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
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors
    He makes like the great funk weirdos of yesteryear, plunging his purple psychedelic prose beneath creamy seas of keyboard, two-stepping funk, and indie flotsam.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Free TC
    Free TC could use some editing, but Ty has enough charm to carry bedroom jams, Cadillac bangers, and folk-funk experiments all at once.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ouroboros
    Ouroboros is a perfect throwback to the lost art of the album-length format.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Call It What It Is
    It’s a welcome homecoming. Recorded in separate sessions spanning the course of a year, the 11-song set is his most diverse collection in years.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tight Knit
    His crooning has an absentminded, otherworldly quality that's perfectly lovely.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Feminist Sweepstakes
    Le Tigre meld cheesy lo-fi electronica, garagey hip-hop, cerebral sound collage, and new-wavey songcraft into infectious, stripped-down tunes.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Revelación [EP]
    Revelación proves that Gomez is up to the task — and a far more versatile musician than she's been given credit for.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz
    Dead Petz offers an uncensored look at Miley Cyrus’ id and it’s a distillation of an artist’s soul that is both rare and wonderful, delivered so effortlessly off-the-cuff that it may occasionally sound haphazard. But there’s always an exacting method to her freewheeling madness.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Kids See Ghosts
    While Kids See Ghosts feels more like a Cudi album than a Kanye one, it is a production showcase for both. ... The seven-song affair leaves you greedy for more when it’s over in a mere 23 minutes.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Deacon
    Where Soil embraced the discord of romantic entanglements, Deacon, its follow-up, is a celebration of the opposite: the comfort and assurance that swells from deep connection. [Apr 2021, p.73]
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    No Better Than This
    Compelling and heartfelt, No Better Than This feels tantalizingly timeless.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat
    If you think songs get into trouble past the three-minute mark and words are nothing more than things that fall out of your mouth, D-D-Don't Don't Stop The Beat is the record for you. [8 Aug 2003, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fishscale
    He may not be reinventing himself, but as a must-hear street storyteller, he's still at the top of his game. [31 Mar 2006, p.64]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Handcream For A Generation
    Sounds even more like Quentin Tarantino directing a Bollywood Superfly starring Beck. [3 May 2002, p.88]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Leaders Of The Free World
    The gloom-rock tunes are as sophisticated as ever. [24 Feb 2006, p.64]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Good Bad Not Evil
    'O Katrina!' which kicks off like any lovesick Nuggets stomp, then drops the line "I can't believe what's on the TV screen." We're not hearing about a jilted girl anymore, but a jilted city. And before that can sink in, another wonderfully scuzzy guitar solo is on its way.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Man On The Moon: The End Of Day
    Cudi turns out to be that rarest of rap phenomena: a hyped upstart who really does represent a promising new phase in the genre's evolution.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Busted Stuff
    This is such a fascinatingly different take on (mostly) the same material that it almost whets your appetite for a third rendering.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Transnormal Skiperoo
    White shares similarly enthralling tales of troubled characters but infuses them with a newfound levity. [14 Mar 2008, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Same Trailer Different Park
    On her confident, melodic major-label debut, Musgraves' vocals are pleasingly agile, but what Same Trailer Different Park continually showcases is her writing prowess.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Evening Of My Best Day
    These are pop's most artful anti-Bush statements to date.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Beck Song Reader
    Song Reader made for a pretty cool objet d'art, and it inspired a boatload of intrepid musicians--rock groups, string ensembles, kooky one-man bands--to upload their versions to YouTube. That freewheeling spirit also informs the new Song Reader compilation.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Flat-Pack Philosophy
    As timeless and tuneful as any of their past masterworks. [10 Mar 2006, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Have One On Me
    While Newsom remains the most intricate lyricist currently working ?outside of rap, her melodies have become cleaner, her ?arrangements less mannered, and her singing more ?straightforwardly heartfelt.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Suburbs
    The band certainly aims for transcendence on The Suburbs--a work of impressively fervent majesty.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    In Reverie
    An unexpectedly poppy collection of left-field melodies and twisty song structures that wrap around your brain like a head cold. [19 Sep 2003, p.86]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Black Swan
    Jansch's solo numbers make it clear that his nimble acoustic picking and rueful musings need no accompaniment. [20 Oct 2006, p.81]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
    This 14-track-strong album is very much good news for people who loved Good News for People Who Love Bad News.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Long Way Home
    She braids her voice, bass strings, and percussions together to create whole conversations.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    M!ssundaztood
    A fetching collection of pop confections.... ''M!ssundaztood'' captures girlish confusion with greater accuracy and delight than Alanis Morissette's supposed bible of the form, ''Jagged Little Pill."
