Drawer B's Scores
- Music
For 121 reviews, this publication has graded:
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41% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 9.9 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 63
Highest review score: | Kill The Moonlight | |
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Lowest review score: | This Island |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 73 out of 121
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Mixed: 27 out of 121
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Negative: 21 out of 121
121
music
reviews
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- Drawer B
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Spoon rebounds from the insurmountable challenge of following up the colossally brilliant Girls Can Tell with an equally impeccable album.- Drawer B
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This is not an easy record to absorb. The band’s rough-hewn production is tinny and sonically chaotic, but underneath the surface noise lurks one of the finest records of the year.- Drawer B
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Once all the influences roll off your tongue, however, you’ll find yourself speechless before the excitement this album will invariably instigate.- Drawer B
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The sonic consistency may bore fans thirsting for more of Cornelius’ spastic and unpredictable eclecticism, but the ensuing stereophonic experience is second to none.- Drawer B
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Plenty of bands have hooks and good songs and retro-garage sounds, but none compares to The Strokes.- Drawer B
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As difficult as it is gorgeous, Vespertine ranks among Bjork’s finest albums.- Drawer B
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Last Exit is a monumental debut... on par with It’s My Life or Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.- Drawer B
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It is the band’s most fully realized musical achievement.... A monumental album by a monumental band.- Drawer B
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Gimme Fiction may not be your favorite Spoon record right now, but give it a few years.- Drawer B
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The band’s finest release by far, it’s a swaggering, head-long dive into funk, rhythm and blues, gospel, roots rock and roll, and disco but with a very sleek modern edge.- Drawer B
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Elephant is a startlingly dark and consistent record, incorporating frequencies never before heard on a White Stripes album.- Drawer B
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This is Mission of Burma’s most aggressive and impassioned record to date.- Drawer B
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Even though Guero sounds familiar sonically, it still pushes Beck further into a league that he all but owns.- Drawer B
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Costello has never experimented so freely on an album in his entire career.- Drawer B
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while the production’s sleek sheen holds tight reigns over any explosive guitars threatening to get out of hand, The Stills still manage to build up enough tension to hold your attention through good old fashioned songwriting.- Drawer B
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Each listen reveals depth and texture that allow the hooks plenty of room to breathe.- Drawer B
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Mr. Beast isn’t Mogwai’s most challenging or daring record, but it might be its most beautiful or powerful.- Drawer B
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The Strokes match their innate catchiness with a new found intensity that makes First Impressions of Earth sound like a band hungry for blood.- Drawer B
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Sunny Border Blue will go down as her finest album outside of the Throwing Muses because it’s her finest batch of songs.- Drawer B
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The lyrical terrain is insultingly common (girls, life on the road, girls), yet the band has such an idiosyncratic method of expression that makes these everyday themes sound – at least over the course of each song – radically inspired.- Drawer B
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Late Registration... definitely mines familiar terrain, but West’s zeal for clever wordplay juxtaposed with his unflinching confidence makes for a charismatic and often electrifying punch.- Drawer B
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Low sounds fearless in its experimentation. Such personal intimacy juxtaposed with extremely haughty pretension could easily turn off listeners, but it’s all woven together so well that it’s hard to dismiss even the wrong turns.- Drawer B
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The album skillfully and confidently showcases all of Martin Gore’s songwriting strengths.- Drawer B
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Even though this compilation doesn’t rival any of the Pixies’ classic studio albums, it is still essential listening.- Drawer B
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By turns goofy, intellectual, and non-sequitur lyrics are indecipherable without the lyric sheet, but the strangely alluring charm of songs like "The Skin of My Country Yellow Teeth" will have you clamoring for more.- Drawer B
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- Drawer B
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The Hives’ propulsive, polyrhythmic outbursts are so packed with hooks and catchy choruses that you can’t help but overlook the schtick and give in to the raucous delight.- Drawer B
