Filter's Scores
- Music
For 1,801 reviews, this publication has graded:
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71% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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26% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.6 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: | Complete | |
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Lowest review score: | Drum's Not Dead |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,648 out of 1801
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Mixed: 137 out of 1801
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Negative: 16 out of 1801
1801
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Shearwater’s selection of covers is as diverse as their own discography.- Filter
- Posted Dec 5, 2013
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The Handler is no doubt marred by some tasteless postcoital nyuks... and outdated references. [#12, p.97]- Filter
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Messy yet polished guitars surge through swathes of melodic white noise while the tracks are still able to maintain an impressive sharpness.- Filter
- Posted Sep 17, 2012
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It gives us songs more memorable for their grizzly narrations or the occasional doo-wop harmony than the steady performances of mostly standard-format jams.- Filter
- Posted Jun 4, 2012
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While the group's penchant for humid power-dirges threatens to sink 119 in its middle, they're unbeatable--but only when they skip the accoutrements and just bang away at high speed.- Filter
- Posted Oct 15, 2012
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It's hard to say what it all amounts to apart from a collection of partly-cloudy-late-afternoon-sunshine, on-and-off '80s jams.- Filter
- Posted Mar 21, 2012
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The British quartet masquerading as a Japanese duo is back with its fourth full-length, Ventriloquizzing, bringing along a signature slinky groove and wordplay that borders on the absurd.- Filter
- Posted Jan 26, 2011
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Out-and-out rockers “A Mirror” and “Tired & Buttered” provide some much-needed lucidity, but as a whole, Held in Splendor may be a bit too tranquil for its own good.- Filter
- Posted Feb 14, 2014
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The band’s fourth release, Christopher, falls flat despite containing one of this year’s (possibly this decade’s) finest pop songs with its opener “Desert of Pop.”- Filter
- Posted Mar 15, 2013
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Waiting For Something To Happen, is something both sinister and sweet, dripping with shoegaze guitars and harmonies abound.- Filter
- Posted Mar 8, 2013
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While the record does nothing to offend listeners, it's excessively broad and does little to dramatically impress. [Winter 2008, p.94]- Filter
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- Posted May 10, 2011
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- Posted Jul 28, 2011
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I Am Gemini is more of an auditory theater piece than a traditional record.- Filter
- Posted Feb 22, 2012
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The two marry sounds of melodrama and sheer polyphonic weirdness for a result gone (sometimes) wonderfully awry. [Fall 2008, p.98]- Filter
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The Sun Dogs features solid, compelling songwriting and sounds wonderful; heavy, spacious guitars flare up amidst the smoke, and when these guys start to rip, there’s no stopping them.- Filter
- Posted Jul 25, 2013
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The result is not so much a breakthrough in ease of listening, but more a feeling that one of the greats is getting back in the ring to fight after tying one of his own arms behind his back. [Winter 2008, p.99]- Filter
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Wymond Miles’s imaginative guitar work is often enough to cover a multitude of sins (see the scorching lead on “Hummingbird” and the minimal flourishes on “April Fools”). For some listeners that will be enough, but overall the record feels structured more like a career-spanning live set than a cohesive collection.- Filter
- Posted Jun 12, 2014
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Their self-titled LP has the troupe’s familiar indie-“folk”-meets-psychedelia soundings, yet adds some new wrinkles.- Filter
- Posted Jul 31, 2013
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He’s taken a sharply intimate and original turn from his debut solo effort and the result is a catalogue of 14--surprise!--super-chill tunes, consistent front to back, although none necessarily a standout.- Filter
- Posted Oct 8, 2013
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The results aren’t all winners, but there are gems where you wouldn’t expect them.- Filter
- Posted Mar 26, 2013
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The North Carolina natives mix the boisterousness with the balladry well, while delivering image-evoking lyrics in between.- Filter
- Posted Sep 13, 2012
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The Globes do a nice job of grabbing and keeping listeners' attention throughout the album's 35 minutes of music.- Filter
- Posted Aug 3, 2011
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- Filter
- Posted Jul 27, 2012
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This is another great move by a revered musician, but the delivery isn’t always as exciting as the idea.- Filter
- Posted Nov 21, 2013
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Cyclone might lack the raw beauty of her last project, but Case's emotional honesty is surely a sign that more meaningful transformations are in store. [Winter 2009, p.92]- Filter
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Inoffensive to the nth degree, this is a sleeping pill, not the double espresso we ordered.- Filter
- Posted Aug 9, 2012
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It’s Nocturnes' two sleek singles (“Motorway,” “Broken Record”) that manage the best in dark electronic allure with shiny, hook-driven choruses.- Filter
- Posted May 23, 2013
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The updated duo offers lollipop anthems that do not fit airy reverberations and methodical nuance of '90s era Hi Tek. Luckily, the suporting cast offers diversity to the sometimes misguided and underwhelming album. [Spring/Summer 2010, p.110]- Filter
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No longer satisfied with the kitchen disposal, Eats Darkness just goes ahead and throws in the kitchen sink, tractor, uprooted tree, and any other incongruous items it can find. [Summer 2009, p.96]- Filter
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Yet as delectable as the melodies are, Sex with an X seems like it's all been done before--and in fact, we know that it has.- Filter
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Caulfield continues to showcase some seriously well-crafted shifts between proggy meandering movements and pop hooks.- Filter
- Posted May 25, 2012
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Although it toes a dangerous line of resounding too imitative of its own influences, the young producer is nonetheless well on his way to fully embracing his identity.- Filter
- Posted Mar 28, 2013
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The reality is that Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon is the musical equivalent of a grape soda--it tastes familiar, but it's just not quite a grape.- Filter
- Posted Sep 24, 2012
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The heavy-handed force of the latest effort to sonically disconstruct and reconstruct gets tiresome. [Spring 2009, p.103]- Filter
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The ruminative, skittering TVOTR rhythmic patterns distract from Miranda's strengths even with the occasional injections of some easy-breezy horn lines or soul-jazz keys. [Winter 2010, p.100]- Filter
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- Filter
- Posted Feb 1, 2012
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The band is not exactly daytripping here and there is a great fervor in what they do, but the fruit is not quite ripe. [Summer 2009, p.102]- Filter
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It's a real coloring book of an idea, but too many crayons and a shaky hand have left the original images looking blurred.- Filter
- Posted Nov 9, 2012
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Though “subdued” is a dirty word that’s thrown around a lot, in the case of the collection that comprises Get There, the duo shines bright when they pick up the pace.- Filter
- Posted Nov 8, 2013
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An A.merican D.ream struts back into those alleyways, but devoid of any kind of humor.- Filter
- Posted Mar 28, 2013
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The peaks aren't as emotionally devastating as his studio work, but there's a hushed desperation here that gradually leaches into your pores.- Filter
- Posted Apr 11, 2011
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The result is an album that is altogether pleasant, but just doesn't do enough to distinguish itself on the map from the rest in its genre.- Filter
- Posted Apr 4, 2012
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There are a few thrilling moments here—notably the cinematic ballad “Nothing”--but the band mostly flounders as it seeks a new direction.- Filter
- Posted Jul 25, 2013
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Somewhere in the English to Japanese to...uh, English translation, the wonderful quirkiness inherent in their delivery and meaningless lyrics was misplaced. [Fall 2008, p.105]- Filter
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Vandervelde masterfully dresses singer-songwriter tunes that could exist just on acoustic guitar in beautiful studio psychedelics, but too often he lets his brillant sound palette subsitute for structural creativity. [Summer 2008, p.98]- Filter
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Blue Songs is a sophisticated and club-ready sophomore effort, even if--at times--it nearly crumbles under the weight of its own decadence and self-indulgences.- Filter
- Posted Aug 22, 2011
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The band sounds more polished than ever, especially when they shed their folk roots, but the funky riffs (“Feel the Chill,” “Drive On Up”) owe more to Songs in the Key of Life than Highway 61 Revisited.- Filter
- Posted Oct 4, 2013
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Their songs do run deeper than they seem, but you have to listen closely and push through fluff. It was cute the first time, but now it's just awkward. [Winter 2009, p.97]- Filter
