Exclaim's Scores
- Music
For 4,908 reviews, this publication has graded:
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58% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.1 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: | The Ascension | |
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Lowest review score: | Excuse My French |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 4,159 out of 4908
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Mixed: 722 out of 4908
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Negative: 27 out of 4908
4908
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Excavation is a brilliant piece of work, one best enjoyed actively with a premium set of headphones, in solitude.- Exclaim
- Posted May 3, 2013
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Another 50 years down the line, it is a truly transformative experience to listen to these old, mysterious songs with fresh ears. You can hear antecedents of everyone from Dylan to Mumford, sure, but what is all the more exciting, as these 100+ songs pile up, is the sensation of access to a voice at once ancient and full of life.- Exclaim
- Posted Mar 20, 2015
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1973-1980 is a fitting, touching and extensive tribute to one of Africa's greatest musicians.- Exclaim
- Posted Jul 15, 2015
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The impressive thing about the return of the progenitors of Swedish melo-death isn't the time elapsed since their last album; rather, it's how much it sounds like none has.- Exclaim
- Posted Nov 7, 2014
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Lemay has reinvented Gorguts while showcasing their roots, as the immensely anticipated Colored Sands exceeds expectations and proves to be every bit worth the wait.- Exclaim
- Posted Aug 30, 2013
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With Everybody is Going to Heaven, Citizen have forged a visceral, stunningly nuanced work that is nothing short of immaculate.- Exclaim
- Posted Jun 24, 2015
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To See More Light is a masterpiece that organically and coherently blends Stetson's avant-garde playing and dark, complex themes with accessible and compelling compositions that bring a ray of hope not just for the characters in his underlying narrative, but for the future of music.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 26, 2013
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Sturgill Simpson has been running in a different direction for a while, and with A Sailor's Guide To Earth, he's finally arrived in another world.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 13, 2016
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It is masterful, it is heartening and it represents today's best from an R&B/soul perspective.- Exclaim
- Posted Dec 16, 2014
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Recorded mostly live off the floor, and full of loose, garage rock accents and playfully shambling flourishes, everything about Most Messed Up feels exquisitely messy.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 28, 2014
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20 years later, what stands out about the sound of Kid A and Amnesiac isn't how influential they are, but how they resemble little else. ... The recent single "If You Say the Word" is a clear highlight, its acoustic arpeggios and skulking rhythms fitting in nicely with the more straightforward moments of Amnesiac.- Exclaim
- Posted Nov 4, 2021
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Grimes has given us a complete record that's everything pop should be in 2015: utterly uncompromising, imaginative and, somehow, universally accessible.- Exclaim
- Posted Nov 9, 2015
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On one hand, it's an endlessly engaging artifact for music dorks interested in an education straight from the source; on the other hand, it simply overflows with some of the best, and most enjoyable rock 'n' roll of all time.- Exclaim
- Posted Dec 7, 2015
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Rough and Rowdy Ways is the work of a man in love with language and philosophy, and, at 79, he continues to take the pulse of the zeitgeist with unerring precision. He ain't no false prophet, he's an artist, he don't look back.- Exclaim
- Posted Jun 18, 2020
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Taken together, these 97 minutes of music provide a tantalizing glimpse of the direction the group could have taken had it not disbanded at the end of 1989. Absolutely essential.- Exclaim
- Posted Dec 18, 2019
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The fact that Stetson can draw such varied sonic references together in one cohesive display of virtuosity makes him a national treasure. ... Genius.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 28, 2017
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The scope of Fetch the Bolt Cutters' meaning, its infinite feeling, will likely take years to fully absorb. An album like this doesn't come often, and an artist like Apple will never come again — she's given us an invaluable piece of light, a reminder to stay alive and awake and angry and kind.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 17, 2020
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It's simultaneously a distillation of his many trademark sounds while also a massive departure from his previous works. The album demands multiple, active listens, but it's well worth the effort. Hidden beneath its complex layers lies an endless well of new modalities, critical interpretations and potent ideas. ... It's not an album we could have ever expected in 2020, but it is the one we deserve.- Exclaim
- Posted Sep 23, 2020
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While less vulnerable than Lemonade, RENAISSANCE takes the reins as Beyoncé's grandest record to date because of the technical achievements in production and seemingly effortless experimentation without losing any of her lyrical cool. ... Beyoncé's RENAISSANCE is a modern classic.- Exclaim
- Posted Aug 1, 2022
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It's unfortunate that Vicious Lies has come out after everyone has finished compiling their year-end lists, but it's already a contender for best record of 2013.- Exclaim
- Posted Dec 18, 2012
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If this truly is the end for Dillinger Escape Plan, they've ended things by throwing down the gauntlet with such force that the reverberations will be felt for generations.- Exclaim
- Posted Oct 12, 2016
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They have both found, on their eleventh album (and best since the early 2000s), a renewed purpose and direction in this time of existential crisis for America.- Exclaim
- Posted Oct 5, 2016
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Artistic, intelligent (but not overly intellectualized), and executed with a skill and care many of us can only hope to comprehend, The Enduring Spirit is this year's best metal album, and one of the best albums of 2023, period, full stop.- Exclaim
- Posted Sep 28, 2023
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- Exclaim
- Posted Sep 30, 2013
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A heavily introspective tour de force, Lamar has created a stubbornly parochial soundtrack to his life in Compton, CA.- Exclaim
- Posted Oct 24, 2012
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A flurry of emotion — joyful and pointed — and clattering noise blending into haunting sparseness, this is the record the Sadies have been working on capturing for their entire existence. Thankfully, and with bittersweet timing, they got it done when we most needed them to, making the best record that has ever been made by anyone. Ever.- Exclaim
- Posted Jul 21, 2022
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As much as it is possible to describe the hissing whispers and supernova roars John Haughm's vocal performance, or the galactic wonder of Don Anderson's guitars, the sticky and celestial spirals of Jason Walton's bass lines, or the powerful alchemical engine of Aesop Dekker's drumming, together they form something greater: a massive, sublime universe unto itself.- Exclaim
- Posted May 13, 2014
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This is the album on which Daft Punk are truly and convincingly "human after all." And on this toweringly grand achievement, they've never sounded better.- Exclaim
- Posted May 13, 2013
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The record is a perfect amalgamation of everything they've done across their career, with a few new sounds tossed in for good measure.- Exclaim
- Posted Jun 20, 2019
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Never in recorded history has there been an album of such audible variety, distinctive fidelity and lyrical intensity.- Exclaim
- Posted Feb 22, 2012
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