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
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Windy City
    Windy City does more than just remind listeners of her prowess, it enforces her legacy as one of American music’s standout talents.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Since We Last Spoke
    RJ... lets his softer side show to touching effect. [18 Jun 2004, p.84]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Teenager
    Arrested adolescence has rarely sounded so inviting. [26 Oct 2007, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sucker
    Sucker is pop-punk, radically redefined and dragged, middle fingers waving, into the future.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Notes on a Conditional Form
    A delightfully overstuffed collection that features some of their best and most immediately pleasing work to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Western Stars
    Placing intricately detailed portraiture on massive musical backdrops has been a Springsteen trademark for years, of course, and Western Stars continues this legacy, transforming the enormous into the intimate. [14/21 Jun 2019, p.104]
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Feels Like Home
    [The album] inlays modern Music City twang like turquoise in a belt buckle, while the lyrics funnel her cheery realism into finer-cut tales of staycations, sexually charged car talk, and how "Waterproof Mascara" won't "run like his daddy did." [13 Sep 2013, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Sep 11, 2013
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    My Old, Familiar Friend
    My Old, Familiar Friend is one warm power-pop bath ?after another, a cornucopia of oceanfront harmonies, plunky keys, and psychedelic marginalia.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Destroy Rock & Roll
    It's got breezy lounge fare, vocoder-driven club cuts, and a joyful average-Joe appeal long gone from the fracturing world of DJ music. [10 Feb 2006, p.137]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Divers
    Joanna Newsom’s fourth full-length, Divers, haunts you like an unanswered question. That’s what makes it so engrossing. You don’t listen to it to figure out what it means. You play it to revel in the mystery of the songs and who, exactly, is the marvelous, mercurial creature singing them.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Boys And Girls In America
    On several tracks, the swirls of organ they've added to their hyper-literate stomping suggest Deep Purple with a library card. [6 Oct 2006, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Things We Lost In The Fire
    Just plain beautiful... carefully harmonized vocals and pellucid guitar hooks that rarely lapse into merely languid melodies. [2/16/2001, p.98]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • tbd Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Glam Nation Live
    If there's any newish pop act worthy of a live release, it's American Idol runner-up Lambert, whose vocal acrobatics make this a terrific complement to his 2009 solo debut.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    You Are Not Alone
    You Are Not Alone is mostly invigorating gospel, though he somehow got her to apply that mighty rasp to the saddest song ever, Randy Newman's "Losing You."
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Shine
    Joni Mitchell's first album of (mostly) new material in nine years is reminiscent of a chapter from the singer-songwriter's past--not her famous, acoustic balladeering Blue period but her subsequent, jazzier albums.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Black And White Album
    Sonically they've tweaked their punk-pop vibe, even employing the hip-hop-flavored Pharrell Williams for one cut. Happily, that gambit--the danceable ''T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.''--pays off.
    • 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).
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Private Press
    Few approach this style of record making with as much playfulness and gravity.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Banga
    Banga feels like both a return to form and a renewal.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Let's Get Ready
    The James Brown of hip-hop uses his psycho-manic energy and staccato growl to full effect on this spare, eclectic effort. [11/10/00, p.90]
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Mezmerize
    It's heavy and hooky. [20 May 2005, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Everybody Got Their Something
    An intoxicating starburst of self affirming R&B...
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    I Can't Stop
    Though the songs are sometimes little more than vamps, the interplay is faultless.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Little Bird
    Her buttery twang drives jams like "Devil On Your Back" off into gloriously hooky sunsets. [22 Jul 2011, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Jul 15, 2011
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Before The Dawn Heals Us
    [A] sublime soundtrack to dancing in the moonlight. [21 Jan 2005, p.88]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Unorthodox Jukebox
    His talent for crafting little pop perfections of all stripes is undeniable.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Future Nostalgia
    Lipa quickly established herself as one of pop's most compelling presences during her quick rise, and Future Nostalgia shows that she's going to be sticking around its upper echelons for a while.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Carrie & Lowell
    With its quiet meditations on mental illness, God, and death, Carrie is a hauntingly beautiful bummer.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Lost Tapes
    His gritty, yet hopeful, reflections make Lost Tapes a real find.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Prisoner
    Prisoner doesn’t differ enough from its recent predecessors to stand out as a singular mid-career achievement for the ever-prolific songwriter, but it’s one of Adams’ most fully-realized, sturdy collections to date, and quite possibly his finest record of the past decade.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    None Shall Pass
    It's heady but funn stuff, eased along by bluesy, turgid grooves from frequent collaborators Blockhead and El-P, as well as Aesop himself. [31 Aug. 2007, p.65]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Voyageur
    Voyageur is gorgeously weathered ­heartbreak, straight from the gravelliest Ontario roads.
