Pretty Much Amazing's Scores
- Music
For 761 reviews, this publication has graded:
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59% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.6 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: | The Life Of Pablo | |
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Lowest review score: | Xscape |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 582 out of 761
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Mixed: 156 out of 761
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Negative: 23 out of 761
761
music
reviews
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- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Atmospherically, Barragán falls to a part of the spectrum Blonde Redhead have never found themselves on before, but half of the songs here feel like placeholders for ideas that haven’t been fully excavated.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 2, 2014
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Unfortunately, Night Time, My Time goes awry at “Omanko,” a grave misstep that verges on parody. From there on out, the record’s spotty.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 30, 2013
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Add production issues that have marred the bulk of their discography to the lack of tune and we have something that never lifts off: everything sounds mixed at the same level, resulting in mush.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 18, 2016
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Teeth Dreams is nowhere near the best Hold Steady album, but it shows the band aging in a direction that fills us with… hope? Perhaps that’s all we can ask for.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 4, 2014
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New album Hot Dreams still struggles to find a unique vantage point on its assembly of vintage sounds and gothic vibes, but fans will be more than satisfied.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 4, 2014
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The first product from Crystal Castles 2.0 is a mixed bag of nostalgia, proficiency, and carefully staged continuity.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Aug 22, 2016
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- Critic Score
Overall, In Cold Blood is a pleasant listen in small doses, functioning better in manageable chunks than as a whole forty-minute work.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 23, 2014
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This record is diet U2. Its pop-rock disguised as Important Rock and the disguise is transparent. “Blackout” and “You’re The Best Thing About Me” are the chief offenders.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Dec 1, 2017
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At its best, Rebel Heart has an ease, and a long absent softness, qualities sorely missed since her last masterwork Music. For every godawful moment, which come and go with a sad frequency on Rebel Heart, there are glimmers of virtuosity buried within the overworked mess.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 2, 2015
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The density of Tetsuo & Youth just could have benefitted from even the slightest dose of levity to throw its rhetoric and messages into sharper relief.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 10, 2015
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The supple dynamic shadings of earlier Projectors material is gone; everything’s annoyingly crisp, with lots of things at the front of the mix that shouldn’t be and Longstreth’s pitch-shifted voice running near-constantly throughout.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 27, 2017
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Haiku From Zero has none of its strength in songs or clarity of goal. The electro-funk mixed with the alternative dance and light tropicalia percussion ends up tasting like pizza and pie and popsicles all at the same time. It isn’t that this record is bad, its just meh.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 27, 2017
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It isn’t so much that this record is weak as it is well trodden, and the recipe is out.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jan 3, 2017
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Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward continue to prove She & Him is more than mere novelty. Now we just need some richness and depth.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 7, 2013
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- Critic Score
Banks’ debut, sometimes promising and even wonderful, could have been revelatory.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 8, 2014
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When every song is short and recorded in the same minimalistic style, it often feels like just when you’re starting to get into a song, you’re immediately whisked away to another idea, to another moment that should have been spent finishing that first thought that now will never be finished.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 17, 2014
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Yes, Views is both overlong and underwhelming. But there’s a glimmer of something more poignant beneath its bloated surface.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 6, 2016
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- Critic Score
On Naomi, the Cave Singers don’t really fail at anything; however, save for a couple of moments, they don’t offer up anything all that memorable either.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 4, 2013
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It’s just a quick way to get to what’s relevant about them, an I.V. drip of catchy tunes from a time when your emotions were still raw and tender.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Nov 14, 2013
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- Critic Score
Despite the glorious melodies hidden within so many of these tracks, like the opening duo of “Name for You” and “Painting a Hole”, huge potential is undermined by ham-fisted executions and depths you could wade through.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 13, 2017
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- Critic Score
In finding their way back to what works, it too often sounds rehashed to make it a true return to form the band has been yearning to find.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 6, 2014
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The sparks of great art are there, but the brain behind the creation lays dormant. Time will tell where Domo goes, and honestly Genesis isn't a bad beginning.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 28, 2016
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The art-rock band’s third LP Infinite House combines tentative dips into R&B and soul with a firm foundation in jittery, spindly, angular NYC rock, resulting in pop songs with a deliberately nervous, ungainly, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feel to them.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 13, 2015
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- Posted May 12, 2015
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On Oczy Mlody they play out like a teenager trying to write a paper while he is high. The lyrics range from vaguely inspiring to cringe inducing, but just like their underrated At War With the Mystics, the record finishes with three strong tracks in a row.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jan 17, 2017
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As a mixtape, I understand why Campaign sounds so derivative, but still I wish Griffin had pushed a bit further in terms of musical experimentation.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 30, 2016
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The aquatic theme of the album is appropriate and in line with the atmosphere Lennox’s quirky, gentle guitar-plucking consistently evokes. But this, nor the occasional flashes of beauty throughout the album, are enough to recommend Buoys’ unremarkable lonely beach music.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 11, 2019
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On Wonderful Wonderful, there are glimpses of that ambition on an otherwise routine album from a top-notch band on autopilot. But if the Killers want to capture the moment like they did a decade ago, they’ll have to want it more.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 25, 2017
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A record this nondescript’s just detracting from what we could be listening to instead.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jun 25, 2018
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...Like Clockwork is a droning, incoherent endeavor, and it simply doesn’t reward the attention it’s asking for.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jun 3, 2013
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The main pitfall of this record is its pacing. Bob’s best moments are lightning fast, like the 28 tracks in 41 minutes Alien Lanes. By contrast, this record is 32 tracks in 71 minutes. Its top moments are when it is moving the fastest.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 6, 2017
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There’s just too many wasted opportunities, like the peculiar absence of Zaytoven (would it not have been nice to hear Thugger over Zay’s keys?) and Metro Boomin (who has produced beats for both); the usually reliable Mike Will Made It hands in a severely underutilized vocal sample on “Mink Flow” and collects his paycheck.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jan 2, 2018
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- Critic Score
Born Under Saturn is only intermittently gripping. Certain tracks feel heavily procedural and oddly joyless given the album’s lighthearted tone.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 7, 2015
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Jack White missed, but in the best possible way. As weak as this record is, its extremely entertaining.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 23, 2018
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It still sounds like The Afghan Whigs, but it sounds more like re-workings of b-sides that may have shined in the sun of another decade.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 24, 2014
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Will is a wobbly baby step from a well-honed sound to something greater. There’s not much reason to listen to it over any of her other albums, and it’s less interesting for the music it contains than the music it promises.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 6, 2016
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For The Future’s Void, she’s traded in the tarnished grace and drug-ravaged ten-mile stare of her past life, but it’s not always such a fair deal for the listener.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 7, 2014
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Neither engaging enough to be exhilarating, nor boisterous enough to be obnoxious, Perpetual Surrender simply gazes at its shoes without making much of an impression at all.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Aug 19, 2013
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- Critic Score
Liberation never reaches the heights fans likely wanted from Xtina, it serves as a pleasant refresher for a voice that has earned its place in the annals of pop history. That said, it’s a bit sad to feel like her finest moments are, at least for now, also in her past.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jun 25, 2018
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- Critic Score
Del Rey has struggled to back up her provocations with substance. Ultraviolence was an exception, a singular breakthrough. Honeymoon is, sadly, a slip and fall after a promising stride forward.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 18, 2015
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As an artist revisiting a previous masterwork, he’s chosen to add maturity in all the wrong spots. Lowbrow nods interspersed with pointed criticisms of nearly everyone of note made Eminem a star, but most of the references and insults here feel dated. It’s about as timely as catching up on last year’s episodes of TMZ on your DVR.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Nov 5, 2013
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It’s simultaneously daunting, exhausting, terrifying, all at the same time. It’s all a lot to take in, with not a whole lot of the Gambino we are familiar with to help wash it down.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Dec 2, 2016
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 4, 2017
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jan 25, 2017
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- Critic Score
The problem with The Ride is just that it’s a lot duller than it should be, and it feels even more disappointing given that her most successful work is also her most eccentric.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 5, 2017
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- Critic Score
Supreme Cuts know how to construct a track, but if it’s staying power they’re after, they’ll need to develop a more original sense of what their music is, what it can do, and the places it can go.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jan 30, 2014
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At the end of it, this record is a mixed bag. Fans of Weezer’s poppier side will find plenty to like. Whereas fans of Weezer’s more well regarded records will wish they chose another producer.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 31, 2017
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This is the kind that makes you want to go back and listen to his older stuff, if only to remind you he’s capable of wonders.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 31, 2017
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 18, 2014
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- Critic Score
Blood Bitch commits the ultimate crime of all so-called concept albums: there is undeniable effort in the subject and story it was supposed to tell, but little magic in the execution.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 29, 2016
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The highlights aren’t as colorful as we’ve come to expect from Timbaland or the Neptunes, or as tuneful as we’ve come to expect from Justin Timberlake.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 5, 2018
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Until Ex Cops stumble upon a niche and make it their own, their career is going to be eclipsed by listeners hearing influence over innovation in their music.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 11, 2013
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- Critic Score
DJ Dahi, Sounwave and Cardo handle the bulk of beats here, with additional help from ScHoolboy staples Nez & Rio, plus the venerable Boi-1da and Jake One. Except the results are less DAMN. and more Redemption, the Jay Rock album from last year that everyone has already forgotten.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 1, 2019
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 21, 2017
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- Critic Score
Clocking in at roughly 47 minutes across a charitable eighteen tracks, Always Strive and Prosper does not seem to break any new ground.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 27, 2016
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Taking a hard line against any sort of compromise, Sisyphus is equally amazing, confusing and frustrating.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 24, 2014
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Chrissybaby Forever is the music of Owens’ heart--unfiltered and unpolished, both to its credit and its detriment.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jun 8, 2015
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Good Luck and Do Your Best is dull, an affair that lacks curiosity because the answers are in front of him. None of the production is outright bad, just done before by the likes of Four Tet, Nujabes, and John Talabot.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 31, 2016
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Static lacks variety. It’s just a short-fused, gloomy rehash, and what little has been changed isn’t really an improvement.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 14, 2013
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As with The King of the Limbs, Beautiful Rewind is always keeping us at arm’s length, coldly allowing us to admire the craft without letting us in on the secret. It can make for a lonely listen.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 15, 2013
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For an album with both a Eurythmics cover AND a Black Sabbath cover it’s a surprisingly listenable, albeit pointless entry in their discography, Weezer has spent a decade becoming more interesting to read about than listen to.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 28, 2019
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Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino is the best possible kind of average record, one that goes out swinging. One that goes for it on every level. A record that, although it isn’t great by any typical metric, is extremely curious and entertaining.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 23, 2018
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Unfortunately, apart from the delicious pop dance tunes of “Spirit” and “Unhold,” Apar fails to make any real waves.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 12, 2013
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Songs like this [“Adam and Eve”]--and “Stay” from Life is Good--suggest that Nas might’ve done better had he picked slower, more melancholic beats and rapped like the elder statesman he is, rather than whatever we actually got on the record.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jun 20, 2018
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Reputation is, too often, an ugly sounding album. But Taylor Swift has a superhuman knack for a stunning melody. Many of these songs are downright sweet.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Nov 13, 2017
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It’s a solid record and one that’s sure to please fans, myself included, even if it doesn’t meet the highs of its predecessor.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 24, 2017
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Apr 1, 2016
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Apocalypse Soon struggles to keeps things interesting over its modest seventeen minute run.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 3, 2014
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The best offerings here are “Blind Faze” and “2 Shy”, Fleetwood-fashioned tracks that sway playfully, celebratory in their own modest way. The rest doesn’t hit hard enough, and doesn’t even really seem like it wants to.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Sep 3, 2014
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EVOL is the first time we begin to hear the ostensible rigidity in Future's formula revealing itself.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 23, 2016
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His flow has gotten really same-y over the years: “Sandra’s Rose” occasionally recalls “Weston Road Flows” and the following “Talk Up” brings “Gyalchester” to mind. It’s also weird that the R&B disc comes with so little hooks, something we used to be able to count on Drake for. It doesn’t help that Drake really likes his minimalistic beats.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jul 2, 2018
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For now, Little Red stands as an example of what happens when the zeitgeist leaves you behind.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 11, 2014
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 3, 2014
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They’re neither particularly evocative nor pleasant to listen to, meaning they fail at being ambient music in all respects but slipping into the background.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 10, 2016
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Maximo’s strength has always been in scorching post-punk anthems (“Our Velocity”, “Graffiti”) and hyper-literate melancholic balladry (“Acrobat”, “This Is What Becomes of the Broken Hearted”), which work so well when bolstered by Paul Smith’s erudite lyrics and uniquely accented delivery. They pull off the former on “My Bloody Mind” and the latter on the excellent “Leave This Island”, but elsewhere the hooks and melodies rarely match the frontman’s grasping literary pretensions.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 14, 2014
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Vroom Vroom might have worked had Charli written some better hooks, or actually put some effort into her raps, or just not rapped at all. Or if even Charli had coasted, just as she does here, and Sophie taken the reins.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 28, 2016
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 5, 2015
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Even if we were to give ALLA’s abysmal lyrics a pass, the production doesn't help, either.... Still, Rocky can, at times, be an engaging figure that radiates charisma when he wants.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jun 11, 2015
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Despite its numerous shortcomings though, it’s a difficult album to completely dislike--largely because of its wistful, nostalgia-inducing melodies. But it’s impossible not to expect better from the former Oasis mastermind.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 2, 2015
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Whereas previous shifts in sound were organic, the product of natural growth, this one comes off as obligatory and cheap, as if there were nowhere else to go. For the first time in their career, Arcade Fire haven’t made a record; they’ve manufactured one.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jul 27, 2017
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jan 26, 2018
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Most of the time, Nabuma Rubberband sounds well put-together but empty, all style and no content, the kind of album that won’t offend you while you’re listening to it but which you’d be hard-pressed to remember any of once closer “Let Go” comes to an end.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted May 12, 2014
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- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 14, 2014
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The only thing that comes through is that it’s competent. That’s enough to be pretty, but it still has the unremarkable safety of a band that hasn’t broken through to find a distinct voice.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jan 29, 2016
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A lack of feeling behind much of Witness’ material does a listener no favors, and much of it gets forgotten once you leave it in your rear-view. However, if you take Witness less seriously, it reveals itself a bit of camp that is in many ways more compelling than the music project it’s supposed to be.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jun 12, 2017
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Because The Internet is just a giant non-sequitur, a pop culture gag reel that relies a little too heavily on flippancy to ring true.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Dec 20, 2013
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Throughout, tracks will leave you with a noticeably bittersweet aftertaste--although it isn’t exactly lacking in flavor. It’s as though the album is missing a secret ingredient, or doesn’t ever find the right blend.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Aug 10, 2015
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The issue is in direction, and the real issue is that there doesn’t seem to be any.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 18, 2015
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It can be taken as a full listen, and it rolls along easily enough, but most likely listeners will just queue the songs they like and ignore the rest of the filler.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jul 7, 2017
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This is the most disjointed record in Weezer’s discography. Its probably not the worst but its right there with Raditude and Make Believe.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Feb 28, 2019
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Simply put, it’s just another Kid Cudi album--a scattered collection of songs developed as a concept album, but never fitting together to form something great.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 17, 2014
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Mastermind passes by as a single, indistinguishable blur. To the credit of Ross and his many co-producers, the experience is rarely leaden and often engaging.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 17, 2014
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Rarely does The Documentary 2 feel, or sound, important enough to warrant a double album, especially not one that spans three hours. The Documentary 2 perhaps works best when Game suffuses tracks with growing pains.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 16, 2015
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The most optimistic light to view Only Run in is also the most condemning; it’s not so much a fully realized album as it is a promising blueprint for songs that haven’t yet been written.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jun 2, 2014
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“Kevin” and “White Privilege II”, obvious attempts to spark political discourse, see an artist not afraid to speak his mind. It makes meme-chasing moments like “Brad Pitt’s Cousin” and “Dance-Off” all the more forgettable.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 18, 2016
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Ultimately, Ping Pong, is a disappointing step for a once promising garage rock act. I guess we can still go back and listen to our old Smith Western’s records.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Nov 16, 2016
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An underwhelming record. Kitschy 70’s synths and live drums abound throughout. The lyrics and vocals continue to distract from the true draw of the production.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Nov 28, 2016
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A misstep, to be sure, but even more troubling is that Foxygen have distended from tight, trim retro-pop to unkempt, unfocused conceptual goo in less than two years.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Oct 14, 2014
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The record’s occasionally bright moments are swallowed up by scattered thoughts and stale beats.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Jul 10, 2015
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Cuomo seems to have found his commercial home embracing a beach-party rock flavor for California kids who’ll “throw you a lifeline” and “show you the sunshine”, and indeed the beach tone persists through the album. This should be fine and modest, but in Weezer’s hands it’s just too overbearingly gross-sounding to let off that easy.- Pretty Much Amazing
- Posted Mar 29, 2016
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