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She’s clever and sharp with her lyrical daggers, and she’s frighteningly aware of the impact of her own voice.- Drawer B
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The smarmy lyrics are back in full force, but the music is so crisp, clean, and catchy that it hardly matters at all.- Drawer B
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Don't be fooled by the constant references to other bands. While the foundation upon which Interpol is building, certainly is borrowed, its music is not a miming act.- Drawer B
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Takk is sharper and more direct than anything the band has previously churned out, but that is not to say it’s by any means accessible by normal standards.- Drawer B
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An album packed with as many irresistible hooks as Whenever You’re Ready deserves to be heard.- Drawer B
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Albarn’s ability to slither arrogantly from genre to genre while maintaining his charm is truly remarkable.- Drawer B
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This album is an extraordinary display of Oberst’s songwriting prowess. It’s obscenely ambitious and pretentious and ridiculous but unquestionably memorable and affecting.- Drawer B
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We Love Life trades Pulp's characteristic risk-taking for smooth accessibility, which works a gray, rainy day magic over the proceedings.- Drawer B
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Take away the insane lyrics, and you’ve still got music worth listening to. Granted, it sounds like Journey being raped by Ronnie James Dio, but you have to admit that’s intriguing.- Drawer B
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Antics is a grower. It’s not as grandiose as its predecessor, but it still packs a lasting punch.- Drawer B
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Not exactly radio friendly, The Woods explores sonic deconstruction a la Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix instead of the preciously catchy indie pop hooks you’ve come to expect.- Drawer B
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While Torino is most definitely not a Wedding Present album by any stretch of the imagination, it should win back some of the die-hard older fans that may have boycotted Cinerama at the onset.- Drawer B
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It isn’t until you’ve given it your full attention that the album starts to reveal its true depth and worth with songs that stick and get under your skin and make you come back for more.- Drawer B
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It all unfurls more like a musical than an indie rock record, but don’t let the dissonance scare you away.- Drawer B
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Despite the daunting Radiohead-colored cloud that hangs heavy over Muse, the band pushes the limits of its slick, pre-apocalyptic rock with a self-assured strut.- Drawer B
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These songs will undoubtedly knock the wind out of you, but for every dynamic explosion or screeching wall of noise there’s a hook in tow.- Drawer B
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So yes, it has that retro-futuristic edge, but what sets 604 apart is the distinct lack of kitsch.- Drawer B
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For a guy that has so little to say with so few ways to say it, Trent Reznor has mastered the art of making what is old sound new again.- Drawer B
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Luckily, the band doesn’t cave into the dance-punk trend without expanding upon its current ubiquity with skillful songwriting and risky avoidance of testosterone.- Drawer B
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- Drawer B
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High Society expands upon the hurried schizophrenia of Schmersal’s previous band, Brainiac, elevating songwriting to the same level of experimental deconstruction to both the detriment and advancement of the band’s core sound.- Drawer B
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On Take Fountain Gedge uses his sharpened songwriting chops to present his case and again proves himself a master of the pop song. It’s just that sometimes it feels like routine.- Drawer B
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If the fact that Albini seems to bury Falkous’ yelps behind too much dissonance bothers you, there’s plenty of joyous wreckage to revel in.- Drawer B
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The Delivery Man is a solid, albeit slightly over-learned and patronizing, collection of bluesy rock.- Drawer B
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It’s an expansive and stupendously produced record with a handful of remarkable songs.- Drawer B
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With Murray Street the band has made a persuasive case for its ongoing existence for the first time in over a decade.- Drawer B
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Yeah, it’s another Silkworm record. It’s not the band’s best and it’s not the band’s worst. It rocks in its own unique, world-weary way.- Drawer B
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The most noteworthy aspect of The Photo Album is the band’s upward trajectory. The music is cohesive and even, though still somewhat sluggish.- Drawer B
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!!! fuses the Tom Tom Club’s frivolous white-boy syncopation with ESG’s polyrhythmic propulsion to make your brain feel informed while your feet work very hard to embarrass you.- Drawer B
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And while lyrically nothing comes close to eclipsing the pop genius of "Heartbeats" from their previous release, Deep Cuts, several tracks on Silent Shout demonstrate considerable growth both lyrically and musically, making this a solid follow up from a band that has further evolved their own curious brand of synthpop.- Drawer B
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Moby continues to do on 18 what he’s always done best, and that is to fuse disparate musical styles with a pop sensibility, while maintaining a moody, almost gothic theme.- Drawer B
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Granted, Kweller is still searching for an unique voice, as his music still wears its roots a little too blatantly, but he’s definitely on the right track.- Drawer B
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It is a little more scattered than the last few proper Stereolab albums in terms of musical threads, but the urbane electro-funk of “Interlock” as well as the jittery disco pomp of “Eye of the Volcano” prove that Stereolab is still tweaking the formula with one foot in Esquivel’s grave and the other several light years away.- Drawer B
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[Gilbert’s] chirping voice is such a spectacle at times, you won’t know whether to laugh or punch a hole in the wall.- Drawer B
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Less than half of the record actually sports the rock I salute it for, but when it does Superdrag shines like a blast from the past but without the feeling that it’s a calculated throwback to anything in particular.- Drawer B
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Only vaguely hints at what the future holds, relying mostly on its tried and true formula of layered, epic rock and raw, pounding emotion.- Drawer B
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It sounds overcooked, over-thought, and overly ambitious, but such growing pains are preferable to pandering.- Drawer B
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They show great promise, but also fall victim to the uncertainty of a band drastically altering their sound and trying too hard to make grandiose statements.- Drawer B
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It’s far from the level of a Magnetic Fields release – or even The 6ths for that matter – and, therefore, won’t appeal to casual fans.- Drawer B
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It’s safe, unobtrusive, and ubiquitously “indie”, if well produced and memorably melodic, at times.- Drawer B
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3121 may be funkier, edgier, and dancier than Musicology, but it still doesn’t push the envelope on a level that would constitute a true return to form.- Drawer B
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The Blood Brothers pretty much have one speed: murder. This will tire even the most patient ears after about fifteen minutes, although, the album does show signs of expanded musical breadth with slower, albeit, brief melodic interludes and unconventional instrumentation (xylophones, toy pianos).- Drawer B
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Beneath all the off-kilter catchiness, quirkiness and aggression lies little of substance.- Drawer B
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Suffers from too much open-faced honesty and a serious lack of intensity.- Drawer B
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Astronaut doesnâ??t come close to ranking with the music that made the band world famous, but it has moments that make it easy to remember why the band rode such a wave to begin with.- Drawer B
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There are some good songs here, to be sure, but they’re wedged between too many meandering, indistinct retreads of self-referential bombast.- Drawer B
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In small doses casual, uninformed listeners could mistake this for vintage Pink Floyd, but it lacks the tension of Pink Floyd’s passive aggressive rumble.- Drawer B
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Cure fans are certainly used to Smith’s voice being high in the mix, but on this record it can be overwhelming and stifling.- Drawer B
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They’re not trying to pass this off as original, and it’s not by any means. But it is clearly catchy as hell, if almost annoyingly so.- Drawer B
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It’s pleasant enough music if you’re having a Caribbean-themed barbecue in your backyard, I guess, but little here will challenge your musical senses or move you in any way.- Drawer B
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Orton seems to be embracing the humdrum, schlocky sound of New Age crooners and adult contemporary mush like Dido.- Drawer B
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This collection is the antithesis of anything Kurt Cobain would have authorized, right down to the shiny metal packaging.- Drawer B
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On Worlds Apart Trail of Dead sounds utterly reinvigorated yet dangerously reinvented.- Drawer B
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Nowhere near as affecting as even latter day Sebadoh records like Harmacy, Emoh shows Barlow in a typically maudlin frame of mind, but the starkness of his voice is smoothed over with pointless overdubs- Drawer B
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The formula has barely changed, although there is a noticeable decline in songwriting quality.- Drawer B
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It’s frustrating to listen to a band run in place, especially when the expectations are so much higher.- Drawer B
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