CMJ's Scores
- Music
For 728 reviews, this publication has graded:
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67% higher than the average critic
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6% same as the average critic
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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: | Harmonicraft | |
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Lowest review score: | IV Play |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 663 out of 728
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Mixed: 64 out of 728
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Negative: 1 out of 728
728
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
It's hard to tell if the seemingly random, incoherent screeching and shouting from Siegel is meant to be a gimmick, a cop out or a totally genuine mode of expression. Whatever it may be, it's working.- CMJ
- Posted Apr 15, 2011
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Space Is Only Noise is a paradox. It's a dance album that can't be danced to, a lounge album that you actually want to listen to, but most importantly, it's an electronic album with emotion.- CMJ
- Posted Feb 28, 2011
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We Come From The Same Place is an album that often opts for the direct over the obscure, but taken as a whole it evokes something difficult to articulate about life and love. Both musically and lyrically, this album serves as definitive proof that this band is on a roll.- CMJ
- Posted Oct 9, 2014
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On a superficial level, Trouble Will Find Me, the National’s latest full-length LP, probably won’t convert any listeners who’ve written off the band’s music as boring.... Of course, the power’s in the poetics, and Berninger concocts some truly heart-wrenching images this time around.- CMJ
- Posted May 24, 2013
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More than ever he seems to accept his differences and embrace them, making an album that is more a solid work of art than anything previous.- CMJ
- Posted Jul 10, 2012
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Zoo is a bleak record, but through prolonged exposure it can begin to feel like a place you want to stay.- CMJ
- Posted Mar 12, 2012
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It would be incorrect to say that the duo is pushing “weird” to its sonic limits; “curiosity,” mostly in the space of the extremes of human personality, would be most apropos.- CMJ
- Posted Apr 11, 2013
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Foxygen is never overpowered by its influences.- CMJ
- Posted Jan 24, 2013
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This album is clearly not one you would want to put on in the background of your next party. In every aspect (its forms, melodies, instrumentation, etc.) it is a challenging and engaging hour of music.- CMJ
- Posted Mar 15, 2011
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Tear The Fences Down is open and inviting, and it's hard not to be pulled in by its verve and genuine sincerity.- CMJ
- Posted Mar 22, 2011
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Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave will do more than satisfy existing fans of the band; new fans too would do well to start here.- CMJ
- Posted Oct 31, 2014
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Some of the best parts of The Lion's Roar are when the Söderbergs harmonize together.- CMJ
- Posted Jan 23, 2012
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It may have taken three years for Go! Pop! Bang! to see the light, but fortunately, in Rye Rye's case, she has only gotten better with age.- CMJ
- Posted May 18, 2012
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You can enjoy Salad Days for its unadorned flow and easygoing weirdness, or you can stop, reflect and be moved by its fresh honesty. It’s worthwhile either way.- CMJ
- Posted Mar 31, 2014
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Despite a new sense of freedom, Ebert carefully crafts the album to keep a good balance between a full sound layered with an array of instruments and vocals to simpler textures that showcase just one element of the music.- CMJ
- Posted Mar 15, 2011
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I Am Gemini marks a brave and experimental turn in a new direction, but at the same time it's a nod to the old-in the best and least wallowing way.- CMJ
- Posted Feb 21, 2012
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The group's stab at human emotion is a smashing success because it's coming from a real place: the death of former band member Beau Velasco.- CMJ
- Posted Mar 25, 2011
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- Critic Score
Black Lips puts on a hell of a show on Arabia Mountain, and it doesn't even need riots and stage diving to keep you interested.- CMJ
- Posted Jun 6, 2011
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- Critic Score
The album’s 15 tracks don’t quite reach the 40-minute mark, but each track has a unique identity that both stands alone yet slips into the narrative of Xen.- CMJ
- Posted Nov 7, 2014
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With No Mythologies To Follow, MØ has established herself within an emerging circle of powerful pop dominatrixes but with her own distinct sound full of versatility and vitality.- CMJ
- Posted Mar 10, 2014
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- Critic Score
Man Man has an image to uphold, and it does that while refining its focus. The group has moved forward conceptually but at times still sounds like the trained animals and clowns from the circus that ambushed the orchestral pit, and that's just fine.- CMJ
- Posted May 10, 2011
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While many artists choose to play it safe on their debut album, Doldrums has decided to take us on an untidy journey into his own headspace. Lesser Evil is an unflinching and unashamed document of that trip, like a travelogue of a doomed vacation through Woodhead’s brain.- CMJ
- Posted May 29, 2013
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- CMJ
- Posted Jan 27, 2012
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- CMJ
- Posted Mar 27, 2012
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- Critic Score
It’s a cracked, smart and surprisingly powerful album, you just have to listen a bit closer than usual to hear what it’s trying to say.- CMJ
- Posted Jun 19, 2014
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- Critic Score
Montonix's latest installment is just as spirited as its live shows, but doesn't include all the sweat and fear of burning to death.- CMJ
- Posted Jan 27, 2011
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- Critic Score
The album lags a bit on a few songs where it sounds like one half of the group had the majority of the say during the writing process. These instances are few and far between though, leaving the rest of the album as an intriguing concoction of two bands coming from polar opposite sides of the musical spectrum and meeting in the middle to make something new.- CMJ
- Posted May 17, 2011
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Mount Moriah remains committed to a sparse, skeletal vein of Americana that values precision over ambition. That’s not to imply the album isn’t a rich and varied listening experience, but its ambiguities and complexities are shaded in charcoal, not paint.- CMJ
- Posted Mar 1, 2013
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- CMJ
- Posted Jul 27, 2011
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Lese Majesty is a seriously weird album, but it succeeds in calling the genre’s current established order to question and challenging what it means for something to be considered a hip hop record, all while remaining sonically pleasing enough to keep the listener engaged with the ambitious message that Shabazz Palaces is adamant at getting across.- CMJ
- Posted Aug 1, 2014
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