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The album's lyrics feature mostly throwaway new-age drivel... and gut-wrenching despondency reduced to bored balladeering. Or just plain silliness. [#13, p.102]- Filter
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While the Malaysian songstress' charming vocals are easily the main attraction, Avi's unexpected stroll through different sonic territories-hopping from pop ("The Book of Morris Johnson") to R&B ("Concrete Wall") and reggae ("Roll Your Head In The Sun")--is a close second.- Filter
- Posted Aug 30, 2011
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Pedestrian Verse is an album made up of melodies, lyrics and verses that are completely, well, pedestrian.- Filter
- Posted Mar 1, 2013
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Despite some inspired guest contributions from A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s Jen Goma and Beirut’s Kelly Pratt, the raw guitar anthems from Belong are too often replaced by poppy fizz, toothless jangle and twee melancholia on Abandon.- Filter
- Posted May 9, 2014
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The altered states of Cameron Stallones' latest Sun Araw effort Ancient Romans are an acquired taste.- Filter
- Posted Aug 30, 2011
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There are no distinguishable hooks or chorus lines anywhere on Coming Apart; instead, it’s just Gordon and Nace simultaneously subverting and creating musical forms that will surely polarize listeners who want to “get it” and those who refuse to.- Filter
- Posted Sep 16, 2013
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For all of the thought required, the album is still very natural and accessible.- Filter
- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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It has stylistic cohesion on its side, even though that’s where it’s at its most derivative, but it’s like an antique firearm--it might look the part, but it’s not much good for shooting.- Filter
- Posted May 29, 2013
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The surviving Hackneys-bassist/singer Bobby and drummer Dannis-sifted through their early jams, rehearsals and demos for this ragged set of odds and ends.- Filter
- Posted Mar 4, 2011
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For every minute-long section of pinwheeling brilliance, there is some expository musical element that keeps us from getting at the core of what makes the group work so well. [#20, p.99]- Filter
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Will Maas be forever obsessed with the good–evil dichotomy? The answer’s in their moniker--and their monitors.- Filter
- Posted Apr 5, 2013
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The band proves once more that you can't get by on just clever quips and happy-go-lucky hooks. It's too bad, because these catchy compositions would be worth replaying if only they had more substance.- Filter
- Posted Sep 14, 2011
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Get Color may not be as revelatory as its predeccessors, but its slight merits gradually ooze into the wounds it so fiendishly creates. [Fall 2009, p. 102]- Filter
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- Filter
- Posted Apr 6, 2011
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While We're New Here is spooky, it's more chill-out mix than futuristic minimal-rave, and comes as a less interesting culture-clash than, say, The Dirtbombs doing covers of Detroit techno songs.- Filter
- Posted Apr 4, 2011
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The traditional folk-rock methods begin to falter as the album wears on, leaving Mason's stirring tales of troubles and joys feeling rather one-dimensional. [#24, p.98]- Filter
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Woodland tunes are not rare and only a few tracks here get the heart racing and stave off a bad case of bradycardia.- Filter
- Posted Aug 30, 2012
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Personal Life comes across dark, lost, and-shockingly for The Thermals-boring. At least Don and Betty Draper shared a bed for a little while.- Filter
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[Class Clown is] like all GBV releases, a mishmash of melodic, A-side-worthy compositions and half-formed snippets.- Filter
- Posted Jun 13, 2012
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With no standout tracks, Reptilians just becomes 40 minutes of innocuous, digital background music that's been done before.- Filter
- Posted Mar 16, 2011
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The result is a seamless yet stark poeticism that best represents MSHVB's overcast outlook on the world below.- Filter
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Nick Weiss and Logan Takahashi sadly lack their forefathers' mastery for emotionalizing machine-made sound.- Filter
- Posted Aug 23, 2012
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- Filter
- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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Funstyle's what would happen if M.I.A. joined a musical sequence on Saved by the Bell.- Filter
- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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This debut could've, should've and would've been more appropriate as a moody summer release for trips with the car windows down, but instead we're forced to keep 'em up as winter nags at our sleeves. [Holiday 2008, p.100]- Filter
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Overall, Forfeit/Fortune feels too much like a collection of songs that were thrown together without thought or directoion. [Fall 2008, p.99]- Filter
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It's shame, however, that the goofy aspects of the album distract from its sonic frame, as Wiliams is not only a talented producer but also has a keen ability to weave masterful pop instrumentation. [Winter 2007, p.94]- Filter
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Six Cups of Rebel isn't bad, but it is heavy-handed--and nowhere near his strongest.- Filter
- Posted Feb 10, 2012
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The 29-member jonkoping, Sweden, collective opts for a darker and altogether less interesting vernacular. [Fall 2008, p.92]- Filter
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This one settles for regrettably generic high-plains fiddle and wistful sighs of pedel-steel guitar. [Summer 2009, p.94]- Filter
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Some kind of Californian 5th Dimension/Phil Spector hybrid. All apologies, guys, but it comes off about as genuine as Phil Spector's current legal defense. [#11, p.94]- Filter
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Blessed certainly isn't a curse, but it doesn't exactly leave you feeling a higher power, either.- Filter
- Posted Mar 14, 2011
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In Our Nature is a compelling but not fascinating portrait of an artist at ease in his element.- Filter
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While Pleasure and C.U.T.S. evoke the nature of the dream, Angel, obsessive and occasionally trite, tends to tell rather than show.- Filter
- Posted Jun 13, 2014
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Complete hit-or-miss studio play. [#8, p.104]- Filter
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Mastodon's most accessible album to date finds the ATL-iens as unfocused as ever--and out of gas.- Filter
- Posted Oct 6, 2011
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It's somewhere between impressive and impressionistic how Glover inhabits each style, but pit between street chaff and crooner cheese, between respect and restless imitation, one can't help but wonder where all of Glover's talent is headed.- Filter
- Posted Nov 23, 2011
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While there's magic in Darnielle's always-blissful eye for detail--takes the kaleidoscopic, blood-red sun on 'San Bernadino'--far too often the album works up a head of steam only to wander into unflattering territory. [Winter 2008, p.95]- Filter
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Ranaldo and his band are unparalleled musicians but have fallen prey to a disaster that normally besets younger bands--a great sound and nothing said.- Filter
- Posted Oct 11, 2013
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- Filter
- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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You want to praise them for their attempts to define a unique voice, but a unique voice isn't necessarily an interesting one. [#11, p.96]- Filter
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Unfocused and uninspired, Machineries lacks the sprawling majesty and well-forged hooks of earlier efforts.- Filter
- Posted Apr 5, 2013
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Gone are the fun hooks of [Nixon], and the genre jumping majesty of 1999's What Another Man Spills. [combined review of both discs; #9, p.108]- Filter
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It may sometimes sparkle, but it never shines. [Spring 2008, p.102]- Filter
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The Sword akes the safe, oddly paradoxical decision to stay off the cutting edge. [Winter 2008, p.97]- Filter
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Back To Forever strives for mainstream acceptance, and in doing so dilutes Lissie’s strengths.- Filter
- Posted Oct 25, 2013
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Five of the songs don't feature Lanegan's vocals, and when Willy Mason shows up to sing two of them, it's a wonder why Hawk wasn't more truthfully labeled as "Isobel Campbell & Friends." Thematically deficient throughout, this is an outtakes release at best.- Filter
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Modern Art remains behind the veil, smoke and mirrors of nostalgia-not wholly accessible to audiences, modern or otherwise.- Filter
- Posted Sep 30, 2011
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The Soft Moon's sophomore album Zeroes is an experimentation in industrial sound that doesn't fully hit the mark.- Filter
- Posted Nov 12, 2012
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A high-pitched punky mess. [#16, p.103]- Filter
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Instead, the religiosity that infuses the music recalls the forced eagerness of modern day evangelicals and the predictable plainness of suburban mega-churches. Only dedicated fans need ascend.- Filter
- Posted Apr 11, 2011
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A double album slough of easy listening instrumentals. [combined review of both discs; #9, p.108]- Filter
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While bombastic and ambitious as ever, Tao suggests that Trail of Dead have once again lost the taste for subtlety and texture that's past served to elevate their sound from the prog pack.- Filter
- Posted Mar 14, 2011
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We've heard this swaggering, fumbling funk before from Kool Keith's gazillion other alter-egos. [#21, p.98]- Filter
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Not one drop of Dracula is dance-friendly. In fact, it sounds just as disparate as the last Nurses effort.- Filter
- Posted Sep 22, 2011
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Chris Martin’s voice is unremarkable but inoffensive on the non-instrumentals, and while some of Cosy’s tones are satisfying, they don’t redeem its shortcomings.- Filter
- Posted Apr 11, 2013
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While Senior is sometimes reminiscent of Royksopp's stellar 2001 debut Melody A.M., it also feels like a poor man's attempt at an Air record.- Filter
- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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Weller unveils an indulgent 21-track, hit-or-miss collection that has a scope, ambition and jazzy undercurrent which suggests Pete Townshend slumming in Vegas. [Summer 2008, p.98]- Filter
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Listening to this record, made me feel like the Andy Rooney of dance/electronic music. [Winter 2009, p.92]- Filter
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A touchy-feely orgy better left spooning in its afterglow 10 years previous when the feeling was still fresh. [#21, p.96]- Filter
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Feathers isn't a bad album, just one without a discernable look--or hook. [#14, p.99]- Filter
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Amos said she wanted to reclaim the songs from religious appropriations, but in the end, she just barely save us all from complete shame. [Holiday 2009, p. 98]- Filter
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Nothing sticks on the LP, and the disc feels recycled, pedestrian and a bit exhausting--at best.- Filter
- Posted Jul 26, 2011
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Ultimately, this collection is a series of album nearly-rans. This shouldn't undermine the songs, but it should reiterate how strong Weezer's records actually are (for the large part).- Filter
- Posted Dec 22, 2010
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A disappointing product of the partnership betwen party boys Modeselektor and space cadet Apparat. [Spring 2009, p.106]- Filter
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Precious and self-indulgent, this disc is bound for the sale rack at Starbucks.- Filter
- Posted May 3, 2013
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The sense of movement is missing here, that raw immediacy that powered "Full Collapse's" better tracks; the howls and breakdowns feel almost like quota-meters. Still, though, there are enough feedback squalls and keyboard squelches in Dave Friedmann's production to suggest Thursday have yet to run their course. [Winter 2009, p.100]- Filter
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A faceless debut; a din of the same guitars, horns and urbane 20-something tropes--and lichen--as "Rules," but immobile and, sadly, ambitionless.- Filter
- Posted Apr 11, 2012
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At points, the overly sappy lyrics are sung with fervor and match the passion put into the music, but ultimately, the album doesn't feel cohesive.- Filter
- Posted Sep 6, 2012
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The best song is track 13, "Apology in Advance." It is still not that good. [#6, p.86]- Filter
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- Filter
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What was once enjoyable as a one-off now seems forced. [#25, p.89]- Filter
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Mid-tempo balladry and redundant choruses sap all the percussive vigor from this former song factory.- Filter
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It's a mess--not without some tidy bits--but what's better: these songs could be the death throes, finally, of these guys' unfettered id.- Filter
- Posted Mar 29, 2012
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Zeitgeist is mostly a grinding, straightforward affair that demonstrates none of the innovation and vision of the band’s previous efforts.- Filter
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Pairing synths with Springsteen is a formula that's worked well for The Killers' frontman before, but here the Lanois production begins to grate amongst the constant God imagery and every third line being a cliché.- Filter
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Singer Aaron Beherns is gifted with the evocative falsetto wail of Freddie Mercury, but wastes it unnecessarily here with hurried urgency, producing words as quick as he can instead of savoring each and every note. [Winter 2008, p.92]- Filter
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The songs on Ten actually sound shockingly more insufferable this far out of their original grunge context. [Winter 2009, p.97]- Filter
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Quality though it could be, if only the vision wasn't so occluded.- Filter
- Posted Nov 29, 2012
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