The 405's Scores

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For 1,530 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 57% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 39% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 To Pimp A Butterfly
Lowest review score: 15 Revival
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,296 out of 1530
  2. Mixed: 209 out of 1530
  3. Negative: 25 out of 1530
1530 music reviews
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    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Kunk
    The laziness of lyrical passages, directionless structures, odd lyric rip-offs ('Goon Line' and 'Void' are culprits), and poor mixing works together with the band to hold this record down much lower than its potential.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Secret History, Vol. 1
    If you've already heard 2002's tenth-anniversary reissue of the group's debut album, Slanted and Enchanted, then you've already heard everything compiled here.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Green Lanes
    Although Green Lanes is a total bore, it is cool how they bear this mask on a handful of different songs. They've made that style of storytelling their own.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Communion
    Communion may be the end result of years of refinement, but you can't help but feel it was reached on someone else's terms.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Freedom
    Freedom is nothing more than an exercise in competent stadium rock.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In Colour
    In Colour breaks no new ground to be sure, but as an accessible crossover record it does a perfectly serviceable job. It's light, breezy and pretty, as ephemeral as the exhilaration of clubbing without really evoking the thrill of it all.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Boys
    There's a cracking EP in amongst the tracks on Boys, but no shortage of filler, too.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Before We Forgot How to Dream
    While it is a solid, if unspectacular debut with promise for the future, it's difficult to fight the feeling that Before We Forgot How To Dream is an album which hides behind big production because it is afraid to be intimate.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Universal Themes
    It has interesting moments and one cannot really fault Kozelek for looking to present a different narrative than his previous record. But there is no denying that Benji set a high bar and this record borrows elements from it, but does so with disappointing results.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    No Control
    Turbo Fruits feel weightless, airless. The smooth production only makes the disappointing lack of clarity all the more unfortunate. I don't know who or what this album is for.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cherry Bomb
    While Cherry Bomb's low moments hold back the album's highlights, hopefully the high points are a sign of things to come.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Edge of the Sun
    The ideas are fleshed out so well sometimes, and it's upsetting that I have to wait until 'City' to once again get to a place where the records conciseness is shared with its depth.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lease Of Life
    Though undoubtedly a handsome package, the experience of Lease of Life as a whole feels somewhat insubstantial; its impact is elusive while any real staying power is negligible at best.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Another Eternity
    James and Roddick clearly have their sights set on mainstream success, but are instead in danger of sounding like one of the many pretenders that their first album spawned, rather than smart, subtly innovative band they once were.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Soft Control
    There is precious little personality to be found on this dry, pedestrian record, which comes across as a selection of yawn-worthy Adele-rejects rather than a cohesive body of work from a singular artist.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Messier Objects
    Ultimately though, Messier Objects feels like a collector's curio.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    All Hands
    It's not a terrible record, but given the weight of expectation and the creativity we've seen from them before, this just feels like a step backwards.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sunne [EP]
    Clocking in at just over twelve minutes, Sunne is a jarringly short EP in a genre that has always been characterised by these expansive and immersive albums.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Chants for Socialists
    Darren Hayman has undoubtedly done a good thing here, and so it seems a shame that the musical result sounds so uninspiring.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments, Pt. 2 [EP]
    It's disappointing in some ways that quite a chunk of the record feels like offcuts; of precisely what, we can only wonder.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Vestiges & Claws
    Although it is by no means a bad record, it just represents the first time that he has lost the emotional power that has previously made him so much more than just a man with a guitar.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Nights in the Dark
    There's no doubting their technical ability, but it counts for little this time around; the hooks that seemed to be the cornerstone of their songwriting last time out are missing in action on this occasion.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cowboy Worship [EP]
    At the end of the day, an outtakes record only appeals to super-fans and aficionados. Cowboy Worship is an interesting look at the evolution of Amen Dunes, but it doesn't add much to their oeuvre.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Restriction
    It is a shame, as when this album shines, with tracks like 'Kid Corner' and even 'Ruination', it seems like Archive could have really been onto something here, but have just missed the mark.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fantastic Planet
    Noveller has created a pretty, stretched, tasteful, insubstantial record.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Pinkprint
    The album features far too many flabby hip-hop/pop and pop songs.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    2014 Forest Hills Drive
    Quite possibly rushed so the house number could match the year, J. Cole's latest album is a damn good attempt, but it just isn't the real deal.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Kykeon
    This collection of tracks could be spunked on by a Joe Satriani-type noodle, and individually each member could break free and have their moment to shine, but instead they shun solos and move as unit, maintaining collective power and defiantly sticking to their modus operandi.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rhyton
    This latest effort isn't comparable with the visceral exoticness that Jimmy Page began to find on Physical Graffiti, but a more focused and staunchly unified project, designed to push the conventions of improvisational rock music and provide Rhyton's competent credentials with actual substance.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hold It In
    Both the fact that this effectively represents a collaborative effort and also that there's three different singers across the album's twelve tracks are probably reasons behind the fact that it feels like a pretty diffuse collection of songs; the only real unifying characteristic to Hold It In's songs are their punishing level of loudness.
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