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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    • 55 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Soul Caddy
    Frontman Steve Perry is a far better writer than he is a singer. [10/13/2000, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    V
    Despite its pop pedigree, V's hooks are alarmingly unsticky.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Born Here Live Here Die Here
    He's content to remain firmly within the bounds of where he's always been. The album title may as well be referring to Bryan's artistic development.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    New Earth Mud
    Instead of the Crowes' entertaining aping of the Faces and Bad Company, Robinson puts on a dreamy face and is just boring company. [25 Oct 2002, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Only 1 Flo, Pt. 1
    Unfortunately, Flo Rida seems weirdly reined-in on the rest of this eight-track mini-album Only One Flo (Part 1),
    • 55 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Silver Lining
    The nostalgia train is stalled by embarrassing platitudes and well-worn riffs. [14 Jul 2006, p.79]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 55 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Jekyll + Hyde
    The album certainly proves that ZBB have range. But at some point, experimentation swerves into self-indulgence, and Brown mnever gets around to solving Jekyll's identity crisis. [1 May 2015, p.59]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Apr 27, 2015
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Amarantine
    What was once bracing now seems dull and stultifying. [25 Nov 2005, p.100]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 55 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    3 Doors Down
    Much of the pop-metalers' fifth CD is overwrought. [23 May 2008, p.122]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 54 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Daniel Powter
    As the album lurches along, you keep hoping for the real Daniel Powter to stand up, but he never quite does. [14 Apr 2006, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Payable On Death
    On track after formulaic track, perfunctory verses rush into roaring refrains of compressed guitar arrgh and charmless didacticism. [7 Nov 2003, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 54 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Wild Ones
    On his fourth album, Wild Ones, there's a distinct Flo Rida-shaped hole where his personality once was--and it's been filled with other people's songs.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Overexposed
    On much of the album, which never quite finds a balance between rock grit and dance-pop glitz, Maroon 5 barely sound like a band at all.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Rainbow Children
    The album's light jazz-funk grooves sink under the weight of his sanctimony. [23 Nov 2001, p.82]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 54 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    It's Alive!
    Rundgren's self-conscious imitation of Ocasek's new-wave vocals makes It's Alive! stall.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Raven
    While that approach might have worked well on stage, on disc it's deeply unsatisfying.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Boomkatalog One
    Its forays into techno, pop, and--most embarrassingly--hip-hop make it seem like they're just throwing a bunch of styles against a wall to see what sticks. [18 Apr 2003, p.70]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 54 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Under the Mistletoe
    The Biebs' gentle set of gentile carols on Under the Mistletoe isn't coal-lump bad; it's more like a dorky sweater from Nana with a 20 in the pocket.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Full Circle
    The tightly harmonized ballads that once lent them maturity are now garishly produced and lyrically insipid.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Modbilly
    Boxmaster Billy Bob Thornton's recent radio meltdown begged to be heard over and over. The same can't be said of this unmemorable collection.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Damita Jo
    For the most part, the songs are stylized set pieces--the furthest thing from steamy R&B--and they evaporate as you listen to them. [9 Apr 2004, p.83]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 53 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Gold Cobra
    Oft-delayed, petulant, and hook-devoid "comeback." [1 Jul 2011, p.74]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Aug 10, 2011
    • 53 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Palookaville
    His party jams... feel half-cocked, like Cook can't quite commit to the moment. [8 Oct 2004, p.114]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Universal Mind Control
    Universal Mind Control seems to move Common backward instead of forward, which for a lyricist of his caliber is truly disappointing.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Man's Thoughts
    A handful of uptempo highlights aside, the rest of the disc turns out to be an unduly generous helping of syrupy bedroom pleas that'll have you wishing Ginuwine had decided to keep some of those Thoughts to himself.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Boomslang
    The album's arrangements are limp and unimaginative. [28 Feb 2003, p.80]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 53 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Taking Chances
    It's cool that Dion can mimic everyone from Shakira to Sam Phillips...but her appalling Janis Joplin impression is a Chance too far. [16 Nov 2007, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Midsummer Station
    The Midsummer Station is loaded with so many platitudes and puns that it quickly descends into sugar shock.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Circle
    Between cliches and Jon's strained voice, The Circle just feels tired.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    J. Lo
    Consistently aims for the lowest common denominator...
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Back Home
    [An] overblown and underwhelming batch of MOR gruel. [2 Sep 2005, p.81]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Soulbook
    There's no doubting the love in that old heart of his, but Soulbook could've cut much deeper.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pop Trash
    There are ephemeral confectionary delights...and a general witlessness-
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Incredible Machine
    When having 15,000 fans wave their cell phones in the air goes from a nifty career aftereffect to the very reason for writing songs, it seems like something is amiss.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Disconnection Notice
    The band's lyrics make Smash Mouth look like Sartre, and its anthemic choruses never quite jell into actual good songs. [18 Feb 2005, p.78]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Brave
    Expensive beats and uplifting material are offset by listless vocals.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Size Matters
    An occasionally catchy but ultimately bland attempt at recapturing past glory. [8 Oct 2004, p.114]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 52 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Unpredictable
    We know that Foxx can actually sing, but this ballad-heavy disc of cliched wordplay and commonplace melodies proves his music career should've ended on screen. [13 Jan 2006, p.78]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    20 Y.O.
