peter, Bjorn and John) keeps things from sounding like mere revivalism.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Hunter
    If not quite as mind-blowing as its best work, The Hunter provides a solid summation of Mastodon's musical range.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Wild Flag
    That sense of teetering on the ledge of chaos, of mayhem fighting melody for control, makes Wild Flag a debut for the ages.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
    [The cover of J.J. Cale's "Magnolia" is] a beautiful grace note that rewards those who stay for the long haul.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    What a Time to Be Alive
    What a Time to be Alive roars.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Wild! Wild! Wild!
    Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Fulks wrote the bulk of the songs, sang, played guitar and banjo and produced, all in service to Lewis, who sounds as if she’s having a blast.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Star Wars
    It's impossible to assess an album this thick with twists and turns in a few hours. But at this early stage, it feels rich enough to reward more listens.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Whole Love
    As a sheer sound experience, The Whole Love is rewarding, a tapestry of tiny details that invites close listening.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Transgender Dysphoria Blues
    The music--a volatile mix of crashing guitars, drums and pile-driving bass funneled into shout-from-the-balcony choruses--destroys any hint of self-pity. But as Grace searches for a world that would allow her the freedom to be herself, she finds solace in the album's most subdued moment, and it's beautiful and moving.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Blue and Lonesome
    The Jagger on Blue & Lonesome is 73, three years older than Waters was when he died in 1983, and Richards is 72, Watts 75 and guitarist Ronnie Wood 69. In a sense, the Stones have become their elders, and their seasoning as a first-rate blues band is evident.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Nine Types of Light
    Though this is TV on the Radio at its most melodic and accessible, the music never succumbs to formula.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Years
    In contrast to the North Carolina songwriter’s rushed but rousing 2015 debut album, “Sidelong” (reissued last year by Chicago-based Bloodshot), Years is a more measured but no less bracing listen. Shook’s backing band, the Disarmers, holds a steady flame without letting things get out of hand.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Utopia
    It’s tactile and visual as much as aural, a continuation of her richly rewarding collaboration with Venezuelan-U.K. electronic artist and producer Arca.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Electric Lady
    The plot, such as it is, gets a bit murky, but it’s not a requirement for enjoying the audacious music.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    ...Like Clockwork
    ...Like Clockwork is the best and most focused Queens album since “Songs for the Deaf” in 2002.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Ty Segall (2017)
    If you're looking for a relatively concise 10-track, 36-minute introduction into the best of Segall's music, this is it.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Dark Matter
    The 73-year-old songwriter shows no sign of being at a loss for words about the dark comedy known as the human condition. He even puts a new twist on his already unconventional approach to song form.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Wide Awake!
    As usual, there’s a lot more going on than first meets the ear.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Echoes of Silence
    It's an impressive consolidation of his strengths, tightening up his songwriting and sharpening his often disturbing wordplay.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Nighttime Stories
    Their largely instrumental compositions, for all their technical prowess, have always been visceral, less about conjuring air-guitar solos than melodies you can hum a week after hearing them. They double down on that approach on “Nighttime Stories.”
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Adore Life
    On the follow-up, Adore Life (Matador), the fight in this band is still audible. But there's something else too--desire, cutting humor, vulnerability.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Father of the Bride
    It revels in pleasantness, peppered with quirky but cheerful touches that veil the mild unease expressed in the lyrics. In many ways, Father of the Bride sounds more like a singer-songwriter album centered on Vampire-in-chief Ezra Koenig rather than the interaction of a band.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sunshine Rock
    Rather than singing from inside the darkness, he steps back and tries to find glimmers of hope and, dare it be said, happiness. The dozen songs offer a more forgiving perspective on time, memory and the past and how to live with and move beyond it.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Silence Yourself
    The album could’ve easily done without the first two [moodier pieces], and been even better for it. No matter. Silence Yourself is still a disquietingly brilliant debut.
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