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 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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    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    PlectrumElectrum
    He and band move through riffs, guitar solos and drum fills with a compact tightness that shouldn't surprise; Prince is a legendary taskmaster. The problem, though, is that half the songs, most obviously "White Caps," don't pop, don't scream for replay and should have landed on the cutting-room floor.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Art Official Age
    If you're looking for a freaky good time, Art Official is your ticket.... An exquisite Prince R&B album.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Offering: Live at Temple University
    You want immaculate structure and production, there are plenty of albums available. You want the sound of life, of a voice summoning all its powers to shake a room and be heard, this recording is waiting.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Syro
    The artist has presented an utterly human, mostly nonverbal defense of his aesthetic: atmospheric, occasionally funky and meandering instrumental electronic tones, lovingly crafted, with imaginative internal logics.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Partners
    Most of the dozen tracks on Partners-- which features duet partners such as Michael Bublé, Andrea Bocelli and the singer’s son, Jason Gould--offer no such vantage [of a whole other way of looking at [a] song].... Yet there is strong work here--four songs that live up to the singer's stated ambition.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Reasonable Amount of Trouble
    His songs have been revered and recorded by scores of A-list rock, folk, country and pop acts, but rarely have his own versions ever been surpassed.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller
    Fats Waller never sounded like this, but he sounds more alive than ever.
    • 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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Ryan Adams
    The handsome melodic hooks and sturdy roots-music grooves, some of which are downright Tom Petty-ish, provide a hard-won equilibrium in songs about searching for relief from unspecified ailments.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    My Everything
    What leaves an impression is Grande herself, deeply cheerful yet with guns blazing, an innocent newcomer no more.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Junto
    So much exuberance can be overwhelming when digested in a single sitting. Better to let the record seep in over a number of weeks.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Smokey & Friends
    If the all-star duets record is beginning to feel like a legacy-burnishing obligation, Robinson, 74, sidesteps that vibe on the breezy Smokey & Friends, a would-be museum piece with some real air in it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Golden Echo
    A remarkable chameleon, at various points Kimbra swings her voice to suggest Chaka Khan, Amy Winehouse, The xx's Romy Madley Croft and Janelle Monae, and weaves her tone through music thick with structural experimentation.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss
    This funny, convincing, unembarrassed collection proves she's no cartoon.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    They Want My Soul
    There's nothing cheap or flimsy about Soul. Each song seems constructed from the finest notes, honed to their perfect shapes.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Breeze: An Appreciation of J.J. Cale
    Eric Clapton calls his new album of J.J. Cale songs an appreciation rather than a tribute, and that word choice gets at the appealingly modest vibe of this record.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Beck Song Reader
    As with any such collection of disparate voices, some of these renditions disappoint, others are inspired.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    5 Seconds of Summer
    Hemmings and his bandmates match these frank admissions with music that’s equally straightforward.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Yes!
    Eventually all this mellow reflection begins to resemble a retreat rather than an advance.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    World Peace Is None of Your Business
    In reality, his strategy was in place from the beginning: to embody the qualities of a villain--self-pity, megalomania, a flair for exaggeration — while presenting himself as a hero.... And it's the same calculated theatricality that powers his latest lashings on World Peace Is None of Your Business.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Mandatory Fun
    Mandatory Fun is a stone cold masterpiece.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    1000 Forms of Fear
    1000 Forms of Fear benefits too from the singer’s squeaky, scratchy vocal tone and from ear-grabbing production touches by her creative partner, Greg Kurstin.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Paula
    The record is a failure, a virtual what-not-to-do guide for both songwriters and spurned lovers.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    High Life
    The team weaves electronic tones, human voice and hypnotic rhythms to create a beefy work designed for maximum volume.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Town Called Paradise
    This album is a purposeful move into Top 40 that misses the quirk of well written pop and the sonic inventions of EDM.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    X
    Well-crafted, generous and willing to lay it on thick when necessary, but fun to be around nonetheless.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    While(1<2)
    Deadmau5’s double-album leviathan While(1<2), however, makes room for many new moods while playing with his genre’s formulas.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ultraviolence
    It's a candlelit record, a 3 a.m. record. Turn it up loud and melt into the couch.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Stay Gold
    The group often sounds more derivative than it does inspired, and clumsy lyrics don't help.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    While You Were Sleeping
    In his determination to establish his own lane, though, James has let his once-strong songwriting sag.
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