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Oceans Apart
    They remain one of rock's most pleasurable hand-me-down discoveries. [29 Apr 2005, p.148]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Person Pitch
    A lovely, trippy kaleidoscope of sound. [13 Apr 2007, p.74]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
    Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is one of those ''taking stock'' records that collates and refines everything that came before. But what an inventory of sounds they've built.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    My Krazy Life
    YG's storm cloud is more inviting than most rappers' clear skies. [28 Mar 2014, p.63]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Mar 27, 2014
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Aw C'Mon
    Judicious distillation might have provided sharper focus, but this is an appealingly ambitious sprawl. [combined review of both discs; 27 Feb 2004, p.99]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 63 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Everything Is Borrowed
    His backing tracks incorporate more live instrumentation, adding some much-needed musical warmth to complement his lyrics' newfound depth.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pig Lib
    Pig Lib accomplishes what no punk-schooled fan would think possible: It makes prog-rock cool.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Neon
    Neon feels confident and complete. [9 Aug 2013, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Aug 12, 2013
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Inni [Live]
    This double live album/DVD, which includes footage from their final 2008 prehiatus show at London's Alexandra Palace, is masterfully paced.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Next Big Thing
    A lively and assured return to form. [14 Feb 2003, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Cripple Crow
    Supplement[s] his prior folky ways with a rash of surprising styles. [16 Sep 2005, p.85]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Woods
    While it's surprising to hear Sleater-Kinney act so traditional, it's more shocking how well such conventions suit them. [27 May 2005, p.135]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    23
    It's an enthralling listen, proving once and for all that they deserve the wide success of fellow travelers like Radiohead and Sonic Youth.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Santogold
    The album is hardly flawless, but in an era that retro-fetishizes rock and whitewashed pop, Santogold feels both raw and real. [25 Apr/2 May 2008, p.119]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 65 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Native
    This is chemically pure pop-rock--flavorless, transparent--and potent enough to melt your resistance like battery acid. [29 Mar 2013, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Mar 26, 2013
    • 61 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    18
    It's a formula, but damn if it isn't still effective. [17 May 2002, p.74]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Transference
    It may pretty much lack any semblance of conventional verse-chorus-verse structure, but for those who find the metronomic abstractions of this band soothing, Transference is exactly what you crave, unadorned.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    blackSUMMERS'night (2016)
    It exudes enough confidence to let his heart show and to let his music grow in any direction his muse demands.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Currents
    There’s a new kind of richness to frontman Kevin Parker’s lonely-astronaut experiments.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    How I Got Over
    The venerable hip-hop band's first effort since joining NBC's late-night lineup delivers all the funk/soul/jazz vibes fans have come to expect.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Oh You're So Silent Jens
    [He] peppers his dour dedications with a deadpan, Morrissey-esque wit. [9 Dec 2005, p.89]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Emerald City
    John Vanderslice's sixth full-length, Emerald City, doesn't disappoint.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Absent Friends
    Gorgeous, grotto-fabulous chamber pop. [14 May 2004, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    All I Intended To Be
    All I Intended to Be, the country legend's first album in five years features terrific, hushed versions of Patty Griffin's ''Moon Song,'' Tracy Chapman's ''All That You Have Is Your Soul,'' and Billy Joe Shaver's ''Old Five and Dimers Like Me.'' But Harris can also turn it on in the songwriting department, as she proves in ''Gold.''
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Me & Giuliani Down By the School Yard (A True Story) [EP]
    It's a funky spin on the dance-punk of late-'70s/early-'80s acts like Gang of Four. [6 Jun 2003, p.78]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Rings Around The World
    Unfortunately, that extraordinary core is at times marred by forced eccentricity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Live from the Underground
    Live From the Underground is the best distillation of the South since OutKast's rule-rewriting heyday.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Old Kit Bag
    The writing is just as rueful, darkly romantic, and exuberant as it's ever been. [16 May 2003, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    A River Ain't Too Much To Love
    An exquisite mix that conjures train tracks and piney woods. [3 Jun 2005, p.86]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Hunter
    Those hybrids mutate awesomely, creating one burly, beastly adrenaline spike. [30 Sep 2011, p.74]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Sep 28, 2011
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Like Red On A Rose
    Startlingly good. [29 Sep 2006, p.80]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Street Songs of Love
    Hints of glam and punk inform the rootsy proceedings, giving these alternately gritty and lyrical songs a satisfying glow.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Attack & Release
    Somehow the quirks enhance the power of the desolation at the core, and prove that gut-grabbing and ear stroking needn't be mutually exclusive. [4 Apr 2008, p.61]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 92 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial
    This excellent three-CD overview of the hugely influential folksinger's career covers much of the obvious ground, then explores some less-visited hinterlands on its third disc.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Return The Gift
    Shows the Gang still do it best. [28 Oct 2005, p.84]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 63 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    20/20
