For 3,519 reviews, this publication has graded:
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81% higher than the average critic
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1% same as the average critic
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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: | The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do | |
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Lowest review score: | Playing With Fire |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 3,085 out of 3519
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Mixed: 407 out of 3519
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Negative: 27 out of 3519
3519
music
reviews
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- Critic Score
It peels back the layers of a group diligently working to produce something special. [30 Nov 2018, p.51]- Entertainment Weekly
Posted Nov 21, 2018 -
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Only hardcore devotees (of which, admittedly, there are many) truly need to hear all of the 25 rarities and concert recordings included with this expanded two-CD reissue Pinkerton: Deluxe Edition.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Dec 8, 2010
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On a purely musical level, this collection is a true beauty, with 63 previously unreleased tracks. ... For the completists, you’ll want this set forever in your life.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Sep 25, 2020
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The set lists may have looked similar, but here's proof they didn't sound alike --and that they'll still get you mighty high.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Oct 18, 2011
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Fetch, which blossoms more and more with each listen, feels giddy too; high on romance and rhythm and the surreal gift of being alive.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Apr 16, 2020
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It's a gorgeous trip back to a time when anything seemed possible. [1 Oct 2004, p.73]- Entertainment Weekly
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Crackling with a bristling immediacy, Van Lear Rose yanks Lynn into the present while never abandoning musical traditions that continue to define her, her voice, and her material. [30 Apr 2004, p.160]- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
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Even if you've been to Electric Ladyland, this version is worth the price of readmission. [30 Nov 2018, p.51]- Entertainment Weekly
Posted Nov 21, 2018 -
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Lamar’s earnestness and charisma never waver; as much as he owes to his predecessor, the clearest antecedent for Butterfly isn’t Pac but rather peak Prince. Lamar operates in the same boldly visionary idiom as the Purple One, expanding the boundaries of the hip-hop empire and daring other aspirants to the throne.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Mar 26, 2015
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The spare demos, crystal-clear concert recordings, and handsomely produced liner notes are a fan's delight, but it's the three original albums included here--38 haunting ballads and fist-pumping anthems, some in unreleased mixes, each one a gem--that still shine brightest.- Entertainment Weekly
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Fans will adore the numerous B sides and demos, and the concert DVDs provide a fun, flannelly time capsule.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Nov 29, 2011
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Stankonia reeks of artful ambition rendered with impeccable skill -- or as one song title so concisely has it, ''So Fresh, So Clean.''- Entertainment Weekly
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After delving into the personal on 2012’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city and going broader on Butterfly, Lamar has found a middle ground on DAMN. that yields some of his most emotionally resonant music yet.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Apr 18, 2017
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Rough and Rowdy Ways is a clear reflection of America’s jagged landscape — one of romance and mystery, creativity and fortune, protestations and politicking, conquests and colonialism. It makes for an exquisite, haunting listen.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jun 23, 2020
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Suffused with warmth and memory, this set belongs among your Tom Petty records. [Nov 2020, p.97]- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Oct 15, 2020
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- Entertainment Weekly
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He samples atmospheric noodling from Aphex Twin and bombastic nuggets from Black Sabbath and King Crimson, and he gets help from some of the biggest names in pop, rap, and indie rock. West crafts these influences into a fever dream with a crescendo around every corner - the Beautiful Fantasy of the album's title.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Dec 7, 2010
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The reissue of their 1993 debut rescues a bevy of lost single, further cementing Icky;s status as a holy grail of lovely, rumpled passion. [5 Aug 2011, p.75]- Entertainment Weekly
Posted Aug 10, 2011 -
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The dozen unearthed tracks here [are] the outtakes of the outtakes. [2 Dec 2011, p.77]- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Nov 23, 2011
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Live at Reading presents the band at its post-Nevermind peak. Watching Kurt Cobain radiate so much life is bound to trigger some tears.- Entertainment Weekly
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It may not be a better album than ''Time Out of Mind,'' but it glides from genre to genre with a sprightly glee, as if Dylan were traversing the American musical landscape in search of thrills, revenge, and reparation.- Entertainment Weekly
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Captures the punk attitude, brittle R&B vamps, and quirky lyrical trips of their early years. [20/27 Aug 2004, p.123]- Entertainment Weekly
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The six discs in Achtung Baby: Uber Deluxe Edition may seem like overkill, but most everything here, from the raw demos (a stripped-away "Mysterious Ways" is especially revelatory) to the cache of beat-science remixes that put 1993's confusing Zooropa into better context, is essential to understanding the most inscrutable stadium-filling band in history.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Oct 31, 2011
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A perfect mix of giddy tropical rhythms and Beatles-style experimentation. [27 Jan 2006, p.85]- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Apr 27, 2016
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Many of the unreleased, B-side, and cover tracks here are less immediate, but no less joyful for the Pavement completist.- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
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This excellent three-CD overview of the hugely influential folksinger's career covers much of the obvious ground, then explores some less-visited hinterlands on its third disc.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jul 20, 2012