    Sharp production can't mask the absence of any standouts likely to be remembered 20 months from now.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Declaration
    The Declaration simply doesn't make much of a statement, and its high point isn't enough to unseat the Beyonces and Mary J.'s of the world. [20 June 2008, p.66]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    In My Mind
    If In My Mind seems divided against itself, rest assured that all of the songs have something in common: They're not remotely catchy.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Destiny Fulfilled
    Often moves at a molasses-like pace, weighted down with a preponderance of exquisitely executed but ultimately dull ballads. [26 Nov 2004, p.117]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 52 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Fake Songs
    Lynch... crams Fake Songs with parodies and toss-offs that make Weird Al seem like James Thurber. [9 May 2003, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Welcoming Home The Astronauts
    Their reliance on slight lyricism and meandering is painfully evident. [9 Nov 2001, p.110]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 51 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Block
    The Block bears no distinguishing marks aside from a compulsion for sex, sex, sex with a lover whose name, apparently, is Girl.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Invincible
    For all of the energy and money that went into it, ''Invincible'' is curiously lacking in excitement or thrills, cheap or otherwise.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Simple Plan
    All things considered, this Plan to update their sound winds up being too Simple.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Alive & Amplified
    Unfortunately, the Mooneys' concept of mass appeal... includes embarrassing homages to the glory of rock (and groupies) and a Bic-lighter ballad that's pure Hootie. [20/27 Aug 2004, p.126]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Todd Smith
    Too bad LL Cool J feels he needs the extra wattage, because Todd Smith's best moments come when he raps alone, letting his inimitably confident flow shine.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Sea of Memories
    The Sea adds exactly zero entries to the totally awesome Bush greatest-hits album that doesn't exist yet. [23 Sep 2011, p.79]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Oct 6, 2011
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Clear as Day
    On Clear as Day, American Idol's latest champ sounds like he's 52, and not just because of the Randy Travis baritone coming from his Opie Taylor mouth.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Twisted Angel
    Years as a teen country grinner, though, do not a dancetastic siren (''Trouble With Goodbye''), pop kiss-off queen (''Life Goes On''), or sex kitten (''Tic Toc'') make.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Here and Now
    Their ambitions may get the best of them on Here and Now, an album that finds frontman Chad Kroeger volunteering to "kick a hole in the sky."
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Tical 0: The Prequel
    Meth's rugged rhymes still flow with effortless finesse, but for the first time, he loses his identity. [14 May 2004, p.68]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Don't Tread On Me
    Intermittently catchy numbers help a bit, but not enough to counter the overwhelming aura of by-the-numbers blandness. [19 Aug 2005, p.143]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Doll Domination
    After a while, listening to this CD feels like a one-way conversation with a vapid hot chick who's in love with the sound of her own voice.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Lions
    Chris Robinson and crew get artier with their arrangements, but sacrifice the lived-in feel of previous work. [11 May 2001, p.81]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 50 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Duke Lion Fights The Terror!!
    Dumb? Check. Big? Not likely. [4/20/2001, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Cardiology
    Cardiology, the pop-punk band's fifth album, struggles to stay relevant.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Faceless
    Mostly it's the same staccato riffing, constipated vocals, and generic, rage-against-the-kidney-stone angst. [11 Apr 2003, p.78]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 50 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    What About Now
    What About Now has enough always-darkest-before-the-dawn positivity and bland arena-country warm fuzzies to chock a true believer. [15 Mar 2013,, p.62]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Mar 11, 2013
    • 50 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Blood Sport
    Once a trip-hop outfit with a female singer, [Sneaker Pimps are] now a mopey synth-pop quartet aimed at everyone's hidden goth teen. [3 May 2002, p.88]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Birds Of Pray
    Shows that the quartet hasn't lost its knack for constructing earnestly dull songs. [23 May 2003, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
    As tiresome as Durst can be, Limp Bizkit are very good at what they do; the band is exceptionally tight, evidenced by its ability to switch time signatures and moods within songs (kudos to guitarist Wes Borland). Still, their stance and sound already reek of formula, and the album's attempts at mold breaking may be the band's way of acknowledging this fact.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    #willpower
    His milk-snortingly inept lyrical flow too often hijacks #will's beat-addled moneymaker shakers. [3 May 2013, p.63]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Apr 26, 2013
    • 49 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dark Horse
    The band's Beavis- like embrace of rock & roll debauchery is a sort of marvel of low art.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Custom Built
    Custom Built boasts the talents of both Miley Cyrus and Jason Miller from goth-metalers Godhead, who offers a brutal remix of the Rock of Love theme.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Take It To The Limit
    If you were ever young and in love, dumb with drink, and had a head swimming with not just Boone's Farm wine but also Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and AC/ DC (to name these guys' most blatant anthemic influences), you may be willing to forgive Hinder's lack of originality and preponderance of madonna/whore issues.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Elixer
    Her 10 strenuously generic tracks are pure R&B Ambien, and the lady is no Sheila E.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Second Round's On Me
