Entertainment Weekly's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 65 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Treble & Tremble
    Most of Treble & Tremble is about [Smith], making its early-morning melancholy and simple request to "take care of your heart" nothing short of gut-wrenching. [1 Oct 2004, p.74]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    No, You C'Mon
    A downtrodden and droopy-eyed batch of heartsick tales. [combined review of both discs; 27 Feb 2004, p.99]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Morning Phase
    This isn't just good Beck, it's best Beck.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Bangerz
    It's utterly fresh, a pop blitz from a hip-hop blueprint, and proof that Miley won't settle for just shocking us.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Viva La Vida
    The confident majesty of the music, however, belies how he and his bandmates have invigorated their rock-lite reign. [20 June 2008, p.65]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Feel That Fire
    On Feel That Fire he's found the midpoint between mirth and mope, as characteristic country barn-burners like the screw-it-'n'-drink sing-along of 'Sideways' mingle with themes of faith and fidelity to generate his most complete album yet.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blueberry Boat
    It's always urgent, heartfelt, fearlessly fiery, utterly sincere. [30 Jul 2004, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Choice of Weapon
    [Lead singer, Ian Astbury's] twisted carnival-barker delivery is more haunting and weathered than ever. [May 25 2012, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted May 21, 2012
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pink Noise
    Pink Noise revels in the freedom of moving beyond stress for something peaceful, adding yet another layer to Mvula's already-rich tapestry of sound.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Colour In Anything
    At 17 songs in 76 minutes, Colour is Blake’s longest album yet and with so much talent aiding the songwriter, it can feel belabored. But then there are stunners like “f.o.r.e.v.e.r.” and the title track.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Story Of My Life
    Her arresting voice holds it all together with unassuming grace. [11 Mar 2005, p.104]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Our Shadows Will Remain
    [An] especially forceful and cohesive album. [12 Nov 2004, p.120]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Smell Of Our Own
    Sounds like a partnership ceremony between R.E.M. and the Magnetic Fields, with Phil Spector presiding. [Listen 2 This supplement, May 2003, p.25]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
    [A] simply dreamy album. [20 Oct 2006, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Home
    There's commendable range here, but rest assured, he spends much of Home in his sweet spot--lust.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    25
    A record that feels both new and familiar--a beautiful if safe collection of panoramic ballads and prettily executed detours.... Her voice is a national monument, a ninth wonder; whatever she chooses to wrap it around is transformed and taken over.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
    Cave spits out his woebegone lyrics as if he were a Holy Ghost-filled preaching machine leading the world's funkiest revival meeting.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Post Pop Depression
    Underscored by high-octane tunes, Post Pop Depression runs the gamut from quiet introspection to brash rebellion--and stands tall as some of Pop’s most essential work in years.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Electric Ladyland [50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]
    Even if you've been to Electric Ladyland, this version is worth the price of readmission. [30 Nov 2018, p.51]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 21, 2018
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Weather
    Weather reflects a bracingly tough-minded attitude toward love. [18 Nov 2011, p.103]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 15, 2011
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    College Dropout
    West delivers the goods with a disarming mix of confessional honesty and sarcastic humor, earnest idealism and big-pimping materialism. [13 Feb 2004, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Why Should The Fire Die?
    Steeped in tradition... but also flirts with pop immediacy. [19 Aug 2005, p.144]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Yonder Is The Clock
    The fourth album from these purveyors of Band-evoking Americana is as folksy and honed as a tale by Mark Twain, from whom the Felices borrowed the title.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pick A Bigger Weapon
    A psychedelic funk and soul session. [28 Apr 2006, p.137]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    There Were Wolves
    If you liked the harmonies of that romantic duo on the Once soundtrack, you'll fall for these hard-headed, bighearted folkies.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    An Invitation
    The album's light-fantastic orchestration, courtesy of famed songwriter and composer Parks , is equally delightfully old-fashioned--though George's decidedly contemporary lyrics recall the arch-baroque confessionals of Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple. [15 Aug 2008, p.67]
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    A Different Kind of Truth
    The result is a gloriously satisfying cop-out.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Undun
    The Roots have always been at their best expressing quiet desperation and spinning old-school tales of struggling upward.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Stranger to Stranger
    Stranger to Stranger is, finally, Simon’s most interconnected work, a self-contained world unto itself full of backing tracks that wind up in multiple songs and recurring characters (“the Street Angel”) who pop up in unexpected places.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sing When You're Winning
    'Winning'' is a winner, offering ample reason for connoisseurs of great pop to rejoice, whatever their age. Alternately wistful and witty, introspective and invigorating, it's arguably even better than ''The Ego Has Landed,'' Williams' 1999 Stateside calling card.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Information
    It's a sonic tour de force, and Beck seems comfortable in the info-storm.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hate
    Catchy tunes about the darkest of emotions. [14 Feb 2003, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Release Me
    "Home" and "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" will thrill fans of The Broadway Album, and "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" is flawless.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ash & Ice
    On Ash & Ice the melodies finally catch up to that dark vibe. Mosshart remains one of rock’s most dynamic vocalists, and she’s never sounded better than on the broken-hearted piano ballad “That Love.”
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Picaresque
    [Meloy's] lyrics skip across history... and overflow with mellifluous rhymes. [25 Mar 2005, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Bestival Live 2011
    All 32 tracks are performed with the band's signature gloomy/giddy passion. [16 Dec 2011, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Dec 9, 2011
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Play
    What could've been a condescending gimmick yields some of the year's most haunting, and haunted, music.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Less Than Human
    Overflows with ebullient beats that are both booming and bizarre. [29 Jul 2005, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    American Saturday Night
    Here, he drops that lovable detritus, going for constant home runs.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Beyoncé
    Here more than ever Bey indulges clashing impulses--between strength and escape, megapop and fresh sounds, big messages and resonant lyrics.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    In These Silent Days
    Seven albums in, Carlile has long since proven herself constitutionally incapable of making a bad record. She's not about to start now.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The ArchAndroid
    Does every genre suit her equally? Of course not, but most of Janelle Monée's mad experiments yield spectacularly catchy results.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eye Shadow
    His most cohesive album in a decade. [16 Nov 2001, p.172]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Walking With Thee
    A major step forward, with complete songs built around a rhythmic pulse that owes nothing to modern dance-music conventions but would still sound spectacular in a sweaty club.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Apollo Kids
    Many of these tunes sound like they could have been recorded at any point in his 17-year career - and that's great news for fans.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hurricane Bar
    Hookily retro, Kinks-style Britpop. [11 Mar 2005, p.105]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Storyteller
    Story may not tell listeners much about Underwood’s inner life, but she’s never owed or offered that. She makes good songs sound great, and that’s enough.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Another Fine Day
    While Golden Smog's attachment to country may have waned, their commitment to fine songwriting has only strengthened.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Gift Of Screws
    Buckingham remains the master of type A chamber pop.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Vol 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
    Their most extreme CD to date. [4 June 2004, p.80]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Shining
    Though bittersweet, the CD lives up to its mastermind's lofty legacy. [25 Aug 2006, p.87]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sign [EP]
    Ineffably gorgeous. [18 Jan 2002, p.80]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Carpenter
    It's a harmonious, cohesive album - like hope and regret all shaken up in a mason jar.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Just A Little Lovin'
    Just A Little Lovin' is a stark reminder of Lynne's empathetic skill as an interpreter.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Wild Flag
    Wild Flag is rock's first great all-female supergroup album. And it's about time.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Libertad
    Velvet Revolver's second CD is so chock-full of the tight 'n' crunchy pedigreed hard rock that's in short supply these days, it feels both comfortingly familiar and vaguely exotic
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dreaming Of Revenge
    Somehow the 28-year-old has created possibly her most sophisticated release yet. [14 Mar 2008, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Desired Effect
    It’s Flowers’ unique presence--equal parts Wild West underdog and glitzy glam messiah--that really transforms Effect’s Reagan-era throwbacks into forward-thinking Instagram-age rock.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lasers
    Simply put, Lasers beams.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Happy to You
    The spirit of Happy to You is indie rock, but the sound is as addictively sharp as anything in the Top 40.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Trouble With Being Myself
    To call Macy Gray's new album, The Trouble With Being Myself, delightful is to minimize its sensual intelligence and considerable emotional depth.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Unglamorous
    'Witness to Your Life' and the title track are two of the most engaging pop paeans to mature, married love you've ever heard. [24 Aug 2007, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Old Ideas
    The man in the suit still commands a room, telling tales of forgiveness, heaven, and alcohol. [3/10 Feb 2012, p.112]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jan 30, 2012
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blood Pressures
    The blues-punk duo builds another near masterpiece. [8 Apr 2011, p.59]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Apr 8, 2011
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fly Or Die
    If rock is rap's new sonic sandbox, then N.E.R.D.'s crazy-strange second album, Fly Or Die, makes them the unlikely heirs to, of all people, Steely Dan. [2 Apr 2004, p.62]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Star Wars
    At its weirdest and fuzziest moments, Star Wars retains an infectious joie de vivre--it’s the sound of dudes who love tapping into one another’s talent and humanity.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Summer In Abaddon
    These catchy songs are so sonically enthralling, you could call them heavenly. [15 Oct 2004, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Beauty & Crime
    The brushed drums and acoustic guitars of 'Anniversary' allow her whispery voice room to breathe. [10 Aug 2007, p. 69]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Anti
    Rihanna’s most intriguing project yet, even if there’s no clear smash amongst its 13 tracks. In many ways it’s her most deliberately uncommercial album yet, but don’t let the low-key THC vibes fool you: every harmony, drum beat, and transition on Anti is painstakingly finessed.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blood From Stars
    Guitarist Marc Ribot flirts with a cornet, while Henry's sax-playing teenage son Levon makes an impressive debut. They play ballads, waltzes, and slow dances that give Henry's vignettes time to unwind, like weary travelers unpacking their burdens over cigarettes and gin.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Stephen Malkmus
    This is silly stuff, obviously, but it's a welcome return to the giddy wit that had dimmed as Pavement tried to contort itself into a conventional rock band.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    My Dinosaur Life
    On My Dinosaur Life, the Minneapolis quintet's winning fourth album (ably produced by blink-182's Mark Hoppus), frontguy Justin Pierre lets his geek flag fly, likening a breakup to the destruction of Superman's home world and puzzling over ephemera ranging from acid rain to Busta Rhymes, all backed by soaring choruses guaranteed to fossilize themselves into your brain.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Animal Years
    He finally has the sumptuous, sweeping arrangements to go along with his ruminative road stories and stream-of-consciousness, Dylanesque folk. [14 Apr 2006, p.86]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 63 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Battlefield
    Battlefield actually contains enough ?potential hits to keep the singer in heavy rotation until well into Idol's 10th season.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Built From Scratch
    While their lightning-fast deck skills evoke nostalgia, the X-men still sound like the freshest crew on the block.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Audioslave
    The result isn't a faux Rage album; rather, it's the true follow-up to Soundgarden's ''Superunknown'' that neither that band nor a solo Cornell ever managed.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Honkytonk University
    A solid old-school effort with a Ph.D. in pain. [20 May 2005, p.77]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    One True Vine
    [Producer Jeff Tweedy] provides many nicely spare showcases for her silken vocals. [28 Jun 2013]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jun 21, 2013
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Biophilia
    The singer's greatest strength remains the glistening natural resource flowing from her throat.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Up In Flames
    These laptop-pop fractals... deliver spectacular hip-hop drum breaks and the sort of mile-deep multi-tracking that makes digital technology so much fun. [Listen 2 This supplement, Apr 2003, p.12]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    In Your Honor
    Arguably the year's first great hot-weather record. [24 Jun 2005, p.161]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    In Defense Of The Genre
    Unexpected as they are, Defense's sonic twists almost always work, justifying the album's 89-minute run time.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lust Lust Lust
    Lust Lust Lust is a gauze-wrapped cocoon of an album: too opaque to break through to a wide audience, but all the more precious for its enigmatic, slow-to-surface charms.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Astral Weeks Live At The Hollywood Bowl
    All this deceptively timeless fluidity induces a wonderful mystic fog that might make you forget whether you're honoring a 40th, 5th, or 100th anniversary.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Coast Is Never Clear
    Rarely has such a meticulously constructed album sounded so effortless. [21 Sep 2001, p.84]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Thunder, Lightning, Strike
    Full of exuberant, childlike pastiche pop. [7 Oct 2005, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    La Radiolina
    And though he sings mostly in French or Spanish, Chao's music is so sonically vivid, so gloriously evocative, translation seems almost superfluous.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sound of Water
    They've made a dreamy set suffused with synth bleeps and strings, nodding to Eno, Abba, and U.K. electro-soul peers Everything but the Girl.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Rising
    Springsteen's words may be weighted with the aftershocks of death, but the music, ironically, is animated; unlike ''Joad,'' ''The Rising'' is a pleasure to hear.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Infinity On High
    Lo and behold, it turns out these pasty emo boys are a pretty great blue-eyed soul band.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Acid Tongue
    Various guests--including Elvis Costello, M. Ward, and the singer’s own sister and father--are fun, but Lewis clearly remains the star, rising.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Merriweather Post Pavilion
    Merriweather Post Pavilion won't land the band the opening slot on a Coldplay tour, it cleaves closer to "Pitch's" more listener-friendly aesthetic, abandoning the self-indulgent impulses that sometimes muddied last year's "Strawberry Jam" for an album full of effervescent, transportive oddity.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Here We Rest
    The ex-Drive-By Trucker cranks things up a gear with this terrific collection of Muscle Shoals-recorded country-rock. [15 Apr 2011, p. 87]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Apr 8, 2011
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Arular
    As instantly infectious as it is hard to pin down. [15 Apr 2005, p.85]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Cool
    It turns out randomness makes for a surprisingly unifying concept.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Begone Dull Care
    A new album means more romantic whispers and languorous synth beats. Both ingredients are bountiful on the Canadian duo's third full-length.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Kaputt
    Kaputt nods to Steely Dan and late Roxy Music, and its shimmering synths and moody soft rock would be the perfect soundtrack to a romantic urban noir.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Neon Bible
    In the bleakest songs, the polyphonic swirl of strings, horns, and voices... points toward transcendence.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hymns
    Bloc Party never became the saviors they were supposed to be, but putting out your best work after a decade of near-constant turmoil has to count for something. [29 Jan/5 Feb 2016, p.107]
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Young Modern
    Young Modern is a polished glam-rock suite, boasting more ecstatic melodies and colorful riffs than their four previous efforts combined.
Page: