Sputnikmusic's Scores

  • Music
For 2,395 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:
2395 music reviews
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She
    It's not only a testament to her sheer persistence as an artist, but also a powerful soul record that showcases her remarkable vocal talent with a concise collection of expertly performed songs.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It makes for a surprisingly fun and varied record. Yet, that's not to say that the record is without its foibles. The biggest problem is Die Knowing never comes into its own.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Alpha is easily the band's most accessible album to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In its best moments, Day to Day basks in routine humdrum, making it a bit more magical.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Hours upon hours of material is present for listeners, the hardcore and the uninitiated alike, to indulge in; the five-pound box provides listeners with a potentially new outlook on this underappreciated era of King Crimson, and is guaranteed to be worth the price of entry just for the fleeting mellotron strains of “Lizard” alone.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Yolk in the Fur is a statement album. It’s an experience that flows effortlessly, combining a glistening, guitar-driven atmosphere with romantically-charged lyrics that make the whole thing nearly impossible to resist.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Maybe this album is the fire; the guitar melodies on songs like Strong References and Avoidarama certainly blaze a scorching trail through the middle of rhythm section. But on a record where those blistering tones are juxtaposed against lines like ”Find an oven, stick my head in”, I’m assuming that tenacity isn’t a by-product of optimism so much as it is a spiteful response to expectation and convention. That, my guys, is more punk than vandalizing GG Allin’s gravestone.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This can be a polarizing LP, especially for fans who are turned on by their poppier side (myself included) or ‘90s works. In spite of that, I believe this musical vertigo is actually a minutely crafted conceptual piece that represents a peak in their career.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    He appears to have trusted his instincts and let his wildest artistic ambitions loose and breathe on their own. The mood of Fear in a Handful of Dust conjures all sorts of imagery, especially of the mysterious. Amon Tobin’s evolution as a writer and producer is felt, having some of the most engaging and depthful moments of his career.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We may need more time to determine where Jaye Jayle falls on the spectrum dark and depressing 80s-tinged rock, but Prisyn will immediately step in as one of the best – and most befitting – post-apocalyptic records of 2020.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    If you’re a fan of Static-X, this is a candid labour of love that moves away from the stigma these releases are known for. It might not be reinventing the wheel, and it may sound like a time capsule dug up from the nu-metal burial ground, but for fans of that time period or fans of the band, there’s no denying its charm.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mieke has undoubtedly struck gold with her sophomore album, notching a significant improvement from her already-respectable debut.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Variables is not only much more ambitious than its predecessor (sorry Bring Backs), but also the most forward-thinking album Alfa Mist has put to wax thus far, and an experience far more suited to ruminative cigarettes by candlelight than vape-assisted marathon study sessions.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The shockingly honest debut is more comparable to the work of Sharon Van Etten than any of Williams' contemporaries in the pop-punk scene; not in the music itself, but the way both women use music as an outlet, in the aftermath of years-long relationships where they were demeaned and made to feel worthless.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    All of the songs here have excellent qualities to them but have their momentum jarred by some by-the-numbers moments. ... These flaws are not new though, and they don’t stop Senjutsu from being another solid album in the new-millennium Iron Maiden catalogue.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Patient, attentive listeners that take the time to find Magus’s secrets will be justly rewarded, as there’s a lot to be dissected here.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It remains to be seen whether Down Below will have significant replay value but everything sounds so meticulously crafted that each listen results in a different highlight. Everything that Tribulation seem to have lost in aggression, they have gained in haunting atmosphere and hooks.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Overall, the journey Everything Was Beautiful creates is definitely more entrancing and vivid than And Nothing Hurt.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Angels and Devils is a triumph of anguish, needles and monsters and evil in aural form. Be warned.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Celebration Rock is near-perfect in what it sets out to do: making people happy, bringing them together.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    If you’ve enjoyed Holter to this point, it is worth investing the necessary time. Aviary touches every corner of her sound, resulting in an enchanting, if slightly dizzying, fifth album.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All in all, TNGHT is a tremendous and kaleidoscopic introduction to a dream production duo that has already turned heads (HudMo has spent the last few months keeping Kanye on point), and it shows that TNGHT has only just begun.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Where Circles succeeds, where it becomes a graceful and elegant piece of art rather than an experimental excursion, is in finding the perfect subject matter for its laidback meanderings. Quite simply, these songs are dispatches from a day in the life of Mac Miller.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Kris Esfandiari and her team have created something truly special with this album, a musical piece where the divine is given voice and flesh to envision what is Kris' most honest and enrapturing work of her prolific career, and be sure it won't be the last one.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Brown still raps like he's from the future, it's just a timeline less removed from ours where Tribe Called Quest nostalgia and retro instrumentation is fully in vogue. Of course, this being Danny Brown we're never getting an easy meal, and some of the best moments see him shaking it up once again.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hebrews is a wholly new kind of album for the band. Is it cheesy, over the top and a little too saccharine? Yeah, but the first two of those apply in spades to the first couple Say anything records anyways, and honestly I’d rather have someone singing sweet nothings to me when they’re in their 30’s than try and continue spewing venomous bile that they haven't believed in since their early 20's.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Titans of Creation Testament have released another excellent thrasher that proves they’re still the most reliable band of the original thrash era.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The resultant journey is a jittery, joyous, glorious, gleaming mess: substantially less coherent than their previous outings, but no less endearing.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cruel Country might get a little sleepy at times, but it’s a rather impressively compelling listen, given its intimidating length. There’s a lot of beauty and feeling to be unearthed here, and the album greatly rewards further listening.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It's certainly an all-encompassing, monolithic piece of work, an album that'll make a bunch of people suddenly relieved that there's another Swans album, in a we've missed you kind of way.