Spin's Scores

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For 4,248 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 To Pimp A Butterfly
Lowest review score: 0 They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,046 out of 4248
  2. Mixed: 1,147 out of 4248
  3. Negative: 55 out of 4248
4248 music reviews
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    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    By the Way I Forgive You
    Brandi Carlile works too hard on By The Way I Forgive You, and though sometimes this results in songs haunted by mourning, it also leads to songs that collapse into bathos.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Researching the Blues
    So, every sha la la-la and wo-o-wo-o still shines, as the brothers McDonald once crooned in Carpenters cover "Yesterday Once More" (which reached No. 45 hit on the charts in England!), or at least sort of shines: Cleaner production might've buried the vocals less.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Burst Apart
    The Antlers still summon widescreen, dramatic moments when their moody tangents cohere, but too many songs sacrifice substance for prettiness, gliding by forgettably.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Your Future Our Clutter
    If the ranting occasionally suggests generic provocation for its own sake, Smith's fury, amplified by the pounding grooves, is oddly uplifting--in moderate doses.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Goon
    The majority of cuts on Goon still feel like demos: languidly spaced chords, carefully measured arpeggiation, and hardly anything so gauche as a groove. The twinkle, such as it is, comes from the vocal.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sycamore Meadows
    Even when he's bumming, though, Walker still finds comfort in a good groove or a tart horn chart.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Palo Santo
    Beaty and bouncy but less meaty, Palo Santo is for now an unsatisfying follow-up to a terrific debut.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fantasy Black Channel
    The quartet's fervent debut, produced by DJ Erol Alkan, offers a fabulous simulation of '80s new wave, with burping, sputtering synths and sleazy, Bowie-inspired crooning from frontman Sam Eastgate.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Damaged
    Kurt Wagner's conversational croak is, charitably put, an acquired taste. [Sep 2006, p.106]
    • Spin
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ruff Draft [Reissue]
    Though Dilla's rapping is never more than competent, Ruff Draft is still a platform for the versatility of his eccentric genius. [Apr 2007, p.88]
    • Spin
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mangy Love
    Mangy Love, his eighth album, now finds him on the Anti- label and like the title suggests, it shows divergent aspects of Cass, at his most subtle, resonant, and resplendent, and at others, his most maddeningly repetitive and scabby.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jay Stay Paid
    With peaks and valleys, Stay Paid is patchwork, but Dilla's brilliance remains stunningly apparent.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast
    More danceable (and vulgar) than previous releases.
    • Spin
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    God's Son
    Nas' heart is in the right place but his mind is somewhere else entirely. [March 2003, p.119]
    • Spin
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's a Wonderful Life
    It's a Wonderful Life comes off like a Magical Soft Mystery Bulletin. Yet, those iridescent orchestrations seem to be covering for the underdeveloped dirges that dominate the album. [Oct 2001, p.127]
    • Spin
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bonfires On The Heath
    Though Bonfires' pacing is erratic, the band keeps winsome romance close.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Drums And Guns
    The production is as overwrought as the antiwar themes. [Apr 2007, p.88]
    • Spin
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    11:11
    Mainly they noodle through indeterminate world-music jams that’d feel equally ignorable at mud festivals and at ethnic restaurants.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    You Are Not Alone
    Tweedy's influence shows primarily on the two songs he wrote, especially the stoic title-track ballad. Yet the album's best moment belongs solely to Staples--a spare version of Randy Newman's "Losing You" that might well stand as definitive.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Offend Maggie
    The inspired moments of sunny pop and weirdo noise seem effortless, but so does all the aimless jamming.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Icky Thump
    A noisy, cranky piece of work. [Jul 2007, p.91]
    • Spin
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    April
    On their third album, this San Francisco–based, Mark Kozelek–led bunch stumble over saccharine set-opener "Lost Verses" (which channels icky Young wannabes America with less success than Midlake) en route to a beautifully depressing array of funereal folk.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tones Of Town
    For all its obvious wit and fizzy energy, Tones of Town ultimately feels self-congratulatory and a bit cold-hearted. [Feb 2007, p.83]
    • Spin
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Street Horrrsing
    When they ease back on the overdriven electronic intensity, Street Horrsing works tribal, tracelike wonders. [Apr 2008, p.98]
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rainwater Cassette Exchange
    A few tracks seem unfinished, but Deerhunter's obsession with oblivion remains as intact as always.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Drop
    Sometimes the album sounds backward when it isn't. Rarely does it sound like one person squeaking out notes in succession--more like a bunch of dudes filling a tape with improvisations, rewinding to the cool parts and haranguing some hapless studio engineer to razorblade it all together.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Earthly Delights
    Their unholy fuzz feels less triumphant, and the Helmet impression in opener 'Sound Guardians' is some kind of weird. Still, Lightning Bolt's basement has never sounded bigger.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It, There is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret
    On their third album, these dizzying British metalcore chemists swing erratically in an effort to shake genre conventions, flirting with dystopic Max Headroom stutter, electro gloom, and tender indie-folk cuddles.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
    Though a handful of tracks sparkle, Under Ocean Blvd is a chore to ingest across its regularly lulling 77 minutes. ... Yes, Del Rey sings beautifully and will rightfully be recognized as a veritable voice of her generation — both in technique and disillusion — but here the cool distance she’s maintained between herself and listeners feels more expansive than ever.
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