Hartford Courant's Scores

  • Music
For 517 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 62% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Sound Of Silver
Lowest review score: 20 Carry On
Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 12 out of 517
517 music reviews
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    It's a straight-up masterpiece, blending indie-rock attitude and clattering dance beats with lethal sardonic humor.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Promise demonstrates how wide-ranging Springsteen's musical interests and abilities were when he was 27.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The breadth of new realms both singers explore is one of many highlights of a collection that is nothing short of remarkable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Although "Queen Mary" was a strong showing, At Mount Zoomer--named for the band's recording space--is an instant classic, distancing itself from indie rock's skin-deep quirks on the way to something grander and more enduring.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Credit Condon with a vivid imagination to go with his intuitive songwriting ability, and embrace The Flying Club Cup as one of the best albums of 2007.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Jones’ powerful voice grows more compelling each time through, and every full, round bass note, horn blast and guitar fill the Dap-Kings play is, well, perfect.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Like many of Kanye's brainstorms, it's a crazy idea -- and like many of Kanye's crazy ideas, it works.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A second album as outstanding as this one is no nightmare; it's a dream come true.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Impressionistic sound painting El-P has long threatened - and finally delivered.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The tunes are among the most musically diverse the band has recorded so far, with buoyant piano pop undercut by an air of melancholy on the opening title track, glittering beds of synthesizers on "Sprawl II," churning, punk simplicity in the guitars on "Month of May" and a propulsive rhythm driving "Half Light II (No Celebration)," layers of vocal harmonies and moaning strings floating atop the relentless beat.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    "Hell Hath No Fury" has nearly redefined its genre; it takes the coke trade's dead eyes and empty hearts, found from penthouse to pavement, and turns them into music.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    If anything, the group's latest is another musical masterpiece from a band known for putting out musical masterpieces.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    "Friend and Foe" might be the first truly great record of 2007.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Lady Gaga has made a quintessential pop album with Born This Way.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ire Works is one of the best metal records released this year, full of brutal math-metal freakouts such as 'Fix Your Face' and 'Nong Eye Gong' and beautifully crafted, more melodic songs, including 'Black Bubblegum' and 'Dead as History.'
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's a smarmy affair, and there's a compelling interplay between his wild-eyed desperation and her cool, clean sheen of thumps and melodies.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Although it's stylistically diverse, the album feels coherent.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A vigorous cross-section of wallop and weepers that revels in its down-home personality.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Kentucky-bred singer builds an ideal showcase for her strengths on Sleepless Nights, unearthing a string of jewels from country's past with a passionate, pure revival of classics both familiar and rescued from obscurity.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    "Whaleheart" is sure to be one of the year's finest releases, which shouldn't come as news to anyone familiar with Callahan's singular, indelible songwriting.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dear Science finds the band pushing still further, using its big beats and graffiti textures in service of its most accessible songs to date.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Line on the Horizon is a considered and nuanced work with significant depth beneath the dense, sometimes thorny exterior. Getting there, though, requires some work.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pecknold and guitarist Skyler Skjelset have been writing teenage symphonies to God since they were actual teenagers, and that transcendent love of music shines through in their own songs.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There's no denying the passion and skill behind the group's fourth album, its most accessible collection yet.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Grohl often shows off his sky-high vocal range, award-winning ear for bridges and choruses and penchant for ending opuses with dark, pitch-perfect shrieks.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songs of Mass Destruction is a crop of solid, occasionally over-refined songs in which she consistently delivers lyrics with grand flourishes even as she lends them powerful intimacy.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Her third album, collects 11 new songs that document Edwards’ growth from singer who writes songs to bona fide songwriter who has embraced the art of subtlety.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's a loose, easy-rolling centerpiece to an album that shows, after several fussier efforts, how effectively the Decemberists can make use of open space in their music. The King is Dead--long live the king.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Swedish indie-pop singer shows a remarkably keen eye for detail, finding surprising moments of sweetness, poignancy, and humor in a variety of situations.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Featuring 10 originals and three covers (including an unlisted version of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'), the album is a showcase for Deschanel’s pipes and Ward’s clever musical arrangements.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's Sonic Youth's most compelling album in years.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With such tight songs and a loose but relatable theme, Shout Out Louds easily avoids a sophomore slump--the new album is, in fact, stronger than the first
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Accelerate serves notice that R.E.M. intends to stay that way.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    His singing is a string of raspy exhalations, a measured and folksy wrapper for the despondent musings on 'War Is Kind,' one of several tunes that assess the outside world through introspection.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is decidedly Muhly's vision, and though he plays only keyboards and a few other instruments here, he composed the entire album, which will go down in history as a cult classic for especially adventurous listeners.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hegarty wrote and helped to arrange all the songs on The Crying Light, and his writing bears the same pensive sensitivity as his singing on what amounts to a spellbinding album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Some connect better than others, and the album feels a little front-loaded, but it's still a treat to hear Malkmus get in touch with his inner guitar hero.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    He's alternately reflective, rueful and accusatory, and he combines all three on 'I'm Sorry Baby, But You Can't Stand in My Light Any More.'
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Few songwriters are capable of making misery sound so elegant, and even desirable.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The difference between mediocre and magnificent Morrissey records tends to be the music, and by that measure, Years of Refusal is the strongest of his three '00s comeback efforts.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On her fifth CD, Bare Bones, the Georgia native puts her stamp on all-new material, and weaves an alluring tapestry of sonic elegance, vocal character and lyrical bite.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The 58-year-old songsmith shifts gears and lets someone else produce for a change on Sex and Gasoline, but continues to hit the right notes and nerves on tunes with earthy roots charms bubbling over with smartly phrased discontent.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Sword has avoided the dreaded sophomore slump and delivered a CD that builds on its debut with heavier riffs and a better sense of dynamics.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Mountain pushes its songs further on In the Future, experimenting with druggy synthesizers and shifting musical dynamics on complex arrangements that veer from hazy psychedelia to brutal riffage.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The collection's 17-song canvas is sufficiently broad to hold the spirited, honky tonk-laced jaunt of the title track and the softly pulsating, organ-laced gospel of 'If Jesus Walked the World Today.'
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The only thing missing, really, is the visual context. That's a big piece of some of these songs--it is a TV show, after all--but even so, Flight of the Conchords the album is a thorough, and thoroughly entertaining, overview of Flight of the Conchords the band.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cave comes on strong and rejuvenated.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    "Friend Opportunity" is arguably Deerhoof's finest album so far, and it ensures the band remains among contemporary pop's most fascinating and forward-thinking artists.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Soft Airplane feels deeply odd and resoundingly alive.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Best of all, though, in these 14 piano-driven, acoustic settings is the pure, lustrous Thomas approach to everything from blues-drenched soul to chic jazz balladry.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Little Honey is easily Williams' least depressing album in years, which doesn't sound like much of a compliment until you consider that she sounds downright happy on some of these tunes for the first time in, well, maybe ever.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's the most focused and cohesive album Adams has released in years.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This album veers all over the place, but it's united by spotless production, eerie control and a confidence that's well deserved.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    "Sky Blue Sky" feels more collaborative than the past few Wilco records... The dozen tunes here reflect the more organic sound of a band playing in a room, with musicians turning ideas into grooves, which in turn become songs.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A moody, stark and hypnotically discomfiting assortment of ruminations.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Noel Gallagher comes up with a half-dozen tracks as good as the classic-rock epic 'The Turning,' or 'The Shock of the Lightning,' which swaggers as confidently as Oasis did a dozen years ago.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is grown-up rock, with an adult swagger, from one of today's most gifted songwriting bands.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is even more entertainingly disturbing, a rocking psycho-carnival ride (complete with swirling organ) that clearly nods to Cave's roots.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's a compelling record in the same way as Green Day's "American Idiot" was: Each shows a band pushing itself to grow, and succeeding far more than anyone could have reasonably expected.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    SlipKnot's fifth album finds the nine-piece alternative metal band at an unquestionable creative peak--but the effort may only further alienate some of its diehard, shred-metal fans.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The bare-bones production style of Lifeline is practically experimental by today's standards, and it's a testament to Harper that he and his band could record a stellar album using outdated technology in a fraction the time it took to create most of the albums currently on Billboard's Top 40.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wainwright's songs are tight, cohesive and show real emotion.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A charming collection of breezy, hook-filled pop songs.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Derek Trucks Band has produced its most commercially viable CD to date.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Scottish singer builds on the promise of her first album with Drastic Fantastic.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sure enough, we know these devils: they're the ones who make so many latter-day metal bands look like hopeless poseurs.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beauty & Crime, an artful array distinguished by classy sonic design and lyrical charm.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fans of Dulli and Lanegan should happily devour the Gutter Twins, but even better, newcomers are in for a smooth, memorable introduction to two of the darker characters in rock today.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The duo's third album uses its fidgety rhythms and broad palette of synth sounds to create music that's perhaps subtler and more emotionally resonant than any they could hope to fashion using "real" instruments.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Thanks to a certain screw-it attitude and massive, enveloping soundscapes, Glasvegas is a deeply engrossing and relentlessly catchy introduction to a group that's hyped enough in Britain to have already generated plenty of backlash.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fluency aside, with the first in what is hopefully a long line of releases, Fever Ray knocks down more walls than it puts up.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A full-length debut strong on deft, cheeky wordplay and blessedly free of the usual hip-hop clichés burdening her American counterparts.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These 12 songs are beautiful in their bucolic simplicity, and elegant, too, in their tidy melodies and warm flickers of emotion.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smile is one of the better heavy releases this year, and one of the best in the band's extensive catalog.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Parallel Play finds the quartet in fine form.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Folk and rock collide in happy fashion as McKenna celebrates the commonplace on the rugged title track, setting vocal grit alongside flowing organ and a punchy backbeat.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    He remains a singular performer, one who can't be overwhelmed by the usual Neptunes production. Williams' typically sparse 'Loose Wires' sounds simultaneously like Kenna's surefire smash--how could that Michael Jackson-inspired hook miss?--and the proof, thanks to its android-crooning verses, that the world will only see Kenna's face on his own, refreshingly distinctive, terms.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beck has shown an affinity for retro-leaning styles on his previous records, too, but he's never found a sound quite as consistent or compelling as the one Danger Mouse dials in here.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As always, her uniquely sooty voice gives her the feeling of an old soul while lending levity to her darker songs.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The jumble of languages and sounds gives La Radiolina the feel of a noisy, colorful street bazaar where there's chaotic beauty on the surface and a certain poetic logic that runs underneath.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The prettiest moments here come on less characteristic musings, such as the shifting perspective of 'Down Here Below.'
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A stunning return to form.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    They’re subtle, but loaded with the laid-bare emotion she spent so long learning to harness.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Williams finds himself on the respected electronic label Tigerbeat6, raising expectations even higher. He more than meets them, navigating ably through sugary tracks tempered with a dark streak.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Thursday gets away with being so gloomy by keeping the energy level sky-high and the sonic assault dense, making Common Existence more thrilling than seething.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The prog-rock elements that begin the disc and surface throughout help to make the familiar sound fresh.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The wistful tunes are the big draw here. They're masterworks of pop production, with Robyn's wispy voice weaving through spinning swirls of sugary synthesizers and hip-twitching beats that make it all but impossible to sit still.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Here, Eno, who wrote the music, opts for a more familiar sound, mixing electronic elements and acoustic guitars to create cottony, unobtrusive pop songs.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An album so confident in its experimental spirit that its eclecticism seems nothing short of captivating, even though its charms are subtle enough to require a little time before they become apparent.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These 13 tunes unfold at less of a breakneck pace than some of the band's earlier songs, but the musicians are as tight and the songwriting as strong as on anything the group has released.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Swift makes good on his promise with 10 soulful new songs loaded with heart and smarts.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Less conceptual and experimental than its predecessor, it's a moody album, loaded with dark imagery and moments of torturous self-doubt.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No one does puzzle-pop quite like the Fiery Furnaces, and despite the multi-genre pileups and lofty literary pretension, when they get it right it's enough to forgive them for when they get it wrong.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The album is loaded with arresting musical touches.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Chicago quartet has been making this kind of music since the '90s, and its eighth album is much in the spirit of past releases.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    These 11 songs comprise an ambitious song cycle, and the songwriting on "Neon Bible" is stronger and more focused than it was on "Funeral."
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The 30-year-old San Diegan makes another foray into sonic cross-pollination with heavy doses of polish and free-flowing energy on his third full-length studio album.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Like much of Diamond's canon, these songs are rich with melodramatic flare-ups.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Whether rollicking through "St. James Infirmary" or reflecting on "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," Wilson is in top-form, always sounding quite loverly.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With so many stylistic shifts, there's no easy description for the kind of album My Morning Jacket has created, so let's leave it at this: Evil Urges is the sound of a great band that's only getting better.