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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    • 60 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    TP.3 Reloaded
    Kelly's whole approach is familiar and threadbare. [3 Jul 2005]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 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
    • 47 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Concrete Rose
    For all her lovesick panting, pleading and purring, Ashanti is never emotionally engaged with the songs, which aren't worth the trouble anyway. [2 Jan 2005]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 50 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    A Little More Personal (Raw)
    For most of the album, she sounds like any other self-absorbed teen, yearning to be Alanis, Gwen and even Stevie Nicks. [6 Dec 2005]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 71 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Love, Angel, Music, Baby
    An exercise in pointless artifice. [23 Nov 2004]
    • 43 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    I Am Me
    Her singing is not convincing in the least. [16 Oct 2005]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 54 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Saints Of Los Angeles
    There is some of the old energy here, thanks in part to the presence of drummer Tommy Lee, who drives 'Down at the Whisky' and 'Chicks=Trouble' like somebody with a head full of stimulants. Yet the album lacks the tune-craft that once made vintage Crüe such hits as 'Dr. Feelgood' and 'Kickstart My Heart' so appealing.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Paula
    The record is a failure, a virtual what-not-to-do guide for both songwriters and spurned lovers.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Basic Instinct
    Basic Instinct offers enough android booty bass action to satisfy those who like their rhythms complicated but repetitive and hooks foreseeable from a mile away, but pleasant enough when they arrive.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Human
    On 'Human' you can hear Brandy striving (understandably) to express herself, yet the result rarely rises above diary-entry tedium.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    I'm Back! Family & Friends
    Three new tracks (including a dreamy take on the gospel standard "His Eye Is on the Sparrow") provide a glimmer of what Stone might accomplish if he ever rouses himself more fully.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Graffiti
    A handful of lovingly arranged power ballads were evidently designed to illuminate the singer's remorse over the Rihanna incident. Yet Brown doesn't seem up to the task of contrition.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Guilty Pleasure
    There are a few glimmers of hope; Tisdale has said her heroes are Pat Benatar and Kelly Clarkson. But to succeed in the crowded hallways of teen pop, she'll have to be as fearless a misfit as those two bad girls--and not feel guilty about it in the morning.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Britney Jean
    Much of Britney Jean devolves into an abyss of electro-neutral bangers produced by the reigning kings of danceable obviousness, Will.i.am and David Guetta.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Last Night
    Last Night feels like a cold academic exercise, as though Moby were compiling a collection of beats for future examination by an alien race curious about our after-hours ways.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Shakira
    Predictable and flavorless, these songs seem to realize a fear that unfairly gathered around Shakira in 2009 when her album "She Wolf" led some critics to suspect that the Colombian-born star was attempting to Americanize her sound (or had been coerced into doing so by forces in the music industry).
    • 59 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Title
    She doesn't give you the sense that she's thought through the opposing themes in her music: the individual versus society, modernity versus tradition, dependence versus independence. It all feels as unexamined as her use of certain vocal patterns typically associated with black singers.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    American Central Dust
    The album's sound is raw, but "raw," even in the Americana circles that Son Volt travels in, doesn't always equate with primal power. Sometimes it's just undercooked.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Every Man Should Know
    Connick's music has none of the attitude the singer often summons outside the studio.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    The Wanted [EP]
    Though saucier and sleeker than its peers, the Wanted isn't nearly as fun....But none of the guys has an especially charismatic--or even distinguishable--voice.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    In This Light & On This Evening
    Editors' ponderously titled third album is a disappointing reversion to form, with listless melodies, gloopy, synth-heavy arrangements and corny lyrics that might pass for sly goth-culture satire if Smith didn't deliver them with such self-serious bravado.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Plastic Beach
    Too many of these 16 hazy, half-crazy tracks sound like undercooked studio goofs recorded in the wee hours by Albarn and his impressive circle of celebrity pals.
    • 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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Shangri La
    The result isn't the clean-up job it might've been; Bugg, 19, still sings with a nasal edge that wouldn't last more than a round on "American Idol." Yet the songwriting here feels more evened-out, less appealingly pugnacious than it did last time.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    747
    If Chapman restores some of Lady Antebellum's polish, he still keeps the group moving too fast with zippy pop-country arrangements that rarely allow Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott to harmonize as sumptuously as they're able.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Dead Son Rising
    Dead Son Rising feels watery and without a center; it reinforces Numan's legacy, rather than his potential.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Love?
    Coming from a star whose weekly "Idol" pronouncements emphasize the value of charisma, "Love?" definitely disappoints.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Fallen Empires
    Yet for all the textural variety they provide, those welcome cameos rarely succeed in leavening Lightbody's pervasive gloom.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Stir The Blood
    Endicott had a hand in penning the excellent title track from Shakira's new album "She Wolf." Perhaps he can preserve some of that creative spark for his own band's next endeavor.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Pura Vida Conspiracy
    Pure Vida overwhelms as often as it inspires.
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