PopMatters' Scores
- TV
- Music
For 11,071 reviews, this publication has graded:
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43% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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53% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.9 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 69
Highest review score: | Desire, I Want To Turn into You | |
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Lowest review score: | Travistan |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 7,414 out of 11071
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Mixed: 3,399 out of 11071
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Negative: 258 out of 11071
11071
music
reviews
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- Critic Score
The bonus CD makes it alarmingly clear that the Pumpkins could have assembled another cracking album from the Siamese Dream castoffs before embarking on the road to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995)...The new editions of Gish and Siamese Dream (especially Siamese Dream, which handily outclasses its companion release in all areas) are sumptuous reminders of the heights the group once attained back when it had everything to prove and nothing to lose.- PopMatters
- Posted Dec 14, 2011
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It's heartfelt. It's dark. It's intricate but immediate, rocking but lush. It does all those things at once, and it does them better than most artists could hope to do any one of them.- PopMatters
- Posted Mar 24, 2011
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This is material that has, and will continue to stand the test of time.- PopMatters
- Posted Sep 2, 2015
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This is genre-defying music, but anyone with an interest in hearing a blueprint for trip hop or a master class in the depiction of desire in pop music, should be sure to listen to this mysterious, timeless, contradictory album.- PopMatters
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This release reorients us around familiar material, but outdoes all previously existing versions in the scope of its execution and comparative completeness.- PopMatters
- Posted Dec 16, 2011
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The album [El Corazon], and by relation the whole Warner Bros Years boxset, is a confident announcement not of return but of complete rejuvenation.- PopMatters
- Posted Sep 5, 2013
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This box set illuminates the complicated, tangled bits of history and ideology and personality that connect that man to that myth. Those threads are frayed, tough to follow at times, but strong.- PopMatters
- Posted Oct 29, 2013
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- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 21, 2017
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- Critic Score
Rough and Rowdy Ways has little, if any, rock 'n' roll, but the sneer remains. Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits might vaguely peek in a little. Dylan has long lost interest in conforming to expectations, so it's no surprise that on a new record, he either satisfies all of them or none of them. He sounds like Dylan, whatever that is.- PopMatters
- Posted Jun 22, 2020
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Black Messiah is less throwback funk and more a vision of the possibilities of modern post-funk, although it’s clearly rooted in soul and funk traditions.- PopMatters
- Posted Dec 24, 2014
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What makes Wildflowers & All the Rest worth perusing is the home recordings. As the record takes shape in Petty's home studio, we understand how Petty managed to make Wildflowers so uniquely devastating.- PopMatters
- Posted Oct 28, 2020
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Don’t be surprised if this box set doesn’t drastically change your preconceived notions of what this already-iconic album is about, but for those who think the Gallagher’s never got better than this, consider this the only Oasis box set you will ever need.- PopMatters
- Posted May 23, 2014
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Long segments don't even feature Beyoncé, which can be trying on the album but in the film are understood as the accompaniment to dance routines and skits.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 12, 2021
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This is not for the casual Elvis fan. The best stuff, his Sun 45s, have been available on CDs for decades. This is for those who want to hear the mistakes, the experiments, and the growth of a young singer defining his sound. Many of the recordings here are rough and partial. They have archival more than aesthetic value.- PopMatters
- Posted Jul 31, 2017
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Skeleton Tree offers little solace, but as the Bad Seeds’ 16th album, it gives the listener an experience that is unshakable.- PopMatters
- Posted Sep 15, 2016
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Exciting and stellar... What a way to show the kids both in 1992 and in 2012 how it's done, Bob.- PopMatters
- Posted Aug 3, 2012
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Cryptic and daunting, "Dopesmoker" is the quintessential stoner metal track. Sixteen years since its birth, it remains unsurpassed.- PopMatters
- Posted Jul 11, 2012
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In their catalog, though, no album stands out more than Satan Is Real, their 1959 masterpiece that outlines and encapsulates the fragile fine lines of good versus evil, and spirituality versus the mundane.- PopMatters
- Posted Feb 14, 2012
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The Promise hits a ceiling just below what you'd call essential listening, but it's still more than just a fan-only release. These 22 songs show a band at the height of their powers stretching out and trying new things, indulging in their musical loves to bright and catchy results.- PopMatters
- Posted Dec 8, 2010
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This final record shows Touré still brimming with vitality. Savane is his wonderful farewell gift.- PopMatters
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Whether or not this is the best Kanye West album, this may be the one he's remembered most for, the one that may finally trump the version of him we cringe at on the red carpet.- PopMatters
- Posted Dec 7, 2010
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Icky Mettle might have a reputation for containing a one-trick pony and the band's singular best known moment in the form of "Web in Front," but there's a wealth of material to really dig into and enjoy.- PopMatters
- Posted Aug 19, 2011
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It's these [early takes] stripped-down performances that hint at what this album could have been, without the expansive and expensive production. ... If you've listened to Steve Earle, the Jayhawks, and Wilco recently, you'll be ready for it. The world might finally catch up with Gene Clark – it only took 45 years.- PopMatters
- Posted Nov 8, 2019
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He may be nearly half a century gone, but the music of Otis Redding remains in 2016 as thrillingly vital and perfect as the moment in which the words first left his lips. Live at the Whiskey a Go Go is a testament to his brilliance and status as the King of Soul and is thus, in a word, essential.- PopMatters
- Posted Nov 30, 2016
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MOTOMAMI is experimental in a way that does not sacrifice function over form. These songs have a pop purpose: they are fragmented, but they are laid in catchy hooks and enthralling beats. MOTOMAMI doesn’t fail to entertain.- PopMatters
- Posted May 26, 2022
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Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is one of these future classics. ... Engaging at every turn and carefully calibrated to its point of view, it represents art pop hitting yet another dizzy apex.- PopMatters
- Posted Feb 13, 2023
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The problem with Madvillainy, if it can even be termed a problem, is that Doom and Madlib just have too many ideas.- PopMatters
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Commemorative repackage or not, Lifes Rich Pageant is a must-listen rock record that is too often overshadowed by more chatted-about releases.- PopMatters
- Posted Jul 15, 2011
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A Crow Looked at Me is a masterpiece in the manner of A Grief Observed and “She Will Find What is Lost”. All of these works create a special communion between creator and observer, artistic experiences that join individual circumstances of loss with whatever the listener/reader/viewer brings to the work.- PopMatters
- Posted Mar 20, 2017
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This is vintage neo-soul and future rap hand in hand; a soulful sanctuary for those turned off by the austerity of mainstream mumble rap. Noname stands front and centre of the movement, existing in the same historical moment as Kendrick Lamar, Toni Morrison and Nina Simone; sincerely engaged with social realities--redefining the contours of rhyme.- PopMatters
- Posted Sep 17, 2018
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