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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    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Remember Her Name
    Her debut album Remember Her Name, which is full of heartfelt songs that soar and shiver alongside Guyton's majestic vocal, is a full-spectrum showcase of her long-simmering talent.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Flowers for Vases/descansos
    Flowers puts a lens on her weaker moments without any performative brightness. She simply lets her softer side shine. Gone are the animalistic vocals, replaced with a gentler tone that invokes a towering kindness and grace that pandemic-related solitude has allowed. ... She once again proves there is a fragile beauty that comes with facing the darkest parts of yourself, no matter how painful the process might be.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Accelerate
    Heavyweight champeen or not, Stipe's got his fighting spirit back, and so does his band.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Motherland
    These tunes don't have the big melodic hooks of "Wonder" or "Jealousy," but that doesn't lessen their beauty. [16 Nov 2001, p.172]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Supper
    Look beyond the music... to Callahan's uncanny vocals, which are placed unusually high in the mix, lending an eerily detached air to his deadpan lyrics. [25 Apr 2003, p.150]
    • 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.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Lead Us Not Into Temptation
    Byrne's music is wonderfuly brooding without losing the odd bounce in its step. [Listen 2 This supplement, Oct 2003, p.14]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Greater Wrong Of The Right
    While its accessible sound may alienate longtime fans, Greater Wrong suggests this Puppy is heading for a rewarding adulthood. [11 Jun 2004, p.124]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Big To-Do
    The Big To-Do features some of the band's most evocative chunks of misery-detailing to date.
    • 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.''
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Black Velvet
    Black Velvet reminds us how much we gained from the music of Charles Bradley, as well as what we've lost in his absence. [9 Nov 2018, p.54]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 5, 2018
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pick A Bigger Weapon
    A psychedelic funk and soul session. [28 Apr 2006, p.137]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Breaker
    Although the rest of The Breaker may not be blessed with the T-Swizzle magic, there are some more strong contenders for your next breakup playlist.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Some Echoes
    Like a computer geek with a romantic streak, Ohio's Aloha straddle the line between trad songcraft and proggy virtuosity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Wasting Light
    Light is a muscular rock & roll throwdown, featuring the Foos delivering exactly the kind of catchy, pummeling anthems they're known for, with total disregard for the whims of the masses.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    At Mount Zoomer
    While Zoomer is a perfectly decent collection of piano-riddled pomp and sprawling raucous songcraft, it suffers somewhat from the Indie Rock Slumpy Sophomore Syndrome. [20 June 2008, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Read & Burn 01 [EP]
    It's a still-thrilling combo, even if these new songs lack the tuneful pop smarts that made Pink Flag tracks like "Field Day for the Sundays" classics. [Review of EPs 01 and 02, 21 Oct 2002]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Grown Backwards
    Byrne's affectless tenor is a perfect match for the delicate bob-and-weave grooves on this CD. [26 Mar 2004, p.74]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs
    Goofy sonic collages that won't get any parties started but will amaze you with their stunning is-it-live-or-is-it-turntable tricks. [10 Oct 2003, p.125]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sunshine Hit Me
    Warm, fuzzy pop that's memorable as well as palpable. [25 Oct 2002, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Surprise
    Patience is rewarded with moments of stellar songwriting.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Seventh Tree
    It's a very sleepy listen--though often a vey lovely one. [29 Feb 2008, p.61]
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Set You Free
    On his ninth disc, he's beginning to let a small amount of sunshine in.
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jan 23, 2013
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Demolished Thoughts
    An immediate-sounding collection of acoustic-and-strings epics that strike a fine balance between appealing and disorienting. [27 May 2011, p.79]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted May 24, 2011
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Diamond Eyes
    The first third feels like primal-scream therapy, with frontman Chino Moreno howling himself even rawer than usual. More original are the quieter numbers that show off Deftones' subtleties.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    No Better Than This
    Compelling and heartfelt, No Better Than This feels tantalizingly timeless.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Dreamer
    Snarling through covers as far-flung as "Welcome to the Jungle" and Little Big Town's "Boondocks," James brings some welcome grit to the retirement-album game.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Album
    The result is less experimental but feels more illuminating, erring on the side of verbosity in contrast to the concision of its predecessor. By stretching out various emotional modes, she suggests the multitude of ways to show up in the world as a woman — and as a wife and a mother.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Want Two
    It didn't seem possible, but Wainwright gets more florid and over-the-top with each new album. [19 Nov 2004, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Happy Hollow
    All that metaphysical hand-wringing makes for some knotty songs, but the band attacks them with zeal. [25 Aug 2006, p.86]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Trey Anastasio
    For the most part, the album is an ebullient musical Mardi Gras, with Anastasio's dexterous, hard-driving guitar work the unifying thread.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Mayhem
    The arse-kicking Irish rockabilly revivalist's latest is ready-made for Quentin Tarantino's next soundtrack. [29 Jul 2011, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jul 27, 2011
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Wrecking Ball
    Springsteen's emerged with some good material for his new album.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The True False Identity
    Ultimately... his pinched delivery and humorless moralizing wear thin; by album's end, you wish he'd just start a blog. [26 May 2006, p.107]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Transistor Radio
    Wistful and bluesy. [11 Mar 2005, p.105]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    American Saturday Night
    Here, he drops that lovable detritus, going for constant home runs.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Kamaal The Abstract
    Q-Tip's voice retains its loose, slippery allure, but the disc feels like a worthy experiment abandoned halfway through; it doesn't end so much as nod off.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Kmag Yoyo (& Other American Stories)
    Carll is locked in a not-so-fierce battle with Ryan Bingham for the title of new king of alt-country. Here he splits the difference between Bingham's tender musings and a more raucous brand of humor.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sun
    She's never sounded more confident or in control than she does on Sun, her ninth album.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Maths + English
    An eclectic, break-dance-worthy Slick Rick reincarnation. [15 Jun 2007, p.77]
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Turtleneck & Chain
    Now, two years after Incredibad, a debut that collected many of the group's greatest, previously televised hits, comes Turtleneck & Chain, a perfectly acceptibad follow-up.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Crimson
    Crimson's minor-key arrangements... make more room for spooky keyboard ooze and swinging rhythms than those on [their] four previous full-lengths. [27 May 2005, p.136]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hot Shit
    Though things can get a bit maudlin, Quasi's tough-love hipster blues have a raw, lived-in charm. [19 Sep 2003, p.97]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Das Not Compute
    The songs emit an anxious energy with killer danceability. [14 May 2004, p.70]
    • 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
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Revival
    Fogarty's seventh studio album shows that his soul-scarred voice and knack for killer licks remains as potent as ever. [19 Oct 2007, p.126]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Marry Me
    All the hoopla may be a bit much (the evil carnival of 'Paris Is Burning' alone appears to contain 47 different musical effects), but this saint is worthy of her own cult following.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Path of Wellness
    Even despite the weight of expectation, reinvention, and continuity, Wellness marks a fine new chapter for Tucker and Brownstein. It may even be one for Sleater-Kinney.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sainthood
    Tegan and Sara imagine love as a form of religion, complete with its own saints, sinners, and special netherworld VIP lounge reserved just for exes. It's a weighty idea, but any self-seriousness is saved by songs like the pulsing-synth herky-jerk 'Arrow.' [30 Oct 2009, p.57]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Powder Burns
    Dulli... once again lets it rip. [19 May 2006, p.77]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 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.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Witching Hour
    Get past Ladytron's aloof exterior and you'll discover bristling guitars that anchor the most pneumatic of beats--and supremely catchy songs that pulse with life. [7 Oct 2005, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    A Mad & Faithful Telling
    It's a rare group that can make you wistful while wielding a caravans worth of instruments like a theremin, accordian, and sousaphone. [28 Mar 2008, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me
    Gone is the self-reflective wit of 2003's Deja Entendu, replaced with beefed-up guitars and overwrought references to God. [1 Dec 2006, p.87]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Made In The Dark
    Hot Chip's signature balmy synths and daydream-dizzy vocals are still body-moving, but less heart-stirring. [8 Feb 2008, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Frank
    Her first album--a UK smash in '03, now being issued here-- bristles with fiercer intelligence, though it lacks the classic soul-warmth of the Mark Ronson-produced Black. [16 Nov 2007, p.79]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Misery Is A Butterfly
    Despite sounding derivative at times, Misery... further refines [their] volatile mix with a touch of fidgety elegance. [19 Mar 2004, p.65]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Jerusalem
    Jerusalem is consciously ugly and gnarled, its characters troubled and troubling. [4 Oct 2002, p.153]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Absent Friends
    Gorgeous, grotto-fabulous chamber pop. [14 May 2004, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Wolf
    Just because W.K. has found his soft center lyrically, it doesn't mean the music has lost any of its hard core. [12 Sep 2003, p.150]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Burnside On Burnside
    Essential Burnside, especially for beginners. [9 Nov 2001, p.110]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Star-Crossed
    If the tone for most of the record's first half tips heavily toward 2 a.m. regrets and tempos that rarely rise above a broken heartbeat, the BPMs shift, however briefly, on "Breadwinner." With its tart warnings to steer clear of a meal-ticket man who "wants your shimmer/To make him feel bigger/Until he starts feeling insecure," the track feels like a buoyant callback to the chicken-fried wit of past standouts like "High Horse" and "Biscuits."
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blue Mountain
    A moving group of tunes worthy of any campfire.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Woman to Woman
    Woman To Woman may be a throwback, but there's no denying Cole's pipes on highlight moments. [30 Nov 2012, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 30, 2012
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    New Magnetic Wonder
    Each of its 24 tracks snaps and crackles with Schneider's sugary, peerless pop. [16 Feb 2007, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Long Island Shores
    Once again, the former seminary student brings unforced spirituality into lean songs about love, home, and heartbreak. [13 Oct 2006, p.131]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Rabbit Fur Coat
    Consider Lewis the Emmylou Harris of the Silverlake set. [3 Feb 2006, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Stand Ins
    This Austin quintet follows 2007's "The Stage Names" with a second tour de force about the collateral damage of fame.
    • 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
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Face The Truth
    It's weird, yes, but in a good way. [3 Jun 2005, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Life Pursuit
    A work more elastic and ebullient than their '90s releases. [10 Feb 2006, p.134]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Alvvays
    First albums rarely arrive catchier or more self-assured than this Toronto indie-pop quintet's frothy inaugural go. [9 Aug 2014, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Aug 5, 2014
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    End Of Love
    You'll find yourself laughing through the tears. [25 Feb 2005, p.102]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Real Gone
    Often riveting--and even a little gangsta. [8 Oct 2004, p.114]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sumday
    The band reaffirms a gift for creating melancholic melodies that are surprisingly sturdy and self-assured. [13 Jun 2003, p.96]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Immortal Memory
    [It] won't take her fans anywhere new. But stick with her as she builds a mystery. [23/30 Jan 2004, p.99]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Renegades
    The group's relatively unheralded musicians (guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk) have developed into such a nimble and cohesive unit that they'd sound pretty exciting even without someone spewing rapid fire invective over their grooves.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hypnotize
    It's a strange brew that may not be everyone's cup of tea; still, there's no denying these cats have their singular system down pat. [25 Nov 2005, p.100]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Roll On
    The fact that he just turned 70 is hardly an issue here; old-guy music is the only kind Cale knows how to make. Roll On is best at its loosest.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings
    Her inspirational hit “Wonder” is overly earnest, transformed from a funk-lite rocker into a spare ballad. But her jazzy spin on “Jealousy”—with Merchant, now 52, sounding as youthful as ever.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    No Pressure
    A much-needed corrective, a back-to-basics palate cleanser that rights the ship with help from co-executive producer No I.D., who was the guiding hand behind his debut record Under Pressure. It’s the cleanest album he’s ever made.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    If You're Reading This It's Too Late [Mixtape]
    Late is hardly a throwaway. In fact, it might be his most consistently rewarding full-length yet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Playing The Angel
    Their most self-assured and accessible release in over a decade. [28 Oct 2005, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Discover A Lovelier You
    Especially laid-back. [8 Jul 2005, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lullabies To Paralyze
    The macho posturing can get obnoxious.... That said, anyone looking for a band that can mix and match metal, blues, thrash, punk, psychedelia, and grunge as the mood suits will be floored by Lullabies. [25 Mar 2005, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Matangi
    M.I.A. never overthrew the prevailing pop order.... With her usual freetrade beats sounding more velvety than spiky, Maya Arulpragasam's fourth album finally makes peace with this. [8 Nov 2013, p.63]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 1, 2013
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The River In Reverse
    Costello can still oversing and overwrite... But even when he threatens to turn baroque, as in ''Broken Promise Land,'' Toussaint rescues him.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Painkillers
    Painkillers is a compelling second act.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Cassadaga
    Musically, it's his richest album yet, full of Nashville twang and Branson brassiness. And lyrically, the itinerant-traveler conceit is intriguing, even though its sweeping scope lacks the almost masochistically intimate power of earlier material.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Loose In The Air
    Ever wonder what Interpol would sound like with a noize guy scuzzing up their high-tension tunes? [16 Sep 2005, p.87]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 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
    • 75 Critic Score
    Love Is Hell, Part 2 [EP]
    Song for song, the EPs trump ''Rock 'n' Roll.''
    • 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
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Gold
    The album's sprawling tour through American music, from coast to beer-stained coast, is like a diner full of comfort food.
    • 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
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Rancid [2000]
    This collection of urgent, gravel voiced anthems is one of the most vital things the punk world has coughed up in years.
    • 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
    Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
    [A] simply dreamy album. [20 Oct 2006, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pretty Little Head
    Not every moment is essential, but compromise just isn't part of McKay's dazzling, defiant repertoire.
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