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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    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Matangi
    Matangi‘s top moments aren’t riddled with thumping bass or explosive mania. They are steady builds, relatively simple and not of a too specific trend moment, plus they have feeling.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness [Deluxe Edition]
    And if you are a big fan of the band-and if you invested in the reissue, that's probably a given--this will give you hours of quality material to get lost in. But if you're not super familiar with the band, aside from being able to identify that Corgan is that vampiric-looking bald guy, then use this reissue as an excuse to revisit--or just visit--this album.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You
    A listless cloud of heartbreak penetrates every crack and many moments teeter on the maudlin, but The Worse Things Get has fight, too.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Year of Hibernation
    With only eight tracks and a run-time just over half an hour, this debut is a light one but hits like a featherweight champ.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sob Story
    It’s clear from even the most half-hearted listen that Spectrals have found their niche space on Sob Story.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Fool
    With a sound that comes off as natural, Warpaint represents a much needed departure from the ubiquity of synth-pop, and The Fool is a welcome detour.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cape Dory
    Every detail of Ray's second full-length alongside Her Happy Hookers is imparted with vigor--be it her razor-edged howling, or the biting lyrics that comprise them.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jamie Lidell
    It’s altogether more synchronized, an album that pulls you along into its wonderfully mixed-up world without getting lost.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator
    By the time that the closing track has concluded its schizophrenic barrage of drumming, the album has exhausted and enthralled its listeners, who will be ready to press rewind and live through it again.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Channel Orange
    The roominess and the variety are what make this album so interesting.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Ghost
    The entirety of No Ghost is filled with poetic verses about the usual triumphs and failures of love, and taken together amounts to an emotionally mature piece of work with a healthy amount of upbeat, exciting tracks to go with it.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Natural History
    Despite its party-hard attitude, Natural History has a thoughtful, searching soul.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Confess
    The infectious beats and catchy hooks are still a driving force, but Lewis has abandoned the bedroom vibes to surge ahead with full-on amphetamine-induced vigor.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything
    Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra’s proto-punk only gets better with age and maturity, but Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything believes that today’s youth are everything for tomorrow.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everything in Between
    The album fights back against the tide of boring, quiet music, and nearly every song feels like a throat-rupturing protest against standing still.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Native Speaker
    Difficult to place in just one genre, Braids creates a colorful atmosphere around its songs that completely immerse the listener in its movement.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All Things Will Unwind
    It's an elegantly lush record, brimming with imagination, that was no doubt slaved over in the studio yet sounds entirely natural.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    King Night
    In the end, the album proves that it is the night that is the king of the dark.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cancer4Cure
    Despite the brainy, composer-like attention to detail and El-P's complicated lyrics, this is still music imbued with a bracing sense of physicality. It's great stomping music.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dead Reckoning
    The album can simply be described as a great band supporting quality lyrics, served up as organically as possible.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    119
    Its suicidal lyrics and aggressive guitar riffs won't disappoint current fans and will more than likely win over a bunch of kids from the Odd Future side.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sleep Forever
    Forever is a journey through the darker parts of the human mind. Death, love and a strange sense of optimism resonate through the reverb.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)
    Not necessarily a great narrative rapper, Monch's lyrical strength lies in his ability to flip phrases maniacally and tease out tangential theoretical connections through his staggered, pile-up rhyme schemes.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Odds
    With The Odds, the Evens have perfected the model of what we may consider post-post-punk: simple messages, tight instrumentation-this is grown-up grunge.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Are Not Alone
    Despite reaching her eighth decade, Staples is making music that is strikingly modern, but the defining concept of the album is timeless: unadulterated hope.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Departing
    Upon first listen, it sounds like all of the rest-cutesy vocals, romantic lyrics, peppy poppy guitars. But on Departing, the guitars are massive, the lyrics are gorgeous and the vocals are astonishingly expressive.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We Knew It Was Not Going to Be Like This
    Surf City plays with a more confident and reassured sound as the group comes into its own on We Knew It Was Not Going To Be Like This.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pop Negro
    El Guincho dons his best Animal Collective costume on his third full-length, an album filled with Afrobeat and tropical rhythms. Yet it doesn't sound derivative in the least.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Barking
    Eight satisfying songs of rhythm and groove later, Underworld pulls a fast one, yanking the cord with album finale "Louisiana," which features beautiful keys, languid vocals and a gentle, time-keeping beat that lulls listeners into the blissful ether.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sound the Alarm
    Killer Mike gets the most quotable lines, turning simple statements into punchlines and investing each syllable with a sense of rhythmic possibility; you’re never sure exactly which word in a given line he might decide to pluck like a stray beard hair.... Despite abandoning some of the more layered and mannered production flourishes of his solo work, El-P still packs these songs with stray details--the roar of a tiger, those gorgeous organs, the squeal of a dolphin--that can be jarring on first listen but gradually reveal themselves to be essential.
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