Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 1,599 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 62% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 35% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: 100 Chemtrails Over the Country Club
Lowest review score: 25 The New Game
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,361 out of 1599
  2. Mixed: 176 out of 1599
  3. Negative: 62 out of 1599
1599 music reviews
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith
    It rarely puts the original material in a new light or reveals much about songs that were already close to perfect.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Am Not a Human Being
    It's unclear whether the creative languor stems from the inherent commercial pressure of being the Young Money meal ticket or whether Wayne has exhausted his ideas after compressing a career's worth of songs into three years.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs Of Desire
    Hombre Lobo is much more effective when Everett keeps things one-dimensional, as in 'Tremendous Dynamite,' a deliciously fuzzy blues-punk rave-up in which he describes being "on the prowl for a restless night," and 'Beginner's Luck,' a jubilant ode to the boundlessness of new love.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Astronaut
    At a time when newer acts, from fringe to mainstream, are moving the band's old ideas forward, Duran Duran needs to do more than just mix in the blips and bleeps of contemporary dance music to prove it has something to contribute. [31 Oct 2004]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Unapologetic
    While the new Rihanna record may be at times sonically exciting, what resides beneath the new bass-heavy, Skrillex-inspired music is still a fast-food burger, one with a lot of extra sauce and some very disturbing ingredients.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Just Like You
    That spitfire spirit carries over into the most electrifying moments of Just Like You, a batch of tuff-girl tunes for the torn-fishnets set, but too much of it sounds impermanent, like so much Manic Panic rinsing down the drain.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Music For Cougars
    These days, of course, the documentary vibe of the band's earlier stuff has transformed into an air of escapism -- not for nothing is one track titled "When We Were Young." But that hardly detracts from the crafty throwaway pleasures at which Sugar Ray still excels; in fact, it actually provides a touch of sweetness that helps temper McGrath's innate sleaze factor.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Slash
    Team-ups with Ian Astbury ("Ghost"), Chris Cornell ("Promise") and Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale ("By the Sword") produce familiar sparks but die out quickly. And a ballad with Adam Levine of Maroon 5, "Gotten," aims for "November Rain" but ends up pretty soggy.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    This Addiction
    The album is a pointedly minimal production, though -- most tracks are simple guitar-bass-drum affairs with a few tasteful harmonies that put the surprisingly durable hooks up front.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Where Does This Door Go
    Where Does This Door Go feels like a once-promising OK Cupid date that's gone off the rails.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Songs of Innocence
    Don't expect a record as breathtaking as U2 at its best. Rather, this is average-grade stuff with a couple essential songs.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Every Man For Himself
    Hoobastank's newest album has more of the same, mingled with some energetic, inoffensive, mostly forgettable harder rocking tunes. [16 May 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Turn Me Loose
    Yet for all the sleek settings and the vocal firepower Ledisi deploys, Turn Me Loose doesn't really present an artistic persona any more memorable than the earnest traditionalist from "Lost & Found."
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Live Like You Were Dying
    McGraw's album leans heavily on the soap opera-ish tales that have brought him his biggest successes. [5 Sep 2004]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors
    In his quest to impress, Big Boi short-changes the street-level swagger that always kept his partner Andre 3000 here on Earth.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Free At Last
    Freeway's penchant for ham-handed hooks and emotionally flat attempts at introspection ('I Cry') and romance ('Take It to the Top') reveal, over the course of these 14 songs, an ultimate two-dimensionality.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 1 [Original Soundtrack]
    As with all of the installments, half are good, half aren't--all depending on your mood and tolerance for soft rock.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mudvayne
    Mudvayne has by and large returned to what it does best (or at least do frequently) on its new self-titled album.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Emotion & Commotion
    Imagine Phil Mickelson in a round of putt-putt and you'll get a sense of what's on the line for Beck's first studio album in seven years.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Great Escape Artist
    While the interplay remains incendiary, the textures freshly incandescent, there isn't much in the way of memorable choruses or hooks.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Under My Skin
    She's sounding as genre-bound in her way as the synthetic singers she was supposed to be a relief from.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shock Value II
    Many of the same vices that plagued the first installment of "Shock Value" keep the second edition sodden as well: Tim's precise, micromanaged beats usually outshine his random collection of vocal collaborators.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Peace Is the Mission
    The third studio album from Major Lazer, Diplo's project inspired by Jamaican dancehall music, features a few hot tracks and a few so tepid that we need reminders about what made Diplo interesting in the first place.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Grown & Sexy
    [His] mature eroticism is undone by overwrought production, eventually drowning every track in layers of instrumentation, vocals and other sonic drama. [31 Jul 2005]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    In A Perfect World...
    All that star power can leave little room in these futuristic R&B songs for Hilson, whose sturdy but unremarkable voice rarely transcends its role as a melody-delivery device.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    La Liberacion
    the atypical sincerity of La Liberacion suggests that something--whether the burdens of relentless sexiness or beating pop music at its own game too soon--still does.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    ...And Star Power
    ...And Star Power is scattered, often silly and mostly inconsequential.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
    It's like a series of beats in search of a firestarter. [3 Oct 2004]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Man of the Woods
    Expertly appointed but emotionally inert homage to the place that he says made him.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    8 Diagrams
    The sounds are largely tepid arrangements that fail to generate much excitement.
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