No Ripcord's Scores

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For 2,725 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 Island
Lowest review score: 0 Scream
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,898 out of 2725
  2. Mixed: 751 out of 2725
  3. Negative: 76 out of 2725
2725 music reviews
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    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Poison Season
    It’s a surprise to see him employ such an economy of language, but Bejar can still command your attention with his sharp, romantic one-liners. He’s setting the scene by making a visceral impression with characters that feel alive, engulfed in their indecisiveness, driven with a theatrical imagination that’s as restless as it’s ever been.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Abyss
    Despite the weak ending, Wolfe brings a chaotic, engulfing sound that makes this one of her heaviest works yet.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Georgia
    Perhaps there’s not that one killer single that will turn her into an instant sensation, and those are bound to emerge, but what she’s cultivating with Georgia holds more value: that of creating an essential body of work that is unaware of any imperfection, coming from a mind that’s overflowing with a glut of ideas.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sing Into My Mouth
    The downside is that both members of Team Beamwell are retreading well-worn paths that lead to nostalgic, rather than newfound, destinations.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Blade
    She knows what it is to crave whiskey, to lust after men, to flout the petty hypocrisy of small-town country life and then cry and ask Jesus for forgiveness. This time she wove this narrative of Southern womanhood into The Blade and, by forgoing judgment and flaunting all its incoherent complexities, made it universal.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Death Magic
    What always distinguished HEALTH was their ability to go off into a maelstrom of ominous disrepair, and losing sight of that leads its core sound to suffer regardless of whether they alter their approach.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Most Lamentable Tragedy
    The Monitor makes the listener feel unified with the band in their alienation. The Most Lamentable Tragedy presents an abstracted story as its emotional core, and it’s significantly harder to respond to that more distant lyrical perspective.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Wildheart
    Wildheart impresses in parts, and Miguel’s vocals are a thing to behold. For the most part, however, it’s a record that struggles to fully hold your attention.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Currents
    His synth work on this record is nothing short of remarkable, and his ability as a producer is further enhanced to a level at which he has no contemporaries. Parker is a once-in-a-generation talent, and this album is conclusive evidence of it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Calling Out
    Almost every track in Calling Out features a good sorting of conspicuous power chords provided by frontman Ezra Tenenbaum, a reminder that it’s not just about fidgeting with careful arpeggios.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Summertime '06
    Staples has so much to say in Summertime '06 that it’d be impossible to fully dissect in one listen, and his ingenious phrasing makes for a constantly amusing variety of vignettes. A record is only as good as the music that accompanies, though, and collaborative producer No I.D. delivers in spades and then some.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Drones
    Aside from a few crunching riffs and a smattering of neat melodies, there’s very little to recommend within Drones.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Platform
    Even if this record isn't perfect, it's clear that she will become an influential figure in high-brow electronic music.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Payola
    Payola picks off right where their last one left off while completely ignoring that the past decade even happened, which sounds like a harder feat then it might appear.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Feels Like
    Each track sounds as fresh and as punchy as the last, and it is instantly infectious.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lantern
    It’s refreshing to see an EDM producer balancing his more hedonistic impulses with genuine artistic ambitions, especially when it’s done with such a consistent energy and purpose.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
    The greater the risk, the greater the reward. And I can think of no better reward than this album.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Multi-Love
    Multi-Love demonstrates that the band isn’t beholden to a singular, lo-fi aesthetic. And for now, that’s more than enough.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In Colour
    In Colour is one of the best albums of 2015 and one of the best dance albums in recent memory, simultaneously a moving homage to London rave culture and a realization of the potential of one of the most exciting and original minds in music today.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Age Blues
    here’s not one tired moment, no obvious retreads to be heard. It’s a solid third act, making good on the promises of (many) tomorrows.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    English Graffiti
    It’s not to say that English Graffiti is musically incompetent, though their impulse to borrow eighties nostalgia is more akin to that of perusing your relative’s baby boomer collection instead of following your cool uncle’s guidance.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ivy Tripp
    It can sound almost laborious in its structural directness mixed with its lyrical opacity.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    After
    After isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly an album that sounds as strong and mysterious the first time and 10th time you listen to it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Peanut Butter
    It’s certainly one of the edgier twee recordings in recent years, almost an oxymoron in itself, one that falls short on its promise to channel its internal chaos with sprightly reminiscence.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dark Bird Is Home
    The songwriting here isn’t just adding superficial layers to Matsson’s previous sound, it’s a step forward in style. So while that may make the album his most pleasing first listen, the dulling of the edges of his previous work keep it from being one of the more memorable.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Wilder Mind
    The band begins to slog through the session--each song sounds like the sonic embodiment of utter indifference, only this time it’s accompanied by electric instruments.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Magic Whip
    Even with its faults, The Magic Whip is remarkably cohesive; not a single track is superfluous, flippant, or jarring.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    California Nights
    While California Nights doesn’t offer a more sophisticated version of Best Coast so much as a blander one, the heightened ambition of the songwriting and production could be an important step forward for the band.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress
    The album frequently descends into seemingly chaotic feedback and amp fuzz but the dirt is very much artfully, deliberately applied.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sprinter
    These are songs that mostly get to the heart of the matter with open-hearted directness, and in balancing the coarse with the refined there’s a clearer sense of what Scott wants to find even if she struggles to understand the conditions that affect her most deeply.
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