Rolling Stone's Scores

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For 5,914 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 34% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 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: 100 Magic
Lowest review score: 0 Know Your Enemy
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,630 out of 5914
  2. Mixed: 2,244 out of 5914
  3. Negative: 40 out of 5914
5914 music reviews
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    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Words & Music, May 1965
    Words & Music improves the sound on Reed’s original tape (available to hear, with many others, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, home to the Reed Archives), and evidently takes some liberty with song order.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    How Do You Burn?
    Their third and most arresting record since their reformation.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Yungblud
    Yungblud is a whirlwind listen, fusing together building blocks of various rock subgenres—mostly Britpop’s hip-shaking carnality and emo’s on-the-brink wails—then spit-shining them a bit before adding confessional lyrics.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Viva Las Vengeance
    The album is like a wild ride in a muscle car where someone’s constantly fiddling with the radio, forever chasing the high that comes with hearing the perfect riff at the perfect moment. ... Viva Las Vengeance sounds great, its piston-like licks and soaring solos acting like time machines to a rose-colored-glasses-refracted era.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cheat Codes
    Cheat Codes is a balm to Gen X hip-hop fans who feel out of step with trap’s spare beats and mumble rap’s hazy flow, proof positive that hip-hop requires a senior circuit.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Traumazine
    A thrill ride of a listen, a motley mix of slick bops and searing confessionals that wonderfully encapsulate all of her various vibes.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Playboy
    There are few outright misfortunes on Playboy. One miss is “Havin’ Fun,” which taps into a reggae-pop groove that feels sugary and dated. Then, repetitive placement of hit single “Peru” and its remix. ... Despite these choices, Fireboy’s third album maintains a strong mix of charming songs and engaging storytelling.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 2
    It’s a fine wind-down album, one that can be put on shuffle at the end of a long-summer-night bacchanal, when revelers reach that point where they’re too tired to do anything but bask in the glow of the blowout they just threw.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    All 4 Nothing
    A high-octane dose of emotion cushioned by pleasant, if sometimes a bit anonymous, pop.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hold On Baby
    Throughout, King Princess’ potent melodies are bolstered by subtle production touches that heighten the anxieties and intricacies of her candid lyrics.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Renaissance
    Is this an evolution from Lemonade? Not quite. But with Renaissance, Beyoncé is more relatable than ever, giving listeners all the anthems and sultry slow burners we love and have come to expect from her, proving that inclusivity is the new black.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Take It Like a Man
    Expand[s] her folk-based sound, mixing Radiohead-style atmospherics, Seventies pop melodies and even a splash of soul. [Jul - Aug 2022, p.120]
    • Rolling Stone
      • Posted Jul 27, 2022
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Surrender
    It seems to reflect what the 28-year-old singer-songwriter is most interested in at this very moment, which appears to be a blend of Nineties alt-rock and turn-of-the-century shopping-mall pop. [Jul - Aug 2022, p.117]
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You Still Here, Ho?
    It’s the equivalent of a headbanger, and while one could argue her talent deserves a richer canvas, it satisfies all the same.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Emotional Creature
    It’s empowering to see Trifilio own the full spectrum of her emotions, and it’s what cements Beach Bunny’s latest record as a masterclass in confessional rock and roll.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Entering Heaven Alive
    Entering Heaven Alive is flush with surprisingly nimble and fluid melodies that remind you of what a song craftsman he can be when he’s not overcooking his music. And some of those tracks—”If I Die Tomorrow” and “A Tree on Fire From Within”—are among the most arresting and least self-conscious songs he’s made in years.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Special
    The music on this album is the most unabashedly joyous, sonically diverse, and emotionally profound album put out by a major label since Beyonce’s Lemonade.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gemini Rights
    Gemini Rights is a 10-song tight collection of rock and R&B, funk and jazz, psych and hip-hop that’s as warm and airy as the cusp of summer, when Geminis are born.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jack in the Box
    Jack in the Box is brief — its 10 tracks clock in at around 22 minutes — but potent, with J-Hope’s musical curiosity and dexterity on the mic helping create an immersive world that showcases the inner life of someone who’s in a lot of photographs, but who may not always feel fully seen.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beatopia
    At times, it sounds like Kristi has simply moved her rock-historic references up a few years into the later Nineties, when some of the best indie-pop was getting sonically cleaner and more refined. ... All these innovations work and feel natural, and they serve as a nice backdrop for songs that stare down tough emotions while looking for clarity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Girls
    The record features five new songs, “Girls,” “Lingo,” and “ICU,” along with pre-released singles “Illusion,” and “Life’s Too Short,” and includes everything one could want from an Aespa record– heavy synth beats, strong piercing vocals, visuals that don’t give you a second to blink.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Other Side of Make-Believe
    On Make-Believe’s “Passenger,” Banks laments, “Save me, I’m in my head,” which, as every other Interpol album has proven, has been a recurring issue for Banks. But when he and his bandmates loosen up their songwriting, as on Make-Believe, they sound ready to move forward.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Love, Damini
    So much of Love, Domini’s appeal is due to its spicy elasticity. It, if anything, anticipates a global village of sorts, where the vibrant and eclectic sounds lose none of their authenticity, even as they hop across a couple of continents.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Am the Moon: I. Crescent
    The songs dwell on general themes of loneliness, isolation, despair and connection—which not only avoids concept-album bloat but makes the lyrics more universal and timelier. ... Worth your while. They make Southern-rock and classic-rock history seem present in our time. [Jul - Aug 2022, p.120]
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You Can't Kill Me
    Elegiac bangers that are all about slo-mo self-discovery. [Jul - Aug 2022, p.120]
    • Rolling Stone
      • Posted Jul 7, 2022
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Home, Before and After
    This incisive, empathetic collection is among her strongest. [Jul - Aug 2022, p.120]
    • Rolling Stone
      • Posted Jul 7, 2022
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In Amber
    A bracing, at time beautiful, LP of dark art-pop abstraction. [Jul - Aug 2022, p.120]
    • Rolling Stone
      • Posted Jul 7, 2022
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Give or Take
    It’s confident yet vulnerable even in its most blissed-out moments, making his songs hit harder and imbuing his voice with even more soul.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sometimes, Forever
    On Sometimes, Forever, every languid lyric and opaque melody feels strategically placed with care and concern.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Superache
    An intense but often rewarding examination of sentimentality from one of youth culture’s leading miserabilists.
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