For 5,903 reviews, this publication has graded:
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34% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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62% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.1 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 67
Highest review score: | Magic | |
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Lowest review score: | Know Your Enemy |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 3,621 out of 5903
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Mixed: 2,242 out of 5903
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Negative: 40 out of 5903
5903
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
We get the sound of master musicians in their comfort zone, doing everything their own way. Nobody would want to hear the Beasties try anything else.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 2, 2011
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- Critic Score
Too young to have experienced the era he holds so dear, Pecknold has found refuge and inspiration in the echoes.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 2, 2011
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- Critic Score
Recorded in a Louisville church gymnasium, Circuital is just as adventurous, yet more organic and focused.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 26, 2011
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What makes Born This Way so disarmingly great is how warm and humane Gaga sounds. There isn't a subtle moment on the album, but even at its nuttiest, the music is full of wide-awake emotional details.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 20, 2011
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The Bang Years is the anthology his fans have always craved--the first definitive collection of his Sixties nuggets, when he was just another Brooklyn punk hustling his way into the business with a guitar, groovy sideburns and a solitary-man glare.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 20, 2011
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 21, 2011
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There are countless touchstones, but the sublime attack often recalls late-Sixties Grateful Dead, when their songs still had garage-rock drive but were exploding every which way.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 2, 2011
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This meaty masterpiece is the debut of an 11-piece troupe co-led by guitarist Derek Trucks and his wife, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi. Revelator is also a turning point in Trucks' odyssey, since adolescence, toward a deep soul laced with Indo-slide ecstasy.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 10, 2011
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"Amber Jean" is a lovely tribute to his newborn daughter, while "Grey Riders" is a lost epic that suggests Crazy Horse with a twang infusion. The oldies shine too: "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong" sounds as if it originated with the Flying Burrito Brothers instead of Buffalo Springfield.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 13, 2011
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This Texas native (1940-2002) was a one-man song factory in the late Sixties, writing hits for Nashville royalty. But Newbury's hurt and searching, draped in chamber-country silk, bloomed best on the solo LPs in this box.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 21, 2011
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Barlow's new approach made for one of the best indie-rock albums in a year full of stellar ones--and Sebadoh's greatest work.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 6, 2011
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She can be as rugged as Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson, and sings better than each.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 12, 2011
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Their third set hits a sweet spot between the futuristic soul of their debut and the synth pop of 2009's Machine Dreams.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 26, 2011
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R.E.M. were already college-radio heroes by the time they made Lifes Rich Pageant in 1986. They could've kept making mumbly, jangly tunes for their core audience, but they went bigger and bolder, stepping toward radio-friendliness while retaining their iconoclastic spirit.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 15, 2011
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Addressing Nigeria's history ("Slave Masters") and militarism ("African Soldier"), Seun's proper coming-out closes with some positive thoughts on cannabis ("The Good Leaf"). Fela lives, indeed.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 23, 2011
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Other tracks, like the kinetic breakbeat jam "A Cidade," by DJ Dolores with Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz, take the Tropicália spirit into the 21st century, where it sounds perfectly at home.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 27, 2011
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Yeah, he's a romantic; a cynic, too. But above all, a songwriter: brilliant, perverse, funny as human nature. Which is pretty damn funny.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 14, 2011
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It's a moment that feels like an emotional explosion – and it sums up everything great about Wild Flag.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 12, 2011
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It flows better than 2002's double-disc anthology, Land. It also does a better job contextualizing her later stuff as personal and pop-culture history- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 26, 2011
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 12, 2011
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 20, 2011
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- Critic Score
The Whole Love seems like a celebration of that freedom, with songs that roam happily all over the place.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 27, 2011
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Mainly, though, The Hunter demonstrates how contemporary radio rock can still be made with imagination, precision and a majestic sense of force.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 27, 2011
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When Bjork's supernatural voice soars in "Thunderbolt"--"Craving miracles"--soul easily trumps software.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 11, 2011
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It might also be his most broadly emotional set ever; certainly it's his most sharply focused record since the game-changing tag team Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs decades ago.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 25, 2011
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What shines throughout these 45 tracks is the unerring songcraft, and a voice that's lost none of its power over a quarter-century.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 26, 2011
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Florence and the Machine's second album is as dark, robust and romantic as ever, but a revving 18-wheeler is no longer the apt metaphor for Welch's voice.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Nov 1, 2011
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It's what Drake does best, collapsing many moods--arrogance, sadness, tenderness and self-pity--into one vast, squish-souled emotion.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Nov 11, 2011
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Nov 29, 2011
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El Camino is the Keys' grandest pop gesture yet, augmenting dark-hearted fuzz blasts with sleekly sexy choruses and Seventies-glam flair.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Dec 6, 2011