    This round goes down like a cheap well drink. [18 Aug 2006, p.139]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Monkey Business
    A bland meringue. [3 Jun 2005, p.81]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 48 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Streets Of Gold
    Streets of Gold's beats still sound garage-sale-Casio cheap, but the album yields several doofy, affable sing-alongs and even - yeeps! - an Owl City-esque ballad.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Eye Legacy
    Eye Legacy is but another posthumous compilation matching a much-missed talent's unused vocals (many from an eight-year-old solo album that only came out overseas) with tinny new beats and random guests.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Renaissance
    More a retread than a renaissance. [3/23/2001, p.114]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 48 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Guilty Pleasure
    At 24, though, she's still treading an overly familiar pop-rock trail already better blazed by 16-year-old Miley Cyrus, and Guilty Pleasure isn't so much pleasurable as simply vapid.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Sorry for Party Rocking
    It's topped off by truly terrible rapping, which often turns otherwise groan-inspiring instrumentals into jumbled, maddening filler.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Almost Alice
    For music ostensibly inspired by a trippy fantasy, far too much here is depressingly ordinary.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Battle For Everything
    Weighed down by artificially inflated anthems, garbled lyrics about the apocalypse, and coy attempts at surrealism. [6 Feb 2004, p.140]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 47 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Screaming Bloody Murder
    Murder ultimately drowns in flavorless thrashing. [1 Apr 2011, p.77]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Apr 8, 2011
    • 47 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Concrete Rose
    A slew of mostly midtempo clunkers built with her weapons of choice: faux grit and forced sensuality. [24 Dec 2004, p.71]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 47 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Amaryllis
    Their fourth album genuflects once again to the standard over-revered '70s idols. [301 Mar 2012, p.75]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Mar 28, 2012
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Love?
    Despite the star power she emits on screen, her vocals have always been less than stellar; on LOVE? she often sounds limited and nasal, with a flatness that can feel downright Rebecca Black-esque at its worst.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Chapter 1: Snake Oil
    Diplo's second album might be a cheeky bid to stake out a spot in Nashville, but the end result is largely a bummer, a collection of dourly self-conscious "chill" accessorized with the kind of cheap cowboy hat that gets left behind on the way to the festival parking lot.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Weird Revolution
    A typical morass of computerized beat science, vague exoticism, and singer Gibby Haynes' crackpot mantras... [7 Sep 2001, p.164]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 45 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    True Magic [First Version]
    A large chunk is bogged down by extended outros and lyrical inanities. [19 Jan 2007, p.81]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Forever
    Every genre cliché, from homogenized harmonies to delicately plucked stringed instruments to male rapper interjections, is securely in place. The music is so tasteful, restrained, and assembly line proficient that it makes early singles like ''Say You'll Be There'' sound like the rawest punk rock.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Some Kind of Trouble
    Some Kind of Trouble comes off as inert and oddly hollow; apart from the album's comparatively lively bookends.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Blood In My Eye
    A dull slog with a dearth of hooks and a surfeit of gangsta cliches. [21 Nov 2003, p.87]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 45 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    All That I Am
    Again, he saddles his guests with stupendously pedestrian material. [4 Nov 2005, p.72]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 45 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Como Ama Una Mujer
    Como Ama does represent a victory for Lopez by offering fairly persuasive proof that, contrary to rumor, she can sing, and without a regiment of background choralists. All that bulking up she's been doing at the vocal gym isn't enough, though, to turn flaccid torch songs into muscle.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Live It Up
    Lee DeWyze's debut album Live It Up suffers from vague production that strips his Adam Duritz-y growl of all humor, anger, and sexuality.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Old School New Rules
    Old School New Rules leans heavily on that persona, spewing Internet-troll claptrap about the "gotcha" media and impinged freedom.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Charmbracelet
    Thankfully, there are a few genuinely affecting moments.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Memories: Do Not Open
    [“Break Up Every Night” is] an actual dance cut. The other cuts are basically ballads with beats--modernized Moby without the soul-searching or gospel samples.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    I Am Me
    Every song feels like a retread of some hit you've heard before, somewhere. [21 Oct 2005, p.73]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Baptism
    Anyone else offering up such hokum would do it with tongue fairly deep in cheek. Not Lenny Kravitz. [21 May 2004, p.76]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 42 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
    You'll be safe from falling stuntmen, but the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Broadway's notorious mega-musical poses a more mundane risk: boredom.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Hoodstar
    The best production can't hide Hoodstar's lack of imagination. [22 Sep 2006, p.95]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    14 Shades Of Grey
    The tedious MOR power ballads can't seem to get out of low gear. [13 Jun 2003, p. 96]
    • Entertainment Weekly
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Never Gone
    This corny comeback is hardly a triumphant return. [24 Jun 2005, p.165]
    • Entertainment Weekly
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