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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Yours, Dreamily
    Frontman Dan Auerbach’s new project lands right in the meaty part of the psychedelic curve with jolts of lush hypno-soul and tough garage-edelia.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fetch the Bolt Cutters
    Fetch, which blossoms more and more with each listen, feels giddy too; high on romance and rhythm and the surreal gift of being alive.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dangerously In Love
    For the most part, Ms. Knowles does more reinventing than revisiting.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    American V: A Hundred Highways
    If this is, as Rubin has said, ''Johnny's final statement''... then it is a fitting one, completely representative of the faithful old man he had become, having long ago shed his outlaw image no matter how often others tried to resaddle him with it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    See Mystery Lights
    Brainy and block-rocking rarely coexist like this.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Band of Joy
    Robert Plant sounds vocally reenergized on this covers-heavy follow-up to his Grammy-winning Alison Krauss collaboration, Raising Sand.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Bootleg, Vol. 2: From Memphis to Hollywood
    The more polished second disc isn't quite as transcendent, but who could resist Johnny Cash's rejected Thunderball Bond theme? [4 Mar 2011, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Apr 8, 2011
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    American Dream
    As gratifying familiar as much of American Dream will be to longtime fans, it also feels like exactly the album 2017 needs--urgent, angry, achingly self-aware. And catchy as hell, too. [1 Sep 2017, p.53]
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Beautiful Trauma
    Pink reunites with trusted collaborators like Max Martin, Shellback, Greg Kurstin and Billy Mann on Beautiful Trauma. They help make the record sound both fresh and familiar, with occasional curves like the gospelized rave-up “I Am Here.”
    • 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
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blak and Blu
    Though Clark can occasionally get self-indulgent (some of the jammier songs here drift past the six-minute mark), his casual charisma is powerful enough to consistently hold together Blak and Blu's eclecticism.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Betty Wright: The Movie
    Wright's voice works just as well with the Roots' backyard-barbecue vibe as it does with guests Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg's blacktop hardness. [18 Nov 2011, p.103]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 23, 2011
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    St. Vincent
    Crackling, uncanny and compulsively listenable. [28 Feb 2014, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Feb 26, 2014
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    I'm Staying Out
    It brims with beautiful, confidently delivered tunes about love.... and all its inherent dangers. [25 Apr 2003, p.150]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Peace Is the Mission
    Diplo’s electro-dancehall project scored a Top 40 hit in 2015 with the buoyant “Lean On.” Those good vibes continue on Peace.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Wooden Leather
    Represents an enlightened South, where relfections on politics mix with odes to corn bread, where fingerpicked guitars blend with glitchy synths. [5 Sep 2003, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Let's Be Still
    There's enough head and heart here to carry these guys long after the folk-rock fad fades. [25 Oct/1 Nov 2013, p.100]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Oct 18, 2013
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blackstar
    There are more than enough narratives to follow down the rabbit hole here, and themes and imagery so dense they could probably be dissected for days or even weeks. Most of all, though, it’s the kind of album that works beautifully as a physical experience.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Wind
    If The Wind is unsentimental, it's also happily unhygienic, sounding as ramshackle and energized as you'd hope a nothing-left-to-lose last blast would. [5 Sep 2003, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts [2006 Version]
    Despite seven unessential bonus tracks, the remastered Ghosts feels haunting, hypnotic and fresh 25 years later. [14 Apr 2006, p.87]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 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
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War)
    'Honey's' squiggly bass line and cute but inane sentiments (''Honey, you so sweet/Sugar got a long way to catch you'') are perhaps the safest, least interesting efforts on the album. Thankfully, Badu spent 10 other tracks showing us exactly what she can do.
    • 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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Story of Sonny Boy Slim
    Less flashy than his debut, but in pulling back on the guitar heroics, he galvanizes his genre-jumping, to.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Degeneration Street
    The Dears were churning out sweeping, blustery epics long before "dramatic indie rock from Canada" was its own subgenre, and Degeneration Street, the band's fifth album sees them perfecting the template.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Night Work
    New York's disco–?new wave party people are in freak mode on their third disc Night Work, dropping crass come-ons and slutty entendres like parade confetti (gay, straight, you name it).
    • 65 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fifty Shades of Grey [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    Aside from throwback cuts from Sinatra and the Stones, it's all woozy, vampirically nocturnal reports from the leading edge of pop and R&B. [13 Feb 2015, p.65]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Feb 10, 2015
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    One Part Lullaby
    Barlow and partner John Davis conjure a faux-naive summer-of-love vibe that's arch and seductive. If ''nature is the enemy,'' here's to keeping it unreal.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blue Mountain
    A moving group of tunes worthy of any campfire.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Is This It?
    ''Is This It'' bows down before all the trademarks of pre-1977 rock: off-kilter guitar solos, half-buried vocals (à la ''Louie, Louie''), attitude-heavy slurring (by singer Julian Casablancas), primitive tom-tom rhythms (shades of the Velvets' Moe Tucker), and the raw, muddy sonics of garage-band 45s.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    HoboSapiens
    An audacious marriage of restless experimentalism and eloquent melodic craft. [10 Sep 2004, p.165]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Kissin' Time
    Despite its raft of celebrity collaborators, this inspired album keeps the focus squarely on Faithfull's elegantly weathered voice while drawing lyrical inspiration from her dramatic history. [16 Aug 2002, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    LCD Soundsystem
    Unites the club and indie-rock crowds in ways few have attempted since the '80s. [25 Feb 2005, p.100]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    50 Words for Snow
    It's all ­gorgeous.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Seeds
    A jittery intensity powers Seeds, the band's fifth album.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
    The twosome's gleeful confections are more than a little over-the-top, but repeat listens will reveal some truely indelible melodies beneath those stylistic frills. [17 Aug 2007, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Now
    As mellowed-out as much of ''Now'' is, it's definitely not aural wallpaper, but a cohesive effort that rewards repeated listenings -- a veritable slow jam-boree.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Great Destroyer
    Indie rock's maturing avatars of tense lethargy paint life as an epic fade. [21 Jan 2005, p.88]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 63 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Stand Up
    Grander-sounding and more ambitious than Some Devil... Stand Up is brimming with potential singles. [13 May 2005, p.84]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 67 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    57th & 9th
    It proves that years of passion projects haven’t dulled his songwriting instincts.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Captain & The Kid
    This really does pick up where John and lyricist Bernie Taupin left off.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Mary Star of the Sea
    Mary Star of the Sea may be the least ambitious album Corgan's ever made -- and yet his most satisfying since the Pumpkins' heyday.
    • 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
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Night Train
    There's an urgency in his voice that gives every driving chorus added heat, whether he's singing about a woman (''I Don't Do Lonely Well,'' ''Staring at the Sun''), his country-boy work ethic (''The Only Way I Know,'' with Luke Bryan and Eric Church), or a water tower (literally, ''Water Tower''). And man, does he know how to turn a simple date-night drive into something epic.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Return To Cookie Mountain
    The savvier arrangements, brimming with unsettling sound effects, put Cookie Mountain several steps ahead of its fine 2004 predecessor, Desperate Youth, Bloody Thirsty Babes.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
    The Historical Conquests of..., a sprawling diorama of down-home rhythms and thoughtful lyrics, isn't immediately striking. But there's a joy in unfurling the half-submerged melodies and wry, tender sentiments.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sunny Border Blue
    As usual, the results are exquisitely unsettling... [3/9/2001, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2
    Hot Sauce is a lot like Daniel Craig's übercool James Bond - another stripped-down return to a franchise's best virtues after a decade or so of wandering the desert. It took a little time, but the Boys are back with a license to ill.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Production
    For all its irrepressible sonic whimsy, Production also reveals quite a bit of unexpected depth.
