New York Magazine (Vulture)'s Scores

For 158 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 0% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 8.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 God's Son
Lowest review score: 10 18
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 96 out of 158
  2. Negative: 22 out of 158
158 music reviews
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Filthy Philly rapstress ropes in famous mates, but falls short of rap superstardom.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Either way, this latest effort is set to be interpreted more ways than the Qur'an and see him sat atop an almighty fence pushing anyone who hears it either side with reckless glee.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This is pure non-homogenised, heart-on-sleeve, downright meaningful music, the sort of thing The Wombats cry themselves to sleep over on a nightly basis. For that alone it’s worth a tenner of anybody’s money.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    His latest album, Hold Time, is as finely wrought and thoroughly affecting an indie effort as 2009 is likely to see.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The disc ultimately hangs together on mood; Price unfailingly accentuates the bright, shiny, and happy. This not only makes good pop sense, it provides an effective counterbalance to Flowers and his achy-breaky vocals.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Q-Tip's flow on his new disc remains mellow, freewheeling, and vaguely inspirational. But it doesn't feel relevant.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Though the album can’t really stand with the Pretenders first three, it approximates them pretty well, like a faux vintage T-shirt that’s faded just right.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There are no state-of-the-art flourishes (like Kanye West’s sped-up soul samples); he furnishes most of his own hooks, without the assistance of Auto-Tune, the now ubiquitous vocal effect favored by rappers who can’t really sing (Devin sings, and quite nicely too); and the only big-name rapper he invites is Snoop Dogg, with whom he shares some genuine stoner chemistry. Track after track (there are only twelve, and mercifully no skits), the beats land just so. And nowhere is he more confident than in his rhymes.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The whole record is about the band skillfully weaving in and out of dramatically different textures and arrangements; each song plays with several musical ideas, not just one or two.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It rewards that attention with small pleasures: guitar and organ playing off each other’s reverb, bass and drum dancing in and out of step, horns and vocals collapsing into a single bellow. In essence, it offers that luxuriant buzz that made rock and roll one of the great narcotics of the last half-century.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When in doubt, crank the amps. This is the philosophy behind R.E.M.’s new album, Accelerate, their best, and certainly their loudest, in years.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Badu has rejected the role of soul princess and chosen instead to embrace a raw, unhinged spirituality that separates her from the pack.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    If you give it the chance, though--and if you’re not already a member of the tribe, it takes perseverance--Bedlam sinks its fangs into you.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Put the last eight years of Williamsburg micro-genres in a blender— all that electroclash, disco rock, retro glam, and psych-folk—and you’ve got a sense of the charming mess that is this Connecticut-via-Brooklyn duo’s debut.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dirt Farmer is an iconic album, this year’s "Time Out of Mind" or "Freedom." Just give him a Grammy.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s their most accessible and coherent to date.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Packaged in big, bright doses of piano-pop, her expressions of puppy love are as irresistible as puppies themselves.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Their debut album, released in the U.S. this week, proves that the Brighton lasses aren't only well constructed, but sharp and tough all on their own.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Though his voice is strong and sincere throughout the album, most of the material has a certain karaoke-like vibe.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Although it lifts off with a flawless indie-pop opener and sounds somehow lively even at its most melancholy, the lovely new Weakerthans album disc is all about the art of settling in and telling a good, unhurried story.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Notice it now, or wait until people start hailing it as a lost classic in a decade's time.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Animal Collective has evolved; its songs continue to meander and digress, but the mania seems driven by a greater sense of purpose.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Per Vulture, the Curtis-shaming Graduation "has better songs waiting in the wings. Bonus: No Jamie Foxx!"
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The latest electro-folk offering from these Canadian twins is somehow cuter, catchier, and more heartache-y than their last disc.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Underneath all of those lush, gorgeous strings, [producer] Hogarth then layered the electronic beats, delays, fades, and distortions that lend the album its freshness and vitality.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Each and every hand clap and piano chord on their foot-stomping, flawless new album, now streaming on their label's Website, is obsessively placed.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Like The OC, Easy Tiger manages to be pleasurable without ever being interesting.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sky Blue Sky shows his restlessness as an artist, his need to keep moving - not always forward, but never merely standing still, and certainly not dipping into the back catalogue for an idea or two.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There is nothing tentative or unpolished about any of these songs.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What really makes Ghosthorse and Stillborn worthy of a jump for joy is CocoRosie’s transformation from self-conscious oddity into an actual songwriting force.