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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    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shaka Rock
    By and large, Shaka Rock is an unmistakable and confident move toward respectability for Jet. But it does make you wonder why it's so rough for a band to be young, dumb and full of bad come-ons.
    • 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."
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gloriana
    Gloriana's pop acumen (and virtuoso hair-care abilities) are a sure bet to fill arenas very soon, but they shouldn't forget to toss an occasional 'Landslide' in for the grizzled oldsters out there.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Battlefield
    The album lags in its second half with songs that feel half-baked and are not aided by clever production. Many were penned by Sparks, whose writing abilities are far from hopeless; they simply need more development.
    • 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.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Man's Thoughts
    With only a few exceptions, the material here doesn't live up to his performances, making the music easier to admire than to enjoy.
    • 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.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Relapse
    It's an impressively focused and clever work. But this music is not transcendent. It's still stuck in Marshall Mathers' muck, his fundamental mistrust of pleasure and love.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Back On My B.S.
    While Rhymes has always been more pop savvy than his peers, his eighth studio album feels compartmentalized at the expense of cohesion and clarity.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Outer South
    The 16 songs vary in tone, from grease-and-nicotine-stained jams to spit-shined ballads, but too little of it is adroit enough in construction or execution to stick in the craw.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Art Brut vs. Satan
    There's no denying that, three albums in, the winning novelty of Art Brut's tightly defined project is beginning to wear off.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Jigsaw
    Jigsaw tries to find common ground in a now-ubiquitous strain of electro-flavored club rap. It's sonically a good fit for her nimble and still undeniable flow, but the wheels come off whenever Sov's newfound earnestness undermines her insouciant appeal.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Elixer
    The problem is that not enough of Elixer sounds strong or fresh.
    • 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.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Love Hate And Then There's You
    Its latest album, Love Hate and Then There's You, is a stereotypical dilution of the Stooges/MC5 canon, there are a few unexpectedly tight tunes that hit as hard as, well, a sock in the eye.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Feel That Fire
    Trouble is, there's never been an ounce of menace in his boy-next-door vocals, so there's a credibility gap in those performances, no matter how catchy they are.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Intuition
    Intuition presents a sampler of contemporary R&B styles from producers including Timbaland, Just Blaze, Butter Beats and Calvo Da Gr8, giving the collection a disjointed air.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Circus
    The cartoonish sound compensates for Spears' lack of range and lung power by allowing her to ham it up.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Alone II: The Home Recordings
    Between this and the first "Alone" installment, there's enough gristle for the third-best Weezer album as yet unmade. Cuomo's Patron problems are beatable--it's the "Pork & Beans" that's really derailed him lately.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dark Horse
    The addition of superstar producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange to the mix ensures that everything here is as radio friendly and mainstream minded as heavy guitar rock gets.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Appeal To Reason
    One just wishes the band did it with a bit more grace and inventiveness than on Appeal to Reason, where straight-outta-the Nation song titles like 'Collapse (Post-Amerika)' and 'Re-education (Through Labor)' disguise some pretty conservative ideas about how modern mainstream punk should sound.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Black Butterfly
    Even in the heavier material on Black Butterfly these guys make more room for melody than they ever have before.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Illusion Of Progress
    One formula replaces another and another.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Untitled
    More often than not, though, Nas offers windy whines instead of innovative ideas.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Love Is Dead
    Although her songs occasionally feature the alto piano of Apple or the otherworldly trilling of Morissette or Björk, her voice can sound thin and inconsistent, giving the whole thing a somewhat derivative feel.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Forgiven
    The ho-hum tunes on Forgiven won't flip your wig, but the playing-- particularly in the three cuts featuring Dr. John on the keys--oozes bone-deep feeling throughout.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    E=MC2
    E=MC2 is a little better--the songwriting is more consistent, the feel a bit more natural--but it too lacks a ruling temperament or artistic vision.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mail On Sunday
    Other than the album's highlight, the resonant break-up song "Still Missin'," Mail on Sunday rarely delivers.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    8 Diagrams
    The sounds are largely tepid arrangements that fail to generate much excitement.
    • 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.
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