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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    • 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.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Transcendental Blues
    "Transcendental Blues" is a deeply personal album steeped in pain and loneliness.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Phrenology
    By taking a new path with their music the Roots succeed in both staying relevant and momentous.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Creek Drank The Cradle
    Spartan and unadorned, the naked sincerity of the record is heartbreaking.
    • 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.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Remedy
    Basement Jaxx renovates the old house and gives it enough bad attitude to match the current trends of dark drum 'n' bass and hard electro.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Original Motion Picture Score for The Virgin Suicides
    They've created a score alive with alternating currents of portentous noir atmosphere, sentimentality and playfulness, one that, amazingly, evokes mid-'70s suburbia without ever seeming campy or obviously retro.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Winners Never Quit
    There's a tragic humanism in these songs that almost recalls "Dead Man Walking".... There's a rare depth beneath his subtle guitar and tired, textured voice, one that resonates beyond any little musical coterie.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A New Day At Midnight
    A work of exceptional songwriting, performance and production.
    • 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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Covers Record
    Rarely, though, do artists completely strip original material of all familiarity and reconstruct them in their own sensibility the way that Cat Power has here.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Marshall Mathers LP
    An airtight masterpiece of rhyme-
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gung Ho
    Smith veers from anthems to open-ended jams to downright funky ditties.... her voice is still rich with power and conviction and fresh with vigor and life.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Noise Made By People
    Broadcast manipulate their equipment to give the music the rangy pulse of jazz. It's electronic, but not shot full of skittering beats. The extra charge comes from the girl out front.
    • 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.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Play
    On his cunningly crafted CD, the restless techno composer cleverly constructs a bridge between electronic dance music and the black Southern styles that form the basis of most American rock and pop.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Communicate
    It's about as close as someone can come to hearing what they sound like at Twilo without visiting the club.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pieces In A Modern Style
    Orbit makes these compositions so much his own that "Pieces" doesn't seem like much of a departure from Orbit's "Strange Cargo" series of solo ambient albums.... beyond the whiff of new-agey preciousness that hangs over the project, the record is beautiful and moving.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Pt. 2)
    A return to the gorgeously crisp electric pop Partridge has been writing for more than 20 years.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yanqui U.X.O.
    A difficult and rewarding thrill.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When The Pawn...
    There's more to admire on "When the Pawn ..." than mere displays of guts, but if nothing else, it's the best non-apology since Madonna's "Human Nature."
    • 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
    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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Geometrid
    In inventing an overarching statement about modern technology, Looper has created a work that is surprisingly old-fashioned and quaint.... Though filled with pops and hisses and high-pitched squeals culled from an increasingly gadgetized world, the record remains enchantingly melodic and tuneful.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Are Free
    An evocative composite of soulful melodies, with stripped-down piano and hushed guitar-and-vocal ballads.
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