NOW Magazine's Scores

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For 2,812 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 The Life Of Pablo
Lowest review score: 20 Testify
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,287 out of 2812
  2. Mixed: 1,452 out of 2812
  3. Negative: 73 out of 2812
2812 music reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Magic
    Setting a song called 'Livin' In The Future' to the tune of 'Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out' indicates that Springsteen's sense of humour may be returning, but the fact that Miami Steve didn't tell him 'Girls In Their Summer Clothes' sounds a little too much like 'The Kids Are Alright' suggests it's not quite back to the good old days yet.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everything's Beautiful
    In a way, this could be Glasper's Black Radio Volume 3: The Davis Edition. However, positioning the album as a tribute runs counter to his forward-looking use of the material.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Personality (One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird)
    If only Steele could keep a lineup together for more than a few months and follow through with his original plan of working with producer Dave Fridmann, Personality might've risen above the level of ho-hum patchwork pastiche.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Single Mothers
    It’s a sad irony that just as Earle has hit his stylistic stride--beautiful, pedal-steel-soaked country and poppier soul--he’s writing fewer tracks that’ll floor you.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In the Mountain in the Cloud
    Despite interesting bits of psychedelic texture, the album floats around your consciousness without making much of an impression. It's pleasant, but not particularly memorable.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    What We Saw from the Cheap Seats
    It's the near-painful purity she conveys in the high notes that surprises most, especially on the mellower tunes.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Libra Scale
    Musically, Ne-Yo spends most of his time here worshipping the throne of Michael Jackson ballads, which suits his falsetto crooning quite well. However, it's the handful of upbeat techno-influenced speaker-thumpers that stand out most, revealing his potential to be a much more versatile artist.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mykki Blanco Presesnts C-Ore
    Surrounded by blunt-force catharsis and brandishing some clever, caustic wordplay (like rhyming Lil Boosie with Susan Lucci), Blanco manages to be a pure delight as a rapper, even if he isn't calling himself one.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Get Guilty
    This disc comes off like an early home demo for a mediocre New Pornographers recording before all the bright colours and drama get added.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Higher Power
    Turns out the relentless ferocity, while a riot live, ends up making the Dirty Nil more enjoyable in small doses on record.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    La Di Da Di
    The album would feel more complete if they’d included at least one nod to the warped pop music that made them famous.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Brute
    Her signature hollowed-out minimalism nicely suits the subject matter, sometimes rising in urgency before falling into a deceptive calm.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Paracosm
    The 80s funk references are more submerged under the washes of synthetic drones, and the songs even more pastoral than before. Still, there’s nothing here quite as immediately satisfying as Feel It All Around off his 2010 Life Of Leisure EP.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Demons: The Nomad Series, Vol. 2
    Sonically, Demons has a lot in common with Renmin Park, although this disc feels a bit more produced. It's a touching tribute, to be sure, but we wish they'd left a few more of the rough edges in this time.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Static
    While the songs are hella catchy and pleasant, a little more grit and sorrow would have bridged the emotional disconnect.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Car Alarm
    In the end, Car Alarm is likeable enough if you’re already a fan. Just don’t expect to die of excitement.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Information
    Without the bizarre lyrical invention and fuck-shit-up whimsy of his earlier work, Beck's attempts at party jams come off woefully overwrought and flat, making the darker bits interspersed throughout seem intriguing by default.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Grace/Confusion
    You don't always know what cosmic tunnel Memory Tapes will drag you through, but you can always expect a metamorphosis.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Evermore: The Art of Duality
    Despite two-thirds of the album taking risks by adding everything from saxophone to opera, the final handful of songs feel like filler. Still, Evermore: The Art Of Duality largely delivers.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lightning Bolt
    Mike McCready’s guitar solos mostly take a backseat to the band’s meaty rhythm section, and, sure, some of the 12 tracks are victims of awkward construction. But Lightning Bolt resonates, especially the band’s jarring (if kind of clichéd) conclusions.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    brand new eyes
    Williams leads the five-piece throughout this charged-up record that rarely comes up for air.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Welcome Oblivion
    It’s a nice, low-key respite from NIN’s angry catharsis, but 65 mid-tempo minutes with little variation (the sparse acoustics of How Long? aside) make it a slog.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Night Of The Furies
    It's all about throwback synth melodies, programmed beats and melodramatic bellowing about non-specific relationship trauma, sorta like Human League, Spandau Ballet or maybe the Associates.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Hazards Of Love
    The band tries out big, fuzzy, folksy blues riffs on tracks like 'The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid and The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing,' but the proggy result is unmemorable and middling.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Songs in the Dark
    A few tunes are forgettable (Baby Rocking Medley, Hobo's Lullaby), but for the most part the album is full of gorgeous harmonies and refreshingly sparse instrumentation.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    D.N.A.
    Grown-up, seductive and a little bit explicit (when it needs to be), it’s a small triumph for guys trying to get in touch with their emotions through the medium of R&B.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Build A Nation
    Bad Brains can still blast with ferocity, but the jarring changes in tone and tempo could prove more of a problem than the lo-fi production for many listeners.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Watching Movies with the Sound Off
    While the exceptional company he keeps (see appearance by Earl Sweatshirt and the elusive Jay Electronica) sometimes highlights his shortcomings as an emcee, Miller’s guests also push him to be better.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Couples
    Its darker, brooding electro, like the mesmerizing distortion-filled Round The Hairpin, represents a newer, grown-up force for the Sheffielders that’s even more seductive than lip gloss and vintage heels.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Whatever, Whenever
    When the punk, doo-wop, early R&B and psych influences come together, the high points are strong enough that you can easily forgive the lack of focus.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    8 Diagrams
    The album's dominant sound is dreary even by Wu standards: grey, bass-heavy beats for the eight living members' equally drab rhymes.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Beach House
    A solid debut, but only a hint of what's to come.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No, Virginia...
    Hopefully, the band will release new material soon, but No, Virginia is a good snack before the next meal.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Finding Forever
    If you can stomach the contrived slow jams and the sensitive soul-baring, there are a couple of decent joints produced by West.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rearrange Beds
    Rearrange Beds, the duo’s debut full-length, features the five EP tunes plus another five that aren’t as strong. While not bad in small doses, the disc has a cumulative grating effect if you listen from start to finish.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I'm Gay (I'm Happy)
    I'm Gay is a rebuke to the purists who complain he can't rap and that his out-there freestyles are basic and unintelligible.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Death Magic
    The vocals, which in the past did a lot with a little and felt incantatory, androgynous and liminal, now sound uncannily like Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, a pseudo-teenaged smirk behind the frown.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Moth
    Like many pop acts' full-lengths, this is an album of singles.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ventriloquizzing
    Emphasizing rhythm more than melody, the songs throb along on funky bass lines, repetitive drumbeats, spacey sci-fi synths and hushed, whispered vocals.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tired of Tomorrow
    There's no grand resolution on Tired Of Tomorrow, but you can't help but hope Palermo finds some peace in all the noise. That's what making noise is for.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Cannibal
    if her music, which sounds like it was created using a supercomputer analyzing months of market-research-driven algorithms determined by the texting and internet search habits of suburban females aged 12 to 18, sets out to be catchy, slick, radio junk food--mission accompli$hed.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tao of the Dead
    Mixed so its songs blend together, Tao is such a cohesive record that when the second track, Pure Radio Cosplay, is reprised midway through, it seems like the end of an intense musical detour rather than a simple replaying of the song.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Narrow Stairs
    Not the rock assault Gibbard thinks it is, but certainly more hard-hitting than ever.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The BQE
    If you love car culture, traffic, suburbs or Stevens’s lyrics, this might be where you turn off.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    4
    On 4, she's still missing a real sense of vulnerability but steps out from behind the club jams with beautifully nuanced mid-tempo production.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Velocifero
    Both are on point throughout, making Velocifero a solid album, maybe too solid. I wish they’d crack the mould a little.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Body Music
    At 14 tracks (19 on the deluxe), Body Music feels overlong for a debut, but she’s melodic enough to captivate even when Reid’s hissing minimalism and spastic beats start to feel warmed over.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Distant Relatives
    Nas isn't as passionate or well-informed about Africa's issues as he is about his own, a problem on an album that's supposed to be all about... Africa....Meanwhile, Marley dutifully toasts over the record's limp, rootsy production but really only wakes up for the harder beats, which are few and far between.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wolf's Law
