Sputnikmusic's Scores

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For 2,396 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 45% 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 The Seer
Lowest review score: 10 The Path of Totality
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,774 out of 2396
  2. Mixed: 543 out of 2396
  3. Negative: 79 out of 2396
2396 music reviews
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Volume One
    She & Him's debut release is more like a collection of songs rather than a cohesive, fresh album, and as such, is a letdown for a singer that showed a lot of promise.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    Amok
    Apart from a precious few exceptions, none of the gathered musicians seem able nor willing to push each other into new musical territory that could yield fresh revelations about their union.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Fiction
    Overinflated and squealing: it is not more than the sum of its parts. One hundred thousand good ideas, it turns out, are not enough to make an album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Reunion Tour
    The Weakerthans are still writing pretty, tender music, but they seem to have lost their immediacy and potency.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Be the Void
    All of the material here is passable, with a few highlights that will surely leave a positive impression on listeners.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mala in Cuba
    This unconventional marriage winds up being one that's most conventional, with the traffic of conversation decidedly one way.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pale Communion
    Meandering, extremely derivative 2000's metal.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    I Love You. It's a Fever Dream
    There's No Leaving Now was almost as good as The Wild Hunt--and now I Love You. It’s a Fever Dream. is almost as good as There's No Leaving Now. It’s diminishing returns on the same approach, and with this album we’ll definitely find ourselves satisfied yet again--only with another layer of appreciation eroded.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Desired Effect
    The standout tracks are strong enough to carry the album, which means that it will probably resonate with listeners who don’t mind putting up with lengthy passages of fluff in between those moments of grandeur.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Smile
    Smile does have it's special moments, but the problem is that they never amount to anything better than the star parts on their previous efforts.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Humbug
    If Turner can return to his best--and there's reason to suspect he can't--then the possibilities open to them are potentially limitless. Then, Humbug will be seen a stepping stone. That's certainly how it feels now.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Promise Everything
    Ultimately, Promise Everything is a solid collection of songs written by a band that, over the course of 3 albums, have shown that they rarely write a bad song. However, the majority of the songs feel a little too secure within their own skin; a little too tentative to deviate from the safety of their rough midtempo origins.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    Welcome Home
    The inherent problems which bog Welcome Home down largely stem from superficial writing. This is nothing new for the band, but for a record centring itself around Vinnie, the lyrics feel like they’re skirting around the topic in a humdrum manner in favour of really getting into the nitty-gritty of it all.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Belle and Sebastian Write About Love
    At the end of the day, the title Write About Love turned out to be just as bland as the music it pertained to.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Luv Is Rage 2
    A lot of tracks start off OK, but his flow and style are so unfocused and muddled the songs become a chore to sit through.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Physical World
    At times The Physical World feels like the real deal, at others a pale imitation of a too-distinct aesthetic.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Gallipoli
    For its faults, Gallipoli is nice. It’s pleasant. But it’s the type of nice that makes you wonder if there was any substance there at all.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    End
    End is better than passable - I’ve heard far worse even in its genre. But, as things are, this record feels redundant. Explosions in the Sky, at this stage of their careers, need to give us a whole lot more in order to really deliver. Maybe that’s not fair, but let me tell ya somethin’, kid: life ain’t always fair.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Immolate Yourself
    Immolate Yourself is a finely produced record, and still features a good chunk of material worth listening to, even if it doesn't exactly stack up with the duo's previous efforts.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Personality
    It's an important album for Scuba, as a means of transition, of mastering his new craft. It's just not a terribly important album for the rest of us.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 46 Critic Score
    The Afterman: Descension
    All in all, not the death knell that it could have been but not the triumphant return it so could have been at the same time, Descension is another addition to the Coheed saga.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shangri-La
    Whatever they ought to be doing is lost in mess of lame ideas buoyed by big hooks and pop flourishes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hats Off To The Buskers
    For the most part Hats Off To The Buskers is second-tier British post-punk.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Killer
    While it still sounds fresh it's still wearing the same threads, still talking in the same voice and moving in exactly the same way.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV
    Almost every song is terribly alike--each featuring the same hallmarks Nadja’s become known for, besides their most important aspect, being their relentless creativity--and this bland similarity becomes taxing.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    The Future Bites
    The Future Bites traverses a strange course ripe with rewarding avenues and detours of failed attempts alike. It’s nothing if not fascinating, and will perhaps be more rewarding to those with a high tolerance for unorthodox marriage of various elements influenced by Prince, 1980s pop, modern electronic music, and alternative rock.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Dreamer/The Believer
    Common's latest shows him with his head in the clouds and addressing the same tired crowd with the same speech he's been writing for years.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Wonky
    Wonky is a work full of many flaws and too few shining moments, but as ammunition for the obvious tours to follow, there's enough here to be effective enough in a large enough setting.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lifeline
    Harper sounds hardly inspired even in a city like Paris, and his homage to past artists sounds like cheap imitation more than anything.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Polaris
    Polaris is well-produced (even if the bass is dialed in several clicks too high), decently written, and properly executed for what it is. Critically speaking, however, it takes few musical risks and fails to launch any sort of vocal or instrumental melody, relegating it to a position as the sort of album you could take or leave in an artist's discography.
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