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Their most compellingly dire-sounding [album], not as grabby as their 2005 debut, Funeral Dress, but rocking out in a frayed, mordant way that makes every stick-in-your-head chorus they share seem like a small triumph.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jan 4, 2012
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Their half-formed debut EP is redeemed by a previously unreleased follow-up session. The LPs Ben Hur and Umber still stun.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jan 12, 2012
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The melodies are stickier than hot tar, but it's those vivid little scenes that lodge in your head the longest.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jan 31, 2012
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Here, she and her double-tracked voice sound bigger, thanks partly to help from dudes in Beirut and the National.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 7, 2012
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The inspirations and pot-dream idealism may be retro; the zeal and momentum are not.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 14, 2012
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 21, 2012
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Leaving Eden is a lesson in 21st-century American folk--a tradition that's as miscegenated as ever, and stronger for it.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 28, 2012
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A fresh blast of vintage turmoil: a robust spin on the echo-laden romanticism of early-Eighties New Wave rock.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 13, 2012
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Full of muscled, vintage R&B grooves, fevered soloing, psychedelic arrangements and oracular mumbo jumbo, it's the wildest record Rebennack has made in many years.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 3, 2012
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If you believe that art and commerce and provocation and fun – and hip- hop and disco and teen pop – can all be one and the same, here's a record for you.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 6, 2012
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It's mood music with a razor edge, pain fronting as bliss, delivered by a vet who understands that the blues are often about just that.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 10, 2012
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What sets them apart are Morris' understated wit... and the clear enthusiasm of her bandmates, who hurtle through every jangly chord change like they're falling into a new romance.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 18, 2012
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1998's Mermaid Avenue let the artists rewrite themselves, too: Billy Bragg, the British folkie agitator, turned goofier ("My Flying Saucer"), while Wilco turned rootsier ("California Stars).- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 30, 2012
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A string of minicrises about judgy friends, bad habits and turbulent relationships – relatable quarter-life bummers, spun into hooks as indelible as Taylor Swift's.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 8, 2012
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Trespassing delivers, with a mix of tinsel disco-club sleaze and leather-boy love ballads.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 15, 2012
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As usual, his playing is restrained and elegant; he's a singer-songwriter with a session man's soul, so every breezy solo or sun-dappled acoustic spindle is comfy and luxe like a spun-silk blanket.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 22, 2012
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 4, 2012
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- Critic Score
Japandroids sing about lost youth and sex and drinking atop hammer-of-the-geeks distortion swirls and holler-along refrains a gorilla could pump some paw to.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 5, 2012
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Even with just 10 tracks and no session details, this companion to Martin Scorsese's 2011 documentary deserves a brass–band welcome.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 30, 2012
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An album that cut through the grunge-y haze of 1992 with crisp Sixties melodies and... daring emotional clarity.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 30, 2012
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When Ocean reins himself in, tucking his words and melodies into tighter verse-chorus structures, the songs have startling force.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 18, 2012
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This 21-track set plays like a crash course in the history of international club style.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 26, 2012
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A high-steppin', side-steppin' life outside you ain't never seen.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 23, 2012
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There are times when God Forgives is as engrossing and surprising as rap can be.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 30, 2012
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Election Special is protest music delivered with a patriot's gifts – the American-roots beauty and expert fire in Ry Cooder's playing – and long memory.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 21, 2012
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Marshall has always been one of the most emotionally intense songwriters around, but with Sun she has made her riskiest, most vital album, not to mention one of her greatest.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 4, 2012
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Most of the originals are strong enough to pass as covers of classic jams. The actual covers, meanwhile, are spot on.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 29, 2012
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With Shields, they still sound like Radiohead at a Buddhist retreat, but the songs are more muscular, increasingly driven by drummer Christopher Bear's innate swing.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 18, 2012
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They deliver it like late-breaking news, with mid-Sixties-guitar clamor, '77 velocity and no breathing room.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 19, 2012
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Knopfler's sueded voice has changed little since his 1980s heyday, and his elegant electric-guitar work sounds better than ever.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 21, 2012
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For a teenager's debut, Jake Bugg shows an artist who is crazy fully formed, stepping into a journey that should be worth following.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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[This collection is] loving genuflection; it's also proof that Johnson, 21st-century country's outlaw ne plus ultra, is also one of its most sensitive balladeers – beneath the scary beard, he's an old softie.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 16, 2012
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The plush production of tracks like the Neptunes-produced centerpiece "good kid" hearkens back to Seventies blaxploitation soundtracks and Nineties gangsta-rap blaxploitation revivals, and good kid warrants a place in that storied lineage.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 22, 2012
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Their third disc is a hilarious gut-wrenching mess that relocates the Replacements and Thin Lizzy at their most bracing and bighearted to the suburban skate-park diaspora – all centered around Patrick Stickles' glass-half-smashed existentialism.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 23, 2012
