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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    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Me First
    The mournful harmonies and orchestral sweetening on some tracks... spread a seductively decadent sheen over the oddly uplifting proceedings. [27 Feb 2004, p.98]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    God Hates Us All
    They're still racing through their riffs with the velocity of a NASCAR winner. [21 Sep 2001, p.84]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    What I Do
    Reaffirms his position as one of the genre's most believable balladeers. [17 Sep 2004, p.78]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The "W"
    The W forgoes innovation and simply revels in the Clan's strengths: the way their star rappers toss around rhymes as if playing catch; RZA's skulking, string enhanced beats; all those mystical hip hop words.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Lady Killer
    Lady Killer both honors and tweaks the tropes of vintage songcraft with hefty doses of sweet Motown/Stax 
 boogie, a smattering of Curtis Mayfield superfly, and imaginary theme songs for James Bond.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    You're Nothing
    The band's second exercise in the dark arts bulks up their sound without losing its ascetic ferocity, pummeling adjacent skinny-jeans genres into one formidable whole. [22 Feb 2013, p.74]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Feb 20, 2013
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Praise & Blame
    On Praise & Blame, the singer revels in gutbucket and gospel, delivering 12 emotionally charged sermon-songs with raw-throated abandon.
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Martha Wainwright
    Wainwright's barbed lyrics about love and relationships sound like she scrawled them on a whiskey-soaked night. [22 Apr 2005, p.62]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pig Lib
    Pig Lib accomplishes what no punk-schooled fan would think possible: It makes prog-rock cool.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Mama's Gun
    Mama's Gun is the female companion to D'Angelo's ''Voodoo,'' with which it shares a reactionary pseudo- sophistication that too often substitutes good taste for good tunes. It's soul music for people who -- wrongly -- think rap is dumb and contemporary R&B is simplistic. Unlike D'Angelo, however, Badu has a nuanced voice that pokes through the bland surfaces; sometimes she manages moments worthy of her forebears, as on the slinky ''Bag Lady'' and the syncopated ''Booty.''
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Execution of All Things
    An old-school indie-rock disc reminiscent of Bettie Serveert, Rainer Maria, and Liz Phair.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Street's Disciple
    [Disciple], while not as tight and gritty as his debut, is far more ambitious in scope and fearless in its approach. [3 Dec 2004, p.84]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Begin To Hope
    She displays a range fans old and new will find intoxicating. [16 Jun 2006, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Canterbury Girls
    The sisters are truly coming into their own here, exploring new sonic avenues and expressing themselves with beautiful, and occasionally brutal, honesty. [1 Mar 2019, p.51]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Feb 25, 2019
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Reflektor
    Arcade Fire, today's reigning big-message rock band, bring more cynical tidings on their intrepid, uneven, and very long (75 minutes) fourth album, Reflektor.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Two Men With The Blues
    Willie and Wynton may seem like an odd couple, but this live disc makes the country legend amd jazz master sound like natural partners. [11 Jul 2008, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ancient Melodies Of The Future
    A lovely surprise. [17 Aug 2001, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Greatest
    Marshall wanders into lulling Orton/Portishead turf so often that it's easy to imagine some of these songs oozing out of the PA system at your local Banana Republic. [27 Jan 2006, p.80]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Director's Cut
    But if Director's Cut is a tad superfluous, it's also gorgeous.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    White Chalk
    On the largely piano-based White Chalk, she retreats into an odd little-girl-lost persona, singing almost entirely in a tremulous higher key that strangles the most powerful instrument in her arsenal: that voice.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ouroboros
    Ouroboros is a perfect throwback to the lost art of the album-length format.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hate
    Catchy tunes about the darkest of emotions. [14 Feb 2003, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Bones of What You Believe
    While their debut doesn't always maintain those kinds of highs [as singles Recover or Lies], it still provides plenty of charmingly straightforward indie-disco pleasures. [4 Oct 2013, p.64]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Sep 27, 2013
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Libertines
    Like the Strokes on their own sophomore effort, the Libs thoroughly disappoint on this follow-up. [24 Sep 2004, p.106]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Gulag Orkestar
    Far more redolent of 1920s Bucharest than modern-day Albuquerque. [2 Jun 2006, p.84]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 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
    All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend
    On her stunning debut album, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, the now-19-year-old channels a similar magical vibe as the art-pop superstar [Björk].
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Assume Form
    Though Blake’s music has a history of pulling you into a beautiful abyss of moody falsettos and dreary narratives, he had a point. The public’s reasoning behind “sad boy” subscribed to an old-fashioned way of thinking. On his new album Assume Form, Blake abandons that piercing despair--though not his emotional vulnerability--by choosing romance over sorrow. ... Concerned, happy, smitten--no matter the feeling, Blake is still willing to broadcast them all.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Odd Soul
    The result is like The Bends on Bourbon Street. [7 Oct 2012, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Oct 6, 2011
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Con
    A collection of angsty, catchy pop that's also ideal for scoring the antics of young doctors in heat.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Manic
    Over 16 tracks, Manic is a chaotic amalgamation of self-analysis, rage, depression, ecstasy, and growth that sees its creator managing the messiness of fame while trying to stay true to herself. We’re just along for the ride.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    I, I
    i,i, feels as confident as anything he’s ever done: a dense, richly layered showcase for his continued aversion to the standard rules of grammar and the deepening of his defiantly uncommercial sound.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Awfully Deep
    A thrilling mix of moody ambivalence and soulful reggae-tinged hip-hop. [27 May 2005, p.1341]
    • 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
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Here's My Song You Can Have It... I Don't Want It Anymore/Yours 4-Ever
    His songs evoke Van Morrison, Tim Buckley, and Springsteen without descending into pastiche. [17 Mar 2006, p.114]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Pawn Shoppe Heart
    Too often the group sounds like a sped-up version of the Cult. [12 Mar 2004, p.111]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
    The band runs through intricately nuanced compositions with the fervor of an inspired jam session.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Give the People What They Want
    Their sixth disc nails the familiar pleasure centers, but truly excites only when the singer casts manners aside. [24 Jan 2014, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jan 17, 2014
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ya-Ka-May
    The funkateers have infused YA-KA-MAY with an abundance of varied flavors as they skillfully back a wide range of NOLA musicians, from legendary artists such as singer Irma Thomas and producer-composer Allen Toussaint, to young rappers Katey Red and Sissy Nobby....The result is an often very tasty musical, uh, stew.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Magic Numbers
    There are pretty, moody moments... but what unites them all is a cheery, zippy exuberance that is rare these days. [21 Oct 2005, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Infiniheart
    An excellent new-school Neil Young for the Garden State generation. [26 Aug 2005, p.61]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tournament Of Hearts
    They're maximum ragers for minimum wagers. [21 Oct 2005, p.77]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Under The Skin
    It's the spartan-yet-gonzo sound of a guy remembering he can go his own way. [6 Oct 2006, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Grind Date
    Notably fresh for a group that's been rhyming for 15 years. [8 Oct 2004, p.117]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    O
    Rice is both vulnerable and seductive. [18 Jul 2003, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Songs For Christmas
    The season's most thrilling holiday release. [1 Dec 2006, p.85]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    EP
    Four hypnotic, Madge-tinged dance tracks. [1 Apr 2011, p.77]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Apr 8, 2011
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    I'll Be Lightning
    Like Badly Drawn Boy or Elliott Smith, his effervescent choruses, swooning harmonies, and heavily layered, my-studio-is-my-bunker production techniques on I'll Be Lightning are directly traceable to old Paul McCartney solo records.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Heaven
    The lovely brooders are at their most joyous and effervescent on their seventh album. [15 Jun 2012, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jun 11, 2012
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The King of Limbs
    Maybe more context, and a little more heart, will make The King of Limbs feel less unreal.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Craft
    Easy to like but tough to love. [30 Sep 2005, p.95]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Nashville
    Persistently gorgeous. [25 Feb 2005, p.102]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 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
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    100 Proof
    Proof is her meatiest, most adventurous output yet. [27 Jan 2012, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jan 23, 2012
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    I'll Sleep When You're Dead
    He flirts with melody here... and relaxes his delivery, allowing us to take a breath before heading back into the chaos. [23 Mar 2007, p.59]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lazaretto
    White's best songs combine his songwriting chops with his boundless charisma, and Lazaretto has both in spades--the swaggeringly funky ''Three Women'' and the strutting title track are instant classics. But so far, his solo work lacks the bracing agitation that fueled past projects.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Visions
    Dreamy, glitchy art pop. [2 Mar 2012, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Feb 24, 2012
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Thunderbitch
    For the first time, she has managed to capture her inimitable stage presence on record. With this set of scrappy, rapturous barn jams, she has captured lightning in a bottle (or, more accurately, thunder in a digital file).
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Untouchables
    Nothing here explains the reported $4.5 million budget. [28 June 2002, p.142]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Contino Sessions
    With their repetitive guitar riffs echoing against electronics, DIV aren't as flashy as fellow crossover masters the Chemical Brothers, but their appeal doesn't fade as quickly, either.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Emerald City
    John Vanderslice's sixth full-length, Emerald City, doesn't disappoint.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Swing Lo Magellan
    It should be thrillingly anarchic; instead, it just meanders.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Nightmare Vacation
    Nasty can be funny and furious, bratty and spectacularly off-the-wall. [Dec 2020, p.101]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Dec 4, 2020
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Happy New Year
    Oneida still imprint each song with their own warped sensibility. [14 Jul 2006, p.81]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    MassEducation [2018]
    MassEducation brings Clark’s acoustic inclinations from YouTube’s annals to wax grooves, and serves as a testament to her versatile songwriting and remarkable vocal strength.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Invisible Way
    Lovely, intimately spare songs. [5 Apr 2013, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Mar 29, 2013
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Half The Perfect World
    World is like stumbling into a jazz café at closing time. [22 Sep 2006, p.94]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Gigaton
    It's a sturdy rock album from five guys who know what they're doing, took time till they had something to say, are interpolating new influences, and sound stoked to be back together in a room. Die-hard fans will be pleased, and more casual fans will be pleasantly surprised.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Okonokos [Live]
    This is an impressive representation of the MMJ live experience. [29 Sep 2006, p.81]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    M.A.D.E.
    Scarface acts his age on more thoughtful cuts like 'Who Do You Believe In,' which offers a somber take on the many forces that claim innocent inner-city lives, from gang rivalries to the war in Iraq.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Rising Down
    Kicking off the Philadelphia hip-hop band's 10th CD is a snippet from a 1994 conference call with then label Geffen, in which rapper Black Thought goes apoplectic. This is the first of many bad vibes on Rising Down, which turns the downcast mood of 2006's haunting "Game Theory" outward at the world at large, with gripes about drug laws, school shootings, conflict diamonds, and--that most alarming bellwether of our times--BET programming.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Confessions On A Dance Floor
    For all its pretenses of being giddy and spontaneous, though, Confessions is rarely either.
    • 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
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Regard The End
    As always, it's historically rooted music fired by present-tense passion. [20 Feb 2004, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Antics
    [Banks] brings a surprisingly uplifting tunefulness to the band's spiky rhythms and swelling drones. [1 Oct 2004, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Scene Of The Crime
    Is there a more wrenching soul singer alive than Bettye LaVette? If so, keep it to yourself, because I'm too wrung out from The Scene of the Crime's intensity to take anything more emotionally potent.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Trilogy
    Each trippy disc holds up remarkably well, though we wouldn't recommend listening to all three while operating machinery. [23 Nov 2012, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 21, 2012
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    OST
    Bridges and his onscreen protégé, Colin Farrell, give admirable heft (yes, they're really singing) to originals penned by Burnett and a crew of veteran sidemen.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    True [EP]
    The strong '80s nostalgia here could wear thin for some, but Solange's singular charms stretch far. [7 Dec 2012, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 30, 2012
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Keep It Like A Secret
    Built to Spill make music with a weird naive excitement that recalls R.E.M. at their fresh-out-of-Athens finest.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rain On The City
    Your gratitude for his economical writing may overcome your wonderment over why something so modest took so long.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Beyond
    Though too long at 50 minutes, Beyond is an often thrilling reminder of this essential band's heyday.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Near to the Wild Heart of Life
    Noisy but built on articulate songwriting, Near radiates a sincerity often missing from bands this brash. At a time of doubt and fear, it’s screamingly optimistic.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Noble Beast
    Noble Beast veers off into a cheerily nonspecific world of jangly guitars and meandering melodies that evoke everyone from Okkervil River to Radiohead without ever making an impact of their own.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Son
    Even for Anglos, the spellbinding Son needs no translation. [26 May 2006, p.106]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sea Change
    With repeated listenings, the sluggish ditties transform into a beautiful, mournful hymn of love won and lost.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Grey Album
    A startlingly, shockingly wonderful piece of pop art. [19 Mar 2004, p.64]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Already Free
    Trucks' bluesy playing is excellent throughout, though he knows when to cede space to vocalist Mike Mattison or guest Doyle Bramhall II.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Chromatica
    An audacious, glitter-dusted promise of escape from the sad, the bad, and the ordinary, delivered at 120 BPMs.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    I Am Very Far
    The Texas indie outfit marries potent frontier imagery with psych-country shuffles. [20 May 2011, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted May 24, 2011
    • 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
    • 83 Critic Score
    Lost Songs
    Luckily, the melodic wall of noise crashes through the more heavy-handed moments. [2 Nov 2012, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 1, 2012
    • 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.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Biophilia
    The singer's greatest strength remains the glistening natural resource flowing from her throat.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    A.M.
    Some of that soul [heard on previous singles "Tomorrow" and "Voices"] survives on his fourth album, but too often he falls into the "bro country" trap currently plaguing the genre. [20/27 Sep 2013, p.152]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Sep 20, 2013
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