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One of the strangest, bumpiest musical journeys we're likely to experience on record this year. [16 Jan 2004, p.68]- Entertainment Weekly
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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.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Oct 14, 2016
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An impressive package, but fans will be paying big bucks for a lot of stuff they already own.- Entertainment Weekly
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Ocean is less concerned with urban realism than with his own '80s-noir fantasy of what the city's like, and his music captures that vibe perfectly, pulsing with electro-soul grooves, vintage jazz-funk.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jul 18, 2012
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Not that there aren't hints of greatness on Elephant.... That said, ''Elephant'' also flaunts everything that's contrived about the band -- the gimmicks for which they've become better known than their actual music.- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jun 15, 2017
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[The album's] ambition flies so far beyond that of anyone doing rap right now (or pop, or rock, or R&B), awards shows may need to create a special category for it. [19 Sep 2003, p.83]- Entertainment Weekly
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Live in London is a reminder that Cohen is as gifted a performer as he is a songwriter.- Entertainment Weekly
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This Dr. Dre-endorsed phenom delivers on the promise of his rabidly beloved mixtape Section.80. [2 Nov 2012, p.68]- Entertainment Weekly
Posted Nov 1, 2012 -
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Isn't likely to convert, say, your average Jay-Z fan.... Yet it works, and even seems refreshingly exotic. [21 May 2004, p.77]- Entertainment Weekly
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Several arrangements lean to the left, bringing to mind another Los Lobos side project, the Latin Playboys. [3/16/2001, p.68]- Entertainment Weekly
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The catalog of touchstones, samples, and cameos on Renaissance could double as a syllabus for a master class on the evolution of dance music as it has unfolded during Beyoncé's lifetime.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Aug 2, 2022
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Does every genre suit her equally? Of course not, but most of Janelle Monée's mad experiments yield spectacularly catchy results.- Entertainment Weekly
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The moody set mixes covers of legends like Vern Gosdin with originals that ring so true they might as well be standards. The 25-song collection feels longer than Johnson's infamous owl sanctuary of a beard, but it's unlikely any country purists will complain.- Entertainment Weekly
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''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.- Entertainment Weekly
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Luckily, We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service not only satisfies its lofty expectations, it often exceeds them.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Nov 14, 2016
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- Entertainment Weekly
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With its quiet meditations on mental illness, God, and death, Carrie is a hauntingly beautiful bummer.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Apr 3, 2015
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Even though they're no longer underdogs—their last album, 2005's The Woods, cemented their rep as one of the all-time great groups—that hasn't changed on their triumphant return.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jan 15, 2015
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By adding grit and gutter-savvy humor, Skinner also takes U.K. garage to a new level, making for the year's most striking debut.- Entertainment Weekly
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You'd be hard-pressed to find sounds this spookily evocative anywhere outside the grooves of scratchy old 78s. [Applies to both 'Alice' and 'Blood Money,' 10 May 2002, p.80]- Entertainment Weekly
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For the most part, Funeral is a lovely, uplifting, and often pleasingly grandiose whirl through a panoply of sounds. [5 Nov 2004, p.81]- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jan 27, 2011
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The fact that this album feels so complete even without any words from his old partner reinforces just what peak form Big Boi is in.- Entertainment Weekly
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It's never a guarantee that a collaboration from talented soloists will work, let alone multiple times. The Record navigates that hurdle deftly enough to suggest that none of these artists have reached their full potential. Neither has Boygenius.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Apr 4, 2023
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With all the hits plus an enjoyable assortment of rarities and covers, The Live Anthology is a comprehensive portrait of a perpetually professional live act.- Entertainment Weekly
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græ finds him trying to be, well, everything, and through a convergence of folk, jazz, classical, and art-rock, along with his probing lyricism, Sumney has managed to produce a sonic marvel.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted May 14, 2020
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They evoke the musical essence of various titans while achieving a wholly distinctive sound of their own. [7 Oct 2005, p.73]- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
Posted Feb 26, 2014 -
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When the technique works, the results are exhilarating. [9 Nov 2001, p.111]- Entertainment Weekly
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Intriguing, immediate, and quietly epic, Modern Times must rank among Dylan's finest albums.- Entertainment Weekly
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Elliott spends too much time dissing detractors, but the hooks come as fast as the reefer references, and for the first time since her debut, she sounds as if she's having a blast... [25 May 2001, p. 80]- Entertainment Weekly
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An audacious marriage of restless experimentalism and eloquent melodic craft. [10 Sep 2004, p.165]- Entertainment Weekly
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A genuinely winning collection of sublime, old-school pop.- Entertainment Weekly
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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.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted May 17, 2016
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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.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jun 23, 2017
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The album radiates universal beauty and truth in the tradition of Stevie Wonder and Minnie Ripperton--and the whole world could simply use more of that.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Oct 4, 2016
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Supple, stylish electro-pop so cool it makes glaciers jealous. [24 Sep 2004, p.106]- Entertainment Weekly
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Pink Noise revels in the freedom of moving beyond stress for something peaceful, adding yet another layer to Mvula's already-rich tapestry of sound.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jul 1, 2021
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A stunning effort. Solange creates such fully realized art that even when she may be expressing uncertainty and doubt, she’s charging herself--and her audience--with finding possibility.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Mar 6, 2019
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It isn't easy listening. But it's worth it.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jun 15, 2012
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Merriweather Post Pavilion won't land the band the opening slot on a Coldplay tour, it cleaves closer to "Pitch's" more listener-friendly aesthetic, abandoning the self-indulgent impulses that sometimes muddied last year's "Strawberry Jam" for an album full of effervescent, transportive oddity.- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
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Clark keeps things edgy, singing about divorce, drugs, jail, and Jesus with matter-of-fact sass and ample twang.[25 Oct/1 Nov 2013, p.100]- Entertainment Weekly
Posted Oct 22, 2013 -
- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
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- Entertainment Weekly
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On her confident, melodic major-label debut, Musgraves' vocals are pleasingly agile, but what Same Trailer Different Park continually showcases is her writing prowess.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Mar 19, 2013
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Swift explodes the expectations of anyone preparing to call her music "diaristic," writing songs from different perspectives while putting her already-detailed work under a microscope. ... A content smile of an album on which one of the world's biggest pop stars, charts be damned, forges her own path and dares listeners to come along for the ride.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Jul 24, 2020
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Yours Mine & Ours has an easygoing vibe that gives Pernice's literate folk-pop ample room to roam. [11 Jul 2003, p.78]- Entertainment Weekly
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Just the record you'd want: production a bit bigger, and songs more adventurous but no less indelible. [Listen 2 This supplement, Oct 2003, p.14]- Entertainment Weekly
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If what this drums-and-bass duo does with infernal noise is your thing, you're a pretty happy camper. [28 Oct 2005, p.89]- Entertainment Weekly
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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.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Mar 26, 2020
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If there's nothing truly revelatory, it's still a dandy opportunity to eavesdrop on the future mouthpiece of a generation finding his voice (sometimes awkwardly).- Entertainment Weekly
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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.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Oct 21, 2015
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A surprisingly personal album that showcases how Adele has matured, both as an artist and as a person, since the middle of the last decade. She could have built on her blockbuster success in a cynical way, copy-and-pasting "Rolling in the Deep" and "Hello." Instead, she lets her emotions guide her, with triumphant results.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Nov 19, 2021
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- Entertainment Weekly
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You'll swear it's a lost tape from a sweet Hendrix-Iron Butterfly-Cream jam session. [19 Aug 2005, p.145]- Entertainment Weekly
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Without abandoning his classic formula--junkyard percussion, loose-limbed blues licks, and that unmistakable mouth-of-hell baritone--Waits keeps pulling switcheroos out of his porkpie hat on his 20th album.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Oct 21, 2011
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By nature, Radiohead albums will always be somewhat epic, but this one is more consistently grandiose than any of the band’s releases since 2000’s masterpiece Kid A.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted May 11, 2016
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Five studio albums in, it feels more like another new beginning, and pretty close to a masterpiece.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Oct 13, 2017
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TV on the Radio may still--and always--make capital-A art, but they've found something universal, even joyful, in the noise.- Entertainment Weekly
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Once again showcases her vulnerability, opening up old wounds from relationships with her father, a past lover, and, ultimately, herself. [Sep 2021, p.107]- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Aug 30, 2021
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The savvier arrangements, brimming with unsettling sound effects, put Cookie Mountain several steps ahead of its fine 2004 predecessor, Desperate Youth, Bloody Thirsty Babes.- Entertainment Weekly
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These laptop-pop fractals... deliver spectacular hip-hop drum breaks and the sort of mile-deep multi-tracking that makes digital technology so much fun. [Listen 2 This supplement, Apr 2003, p.12]- Entertainment Weekly
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Her strongest work since 1995's To Bring You My Love.- Entertainment Weekly
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It’s the MC’s empathetic and clear-eyed rhymes that truly make this a vital contribution to the national conversation.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Nov 4, 2016
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His insider snipes at indie-rock pretense show Wildean wit. [24 Feb 2006, p.64]- Entertainment Weekly
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The Roots have always been at their best expressing quiet desperation and spinning old-school tales of struggling upward.- Entertainment Weekly
- Posted Nov 30, 2011
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Though his second CD has a charming Ambrose Bierce quality to it, a little goes a long way.- Entertainment Weekly
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When it all comes together, as on ''Hidden Place'' or ''It's Not Up to You,'' Björk and her electronica collaborators create moving interplanetary chorals. ''Vespertine'' is also her most erotic work....- Entertainment Weekly
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