Salon's Scores

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For 52 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 Essence
Lowest review score: 20 Songs From an American Movie Vol. One: Learning How to Smile
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 41 out of 52
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 52
  3. Negative: 5 out of 52
52 music reviews
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    • 88 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Where Shall You Take Me
    Jurado's songwriting is solid, if sometimes slightly bland -- but a lack of idiosyncrasy is to be expected when an artist references such a recognizable, well-mined sound.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pig Lib
    Sprawls in all directions, effortlessly spanning the gap between breezy pop and hard rock.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Supper
    "Supper" is Callahan's equivalent of Dylan's "New Morning." It's the work of a competent, seasoned songwriting veteran who exudes confidence.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Neon Golden
    Elegant and subtle, "Neon Golden" convincingly balances the scales of pop and glitch electronics and is the best argument yet for combining the two.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Are Free
    An evocative composite of soulful melodies, with stripped-down piano and hushed guitar-and-vocal ballads.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One Bedroom
    It's the gurgling electronic underpinnings and distinctly cheerful '70s synth chimes that make the difference here, adding needed texture and distracting from overly rigid rhythmic structures.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Phrenology
    By taking a new path with their music the Roots succeed in both staying relevant and momentous.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Last Night
    A precocious concoction of R&B, jazz and rock.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Quality
    Despite his best intentions, it seems, Kweli's best songs on the record move away from social criticism and into more conventional hip-hop subjects.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Under Construction
    Missy scores the highest marks in the qualities shared by all gifted rappers: rhymes, flow, cleverness and style.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A New Day At Midnight
    A work of exceptional songwriting, performance and production.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yanqui U.X.O.
    A difficult and rewarding thrill.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Close Cover Before Striking [EP]
    The short album feels fully realized -- immediate and raw all at once -- just as rock ought to be.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Up
    Gabriel's greatest achievement is that his technical sophistication actually encourages a fully organic and man-made sound.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Creek Drank The Cradle
    Spartan and unadorned, the naked sincerity of the record is heartbreaking.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Eminem Show
    We're unlikely to hear another platinum-selling album in 2002 that sounds as tired and thoroughly played out as the fourth offering from the troubled young Marshall Mathers.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Veni Vidi Vicious
    Those dependable fuzz tones never get tired, so long as they're accompanied by a propulsive backbeat, maximum adrenaline and a modicum of melody, and Sweden's Hives have all of that.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    When I Was Cruel
    If the performances here reclaimed the sputtering, spastic fury of Elvis and the Attractions in their prime, it might not matter that Costello came to play without indelible melodies and jaw-dropping lyrics, but they really don't and he largely did.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Stereo
    Two CDs that brim with primitive optimism, as the music shuffles between naked, moody pop (Stereo) to gritty indie rock (Mono) -- like the Replacements, but with half the noise on hold.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Walking With Thee
    It's the unsettling undercurrent of angst and unease with the modern world that's earning this group comparisons to the favorite art punks of the moment, Radiohead. But Clinic's songs are much less static and harshly digital, and much more groove-oriented.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Under Rug Swept
    Time and again she comes across as the glum, joyless, self-centered sophomore with the dog-eared copy of "The Bell Jar" in her Hello Kitty backpack.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Come With Us
    It's excellently crafted, grandiose and rousing, and right now, it sounds ridiculous.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Essence
    It's a nervy progression, almost necessarily uneven because of the risks it takes, balancing a grace that soars toward aching perfection with an intimacy that elicits a squirmy discomfort.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Songs From an American Movie Vol. One: Learning How to Smile
    It wants a hit so bad -- wants to be so many things to so many people -- that you can feel the songs audibly buckling from all the promises it doles out.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Invincible Summer
    The songs on "Invincible Summer," nearly all of them written by lang and various partners, aren't up to the standard of those on "Drag".... But the lyrics finally don't matter much because the record holds together as a mood piece.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ovalprocess
    Past Oval projects have always worked just as well as plain old "music"... "Ovalprocess," however, is about process -- and process only. The problem is, it's more interesting to talk about than to listen to.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Pop Trash
    A mediocre Britpop album.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Moon & Antarctica
    A visit to desolate regions... a 60-minute, 15-song treatise on isolation, displacement and a seemingly bottomless spiritual void.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Transcendental Blues
    "Transcendental Blues" is a deeply personal album steeped in pain and loneliness.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
    Slow of tempo and devoid of the irony and insouciance that made Belle & Sebastian semi-famous among record store employees and their friends.
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