Exclaim's Scores
- Music
For 4,922 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: 4,172 out of 4922
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Mixed: 723 out of 4922
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Negative: 27 out of 4922
4922
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
It's not a stretch to preemptively label Poetry 2024's record of the summer for the alternative crowd. It's fun, fresh and doesn't take itself too seriously.- Exclaim
- Posted May 10, 2024
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The album's only real shortcoming is that the Chris Motionless-featuring "Slaughterhouse 2," a sequel to the Garris-featuring original on Motionless in White's latest studio effort, feels slightly underwhelming in the shadow of its predecessor. It's a small misstep in an otherwise robust collection of songs.- Exclaim
- Posted May 10, 2024
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The segues on Death Jokes prove to be the highlights of McMahon's experimentation. "Joyrider," "Predator" and "Solo Tape" succeed because they are unencumbered by the weight of songwriting expectation. Unlike the fuller compositions, these interstitial tracks lean more on the side of musical vignettes.- Exclaim
- Posted May 8, 2024
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Listening to Look to the East, Look to the West feels at once redemptive and healing; Camera Obscura have found their way through the dark.- Exclaim
- Posted May 2, 2024
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The grandeur is all-enveloping here; a minor epic built from a surfeit of dissident spirit and Van Halen fanaticism. Don't let Mdou Moctar be the close-kept secret of suburban shamans the world over β this is pure Tuareg delight, palatable for all.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 30, 2024
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On first glance one might mistake it for a kind of "playing the hits" trick that many artists rely on as they revisit their origins. But digging in, Time Is Glass feels more like a progression of ease β 20 years on, Chasny is able to reach the astral plane the way most reach for a light switch.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 29, 2024
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The pair have fully blossomed from their early DIY start, showcasing an incredible range of indie pop craftsmanship and a grounded centredness built on empathy and understanding.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 26, 2024
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If you'd cooled on the duo for this reason, now is the time to jump back in. Justice have purified their sound on Hyperdrama, largely for the better.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 25, 2024
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Despite electric amplifiers and a plethora of pedals, BIG|BRAVE have created an album that sounds like it's existed since the dawn of time. Tears will be shed and embraces are encouraged.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 24, 2024
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On All Born Screaming, Clark sounds more at home than she has in a while, but all planets inevitably die β perhaps the next one she lands on will finally be her own.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 23, 2024
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It's yet another solid rock record from a reliable group who are very good at this sort of thing.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 22, 2024
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Like the colourless photo of a near-anonymous Swift that adorns the album cover, it casts an artful pose but doesn't have the guts to look the listener in the eye.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 22, 2024
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At its best it's far closer to the sort of comeback album that reminds listeners why they loved the music in the first place, instead of the hollow nostalgia of past glories.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 18, 2024
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There is unquestionable bravery in the access and vulnerability that sentiment communicates, and the journey into pop music is yet another promising step in rousay's always-morphing development.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 18, 2024
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Across its 10 songs, Don't Forget Me is as concise as it is exciting. Not a note is wasted, not a second under-utilized. What truly sets it apart is how comfortable Rogers seems embodying her full potential.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 16, 2024
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The glowering strength of If I don't make it, I love u is in its commitment to both sides of the coin, an album both experimental and laid fully bare β The result is one of the best rock records of the year.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 12, 2024
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Clocking in at only 35 minutes β though it feels longer, richer β Up on Gravity Hill is a quick glimpse into a more earnest METZ. This doesn't sound like a band experimenting with something new, but rather a group of musicians secure enough in their craft to humbly evolve with increasingly uncertain times.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 12, 2024
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Whether it's the sing-songy Britpop and jazz on a song like "Out of Options'' or the contemplative soundtrack to a late night walk home on "So Tell Meβ¦," Archives captures intense closeness and isolation, often at the same time in one song.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 11, 2024
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As disjointed and tense as this sophomore effort may come across, angeltape is a proclamation of artistic and emotional resilience.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 9, 2024
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With Older, McAlpine enters a new era of her career, armed with bluesy seventh chords and simple rhythms. She's done the work; she's done the soul-searching; she's done the meticulous labour of shaving her thoughts down to their purest, most authentic truths. Consider the ceiling of her last album cycle shattered.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 5, 2024
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On The Sunset Violent, Mount Kimbie throw things at the wall and see what sticks β those flung with high velocity make the most impact.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 5, 2024
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A LA SALA is an endlessly rewarding album. There's always something new to be discovered in its haze, a whispered lyric between the layers, a little pebble of meaning waiting to be overturned.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 5, 2024
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Vampire Weekend have lost the carefree immediacy of some of their best-loved work; there's nothing on Only God as viscerally addictive as "A-Punk" or "This Life," and there's a prog-like complexity to these performances that's geared more toward the head than the heart. But there's also just enough stripped-down beauty β like the balladic "Capricorn," or the swooning brass outro of "The Surfer" β that Only God Was Above Us remains emotional as well as academic.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 5, 2024
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Love in Constant Spectacle features all of Weaver's strengths and none of her (very few) weaknesses. There's a kind of magical play here that conceals the emotional weight the album continuously heaves skyward, any evidence of the effort smoothed out in the subtitles.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 4, 2024
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There are admittedly some palatable textures here, an inevitability given the roster of talent, but so much of it is obfuscated in genre confusion and poor arrangements.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 4, 2024
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COWBOY CARTER deserves your full attention; its sprawl unsuited for TikTok-sized consumption habits. Clocking in at just under 80 minutes, it takes time to properly digest, a rich 27-course meal that dares one to really let it sit on the tongue.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 1, 2024
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As a riff rock mood board, most of the album passes by nicely enough, with the occasional embarrassing lyric (the aforementioned refrain in "Must've Always Been a Thing," repetitions of "Ring dong / Ring-a-ding dong" on opener "The Dooms Day Bells") being the only moments that are actively unpleasant to listen to.- Exclaim
- Posted Apr 1, 2024
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Occasionally, there are times when you wish Chastity Belt would shed their melancholic coil and get a little louder; interrupt their carefully considered listlessness with an impassioned outburst. But they prefer to simmer in their milieu, aware of the effect that quiet contemplation has in moving their message forward.- Exclaim
- Posted Mar 27, 2024
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Like all of her best work, Akoma is heavy, mysterious and boundless. This is Jlin's world; we're just lucky enough to listen in.- Exclaim
- Posted Mar 21, 2024
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While the songs of Something in the Room She Moves seem to exist in two modes β one buoyant, playful and adventurous, and the other weighty, contemplative and measured β a deeply somatic sense of sound design binds those halves together beautifully.- Exclaim
- Posted Mar 21, 2024
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