    [A] noncommercial gem. [3 Mar 2006, p.103]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Love Behind The Melody
    Had he been born a few decades earlier, he could have been a major pop sales force. For now, he'll have to settle for making music that transcends today's commercial rules.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Cellar Door
    A well-conceived collection of odd pop songs with thoughtful lyrics about unusual subjects. [23/30 Jan 2004, p.101]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tambourine
    Merritt's voice is a magical combination of cool reserve and effortless warmth. [20/27 Aug 2004, p.123]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hurley
    Hurley wrestles with serious themes - heartbreak, nostalgia, busted and unrealized dreams; the kinds of things that songwriters usually write songs about when they're on the precipice of turning 40.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused
    Sublime and spacey, delicate and dramatic.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Bachelor No. 2 (or, the last remains of the dodo)
    A genuinely winning collection of sublime, old-school pop.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    30
    A surprisingly personal album that showcases how Adele has matured, both as an artist and as a person, since the middle of the last decade. She could have built on her blockbuster success in a cynical way, copy-and-pasting "Rolling in the Deep" and "Hello." Instead, she lets her emotions guide her, with triumphant results.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Daylight
    The silky-voiced folk-popster successfully rocks up his sound on his fourth album, adding a polite but firm electric edge. [20 Sep 2002, p.106]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Avalanche: Outtakes & Extras From The Illinois Album
    These wistful folk-pop leftovers are better than most acts' A game.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Margerine Eclipse
    Wonderful.... It's like greeting old friends who'd been held hostage by free-jazz-playing aliens for seven years. [23/30 Jan 2004, p.99]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
    This club-crawler's-eye-view perspective sets Turner apart from his contemporaries, as does the music. [24 Feb 2006, p.60]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Optometry
    Morphs subtly between hip-hop abstraction and unalloyed free-improv exploration. [Listen 2 This supplement, Aug 2002, p.23]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Last Broadcast
    The darkest feel-good record of the year. [14 Jun 2002, p.100]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 64 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    E=MC2
    The result is a largely enjoyable mix of flirtatious club jams, midtempo love songs, and emotional ballads anchored by hip hop beats that hansomely showcase the singer's powerful vocal range. [18 Apr 2008, p.63]
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Indie Cindy
    Simply in the mood for great rock music from a band that knows how to make it? Get this album. [2 May 2014, p.63]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Apr 25, 2014
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Power Out
    Recalls both early [Philip] Glass and Stereolab, at least until the squaling vocals begin, when it starts to conjure the art brut of punk foremothers like the Raincoats or the Slits. [Listen 2 This supplement, Feb 2004, p.16]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Friendly Fire
    Fire passes in an enchanting sort of basement-cabaret haze, all pretty melodies and haunting orchestral arrangements. [3 Nov 2006, p.78]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    These Days
    Wretched excess? Not at all: These might be better thought of as four distinct, tight, hugely fun albums. [20 Oct 2006, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Devils & Dust
    Devils is a more mature effort than Joad and Nebraska, for being a little less bleak. [29 Apr 2005, p.144]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Bazooka Tooth
    It helps to enjoy Aesop's oscillating growl simply as an instrument, considering it may take months before his endless, seemingly im-parse-able, might-be metaphors start making sense.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Full Moon
    Her deep, warm voice now has a scratchy, evocative edge that suggests maturity and the high price that often comes with it.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Drag It Up
    Old 97s spend their rootsy sixth disc recalling growing up. [30 Jul 2004, p.69]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Entomology
    Neither of the albums they recorded before disbanding made it to the U.S.; thankfully, this long-overdue retrospective includes the choicest cuts from both. [22 Dec 2006, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 67 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Element Of Freedom
    Keys' material is ultimately about the slow reveal, not the instant blitz. If Element asks for patience, it also earns it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    USA (United State Of Atlanta)
    Prove[s] they have something in common with Common: They can be conscious without being soft. [24 Jun 2005, p.162]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Celebration, Florida
    The folk-rockers magnificently expand their musical palette, finding space for punch horns, Floyd-ian sonic weirdness and even Audrey Hepburn samples. [13 May 2011, p. 63]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted May 6, 2011
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    A Blessing And A Curse
    Finds [Drive-By Truckers] turing from the social concerns of 2004's Dirty South to the more personal with career-best results. [21 Apr 2006, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Some Cities
    There's an almost antiquated quality to this wondrously exhilarating, shimmering pop masterpiece. [4 Mar 2005, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Maths + English
    An eclectic, break-dance-worthy Slick Rick reincarnation. [15 Jun 2007, p.77]
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    At My Age
    [A] finely honed collection. [29 Jun 2007, p.136]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Mastermind
    His flow too remains flawlessly weighted.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Come to Where I'm From
    The songs adhere to the beautiful-loser template established by Leonard Cohen, to which Arthur adds bumpier, near-hip-hop rhythms and desolate-angel sentiments like ''Now Jesus he came down here just to die for all my sins/I need him to come back here and die for me again.''
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Rabbit Fur Coat
    Consider Lewis the Emmylou Harris of the Silverlake set. [3 Feb 2006, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tio Bitar
    Once again, English speakers need not understand a lick of Swedish to enjoy the music's universally mind-expanding effects.
Page: