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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    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Born In The U.K.
    Wistful, vulnerable, not averse to facing the dark side, "Born in the UK" is welcome because it restores some focus and direction to the one thing Gough has never lacked: heart.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Press Play
    It certainly weaves a wide range of up-to-the-second pop styles into the mix: throwback '70s funkiness, dance music's two-step and drum 'n' bass, new-wave soul.... Still, he is no Prince.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rotten Apple
    A unifying moodiness holds the album together and succeeds in defining a regional New York City sound.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Information
    This is their third collaboration, but neither the casual, light-bodied "Mutations" nor the intimate "Sea Change" anticipated this kind of flowering. [24 Sep 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Boys And Girls In America
    Packed with forceful, nuanced songwriting that makes room for face-melting guitar riffery, lovelorn Midwestern teenagers and even, by Hold Steady standards, a bit of actual singing.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Mr. Brown
    Despite the style oozing throughout "Mr. Brown," the album's main -- and consistent -- shortcoming is that there seems to be something missing, lyrically and musically.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Friendly Fire
    At first it seems fairly plain, built around Lennon's thin voice (friendly, if lacking fire)....Yet there's more to the album, most explicitly in the spiked words -- troubled, uncertain, seeking security in an impermanent world. [24 Sep 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 52 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    20 Y.O.
    Dupri exits the album halfway through, leaving the final five songs almost entirely to Jam-Lewis-Jackson. She seems hopelessly drawn to their old-school settings of strings, real pianos and quiet-storm drama.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ta-Dah
    The bass lines bounce, the strings swirl and Jake Shears wields a killer falsetto.... But Shears has a dark side.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
    You can file it alongside another notable album about finding light in the darkness, "Electro-Shock Blues" by Eels.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Release Therapy
    This batch of songs is solid, but when Ludacris sticks to bombastic production and uses his inventive delivery styles, as on the boastful "Ultimate Satisfaction" and the thumping "Warning (Intro)" and "Grew Up a Screw Up," the results are gloriously enjoyable. [24 Sep 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Nashville
    At 66, Burke might have lost some vocal force and fullness, but his singing is agile, elastic and, most important, packed with sorrow and humor that pull you in no matter what the genre.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Empire
    It may not be fair to rag on the group for picking the wrong decade to rip off, but right now Kasabian's allegiance to the '90s sounds especially uninspired.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Captain & The Kid
    John's nimble piano work and supple singing dominate pretty-to-rollicking numbers that flow as effortlessly as the duo's musical/lyrical give-and-take. Yet the basic, smooth pop feels too genteel, with flashes of country, roadhouse rock and funk only hinting at John's legendary versatility. [18 Sep 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Dutchess
    The problem is the Duchess herself. Fergie exudes earthy charm, but can't keep up with the breakneck music. She forces emotion on the slower show-stoppers, and she's all cartoon kitten on the come-ons. [17 Sep 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 41 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Hoodstar
    If anything, Chingy has regressed since his debut, and his initially fresh style now sounds old.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    From This Moment On
    Many of the tracks suggest that she may have left some of the familiar Krall spunkiness back in the other room. [17 Sep 2006, p.E44]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Amputechture
    The punishing nature of the fusion furiosity is relieved by more soothing vocal sections. [12 Sep 2006]
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    So This Is Goodbye
    In the 1980s, artists such as Bronski Beat and David Sylvian used a similar sonic palette. But there's a distance to Greenspan's perfectly constructed grooves and well-modulated lyrics that falls somewhere between ironic and mournful.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Continuum
    [The] laid-back ballads are Mayer's forte; when he gets more worked up, as on the politically minded first single "Waiting on the World to Change," or an overeager version of Hendrix's "Axis: Bold as Love," his mood tightens up unpleasantly.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    FutureSex / LoveSounds
    "FutureSex/LoveSounds" isn't an easy listen at first. Its crazy layers meld together into a sticky bit of a mess, and the lyrics are mostly standard love stuff. But repeated listening helps the tunes unravel. [11 Sep 2006]
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Air Force
    Each Xiu Xiu song is a little hothouse where the forbidden grows, not free, but safe.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Face The Promise
    A sense that his musical vision hasn't stalled in 1978 might add some urgency. Some kind of retooling might also help with his larger problem: trying to do the same job with old equipment. [11 Sep 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 87 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Town And The City
    This is an album in the classic, pre-digital sense, in which the very sequence of songs suggests meaning and connection. [12 Sep 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    B'Day
    Some of the experiments don't click, but by reconfiguring and repurposing century-spanning components of black music, she's aligned herself more with Gnarls Barkley than Mary J. Blige, and if she's risking a drop-off in hits, she's gained an artistic high ground in return.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Modern Times
    This swinging, sometimes mournful, often tender set of 10 songs proves an easy album to, well, love. [25 Aug 2006]
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Game Theory
    "Game Theory" helps rescue a remarkably anemic hip-hop summer. [20 Aug 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Idlewild
    "Idlewild" leaves the ears longing for something. Coherence, basically. There's no sustaining mood, no clear message, only Benjamin and Patton's efforts to outdo whatever they came up with last.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Paris
    Like cotton candy, the food group she most resembles, what may seem like a mouthful for a moment is gone in the blink of an eye, leaving a sweet aftertaste and empty calories behind. [22 Aug 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 70 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Kelis Was Here
    Few artists could line up an ode to bondage right next to a love song so sweet that it could be played at a wedding or invoke Joan Jett right after sharing a cosmic trip with Cee-Lo. That's what Kelis does here. [20 Aug 2006]
    • Los Angeles Times
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