For 5,914 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: 3,630 out of 5914
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Mixed: 2,244 out of 5914
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Negative: 40 out of 5914
5914
music
reviews
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- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
It'd be nice if Taylor went easier on the introspection. [8 Mar 2007, p.86]- Rolling Stone
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- Critic Score
Weezer's eighth album is an olive branch to the ride-or-die nerd side of his audience: A Weezer record named after Hurley from Lost is like Rick Ross slapping a picture of Scarface-era Pacino on an album cover and calling it Tony.- Rolling Stone
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- Rolling Stone
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But there's genuine excitement in hearing him leap nimbly between the tart funk of "Rock the Nation" and the loose organic soul of "Speaking of Tongues" as he rails against the inequities of death row, mingling the earthy and the high-minded into something special.- Rolling Stone
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The balance of respectful tributes and reimaginings recalls John Fogerty's similarly structured 2013 collection, Wrote a Song for Everyone.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 19, 2014
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The 23-year-old diva plays a little nicer, adhering to the Mary J. Blige school of gritty, nuanced hip-hop soul.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 17, 2012
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Antony Hegarty's tremulous warble is a strange and marvelous instrument--and for many, an acquired taste. The Crying Light, this diva-dude's third album, spotlights his haunting vocals with few distractions, using piano and low-key orchestral arrangements as foils for him to swoop and shiver over.- Rolling Stone
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Their third album deepens the rockist intentions with a track called "Heavy Metal" and a sound that's like Spoon or Fountains of Wayne dipped in distracted keyboard/noise-guitar ooze.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 12, 2012
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[They] remain masters of stately jangle, and their writing now has a reflective depth that makes for music that's wise as well as crafty.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 12, 2012
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Here they're a full band, splaying low-protein vocals over delicately crunchy hooks and tensile ballads.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 18, 2013
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The central concern is present-tense lust and heartache, which this spirited band translates into a fine drunk-clogging soundtrack.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 29, 2012
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It's an appealingly scruffy sound--an underdog album, a record you want to root for.- Rolling Stone
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This Icelandic six-piece pull off a neat trick: They make whimsical sound tough.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 24, 2012
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On a Wire quivers with the anxieties that must have arisen as the Get Up Kids left behind what originally made them.- Rolling Stone
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- Rolling Stone
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This sequel takes a similar approach [of 2007 LP Yes I'm a Witch], to mixed effect.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 19, 2016
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What leader Nick Urata does on his big indie debut is pretty straightforward: make dance music and ballads with drama and kitsch.- Rolling Stone
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The viscera isn't surprising. What may be is the empathy, wit and beauty on this focused LP.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 21, 2012
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It takes gall to put a song called 'No Surprise' on your second disc, but gall is something Daughtry does not lack, and that's what made him one of the only bona fide rock stars to come out of American Idol.- Rolling Stone
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Albert Hammond Jr. packs his third solo disc with the band's signature crisp melodies, curt guitar churn and New Wave synth ripple. As a singer and lyricist, though, Hammond has an openhearted, somewhat quizzical mien that's a far cry from the Strokes' poker-faced chic.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 31, 2015
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A horny, disco-infused party starter for those who like their funk with a side of irony.- Rolling Stone
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- Rolling Stone
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The drawback is that when he isn’t playing guitar, the music on this disc is oddly muted.- Rolling Stone
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Her newest solo project, La Sera, replaces distortion with light, beatific girl-group harmonies and clean, sweet production of jangling surf guitars and soft brushes of snare drum.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 14, 2011
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The real pity is that Kelly, one of the most talented players on the current R&B scene, repeatedly squanders his gifts. His voice simmers with an existential pain that is clearly rooted in the same secular vs. spiritual battle that defines the music of artists like Marvin Gaye and Prince. But he keeps the struggle one-sided in his lyrics -- staying largely on the bump-and-grind course -- and that wears thin quickly.- Rolling Stone
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- Rolling Stone
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Hebden's lovingly arranged pet sounds cohere nicely when he jacks up his trip-hop-y beats.- Rolling Stone
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On his full-length debut, Starlite turns his faith in catchy tunes into a series of studies on the persuasive power of pop itself.- Rolling Stone
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Nov 18, 2014
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Aphrodite is her finest work since 1997's underrated Impossible Princess, teaming her with Madonna producer Stuart Price.- Rolling Stone
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Davies’ tune sense is still relatively intact, and he turns out loose melodies amid nimble bar-band grooves. Unfortunately, Davies’ feistiness fades at times, and he lapses into blandness.- Rolling Stone
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The midtempo grunge-metal and reggae jams, more sustainable channels for grown-ass anger, feel most like home.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jan 30, 2013
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There's a little heartbreak here and there, but drinking--a constant theme, naturally--helps wash it away.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 20, 2015
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Their decision to fuse the songs with a series of spaced-out instrumental passages is indulgent, to be sure, but the album's breathless, genre-spanning ambition makes it easy to forgive.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Mar 14, 2011
