CMJ's Scores

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For 728 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 67% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 27% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 90 Harmonicraft
Lowest review score: 30 IV Play
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 663 out of 728
  2. Mixed: 64 out of 728
  3. Negative: 1 out of 728
728 music reviews
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    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Hate Music
    I Hate Music isn’t a missive on being an aging rocker as much as it’s reflective of the wisdom and maturity garnered as a touring band in what is too often--and outright mistakenly*--only considered the realm of the young and starry-eyed. Only Superchunk does it with the same unstoppably jaunty bounce and screaming guitars that defined (No Pocky For Kitty) and redefined (Majesty Shredding) their still palpable sound and made them leaders in their genre
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Humor Risk
    It will take repeat listening to capture the total gist of the record, as well as digging into McCombs' back catalog to get the whole story.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    El Pintor
    The new record finds singer Paul Banks and company reorganizing old reliable, post-Joy Division moves to deliver a fresher (more cheerful even?) atmospheric post-punk plate.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Viet Cong
    For now, it is refreshing to hear a band mining the searing sounds of ’81 as a cold breeze that kind of shakes you awake rather than making you want to run back indoors right away to cower under your own fears.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Oshin
    These songs seamlessly trickle from one to the next in a perfect collection of sounds, showcasing both complexity and musical depth in this mostly instrumental music.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Come Back to Us
    It's an album that takes Rogue away from the familiar efforts with Rogue Wave as it harbors eloquent and delicate melodies that pioneer a soft-spoken but and delightful album.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    From Africa With Fury: Rise
    From Africa With Fury: Rise is a solid sampling of Afrobeat, and if Kuti's goal is to show that his father's influence was not wasted on him, he succeeds brilliantly.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Give In
    For the Chicago trio, comprising Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci and Ryne Estwing, its haunting yet beautifully bare album is a textural journey over new terrain.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Weirdon
    Weirdon is stacked with some hefty singles guaranteed to bring this band to an even wider audience, and it succeeds because it ups the ante in terms of songcraft and production, but never at the cost of the weirdness.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    II
    More often on the album’s 10 tracks than not, Nielson keeps the balance, giving each part equal time in the foreground and using understatement to his advantage.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tweens
    It strikes you that the band’s songwriting, Battle’s vocal command, and the musical muscle is effortlessly melded. Which then has you heading back to the beginning of the record and realizing they’d hooked you from that very first tune.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Passage
    Palladino and Church may drown their sorrows in a pool of gloomy effects, but they still make even the most heartbreaking sentiments sound sweet.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    PHOX
    By existing at their own preferred pace, PHOX’s wonderful inability to conform to anyone else’s standards is what forces listeners to slowly digest their subtly multi-layered sounds. PHOX may be self-sufficient enough to do without your love, but it certainly deserves it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Deerhoof Vs. Evil
    Deerhoof Vs. Evil is a stylishly composed work done from four gifted musicians who are more than happy to be sarcastically snarling at you the whole time.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Personal Record
    Despite these retro touches, there’s something modern about the album’s ability to shrug off heartbreak, to grab victory from the jaws of defeat and then kick defeat in the jaw for being such a dick.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Feel Something
    Feel Something is never anything less than enthralling in its mushy melodies and gossamer vocals that’ll have many crushing on this record through the cold months.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songs
    Songs will reward repeated listens, and firmly establishes Deptford Goth as a talent to keep an eye on.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Without You
    An hour-long exploration of the group's first full-length work that is every bit as diverse as the artists chosen to work on it and as iron-dense and deeply bassocentric as the original.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sahel Folk
    Sahel Folk is a steadily moving work of clean sound not typically found in live works.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nikki Nack
    At certain points in Nikki Nack, like the track Manchild, her quirkiness feels out of reach, but it always comes back down again to teach you a little something about life, love and letting creativity shine through.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blood Pressures
    Her cold-blooded style meshes well with Hince's clanging guitars and the sleek world they have created inside of Blood Pressures.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Red Velvet Snowball
    It took a lot of experimenting, jamming and digression from its old songwriting techniques for Pepper Rabbit to produce such an enjoyable album.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Treefight for Sunlight
    Happy, nature-oriented psychedelic pop that bring to mind images of sprawling meadows in mid-summer.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Magic Hour
    And things simmer along just fine like that right ’til the end with 3 Seconds To Cross, a breezy, snare rim-tapping rumination on sunny California.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amok
    Amok ends up sounding enormous through its mingling of analog and digital sounds. It’s intricately assembled, with more pieces to pick apart than on The Eraser, which feels a bit timid in comparison
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ripely Pine
    A bright artist displaying skill and youthful eagerness--no shtick.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Bet on Sky
    It's everything to be expected: Dinosaur Jr. sounds relaxed, takes a laid-back approach and still manages to make an album that stands up next to everything else that the band has released since its resurrection.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Never Learn
    Every track on this album is relatable and takes us on an emotional journey through the steps of a breakup, which in Li’s interpretation seems to be frustration, pain and ultimately loneliness.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Something Dirty
    Whether sweet, creepy, epic or hilarious, all 13 tracks on the album represent Faust's ability to dismantle the structures inherently embedded in our musical expectations and free us into a world of unique and thoughtful organized layers of sound.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All Love's Legal
    Gendered pronouns do not appear on the album, thus the record feels distant, as if Rostron is isolated from the listener, a tactic that makes the album intriguingly impersonal yet universal.
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