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
    • 75 Critic Score
    Born Free
    With a refreshing emphasis on music over outrageous persona, Kid Rock has earned himself another 15 minutes with this one. Or, what the heck? Let's make it 30.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    HITnRUN: Phase Two
    A proudly organic companion to the EDM-inflected "Phase One," Prince's latest album shows that he hasn't lost his interest in (or his knack for) the creeping funk and lush R&B balladry he was making in the early 1990s.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Party Rock
    The result is simple but effective: mindless fun that makes you wonder what's so great about having a mind anyway.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    As I Call You Down
    As pleasing as the melodies and execution are, it's hard to tell if the album has real sticking power--or if it merely passes through the system, appreciated but ultimately forgettable. Only time and more records will tell.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Hellbilly Deluxe II
    There is no instant hit of the "Living Dead Girl" variety, but across 11 songs, "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" is Zombie's most consistently tuneful record to date, without sacrificing the noise and industrial beats of the past.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Radioactive
    The record's too long by a third, but Yela's smartmouthed, serpentine delivery (and it's hard not to make Eminem comparisons when Shady executive-produced the record) keeps the thing screwed together.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Divide
    As calculating as Sheeran can seem here, he understands there’s a fine line between universal and generic, which is why he gives his songs the idiosyncratic touches they need to stand out.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Nothing
    As the title of its much-delayed fourth album intimates, there's Nothing left in the record bin for the Virginia Beach-bred trio to plunder, having previously dabbled with rock, pop, rap, funk, R&B and electro.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    MPLSound
    MPLSound might be the most pristine for what it ultimately lacks: the sense of real, lusty sin.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Finally Rich
    The 17-year-old Chicago thug offers infectious odes to nihilism and tirades against haters that are as simple-minded and catchy as they are brutal.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Let's Bottle Bohemia
    Too many of the songs seem undernourished. [3 Oct 2004]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Big
    "Big" is a nice return to form for Gray. Too bad it runs out of ideas before it runs out of tracks.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Abnormally Attracted To Sin
    A 17-song steam trunk of an album, the new collection strikes a canny balance between Victorian-inspired decadence, mythical pathos and arch camp.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Symphonicities
    Accompanied by London's Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Sting reimagines Roxanne as a lush Latin ballad and gives Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic a swelling Celtic thrust.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This Is What the Truth Feels Like
    If these Top 40 fixtures make the album feel in keeping with current radio pop, they don't crowd Stefani with unnecessary bells and whistles. Her singing--and, more important, what her singing is saying--is always front and center, which gives the music an intimate quality even at its most polished.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Am...Sasha Fierce
    She's not there yet, but the effort is fascinating, and hopefully she will keep on this path.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Atmosphere
    About half the record is orthodox Kaskade--clean-cut rave with a dreamy shimmer--that fans will devour, but which doesn’t move the genre much. But the other half is a laudable effort to broaden the palette for what big-tent EDM can do.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Music Speaks
    There are signs of individual life here.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Honkey Kong
    Honkey Kong retains an essential lightness that keeps the music on the right side of parody.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Suit
    In these moments of reflection, Nelly emerges as a serious songwriter who moves the mind as effectively as he does the body. [26 Sep 2004]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    R.O.O.T.S
    Flo Rida boasts an adroit double-timed flow, but his greatest achievement is his understanding of how to stay in the background, never overwhelming the electro-laced tracks.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    I Am the West
    On his ninth album, the independently released I Am the West, he retreats to self-satisfied taunts about his legendary status, the enervated state of the Left Coast, and his rivals, both real and imaginary.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Draw The Line
    On his eighth studio album, Gray reclaims and reinvigorates his territory with Draw the Line, a polished yet ragged collection of complex love and exasperation melodies.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Not Without A Fight
    Producer Mark Hoppus (of Blink-182) helps the band remove all the air from the music, but the effect isn't stifling, it's reassuring. With no leeway available, it's not possible for the train to come off the tracks. The result is adolescence reconfigured as a highlight reel.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Fork In The Road
    The outcome is more noteworthy for Young's stinging guitar work, passionate vocals and his powerhouse band's accompaniment than for finely crafted songs that add considerably to Young's estimable body of work.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Amputechture
    The punishing nature of the fusion furiosity is relieved by more soothing vocal sections. [12 Sep 2006]
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Audio Day Dream
    His singing on "Audio Day Dream" is fine; it gets the job done. Yet what arrests your ear are Lewis' ideas.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The R.E.D. Album
    The R.E.D. Album orbits around contradictions like that. It might be the most compelling portrait of confusion we'll hear from a rapper this year.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Black Panties
    So-so cuts like "Right Back" and "All the Way," a meandering duet with Kelly Rowland, give the impression that the singer might've padded the album in his determination to get it out in time to capitalize on the renown he's established this year. But then he'll bust out a steamy slow jam as gorgeous--and as generous in spirit--as "Crazy Sex."
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Break the Spell
    This is by-the-numbers arena rock, played with muscular competence by a relatively young band showing off its chops by executing successful formulas.
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