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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    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    The Endless River
    The aimless fragments on The Endless River, on the other hand, are so excruciatingly dull (even by Pink Floyd’s often-dull standards) that the band’s name on the cover feels like a straight-up bait-and-switch.
    • 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.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    David Archuleta
    The record is larded with awkward modernist R&B, Christian semaphore ballads like 'You Can' and warm-milk mewling that makes David Cook, Archuleta's "Idol" foe, sound like Robert Plant.
    • 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.
    • 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
    • 55 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Based on a T.R.U. Story
    Contrasted with Lil Wayne's easy, seemingly effortless guest verse, 2 Chainz sounds like a rank amateur whose topics of choice -- strippers, money, drugs -- have been examined to death in hip-hop by others with a much more varied vocabulary.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Life In Cartoon Motion
    His music... exerts the allure of the most seductive pop, but does so with the calculation of a predator.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Wild Ones
    Wild Ones has two of Flo's top 40-obliterating recent singles, "Good Feeling" (in which he hijacks Avicii's "Le7els") and the title track....The rest is serviceable work for the clubland meat grinder.
    • 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.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Kris Allen
    Most of the material, though, tends toward a flavorless pop-rock sound that doesn't even do much to flatter Allen's appealingly rumpled vocals.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    The Circle
    The Circle shows off Bon Jovi's still-sharp knack for wedding blandly optimistic sentiments to predictably soaring choruses. Unfortunately, it's getting pretty hard to tell one song from the next.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Sounds from Nowheresville
    The mediocrity taints the entire record and makes one wonder how it all went so wrong.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Doll Domination
    Doll Domination is a series of signifiers to other, more interesting, moments in recent pop culture.
    • 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
    • 50 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Revival
    But where Jay-Z raps with style and elegance to spare, Eminem hits clunker after clunker on Revival, his clumsiest record to date. It’s not just the corny jokes and goofy puns, either, although those are plenty bad
    • 50 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    The New Game
    The album's gooey, mid-tempo grind at best evokes System of a Down stripped of ambition and eccentricity, and might elicit sympathy with whatever culprit is running around that no-stoplight town.
    • 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.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Paula
    The record is a failure, a virtual what-not-to-do guide for both songwriters and spurned lovers.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Moon Landing
    He does manage to out-Mumford and out-Sheeran his countrymen on the rustic single "Bonfire Heart" (ironically, co-written with super-pop penman Ryan Tedder). Whether you want to hear James Blunt plowing that field is a conversation between you and your god.
    • 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.
    • 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
    • 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.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Love?
    Coming from a star whose weekly "Idol" pronouncements emphasize the value of charisma, "Love?" definitely disappoints.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Authentic
    Authentic not only misses the mark, it doesn't even come close.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    I Am Me
    Her singing is not convincing in the least. [16 Oct 2005]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 42 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Scream
    The idea of Cornell's sex-god wail over Timbaland's mechanized funk is appealing. But Scream draws out the worst tendencies in both of them.
    • 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.
    • 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.
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