    • 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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Rainbow
    Rainbow, her rich, masterful third LP, is far more than a kiss-off to old demons--it’s an artistic feat, as Kesha unites stylistic forays with her sharp, weathered lyricism.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Descended Like Vultures
    Rogue's high, gentle vocals and halcyon harmonies mask lyrics that are occasionally dark and cynical--but never mushy. [28 Oct 2005, p.87]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
    Moving futher away from her early alt-country sound has sharpened Case's songwriting instincts. [10 Mar 2006, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Rhumb Line
    The upstate New York quintet's assured performances act as a suitable memorial [to Pike]. [22/29 Aug 2008, p.122]
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Our Love To Admire
    The outcome is akin to an artistic explosion.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blacklisted
    In this trans-American setting, Case emerges as a roots powerhouse. [13 Sep 2002, p.156]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pala
    The indie dance act hits those heights [of single "Blue Cassette"] 10 more times. [27 May 2011, p.79]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted May 24, 2011
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    American IV: The Man Comes Around
    Cash has once again seen that white light--yet resisted its allure--and written an apocalyptic title track and put his stamp on an eclectic batch of material. [8 Nov 2002, p.106]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tournament Of Hearts
    They're maximum ragers for minimum wagers. [21 Oct 2005, p.77]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 65 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Strange Clouds
    Though Clouds occasionally overstretches (see the eye-rolling high school yearbook fodder "Just a Sign"), B.o.B's confidence serves him well; the fact that he can funnel all that pop froth and still go toe-to-toe with scene-stealer Minaj on the blippy "Out of My Mind" is impressive testament to his infectious, unflappable cool.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Ugly Organ
    Organ raises the Saddle Creek bar in terms of sheer psychiatric-rock intensity. [Listen 2 This supplement, Mar 2003, p.10]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Weight of These Wings
    There’s something pleasingly organic, though, in Weight’s cohesiveness; it asks for patience and rewards it, weaving true tales of regret and resilience into one fiercely honest, gloriously flawed whole. Bless this mess.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Game Theory
    It's all ghetto vérité and political paranoia, with claustrophobic production to match the doom and gloom.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hozier
    He's more than capable of drifting smoothly between bluesy soul, juke-joint R&B, and drinking-song folk on his hearty debut. [6 Oct 2014, p.62]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Oct 9, 2014
    • 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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ryan Adams
    Adams finds moments of quiet beauty and rabble-rousing rock. [12 Sep 2014, p.62]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Sep 9, 2014
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Inevitable End
    The self-proclaimed final album showcases the best of the duo's trance-y instrumentals, propulsive hooks, and bubbling beats. [14/21 Nov 2014, p.105]
    • 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
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Man with the Iron Fists [OST]
    [The album] is full of claustrophobic, boom-bap and Far East mash-up pops. [26 Oct 2012, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 21, 2012
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Watch Me Fall
    The dozen brief, ridiculously infectious tunes on Watch me Fall come wrapped in arrangements that run from frenetic punk to bouncy Britpop to wistful balladry.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Welcome Interstate Managers
    Parkway didn't take Fountains of Wayne to the charts, but let's hope the Interstate will. [13 Jun 2003, p.92]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tasty
    Much of the beauty of Tasty is in witnessing Kelis rise to the challenge of working with multiple imaginative maestros. [12 Dec 2003, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Good Souls Better Angels
    Most fully realized work in more than 20 years. [May 2020, p.101]
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Planet Pit
    Gotta get that boom boom pow? Look no further.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ten Silver Drops
    The result is a spiritual sibling to such previous great, emotionally raw ruminations on shattered personal lives as Phil Collins' Face Value and Beck's Sea Change.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Nashville
    Bring your hankie. [29 Sep 2006, p.80]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    She Wolf
    With only nine tracks, followed by three español translations and a handful of superfluous bonus tunes, She Wolf feels a bit thin. That quibble aside, this is some of the most unusually effective dance-floor dynamite you're likely to encounter all year.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sondre Lerche
    Lerche is fast becoming indie rock's Burt Bacharach with his clever, unobtrusive lyrics and artful melding of jazzy folk with punchy power pop. [17 Jun 2011]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 4, 2011
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
    Even if her fiery temper's not for everyone, she never stoops to teardrops-on-my-guitar banalities. [27 Apr 2007, p.139]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    This Is What the Truth Feels Like
    She wears her girlishness on her own terms, and here it feels truer--and sounds stronger--­than it has in years.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Secret Wars
    This bracing sixth full-length funnels the frenzy into more easily digestible bites. [6 Feb 2004, p.140]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Treats
    It's as if every element of Sleigh Bells' genre-swerving sound--primitive guitar fuzz, pastiche beats, sugar-buzz?vocals--bypasses the default snark button and burrows?directly into jaded listeners' punch-drunk pleasure centers.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lay Down The Law
    Switches justify their cockiness with talent, excelling in the feisty hooks and high-pitched oo-oo-oos that hark back to the glam era at its best.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    One By One
    The Foo Fighters' One by One, the band's first album since 1999, is densely packed with glum song titles, grinding beats, and moaned vocals. The result? Unexpected exhilaration.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blood Money
    The duo's finest body of work since their 1995 masterpiece, The Infamous. [28 Apr 2006, p.135]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Froot
    The change highlights her brightest facet--that limber voice, which swings from voluptuous alto to fluttering soprano in one swoop. But there’s good fun in Froot, too.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Better Day
    In the midst of hard economic times, the positive anthems that fill Better Day - all new material, no covers - come off as brilliant strategy, with some equally brilliant vocal performances.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Where Does This Door Go
    Hawthorne finally finds the right sonic escort for his L.A. lounge-lizard croon: Pharrell Williams. [19 Jul 2013, p.87]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jul 16, 2013
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    My Name Is My Name
    [He expands his reach] with the aid of producer-label boss Kanye West, guest ranging from The-Dream to Kendrick Lamar, and a steely gusto unmatched in hip-hop. [11 Oct 2013, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Oct 7, 2013
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dark Was The Night
    Of 31 tracks, a few inevitably feel like throwaways; overall, though, it's a satisfying smorgasbord, and a nice fix for fans waiting on new records from indie stars like Arcade Fire, Yo La Tengo, and the Decemberists.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Live In London
    Live in London is a reminder that Cohen is as gifted a performer as he is a songwriter.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Pretty Toney Album
    Ghostface... comes off hungrier than ever to produce thrilling hip-hop. [14 May 2004, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Idiology
    Even when it all threatens to implode, MOM's restless imagination provides the necessary ballast. [18 May 2001, p.81]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lucifer on the Sofa
    The result is Lucifer on the Sofa, Spoon's loosest, liveliest album since 2010's unruly low-fi gem Transference, which combines that LP's spontaneous spirit with the meticulous production and sharp melodic hooks of their most memorable work.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Mouse And The Mask
    A hip-hop tour de farce. [14 Oct 2005, p.152]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Grotto
    There's something in Hersh's hushed, otherworldly hymns about dysfunction and off-center mental states that's deeply unsettling--in all the right ways. [14 Mar 2003, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Something To Tell You
    Mostly HAIM zero in on what they do best, and the result is a simple and staggering ode to the joy and craftsmanship of American pop.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Push Barman To Open Old Wounds
    Irresistible. [3 Jun 2005, p.86]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ten New Songs
    He's never sounded more sensuous. [12 Oct 2001, p.88]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Heavy Light
    A rush of indelible non sequiturs - vibraphone solos, ripsaws - gives it all an unexpectedly thrilling buzz. [Mar 2020, p.99]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Mar 2, 2020
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