CMJ's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wakin on a Pretty Daze
    Despite the length of the album, it’s gratifying to cup your hands over your eyes and squint into Vile’s self-effacing and self-reflexive world. There’s something invigorating about hearing a mind loop back on itself in constant pursuit of a question it never even knew it asked.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Overgrown
    Blake’s best moments on Overgrown occur when he finds that balance between the upbeat hip-hop rhythms and the down-tempo acoustics that so brilliantly parallel his voice.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Totale Nite
    This album has the potential to appeal to imaginative listeners with a wide range of tastes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rkives
    Rilo Kiley always had the ability to acknowledge the bad without letting it suck you down. That got lost on the weirdly glossy, distant and jaded Blacklight, but RKives restores the balance.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cruise Your Illusion
    On their full-length debut, Milk Music keeps those influences intact with raw, warm sludgy rock that brings them out of the fuzzy shell of 2010′s Beyond Living EP helping to secure a unique personal identity that respectfully builds on a classic sound.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wolf
    The emphasis on reacting to criticism and persona-maintenance occasionally overshadows the significant developments and leaps Tyler has made as a producer and musician on this record.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Caveman
    Although it meanders for periods, Caveman’s self-titled is a well-crafted collection of songs that feels assured of itself and captures a consistent temperament of joyful exploration.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Victim of Love
    Bradley’s sophomore album, Victim Of Love, burns hard and slow.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The North Borders
    Bonobo has given us a great collection of interlacing melodic songs that have real depth and distinction.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Recover [EP]
    The trio’s past experiences may explain how it manages to exercise a seasoned talent for both variety and control.... The two “Recover” remixes, by Austria’s Cid Rim and U.K.-based Curxes, are filler. They’re pleasant on their own, but neither can hold up to the original.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Meir
    They expand upon the thrills of the last record with acerbic aplomb, catching us unaware with hooks and then relentlessly, lovingly, plugging away at the daily, death-y grind.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Comedown Machine
    They’ve tossed a simple, solid album in our lap, thrown up the deuce and strolled out the door, take it or leave it.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Invisible Way
    The Invisible Way may not be the most significant brick, but its sturdiness is something to be admired.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ripely Pine
    A bright artist displaying skill and youthful eagerness--no shtick.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Impossible Truth
    Whether he’s softly plucking away or spinning a complicated web of chords, Tyler’s music is transportive in the sense that it can offer an escape from just about anywhere.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    180
    The emotive howls of their pub rock provide catchy blasts of energy that are more familiar than groundbreaking but who’s quality should not be discounted for failing to meet the hyperbole that preceded them.
    • 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.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Muchacho
    As Phosphorescent continues to evolve as a project, widening its range and sharpening its lyrical acumen, that commitment has become more apparent, culminating in his best album yet.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wyoming
    Full of memories and unanswered questions, Wyoming asserts a sense of limitless depth, as the duo’s members seem to have developed a greater understanding of one another than on their debut.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cerulean Salt
    While the new record represents a considerable leap in ambition, it retains the hand-made, intensely personal quality that defined Crutchfield’s earlier work.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wondrous Bughouse
    Powers is going all in on this one, inviting you into his Wondrous Bughouse and daring to pour light into an often dark place.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Untogether
    The brooding album is one for self-reflection on those winter nights when you want to be alone with your thoughts. This is great in its own right, but for the next album, the group might want to let a little more light in as well.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Anxiety
    With all its messy emotions, unfiltered memories and contradicting revelations, Anxiety shows that it’s not only possible to write a self-conscious record without the protective shield of anonymity, it can be just as thrilling.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Miracle Temple
    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.
    • 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
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One Track Mind
    Ten years into their career, Psychic Ills have tamed themselves, refining into a form, but the result remains a hypnotic set of songs that consistently achieve an introspective and cerebral kind of psychedelia.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Privilege
    There are more standalone tracks here, ones with memorable melodies and sing-along choruses coexisting with the band’s fatalistic lyrics and jarring instrumental twists.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Flume
    This album has an eccentric palette and shows off Streten’s wide-ranging tastes; if you can’t find something to enjoy here, you’re not looking hard enough.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You're Nothing
    These songs won’t convert skeptics, but they’ll give the faithful a few bloody noses.
    • 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.
Page: