Resident Advisor's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
For 1,104 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: 100 Biokinetics [Reissue]
Lowest review score: 36 Déjà-Vu
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 958 out of 1104
  2. Mixed: 145 out of 1104
  3. Negative: 1 out of 1104
1104 music reviews
view
per page
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blizzards
    Blizzards highlights everything Fake is good at: the way his drums tend to dance in between established genres, melodies that sound like a warped Boards Of Canada record, the constant push-and-pull of dark and light. It's more of a reset than a reinvention, a return to the earnest simplicity that made him a wunderkind all those years ago.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mas Amable
    It may be dreamy and easygoing on the surface, a chill album to set the vibe of a room. But it's filled with deep moods, careful details and weird, intense rhythms. The best way to hear it is to slow down and appreciate each little thing passing by.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It Is What It Is
    On It Is What It Is, Bruner—unlike Pastorious—finds a way out, channeling his pain into great, uplifting art.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What We Drew [Mixtape]
    The mixtape moves through a few different sections, starting off slow and dreamy, taking in woozy hip-hop and twinkling dance pop and ending up in UK club territory. There's a wistful vibe throughout.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cenizas
    I wouldn't necessarily say Cenizas is challenging, but listeners accustomed to Jaar's more smooth and structured early work may need to persevere as he leads them through this freeform landscape
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fountain
    It's in this border between a club setting and the divine that Fountain comes alive. Using her voice as a modular system, Pramuk suggests a ritual that's both folkloric and futuristic.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sixteen Oceans
    There's still plenty of juice left in the ideas Four Tet favours. ... This club/non-club ratio is similar to that of New Energy, the last Four Tet album, but Sixteen Oceans surpasses that LP through the strength of its ambient and electronica.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Conference of Trees
    Conference Of Trees provides plenty of evidence for Weber's continually developing ear for melodies and musically detailed arrangements, but there are other aspects of his past work that could have been left to one side. The Triad, his last full-length, at times felt twee and fussy, a problem that returns here in one section of the album in particular.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Salvador
    The complexities of romance, alcohol dependence, the fragility of life and untimely death weave in and out of intricate arrangements of manipulated vocals and bold melodies.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rakka
    While a clearing of the cobwebs is liberating for the artist, the resulting record is a tough sell for its audience, even one as dedicated as Vladislav Delay's. Rakka could be a step towards something great. But too often, getting through it is like walking with a stone in your shoe.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nevaeh
    MHYSA gets most expressive with her vocal processing, sometimes rapping in hot bursts, sometimes creating soft and surreal textures, other times using abrasive distortion and noise. When beats do appear, they're patient and sparse, highlighting the artist's contentment with silence.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Calypso
    The haunting chorus and zither strings of "Cry Winds Or Flames," the distorted, swampy drama of "Enter Venus" and the propulsive "The Water Sibyl" all offset the LP's drowsy qualities. Perhaps most crucially, Calypso also feels personal.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Suddenly
    Suddenly is a frustrating listen. Snaith's talent for writing earworms, hooks and choruses has never been so apparent. But overall he sounds like he's trying too hard, taking influence from too many places.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Loom
    On Loom, she takes her interest in found sound to a gloomy, thought-provoking new depth.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Miss Anthropocene
    This celebratory nihilism defines an album that's sometimes dark and moody, sometimes manic and fun. There are familiar moments of quirky guitar pop ("Delete Forever," "You'll Miss Me When I'm Not Around"). More exciting is when Grimes goes big on reverb and club-sized beats.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    2017 - 2019
    This is straight-up fight music. 2017 - 2019 isn't quite this lairy elsewhere, but most of it is jagged, hard-hitting and seriously over-driven. The change has Jaar sounding artistically replenished.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Workaround
    When a record is so dazzlingly abstract (or abstractly dazzling), it seems harder to interpret in emotional terms, too. But like LeWitt and his primary-coloured paint brushes, or Dan Flavin and his store cupboard of strip lights, Dillon isn't offering us a feeling so much as giving us a space in which to feel.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Be Up a Hello
    Absorbing a Squarepusher LP in one sitting has always been for more adventurous or diligent listeners, but the dank final section means that, outside of more hardcore fans, Be Up A Hello will probably need to be navigated in exactly the right sort of mood.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Deep Rave Memory
    With a couple of cuts hovering around ten minutes, the album requires patience but remains accessible.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dwell
    So we have an artist who's found a very comfortable groove, continues to produce from it, and plenty of people love him for it. It may be an enormous cop-out to say that if you like Recondite you'll probably like Dwell, and if you don't like Recondite (or you're a music writer) you probably won't. But, like Brunner's music, some things really are that simple.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Swirlings
    From the way the melodies climb through the hanging atmosphere of "Ripples" to the Sasha-like glitter of "Cloud Refuge," Swirlings is full of lovely, considered music that sticks in your mind long after the synth fog dissipates.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It Should Be Us
    Ghostly and grim, with the radiance of Stott's synths allowed only to penetrate the gloom in periodic bursts. It's telling that Stott somehow makes this aesthetic seem so compelling, a type of dark energy that makes you want to hit a punch bag or chair dance rather than wade in self-reflection.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Occulting Disk
    Stern's use of repetition is powerful and carefully considered, making space for deep thought and reflection. Pockets of silence strengthen this concentrative quality.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Tunes 2011-2019
    Tunes 2011 To 2019 frames the artistic development of someone whose older music sounds more inspired but is still capable of greatness. ... 12 years since his last album, we at least get a large chunk of his often incredible catalogue in one place.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Information
    Like all of Lustwerk's music, it's moody, it's sensual, it's vaguely ridiculous. It's a total fantasy—which makes it all the easier to get swept away.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Labyrinth
    The album as a whole is accomplished, but it still hasn't entirely caught up with the precision of his visual multiverse. Still, I am glad that Labyrinth offers another glimpse of Kanda's alternate realities.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tangerine
    By carefully balancing these ideas with unambiguous dance floor moments, Tangerine hits the sweet spot that many of the best electronic albums occupy.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Bedroom Tapes
    Without knowing it was made by a young Paul Woolfword, it might come off simply as passionate and touching hardware sketches with classic techno components. Nevertheless, these tapes show signs of promise in Woolford's ability to work within his limitations to create something powerful and personal.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Transmission Suite
    The album has bags of character and is big on ideas. Unfortunately, not all of them work. ... Jarring sounds and heavy-handed ideas dominate the album's second half and ultimately spoil the record.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Volume Massimo
    Volume Massimo embodies Cortini's deep connection with the Buchla. His commitment to melody, though it makes the album approachable, often detracts from the music's noisy (and more interesting) imperfections. Even if you follow Cortini's instructions to play the LP at "a very loud volume," the full heft of his sound fails to translate outside of its onstage setting.
Page: