Entertainment Weekly's Scores

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For 3,519 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 81% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 18% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 78
Highest review score: 100 The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do
Lowest review score: 0 Playing With Fire
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,085 out of 3519
  2. Mixed: 407 out of 3519
  3. Negative: 27 out of 3519
3519 music reviews
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    How Animals Move
    Lush, high-plains soundtrack music. [1 Nov 2002, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Music For Imaginary Films
    The overall tone remains knowing and playful.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Cookie: The Anthropological Mix Tape
    Another set of songs that are political and unflinchingly personal, but still manage to entertain. [7 June 2002, p. 76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Little Sparrow
    In wedding bluegrass with the Appalachian sound of her youth, Parton, who wrote half of the material and reprises her classic ''Down From Dover,'' repeatedly explores her favorite theme -- romantic betrayal -- and turns in a powerful performance, augmented by the best of bluegrass' hot pickers
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Remedy
    This blissful joy ride is hard to resist and easy to love.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ancient Melodies Of The Future
    A lovely surprise. [17 Aug 2001, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Don't Give Up On Me
    The results are astonishing. [26 July 2002, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Home
    A magisterial album.... If the group has cast off some of the youthful eclecticism, the three Chicks have pulled off something more difficult: refined their trademark sound without allowing it to turn into a copyrighted formula.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Electric Circus
    Although he can be self-righteous, scattered, and grim, a team of truly youthful-minded producers is there to color the gray.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    45/45 [EP]
    Betke masterfully manipulates space and echo. [25 Apr 2003, p.151]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Night On My Side
    The sweetly pained vocals sound darn similar to Beth Orton's. [25 Apr 2003, p.151]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Equilibrium
    A perfect 41-minute album that balances wide-open melodic inventions with crisp, time-stopping grooves. [Listen 2 This supplement, Feb 2003, p.10]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Beaucoup Fish
    Wipe away its dusting of frost and you'll encounter mystery, beauty, and alluring rhapsodies, with the warm, pulsating beats serving as the music's heart.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    American III: Solitary Man
    Though the Man in Black has rarely sounded blacker, producer Rick Rubin frames that deep sea voice with harmonies and churchly organs, making for a dark angel beauty of an album that's austere but welcoming.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Bazooka!!!
    A glorious blend of punk and power pop straight outta '78. [22/29 Aug 2003, p.133]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Poses
    With Broadway-worthy new standards, and a strong supporting cast, Wainwright delivers a flawless, flip-flopless performance. [8 June 2001, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Tenacious D
    They're profane, bursting with rage and lust, and they deliver more laughs than anyone since Richard Pryor.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    All That You Can't Leave Behind
    As hopelessly antiquated as it may sound in the year 2000, it's as if they decided it was time to write and record an album of very good, extremely substantial traditional rock songs with an underlying inspirational bent.... the new work focuses on songs, not sonic gimmicks, and the difference is palpable.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Shake The Sheets
    Practically every song is a near-perfect amalgam of straight-up melodies and pogoing beats. [5 Nov 2004, p.80]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 95 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Stankonia
    Stankonia reeks of artful ambition rendered with impeccable skill -- or as one song title so concisely has it, ''So Fresh, So Clean.''
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Final Straw
    Much of the credit for this catchy set of Britpop goes to the intelligent use of samples. [2 Apr 2004, p.66]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Songs For The Deaf
    The year's best hard-rock album. [6 Sep 2002, p.86]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    When The Pawn...
    Apple's piano trundles, the strings loom, the beats clop; everything, including her throaty voice, has alluring dark circles under it. With their hints of cabaret, tango, and doomed chanteuses, the melodies slither rather than pummel you.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Scorpion
    From start to powerful finish 16 tracks later, Scorpion pumps up the volume, the rhythms, everything.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Point
    11 irresistible sound collages that feature driving beats, amiable guitar acoustics, and a quadraphonic sense of aural play that encourages rampant headphone abuse. [15 Feb 2002, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Stumble Into Grace
    Lovely, heartbreaking, and just diffident enough to get perspective on this bittersweet old world. [26 Sep 2003, p.94]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Decline Of British Sea Power
    It's not all darkness: The Brighton, England-based quintet offers enough straight-ahead rockers to keep the CD from turning into dirge overkill. [Oct 2003, p.95]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Get Away From Me
    Sophisticated stuff even for a music vet; truly stunning considering McKay is only 19.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Blue Boy
    The disc's gritter sound, courtesy of producer Steve Earle, is a perfect complement to Sexsmith's "Waterloo Sunset" croon... [6/8/2001, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Cobblestone Runway
    His encouraging lyrics are creatively conceived and cliche-free, while his music has a folky, redemptive grace. [11 Oct 2002, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    No More Drama
    The multiproducer arrangements are expansive yet warm, and Blige's pushy rasp has never sounded better.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Gung Ho
    A collection of hypnotic, human rock & roll that extols such seemingly antiquated virtues as moral fiber, history, and love as spirituality.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Red Dirt Girl
    A transcendent and seductively personal sound.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    69 Love Songs
    69 elegant observations by a pop master.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    World Without Tears
    A perfectly imperfect set, it's looser, blowsier, and more what-the-hell? than anything she's done.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Human Conditions
    Though elaborately orchestrated, the songs retain their intimacy, communicated in Ashcroft's vocals, which, over the years, keep getting warmer. [7 Mar 2003, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Bows & Arrows
    Bows and Arrows reveals a band that's grown tighter, hungrier, and more varied since last time. [6 Feb 2004]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    A Rush Of Blood To The Head
    Displaying a cohesion rarely heard in albums these days, ''A Rush of Blood'' bobs from one majestic little high to another.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Drill A Hole In That Substrate And Tell Me What You See
    White conjures lost souls drifting through a mythical nation of pawnshops and cheap motels, his voice a sensual whisper over their rattling bones. [9 Jul 2004, p.89]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    When I Was Cruel
    Bristling with an electric current that seemingly short-circuited years ago, ''When I Was Cruel'' is the best work Costello has produced since ''Blood & Chocolate'' back in the mid-'80s.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Whoa, Nelly!
    One of the year's most consistently pleasurable debuts.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Kill The Moonlight
    Could be the Strokes in 10 years--if they work hard. [Listen 2 This Supplement, Aug 2002, p.14]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Grey Album
    A startlingly, shockingly wonderful piece of pop art. [19 Mar 2004, p.64]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Soft Bulletin
    A vertiginous rainbow swirl that crams so many ideas into so many tight spaces that each track is like a perfectly rendered Joseph Cornell box.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    North
    Feels like a mash note to autumnal Manhattan. [26 Sep 2003, p.93]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Uh Huh Her
    ''Uh Huh Her'' reasserts that Harvey, now the grande dame of this genre, remains unrivaled.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    How The West Was Won
    Capture[s] a mighty band at the height of its gargantuan power.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Rubber Factory
    Shockingly well done... a remarkable album. [3 Sep 2004, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
    [The album's] ambition flies so far beyond that of anyone doing rap right now (or pop, or rock, or R&B), awards shows may need to create a special category for it. [19 Sep 2003, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads [2004 Version]
    Captures the punk attitude, brittle R&B vamps, and quirky lyrical trips of their early years. [20/27 Aug 2004, p.123]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Up!
    Playing armchair producer and doing comparison tests is so entertaining, the cumulative package is greater than the sum of its parts.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
    It's that very rare thing: a totally fresh--and utterly engaging--sound. [Listen 2 This supplement, Mar 2004, p.12]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Original Pirate Material
    By adding grit and gutter-savvy humor, Skinner also takes U.K. garage to a new level, making for the year's most striking debut.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Van Lear Rose
    Crackling with a bristling immediacy, Van Lear Rose yanks Lynn into the present while never abandoning musical traditions that continue to define her, her voice, and her material. [30 Apr 2004, p.160]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Tigers Have Spoken
    A breathtaking 35 minutes. [12 Nov 2004, p.122]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Bubblegum
    Alt-rock blues darker and scarier than Jon Spencer or even Jack White ever imagined. [24 Dec 2004, p.66]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    You Are The Quarry
    A set of irresistible tracks both danceable and desolate. [28 May 2004, p.124]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    O
    Rice is both vulnerable and seductive. [18 Jul 2003, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Medulla
    One of her best efforts. [10 Sep 2004, p.161]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    SMiLE
    It's a gorgeous trip back to a time when anything seemed possible. [1 Oct 2004, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Two Against Nature
    Their ensemble sound remains sharp and inimitable.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Live In New York City
    Fans will likely find Live In New York City's porridge not too epic and not too stingy, the balance of newer material, obvious classics, and obscure trifles just right. [13 Apr 2001, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Bow Down To The Exit Sign
    Holmes races through genres like a mad cab driver running red lights, revving up a jittery, urban fever dream from a junk heap of beats and ragged exotica. [10/27/2000, p.120]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Back To Me
    Offers up the same taut honky-tonk, high-lonesome balladry and electric-rock snarls as Failer. But the production is more direct, and her songs are more rueful. [4 Mar 2005, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 63 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Paper Tigers
    All retro rock should sound this good. [22 Apr 2005, p.62]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
    Everett finally delivers the absolute stone masterpiece fans have always known lurked inside his dour heart. [29 Apr 2005, p.147]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Atom Bomb
    The vibe isn't far removed from the funky frathouse spirit of a vintage Leon Russell album (note: That's a good thing). [18 Mar 2005, p.66]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Honeycomb
    Black's take on Southern soul: spare, graceful, in the pocket, with Black himself sounding reborn and relaxed. [22 Jul 2005, p.78]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Outsider
    An unexpected ball. [19 Aug 2005, p.144]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Twin Cinema
    It's their trademark boisterous hyper-melodies... that will have you involuntarily humming their praises for weeks (months!) to come. [26 Aug 2005, p.59]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Extraordinary Machine
    The cleaner take on Extraordinary Machine is like a trip to a less cluttered haunted house, and Apple's more nuanced delivery sticks the knife in, but slowly. It's both charming and devastating. [7 Oct 2005, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Feels
    Breathlessly giddy and shamelessly trippy. [21 Oct 2005, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Aerial
    Considering the length of her hiatus, this is a remarkable surprise.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    12 Songs
    [The] tension between Rubin's desire to pare it down and Diamond's tendency to amp it up makes for the best musical checks and balances; nothing gets too unplugged or too bombastic. [11 Nov 2005, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution In Sound
    A perfect mix of giddy tropical rhythms and Beatles-style experimentation. [27 Jan 2006, p.85]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Congotronics 2: Buzz'N'Rumble From The Urb'N'Jungle
    More diverse than the series debut. [3 Mar 2006, p.102]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    St. Elsewhere
    St. Elsewhere is a bumpy but mesmerizing ride.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Springtime Can Kill You
    Proof folk music shouldn't just conjure the past, but also sit down and have a drink with it in the present. [12 May 2006, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Taking The Long Way
    Finally, they put their music where their opinionated mouths are.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Reprieve
    It's beautifully committed music--the kind that's as essential now as it has ever been. [11 Aug 2006, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Post-War
    Ward's talents have never been more persuasively showcased. [1 Sep 2006, p.77]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Modern Times
    Intriguing, immediate, and quietly epic, Modern Times must rank among Dylan's finest albums.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Savane
    An elegant summation of his work. [11 Aug 2006, p.69]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
    They embellish what they long ago mastered: making shaggy, dreamy, cuddly, explosive indie rock. [15 Sep 2006, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Love
    You could figure it as a sop to today's interactive mash-up culture. Or you could say it's just extending the medley-ish, segue-happy ethos of Abbey Road to the band's entire catalog. Really, it's both, and it's bliss.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
    Familiar, compelling, and tugging out empathy.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Hell Hath No Fury
    The best hip-hop album of 2006.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Songs For Christmas
    The season's most thrilling holiday release. [1 Dec 2006, p.85]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Visitations
    With its lushly forbidding soundscapes and enigmatic lyricism, Visitations bears repeated journeys. [2 Feb 2007, p.123]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 69 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    West
    As bummers go, West is a beautiful one — akin to Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Reminder
    Another multifaceted gem.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    New Moon
    Moon's two cohesive CDs prove as emotionally powerful as anything in his catalog. [1 Jun 2007, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Icky Thump
    Despite all the distortion and teeth-shivering riffs, Icky Thump rivals White Blood Cells in accessibility. [22 Jun 2007, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ear Drum
    A procession of sharp cuts. [24 Aug 2007, p.133]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
    It isn't long before you realize how frickin' right it all sounds, how damn near flawless the tone of the whole set feels. [28 Sep 2007, p.104]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Magic
    Magic, his best record since "The River" in 1980. [5 Oct 2007, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The World Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams
    Ndegeocello's dreamy vocal styles buttress this boudoir-freindly work. [28 Sep 2007, p.106]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Civilians
    Civilians matches Henry's rough croon with a rich, warm sound that instantly draws you into its sonic world. You won't want to leave.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Widow City
    A gas, a blast. [12 Oct 2007, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
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