Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 1,598 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 Dear Science,
Lowest review score: 25 The New Game
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,360 out of 1598
  2. Mixed: 176 out of 1598
  3. Negative: 62 out of 1598
1598 music reviews
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Love Life
    She offers grown-up R&B-soul at its finest.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Drones
    Unfortunately, Muse's efforts can barely get off the ground and wouldn't survive a war against a fly swatter.
    • 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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Republic
    Tthe 15 pieces within hum with oddly soothing tones and rhythms, like New Age music swimming through mystical Roger Dean-esque topographic oceans.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    At.Long.Last.A$AP
    Raw, woozy, profoundly psychedelic and often brilliant, Rocky's second studio album is awash with hallucinogenic texture.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Colour
    Jamie xx proves adept at exploring the intersection of hip hop, Jamaican dub music, strange New York post-disco, British grime music and gritty new-era rhythm and blues.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs By Karen Dalton
    Some of these lines are so well-crafted that they're tough to bear.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Touch Down 2 Cause Hell
    Boosie might not be at their [Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye] caliber yet, but for this moment in American life and hip-hop, he's as visceral a voice as we're going to get.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Fun Rises, the Fun Sets
    Rich with echoed effects and a rolling momentum that hits heavy on the first beat, the 14 tracks showcase an inspired artist who has yet to make a commercial impact equal to his skills.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ratchet
    Shamir's marriage of club-pop and dance music is striking, if hardly revolutionary on the surface. But the devil-may-care ease with which he plays with his sexuality and dances through the drama pushes the record into the sublime.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Platform
    On her second album she manages to sound both futuristic and steeped in history.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bush
    Even though Bush looks backward, it proves he is once again ahead of his time.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    California Nights
    The duo of Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno move further toward mastering the [beach music] vibe on their third studio album, California Nights. They do so not by celebrating carefree romps along Pacific Coast Highway, though, but by inverting the Beach Boys' fun-fun-fun narrative.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Beat the Champ
    Throughout Beat the Champ, Darnielle and his band exude confidence and a sense of purpose.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Short Movie
    Short Movie is no epic, but it's the most replayable LP of Marling's career.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
    Incisive, cutting and verbally dexterous, if a little overwhelming in a single sitting, Barnett's best new songs — "Pedestrian at Best," "Depreston" and "Debbie Downer" among them--inject memorable heft into timeless rock terrain formerly explored by Polly Jean Harvey, young and angry Elvis Costello, Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We Fall
    Other appearances by Sampha, in the spacey “A Kiss Goodbye,” and Rufus Wainwright, in the stately “Little Ballerina,” bring out additional qualities in the music even as they advance Haynie’s love-gone-wrong narrative.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    I Don't Like Shit: I Don't Go Outside
    Within these sparse, Rothko-esque works the artist dedicates deep, unflinching energy to documenting and hopefully exorcising his woes (or at least understanding them), delivering lines with wondrous cadence, zipping with a sing-song musicality that illuminates what surrounds it.
    • 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.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    To Pimp A Butterfly
    This record is so expansive that it's tough to wrestle into shape, even as it overflows with wit, smarts and a masterful skill of the language and phrasing.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rebel Heart
    Rebel Heart, like its creator, pushes through the pain and, more often than not, lands solidly and with great grace on its feet.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Fan of a Fan: The Album
    Overwrought with rap cliches, Fan of a Fan is a formulaic heaping of bouncy bangers primed for the strip clubs that likely inspired it. There isn't much here, besides expletive-filled musings on sex, drugs, cars, money and dangerous misogyny.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Mono
    His songs are lyrically simple yet emotionally and sonically resonant enough to envision listeners being drawn in even if they don't know the language.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fifty Shades of Grey [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    At 16 tracks, though, Fifty Shades of Grey is a bit of a slog, with too many dreary midtempo numbers--by Sia, Laura Welsh and Skylar Grey--that only feel more glazed (and less enticing) the longer you listen.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    If You're Reading This It's Too Late [Mixtape]
    The 17 tracks read like a fed-up farewell note penned in Drake's typically introspective, first-person style. It's so fresh the ink's still wet: bracingly honest and filled with observations about the darkness just outside the circle of the spotlight.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Vestiges & Claws
    Vestiges & Claws seldom seems cloying. Mostly, it sidesteps the mush factor to land on solid ground.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Smoke + Mirrors
    Smoke + Mirrors puts across strong feelings, but it refuses to reveal how they work.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Shadows in the Night
    His voice raw, pitchy and quivering, Dylan croons his way through elegantly crafted songs with seeming disinterest in flawless takes or perfect pitch. Yet it's profound, thematically devastating and so well curated as to feel essential.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Vulnicura
    Vulnicura is a serious, heavy journey through a rough ordeal, a work certainly too deep to fully absorb so quickly after its release. Like many of her recent records, it's not toe-tapping beat-based music. But fans like myself will find much to love as we explore its many peaks and valleys.
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