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Young may feel like the last hippie standing, but he still sounds like a guy who believes the dreaming is not done.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 30, 2012
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This debut EP is a small masterpiece of downtempo sound sculpture, finely detailed and often as gorgeous as it is discomforting.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Nov 15, 2012
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Godspeed's music remains as deep, angry, tender, ecstatic and uncompromising as ever.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Nov 20, 2012
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The result is both her catchiest and subtlest album yet--and one of the best R&B records of 2012.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Nov 27, 2012
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The extras on the deluxe box set show how Corgan's mid-Nineties creative peak couldn't even be contained by two CDs.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jan 11, 2013
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Dec 6, 2012
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The result is a record that makes the competition sound sad and idea-starved by comparison.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Dec 11, 2012
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Bringing these new jacks together in harmony is impressive enough; the ease with which Big Boi insinuates his smack-talking, game-kicking self into their midst, even more so.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Dec 11, 2012
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The greater, constant lift is in the album's earthy-R&B roll--the slow-drag groove in "Born to Sing" suggests Ray Charles leading the band at New Orleans' Preservation Hall – and the disarming, one-of-a-kind warmth of Morrison's gift.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Dec 14, 2012
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Parquet Courts are especially versed in the clipped, repetitive buzz of Wire's '77 classic Pink Flag, but, like Pavement, they soften post-punk's cranky edge with the glazed, lonely wonderment of fresh, wide-eyed New York transplants.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jan 28, 2013
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The soundtrack for Django Unchained is typically all-over-the-place: spaghetti-Western themes, Seventies folk rock, raucous acoustic blues, James Brown, Rick Ross.... There are well-chosen originals here, too.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jan 15, 2013
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Despite the skull-crushing power, MBV is music that rewards close listening, music that takes its time to give up its secrets.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 8, 2013
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[Amok is] the warmest, grooviest album Yorke has ever made--nine songs where next-level laptop science collides with wild, funky improvisation.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 19, 2013
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Her flow is fleet and inventive, and the woozy budget-price production is as engrossing as any you're likely to hear this year. Wow.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 14, 2013
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 28, 2013
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Hendrix left us so much but in precious little time. Every shred counts.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 5, 2013
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This British singer-songwriter and psychedelic cult hero keeps issuing delightful, incisive rec ords, and this is one of his recent best.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 27, 2013
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The 20/20 Experience is both a return to form and a departure, deftly combining his trademark shape-shifting digital funk with a warmer, more organic sound.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 12, 2013
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The album showcases a songwriting voice you won't hear anywhere else in pop: young, female, downwardly mobile, fiercely witty.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 19, 2013
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Frequent Nirvana echoes flirt with overkill. But no one has ever channeled that band's bubblegum nihilism better.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 26, 2013
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 16, 2013
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A perfect match of sound and soul, the set introduces a new guitar hero, and confirms Auerbach's arrival as a roots-music producer to be reckoned with.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 15, 2013
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This reissue pairs his metaphysically funky 1974 masterpiece, Inspiration Information, with a similarly spacey unreleased LP cut between 1975 and 2000 that positions this multi-instrumentalist as a missing link between Sly, Jimi, Stevie, Prince and Frank Ocean.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 8, 2013
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At times, the album is a victim of its own ambition. But it wouldn't be half as awesome a ride if it had aimed any lower.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 13, 2013
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 16, 2013
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A record as good as anything by her old band that was also a pop success.... This three-disc reissue adds a raft of cool demos, a 1994 concert and four EPs.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 15, 2013
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Yet for all his demon-steed drive, Homme's a versatile guy--he coos as persuasively as he howls, and few can rain down metal decay with as much nuance and craft.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 4, 2013
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It’s the density of wit, ideas, and verbal invention that makes this one of the year’s defining hip-hop releases, whether Chance is rapping about God’s cell phone battery, racial politics, or merely unleashing thick clusters of rhymes.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 7, 2013
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If the alternate versions aren't all that different from the originals, they're no less dazzling, dense with harmonies and hooks whose perfectly turned imperfections make their aches leap out of the speakers.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 16, 2013
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It is not overkill. It is the necessary account of a brilliant, wayward pop life still best known for tawdry and misleading reasons.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 21, 2013
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Reznor's first NIN album in five years, it is one of his best, combining the textural exploration on the 1999 double CD The Fragile, and the tighter fury of his 1994 master blast, The Downward Spiral.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 3, 2013
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Her perfectly turned sixth LP deals with identity and autonomy; it's got feminist musculature and the dirt of a working musician under its fingernails.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 3, 2013
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The remarkable results, originally scattered across middling LPs, get bundled with illuminating outtakes on this three-CD set.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 9, 2013
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Producer Fred Mollin provides atmospheric, country-tinged settings throughout Still Within the Sound of My Own Voice, lending consistency to the wide range of performers and material.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 12, 2013
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