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Though new vocalist William DuVall doesn't have his predecessor's talent for shaping Seattle sludge into molten-dread anthems, founder Jerry Cantrell's expressively torpid guitar steps up to become its own kind of lead voice.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 18, 2013
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Singer Ian Watkins has Mike Patton's croon/scream down cold, and his group deftly applies FNM's anything-goes approach: equal parts thrash riffs, symphonic keyboards and moody jazz intervals.- Rolling Stone
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This is a missed opportunity--there aren’t many artists out there right now hurling out James Brown-like screams over dissonant, programmed beats--and it’s indicative of the overall timidity at work on Young Sick Camellia.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 10, 2018
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Any faults just add to Swimmin' Time instead of diminishing the sincerity of this full, flavorful record.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 29, 2014
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There are few surprises here, but The Best Damn Thing is totally fearless about targeting pop radio and rather expert in its execution.- Rolling Stone
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Its mildly art-damaged sound is just right for indie kids who like their beauty a little messy.- Rolling Stone
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Other tracks--from the joyful 'The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World' to the anxiety ode 'My Brain Is Working Overtime'--feel slightly undercooked. But they offer an intimate look at Cuomo's songwriting process --and proof that he truly needs his bandmates.- Rolling Stone
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The storm of guitars here is proof enough that he's still alive and kicking.- Rolling Stone
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It's Wye Oak's arrangements--feedback blasts, tape-loop-like effects, violin and pedal steel sighs--that turn standard indie-rock ballads into unusually evocative mood music.- Rolling Stone
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A mellow concoction of atmospheric textures, electronic samples and funk-lite beats.- Rolling Stone
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- Critic Score
Miller's grown-ass beats clash with his juvenile boasts, so he often ends up sounding like a well-meaning kid who can't stop putting his kicks up on the fancy furniture.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 19, 2016
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Haunting as the results may be, they are distinctly lacking in Bjork's own musical personality and her greatest asset: her inimitable voice. [8 Sep 2005, p.112]- Rolling Stone
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 21, 2014
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Getting serious doesn't really suit him, especially with tedious ballads about finding the Lord.- Rolling Stone
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Michael’s pop instincts--not to mention some warm, jumpy beats from up-and-coming producers like Shea Taylor--keep him afloat- Rolling Stone
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'Roverfrenz,' an airy synth fantasia with Animal Collective-ish percussion, gets by on neato textures instead of sharp tunes. In general, Rewild could use a little more of the latter, but who has time for that when you're knee-deep in giant guitars and weird ambient vocalizations?- Rolling Stone
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Hot Shots II does its best to return to the epic soundscapes of The Three E.P.'s; the long grooves and easy melodies are back, and the band's tendency toward the diffuse has been reined in.- Rolling Stone
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His eighth album fuses lordly self-mythologizing with epic self-searching.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Dec 21, 2012
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Tedeschi has chops, charm, and a workmanlike style that could at times use some pizzazz.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 5, 2016
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These Detroit rockers emerge with an album that's pop-friendly but raucous enough to park in a Motor City garage.- Rolling Stone
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After missing the mark with his robotic, soulless 2005 debut, Juan comes to life on this follow–up, giving us stretched–out, club–wrecking grooves.- Rolling Stone
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The duo's mean, scrappy eighth album is the first to truly embrace their underdog status, wrapping itself in the low-fi, Walkman-ready vibe that has dominated the best of founding members Prodigy's and Havoc's solo work on indie labels.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 17, 2014
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[All Fall Down] is a dark journey lyrically: Good folks fail, lovers betray, salvation is an even bet at best. But the music... heals.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 29, 2012
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Sorry isn't in the same league as those Drought tapes, but it's freewheeling fun--and it makes you look forward to the next Carter.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Aug 3, 2011
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[YOKOKIMTHURSTON] distills the kind of audio radicalism these three have channeled into pop music for decades.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 25, 2012
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The like-minded follow-up enlists Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann, who highlights the tingly interplay between acoustic and electronic instruments and the processed vocals, which generally sound like T-Pain tripping his balls off.- Rolling Stone
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Johnson is back on sunnier acoustic ground here, exploring interesting open tunings on some of the crispest songs he's ever written.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 17, 2013
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Indie rock's cult of schlubby singing doesn't always merge with the Chieftains' crystalline professionalism.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 21, 2012
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Mika's faith in the campy excess of Freddie Mercury/Elton John-style pomp pop is bracing. But over the course of an album, the shtick's charm erodes.- Rolling Stone
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Singh sounds a little more blissed out than before--but every bit as appealing.- Rolling Stone
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The ex-Jam frontman careens from folky piffle to respectable bar-band stomp.- Rolling Stone
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Audio, Video, Disco preserves the ginormo beats and synth bass of Justice's club jams while adding Seventies-style arena rock.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 25, 2011
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Jet are at their best in the high power-riff gear of "Stand Up" and "Rip It Up"... with singer-guitarist Nic Chester barking and bawling like an improbable trinity of Liam Gallagher, Bon Scott and Axl Rose. When those songs take off, you fly.- Rolling Stone
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With this solo alter ego, he digs into his gloomy-balladeer side.- Rolling Stone
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Not every performance is memorable, and the absence of younger fans is a missed opportunity.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 1, 2014
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- Rolling Stone
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White Pony ends up being more accessible than the group's two previous albums, because it's not a half-formed mess but a classic alternative-rock album, as gentle and catchy as it is dark.- Rolling Stone
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Left on his own, Scott can grow tiresome. "I Can Tell" sounds monochromatic without another voice to push this astute curator. Some rock stars are better leading bands than going solo.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 4, 2015
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It plays like the latest chapter in his ongoing recent Tom-Petty-meets-the-Smiths re-imagining of the Reagan years.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 24, 2015
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The sixth album by this neocommunalist, neopsychedelic quartet improves on 2005's "Feels," flashing more shards of tune to lure the coeds with the Coleman PerfectFlow InstaStart Lanterns over to their adamantly unkempt campfire.- Rolling Stone
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While Grobler's music often bursts with light, frivolous energy, this album has an undertone of dissatisfaction that's new.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 5, 2016
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Half of Free All Angels sinks under sluggish ballad tempos, sour strings and, in "Submission," unnecessary electronica. But the half that doesn't, such as "Walking Barefoot," is solid chain-saw fun, some of the best '77 you'll hear in 2002.- Rolling Stone
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Takes things even further into 7-Eleven parking-lot bliss. [19 Aug 2004, p.120]- Rolling Stone
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Nothing else on Bleachers' debut quite reaches ["I Wanna Get Better's"] height, and enticing collaborations with art-pop heavies like Yoko Ono fall flat. But the bright ideas keep coming like mosquitoes at a backyard BBQ.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jul 15, 2014
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The self-produced LP swirls drones and uncharacteristic electronics behind evanescent imagery. That it's hard to grasp just makes it more seductive.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 3, 2013
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So much intensity can be unnerving coming from a man in his late fifties--but Idol makes up for it on the carefree "Can't Break Me Down," a punky pop tune with a "bang bang bang" chorus catchier than anything Fall Out Boy have written lately.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 21, 2014
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He hones his best Cars, Harry Nilsson and Wilco moves into a personally revealing breakup record.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 7, 2012
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- Rolling Stone
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There are big, well-crafted hooks on the Oasis-y "The Mansion" and the melancholy slow-burner "Indentions," though they're often stuck in clunky arrangements and muddy self-production.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 4, 2014
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The Lips have always been able to subvert pie-eyed whimsy with a sense of homespun beauty, and there's plenty of that here too.- Rolling Stone
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Hansard too often lapses into his trademark brooding melodrama--an easy fallback for a singer who's at his best, nowadays, when he's trying something new.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 14, 2015
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As mild as the music might often sound, this is an album that cuts deep.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 21, 2014
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Teenage Dream is the kind of pool-party-pop gem that Gwen Stefani used to crank out on the regular, full of SoCal ambience and disco beats.- Rolling Stone
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The duo are most engaging when they keep at least one foot on the dancefloor. Elsewhere, their interest in after-hours vibes can rob their music of its forward motion.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 9, 2016
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The second Fifth Harmony LP isn't a massive step forward, but with a constant bombardment of hooks, high energy and incredible harmony there's not much time to catch your breath to compare.- Rolling Stone
- Posted May 27, 2016
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The album was inspired by world travel, but it has a pleasantly isolated feel: a portable home, conjured between headphones.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Jun 11, 2013
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- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 14, 2015
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Clarkson remains a slightly wearying one-note artist--she's a wounded lover, bellowing her pain and scorching the earth. But wow--that voice.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Oct 25, 2011
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Shock Value doesn't feel as random and indistinct as many albums by producers using all-star lineups do. [19 Apr 2007, p.62]- Rolling Stone
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This album is Carrabba's rather reasonable pop petition to be dealt back into a game he started.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Feb 9, 2018
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His finest songs are always his romantic ballads, and the best one here also sounds like the one he wrote the quickest.- Rolling Stone
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There are missed opportunities--the She & Him track is slight, and a rumored Frank Ocean team-up is sadly absent--and a few too many retreads (the "Sloop John B"-ish "Sail Away"), although the harmonies do sound grand with Al Jardine and other Beach Boys teammates on board.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Apr 7, 2015
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- Rolling Stone
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Evokes the singer-songwriter atmospherics of Carole King and Elton John. [24 Jun 2004, p.170]- Rolling Stone
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Some tracks, like "Got My Mojo Working" (a vocal duet with Shemekia Copeland), smolder without catching fire. Others, like a drum-looped "Mannish Boy," spark by breaking tradition. All testify to the eternal flame of a master--the original rollin' stone.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 3, 2015
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Rateliff hasn't completely forgotten his folkie past: The wistful "Wasting Time" shows that he can still kill you softly.- Rolling Stone
- Posted Sep 10, 2015
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