    Subtlety isn't the band's forte, but they sure know how to make an ostensibly stripped-down rock song enormous.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Born In The Echoes
    A sense of mood or inner life is glimpsed. But by that point [the final third of the album], it just seems like an echo of past glories.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There's No Leaving Now
    His third album is likely to disappoint fans and critics listening for those big, emotional climaxes, but Matsson's career has been defined by his ability to find new ways to paint with a limited palette.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Herein Wild
    Except for the dissonant pep of Heaven, Rose’s careful vocals float among bittersweet synths for 37 minutes of dreamy Cure- and Bangles-evoking pop.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Better Day
    Best are her vocals – as strong, clear and distinct as ever – and the energy she infuses into the songs. If she's grown tired of her shtick, you'd never guess it.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Kidsticks
    Kidsticks's risk-taking, while not always on point, proves Orton capable of reinvention. She's still a voice worth listening to.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    FIDLAR
    It's certainly not revelatory, but it makes no such claims.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Another Fine Day
    Another Fine Day sounds less like a party platter made by boozing buddies than a desperate attempt by yesterday's alt-country stars to slap together tunes that wouldn't sound out of place between Journey and Fleetwood Mac on classic rock radio.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond
    The T-Bone Burnett-produced album admirably employs a nuanced approach and a consistent tone rather than using the opportunity to cash in on the film's young core audience.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Go Outside
    For the most part the newfound earnestness is balanced by quirky arrangements and Chris Connelly's unpolished yelp reminiscent of Destroyer's Dan Bejar.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Loyal
    The Polish-born, Brooklyn-based DJ, born Jakub Alexander, makes music that's as likely to induce sleep as a mild panic attack.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mala
    It isn’t his most groundbreaking work, but he’s earned the right to relax, and there are far worse albums you could spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Natural Selection
    When they let their experimental impulses coexist with their pop instincts, the results are strong enough to overshadow the occasional misstep.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Transfer of Energy (Feelings of Power)
    Only brief, melancholy melodies give relief from the oppressive darkness.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Resolution
    While the five-piece continue to write virtually the same song over and over again (hell, practically in the same key), there are new proggier and acoustic bits (Ghost Walking) on display.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living
    It's clear that Skinner has worked on his flow a lot. He sounds less loosely conversational and more bound to the rhythm.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Release The Stars
    The outlandish baroque-cubed excess here, from the warbling chorales to the bleating woodwinds, weighs down track after track after track after track.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    City Of Quartz
    It suffers from a lack of focus--some songs are classic indie pop, while others are experimental musings rife with strange samples--but it's a fine collection that displays Thorburn's versatility and commitment to writing a catchy synth line.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Congratulations
    None of the songs hit as hard as Kids or Electric Feel, but there's also no filler (which is more than we can say for OS). Instead, the band delivers a consistent if self-indulgent offering of oddball prog-pop.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    BlackenedWhite
    There's the occasional clever turn of phrase, but MellowHype's brand of vulgarity is subtler and less arresting than Tyler's.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Working On A Dream
    Springsteen has trouble leaving well enough alone. No matter how small the song idea, he whips it up into a sweeping epic with lavish choral accompaniment and blustery solos all building to some grand final flourish.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Olympia
    Despite a few tripped-out pop gems, the album is largely what you'd expect to hear after gazing into Moss's glassy eyes: a classic sound but not a classic record.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Big Echo
    Unfortunately, the band lacks Grizzly Bear’s songwriting chops. After that early-album peak, the tracks begin to sound like undercooked compositions coasting on bells and whistles.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Treatment
    The songs have cool, memorable hooks and great guitar textures, but an overarching lack of enthusiasm hurts even their strongest material.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    What For?
    It's not exactly adventurous, but he remains tough to pigeonhole and doesn't sound like he'll be slowing down any time soon.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Chemical Chords
    They’ve got the formula down now, so you can’t sweat the technique, but it would make for a more engaging spin if Stereolab could mess with the equation now and again.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hot Mess
    There’s only so much nudge-nudge, wink-wink you can take before you want to shove a sock in the dude’s mouth. On the bright side, they stand a good chance of scoring a few top-40 hits with this dreck.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Viva La Vida
    Viva La Vida starts off with promise for fans who felt that "X&Y" was a far cry from "A Rush Of Blood To The Head."... Unfortunately, the rest of the record fails to build on this.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Over Me
    It gets tiring trying to figure out what Lew is saying (mostly, her vocals are mixed a touch too low), but the themes are hinted at in her sober delivery.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Spirit If...
    It sounds very much like the disjointed collection of rickety epics about fucking and frustration you'd expect from a BSS disc.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    My Life II...The Journey Continues (Act 1)
    Her pain is less harrowing – she's older now and knows how to cope -– so instead of singing only for herself, she's doing it for her listeners, a noble goal but also dull and predictable.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hurricane
    Even when she strays into overwrought moodiness during the disc's trip-hoppy second half, her menacing omnipotence has a way of willing you onward.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    24/7
    This isn’t a summer jam. The Reykjavík natives’ seventh studio album is moody and minimal, with slow-building beats.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Love in the Future
    [The album] is not in the same league as his magnificent 2004 debut, Get Lifted. But Love In The Future, boasting production and writing credits by Kanye West, still has plenty of beautiful moments.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Goblin
    He clutches that control so tightly that the album has turned out insular and ill-conceived.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Artificial Fire
    This isn’t Mandell’s best album ("Thrill" holds that distinction), but it’s as strong as nearly anything else she’s done.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Adrian Younge Presents: Twelve Reasons to Die II
    What it lacks is an interesting emotional--and thus truly cinematic--dimension.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors
    The disparate guest list means the record lacks some cohesion, but Big Boi--ambitious, effusive and still a remarkably lithe rapper--holds it all together.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mojo
    Petty’s classic pop knack, breezy melodies and laid-back drawl take a back seat to Campbell’s meandering, jammy solos and the album’s overwhelmingly old-guy-blues sound.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blood Bank [EP]
    Initially off-putting due to the pitch-corrector’s close association with the grossest of gross pop, Woods slowly enchants with mesmerizing vocal layers that pay no mind to verse/chorus/verse conventions.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Negativity
    Songs are focused, multi-layered and crafted, sometimes even bringing Wilco’s more experimental moments to mind.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tha Carter V
    After the long wait it’s not a disappointing effort, but it’s all over the place.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Stoop
    Unfortunately, Coppola hasn’t got Winehouse’s writing or vocal chops and Pallin clearly lacks Ronson’s knowledge of hit song construction.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Stars and Satellites
    By sticking mostly to introspective songwriting, the quintet ignores the strongest tool in its arsenal. It's no surprise that the most memorable tunes are the few where they let their fingers fly.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Trap Lord
    Ferg has enough lyrical promise and personality to make him a legit trap player, if not, quite yet, a lord.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    WLIB AM: King Of The Wigflip
    The sick is far outweighed by the sloppy as the selection shifts from slo-mo chronic puffers to wobbly boozer bumps bracketed by two thugged-out rips by Guilty Simpson.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Miike Snow
    When they slip up, it’s due to stupid lyrics or mainstream tendencies (like the beginning of the first single, 'Burial'). But they do create winning synth moments on 'Song For No One' and 'In Search Of.'
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Yours To Keep
    Yours To Keep is kinda like an entire disc of that Lust For Life riff. Fun but a bit flat.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Heligoland
    When you listen to these gloomy trip-hop jams after their best work of the 90s, the results are underwhelming.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Normal Happiness
    It kind of sounds like classic AM radio interpreted by a very strange garage rock band.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jukebox
    Naturally, the interpretations go beyond mere homage as Marshall uses her mysterious Cat Power skills to channel the spirits of the singers who inspired her, with mixed results.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Travellers In Space And Time
    It lacks the lyrical wisdom and emotional insight we might expect from a band that's been around so long, but you have to admire their fearlessness about tackling such an out-of-character genre and their ability to keep penning such joyous melodies.
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