Punknews.org (Staff)'s Scores

  • Music
For 508 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 61% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 35% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: 100 The Center Won't Hold
Lowest review score: 10 Just Like You
Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 11 out of 508
508 music reviews
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This isn't a swing and a miss, nor is it a home run. It is an emphatic, resounding and diminutive crack to the wall, with a band that knows how to diligently round base cooly, calmly and collectively.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's loud, raucous and the kind of magic that will kick your doors down, even if you didn't want it to. A collection of sing-alongs and shout-along anthems that will devour you -- blood, hair, eyeballs, and everything else.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Creation Rebel, especially on their new album, have a foot in both worlds which is why the music doesn’t sound throwback or avant- it sounds timeless. And it’s catchy.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    For the most part, Dolly sounds great- her personality pouring through effortlessly, as well as her masterful way to inhabit a song without making it a caricature.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    This record is pointless. And bad. And annoying. It’s yet another failed attempt to either re-write history or cash in.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The album certainly has epiphany, but it also raises as many questions as it answers. Oh, and the music itself is really, really, really, really good.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In an album that is about a breakup, the band is more unified and more cohesive than they have ever been before. I say it before with every Screaming Females album, but really, THIS ONE is the best one yet.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Here, Rancid don’t redefine themselves, but they show that there is a lot of life in some of their lesser explored aspects. Simply, this is the band’s best record since Rancid 5.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One Day is massive, even if it is short by comparison. Again, the sound is huge with layered guitars and ghostly layered background vocals. Singer Damian Abraham’s bark is a blasted out as ever. But, whereas Fucked up is sometimes dark and scary, here the sound is positively bright.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Midnight Scorchers is one of the rare LPs that takes the lightning out of the bottle, blasts it around the room, and then puts it back in another bottle.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The album itself is PROOF that chaos and anger and conflict and an open mind and fun is what gives Morris his strength, creativity, and singularity.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Truly, this is one of the best reggae records of the year… and one of the best records of the year.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ultimately, it's not a bad album, but not the greatest either.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An infectious album of either punk influenced pop or pop influenced punk. Whatever the appropriate term for the music here is, it gets stuck in your head.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There’s an intelligence wrapped in the machinery here. This is cyborg music driven by metal fingers, but the human heart is still intact.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It sounds like everything has been sounded down to the point where instruments tend to melt together and it can actually be hard to hear what is going on at some points. It doesn’t ruin the release, but it does make it sound vastly different on different unites. (i.e. the EP actually sounds really good – if not a little too slick- on my home stereo, but on my car stereo, it sounds watery).
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Overall, Moral Hygiene is a damn solid Ministry album. The band has had many peaks and valleys over the course of a nearly 40 year career, but they’re once again proving that they’re still relevant.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Cool is not only a masterful release sonically, but it strikes a cosmic chord that few release can hit.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    What’s particularly neat here is that record masterminds Mike Haliechuk and Jonah Falco have forged their most diverse and chameleon-onic sound bed to date.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's wildly accessible and I think what works the most is you just wouldn't be able to tell what kind of band they really are and what's their definitive sound -- which is a beautiful chaos that works in Turnstile's favor.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Vocalist Tim McIlrath must be given credit as well, as his voice -- and overall production -- is as tight as ever. Technically, I found their last couple albums lacking, feeling too generic and polished, but it's a much better balance now.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ultimately, it feels like too much is crammed in and AFI can't tell if they want to go pop, goth, retro or symphonic. And with something that schizophrenic, it undercuts a lot of what could have been diamonds in the rough.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This is a slight return to form for Dropkick Murphys. It’s probably not going to occupy the same place in your heart as Do Or Die or Sing Loud, Sing Proud, but you can’t expect 50 year old guys to make the same record they made at 25. Give Turn Up That Dial a listen. You might just be pleasantly surprised.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Here, it's a lot more of that soft-loud dynamic, that visceral arrangement on the buildups and honestly, a lot more of Andy's iconic poetry. ... It frees them even more creatively, and I love the growth shown.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Assembly shows that while Strummer solo may have more nuance or more room for interpretation, the raw power of his early work had been washed over with music that, was frankly, quieter. ... It also proves that Strummer solo can stand on its own, even if that stance will always be in the shadow of an earlier band.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Whereas most inside/silly jokes are used by a closed group to draw their own bonds closer, here, the Melvins are using that device to invite people into the world. And frankly, it’s a fun and funny world despite the gratuitous use of the F-word.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Detroit Stories is fully formed and tells its story without trying too hard… or too little. The band cranks on the engine and lets Jesus… err… the Ashetons, Fred Sonic Smith, and Glen Buxton… take the wheel and they drive this record on home.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Open Door Policy is the album longtime fans have been waiting for. The lyrics are there and the music is there.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I didn't get that rough cut as much as I would have liked on this album, but other than that, this is a front-to-back gem with great replay value and anthemic shout-alongs I wish I could take in live.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I think this record has to be taken in isolation and taken in context of needed something to do during the pandemic. But regardless, No Fun Mondays is a pop-rocking good time.