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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    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Be As You Are (Songs From An Old Blue Chair)
    Not surprisingly, the music is heavy on acoustic guitars and steel drums, light on powerhouse percussion, making for a musical tour as relaxing as a ride in a hammock strung between two palm trees. And about as uneventful. [23 Jan 2005]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 1 [Original Soundtrack]
    As with all of the installments, half are good, half aren't--all depending on your mood and tolerance for soft rock.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Hunger Games: Catching Fire [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    Picked by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, the second volume has a lot of good makeout songs and just as many calls for courage.
    • 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.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Rehearsing My Choir
    There might be a compelling story in there, but when the Furnaces' songs come in to elaborate on her tales... it's all but impossible to figure out what's going on. [6 Nov 2005]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Nightmare
    With imagery haunted by death and lyrical allusions to alienation and angst, Avenged Sevenfold's fifth full-length is almost impossible to appreciate unless you fit the prime demographic: tormented teenage boys.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kisses on the Bottom
    Gentle on the ears and soft on the heart, Kisses might be of no greater or lesser consequence than an easygoing golf outing among friends or a weekend spent digging a garden near the back fence, but its pleasures, though small and sleepy, can be gratifying.
    • 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.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    ...And Star Power
    ...And Star Power is scattered, often silly and mostly inconsequential.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Justice
    With 16 tracks in a wide variety of styles and moods, Bieber’s centerless sixth studio album is noisy and grab-baggy in a way that once was typical for him (and other major pop acts) yet now registers as shallow and unsatisfying.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Emotional Traffic
    Emotional Traffic isn't dramatically better, worse or all that different from what he's been doing since the beginning.
    • 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.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Yes!
    Eventually all this mellow reflection begins to resemble a retreat rather than an advance.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    PlectrumElectrum
    He and band move through riffs, guitar solos and drum fills with a compact tightness that shouldn't surprise; Prince is a legendary taskmaster. The problem, though, is that half the songs, most obviously "White Caps," don't pop, don't scream for replay and should have landed on the cutting-room floor.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Unapologetic
    While the new Rihanna record may be at times sonically exciting, what resides beneath the new bass-heavy, Skrillex-inspired music is still a fast-food burger, one with a lot of extra sauce and some very disturbing ingredients.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Destroyed
    All the songs are encased behind such stylish glass that it's hard to feel much of anything while listening to Destroyed, much less identification with the plight of the nomadic musician.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Live Like You Were Dying
    McGraw's album leans heavily on the soap opera-ish tales that have brought him his biggest successes. [5 Sep 2004]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz
    This album is not very good--and what makes it even worse is that it’s by Miley Cyrus.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
    The result is a disjointed, artistically confused release that's not only way too long but also doesn't really ring true as an "album" at all, at least if your definition is a collection of new songs with a central premise or statement that one listens to from start to finish.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Smoke + Mirrors
    Smoke + Mirrors puts across strong feelings, but it refuses to reveal how they work.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Buffet
    Overstuffed as it is undercooked.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Out Of Ashes
    As a rock star side project, though, Dead by Sunrise has an unlikely fault--it's not nearly indulgent enough.
    • 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.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    LP1
    The result, surprisingly, is Stone's most conventional record yet: handsome soul singing, sturdy blues-rock arrangements, lyrics about refusing to cry oneself to sleep.
    • 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.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    La Liberacion
    the atypical sincerity of La Liberacion suggests that something--whether the burdens of relentless sexiness or beating pop music at its own game too soon--still does.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    American Tragedy
    The downside is that along with heart and brains, Hollywood Undead has filtered out any sense of humor from its music, which makes American Tragedy virtually impossible to listen to for longer than a few songs at a time.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Blurred Lines
    Blurred Lines is a celebration of plasticine funk, warbly bass and plump booties.... Just as often, though, Thicke and his producers, which include himself and collaborators Pro J, Dr. Luke and Timbaland, dip from the cheesier realms of '70s pop.
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