    • 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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dreamin' Man Live '92
    The lack of ornamentation suits the album's themes, as the narrator wrestles with reconciling his youthful ambitions with middle-age reality.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    You Want It Darker
    On his 14th studio album, the songwriting maestro--still vital at 82--is a lion in winter, his lyrics heavy with God and sex and death and his legendary voice scraped down to a subterranean rumble.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Love Is Overtaking Me
    Love Is overtaking Me is just another reason to mourn Russell's far too early loss.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Relapse
    Thankfully, producer Dr. Dre is there to temper the lyrical bloodletting, laying heavyweight hooks over even the most scabrous tales of family disturbia, and setting 'Bagpipes From Baghdad,' Em's inspired riff on rumored ex Mariah Carey, to snake-charming woodwind squiggles.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dressy Bessy
    Ealom is one cool customer, and her bandmates know their best music arises from showcasing her in all her multitracked glory. [22/29 Aug 2003, p.133]
    • 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
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Losing Sleep
    A charmingly ramshackle disc of giddy garage-pop nuggets. [25 Mar 2011, p.79]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Mar 18, 2011
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    How To Walk Away
    The result is rueful and gorgeous. [22/29 Aug 2008, p.125]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Locked Down
    There's no denying the vintage voodoo--or the palpable disgust--the Doctor summons with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    blink-182
    Despite their newfound earnestness, [blink] seem incapable of pretension. [21 Nov 2003, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    New Again
    On New Again, the emo survivors manage to reinvent themselves as mainstreamo shredders.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pure & Simple
    Sure, Pure + Simple doesn’t have an instant classic like Parton’s 1973 standard “I Will Always Love You.” But it shows that five decades into her career, Parton isn’t a nostalgia act—she’s still one of America’s most vital country songsmiths.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    21
    At times, Adele's precocious talent feels prematurely aged by her material, and moments of levity are hard to find. But at its best, 21 is that rarest pop commodity: timeless.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    All About Chemistry
    More catchy hooks than you'll find in a fisherman's tacklebox. [3/16/2001, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Teen Dream
    None of the changes are drastic, but together they're just enough to cover Beach House's once-monochrome canvases with washes of brilliant color.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Magic Time
    He has rarely sounded more engaging. [3 Jun 2005, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 70 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    All Jacked Up
    Sticks to the debut's ballads-plus-bar-anthems blueprint while revealing a broader range. [30 Sep 2005, p.91]
    • 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
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Gone Now
    His most accomplished to date. On the proper follow-up to Strange Desire, Antonoff is more sonically self-assured and conceptually mission-driven, weaving together a 12-song cycle--inspired by the heartbreaking death of his sister, Sarah, from brain cancer when he was 18.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Stereo
    Thankfully, our hero hasn't lost his knack for breaking your heart with a turn of phrase or a gauzy guitar motif. [26 Apr 2002, p.148]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Coloring Book [Mixtape]
    Though it doesn’t eclipse the LSD-inspired brilliance of Acid Rap, Coloring Book affirms Chance’s place as one of hip-hop’s most promising--and most uplifting--young stars.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Last DJ
    His most consequential songs in years. [11 Oct 2002, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Memory Almost Full
    His best record since 1989's Flowers in the Dirt, Memory is beautifully elegiac and surprisingly caffeinated.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Highway Companion
    A huge improvement on 2002's [The Last DJ]... a true return to form. [4 Aug 2006, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Back To Black
    It's precisely Winehouse's lyrics... that raise this expertly crafted set into the realm of true, of-the-minute originality. [16 Mar 2007, p.67]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 59 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Title
    This is real-girl pop with massive charm.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Fabled City
    The Rage Against the Machine guitarist's remarkable transformation from purveyor of weapons-grade funk-metal riffs into introspective protest folkie yields even more impressive fruit on his second solo effort The Fabled City.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Call Me Crazy
    This overdue follow-up Call Me Crazy brings in a new producer (Tony Brown) but has Lee Ann Womack in much the same traditionalist mode, sounding like a distaff version of George Jones at his finest.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Midnite Vultures
    He's given us the year's most relentless gas--laughing or otherwise--of a party album.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Guest
    A gem, with sunny three-part harmonies and songs that sound familiar in the best way.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    De-Loused In The Comatorium
    The songs explode with creativity, fusing jazz riffs, tribal rhythms, hardcore bursts of noise, and addictive rock hooks into one of the most compelling discs of the year. [18 July 2003, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Weathervanes
    It's the best electronic indie-pop debut since Ben Gibbard last tuned his laptop.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Mission Control
    Unabashedly hook-filled, the album will leave you aching to see this group live. [25 Jan 2008, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tomorrow Right Now
    Beans drops deft poetry with the fastest flow this side of Bizzy Bone.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Love Lust Faith + Dreams
    The album's overarching narrative is both inexplicable and pointless, but throbbing modern-rock anthems "Up in the Air" and "Bright Lights" offer visceral, hands-up hedonism. [24 May 2013, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted May 20, 2013
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Black America Again
    It’s the MC’s empathetic and clear-eyed rhymes that truly make this a vital contribution to the national conversation.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Shepherd's Dog
    Once the shock of Beam's experimental bent wears off, it becomes clear that he's added dimension to his style without sacrificing its gorgeous tranquility. [28 Sep 2007, p.107]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Big Fish Theory
    The full-length follow-up to his 2015 debut, Summertime ’06, surpasses expectations, with incisive lyrics and beats that spurn current trends for a set that sounds unlike anything else in hip-hop right now.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fortress
    Fans of kitchen-sink psychedelia will find few greater treats this summer.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Identity Crisis
    Lynne is so in her element... that you have to believe the title's a deliberate misnomer. [26 Sep 2003, p.94]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Day Breaks
    Still, it’s the relationship between Jones’ voice and her piano that impresses most. Not since her entrancing debut has she sounded this engaged.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Heaven Is Whenever
    If 2008's Stay Positive was a haunted wastoid cautionary tale, Heaven is a survivor's celebration of staying alive
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    With The Lights Out
    It's no surprise that most of it's raw; it is a surprise that most of it's worth hearing. [10 Dec 2004, p.89]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Up
    Those who value the emotional nakedness of his best work will find much to treasure here. [27 Sep 2002, p.86]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    In Search Of... [Second Version]
    ''In Search Of...'' has a crackling vigor missing from the first stab, and its mélange of genres makes for music unlike anything else around.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Ride
    The collaborative approach yields some of the most potent music of the group's career. [7 May 2004, p.86]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    You're the One
    No one weds the conversational and cosmological -- or acoustic pop and ethnological studies -- quite so gracefully.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Be
    Be's leanness signals awesome growth even without pushing sonic boundaries. [27 May 2005, p.136]
    • 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
    • 91 Critic Score
    Momofuku
    Soul ballad 'Flutter & Wow' might be the best of his rare love songs, and harmonies from Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis add elegance to this garagey mix. [23 May 2008, p.122]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living
    Easy Living undercuts potential mo' money, mo' problems cliches with a cheeky self-awareness that transcends national borders. [28 Apr 2006, p.135]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Rockferry
    Once the Dusty Springfield-flecked closer, 'Distant Dreamer,' comes round, you'll be wishin' and hopin' for more.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Halos & Horns
    She pulls it off, magnificently, thanks to her spectacular trill of a soprano and earnest approach.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Gimme Fiction
    Strings swoon, falsetto voices sigh, and counterpoint piano lines glide. Yet nothing sounds fussy. [20 May 2005, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    More Fish
    B-list Wu cronies contribute a few too many forgettable guest verses, but Ghost's technique has never been deadlier.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Infinite Arms
    Even when he's singing about zoning out on the couch, it feels Grand Canyon expansive.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
    Her strongest work since 1995's To Bring You My Love.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Children Running Through
    It's the showcase of a confident singer successfully diversifying. [9 Feb 2007, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Distortion
    The perfect antidote to a season of false cheer and frozen toes.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Bish Bosch
    [Walker] is stronger and scarier than ever on his violently gorgeous 14th album. [7 Dec 2012, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Nov 30, 2012
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Out of the Game
    If Out of the Game sounds old-fashioned, Wainwright's words feel like postcards from now.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Wilderness
    Languidly pretty. [21 Jan 2005, p.88]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Surprise
    Patience is rewarded with moments of stellar songwriting.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sweet Warrior
    The guy's a six-string hero whose artistic sweep runs from plangent ballads to fiery barnstormers to, well, a heap of engaging styles in between. [1 Jun 2007, p.69]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Give Up
    Gibbard finds the near-perfect pop record that's eluded his main group. [Listen 2 This supplement, Mar 2003, p.12]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 61 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Global
    Few DJs of the last decade have made club beats shimmer and glisten the way he has. [28 Feb 2003, p.80]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Old
    Old positively vibrates with Brown's nasally helter-skelter energy. [4 Oct 2013, p.64]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Sep 30, 2013
Page: