The A.V. Club's Scores

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For 4,544 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 64% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 The Life Of Pablo
Lowest review score: 0 Graffiti
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,663 out of 4544
  2. Mixed: 771 out of 4544
  3. Negative: 110 out of 4544
4544 music reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Spirit If...
    Drew makes the most of his solo-album freedom on 'Lucky Ones,' doubling piano and guitar into a hook that, in just a few notes, matches the wonder of any number of BSS songs.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    In Our Nature
    In Our Nature is every bit as lovely as "Veneer," obscuring its darker moods in music as delicately bewitching as a morning mist.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    We Are Him
    Gira's range of tone and emotion is given open pasture here, and We Are Him is one his strongest, most horrifically hypnotic works yet.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Shade Of Poison Trees
    He's abandoned the approach [strummy sing-alongs] long enough to realize its every nuance, and such prowess turns a plaintive ballad like 'The Widow's Peak' into something more timeless than a mere emo lament.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Good Bad Not Evil
    It might take a lot of effort to sound this effortless, but Good Bad Not Evil is a goofy pleasure.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Flying Club Cup
    Condon's theatrical croon and rich string arrangements hold the album together while it tells a musical story about the acculturation of the boozy.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Random Spirit Lover
    Sporting more burps and squiggles per square inch than your average rumpus room, Lover teems with intricate guitars, icing-sweet synthesizers, and Krug's delicately chiseled harmonies.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Comicopera
    Really, all of Comicopera rolls deliriously over pillowy layers of sound
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Black And White Album
    The Black And White Album continues its predecessors' winning trend.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blackout
    Every song counts as markedly progressive and strange, from 'Get Naked (I Got A Plan)' (which sounds like intergalactic R&B filtered through The Cure's "Pornography") to 'Freakshow,' which gets by on little more than serpentine snaps, wub-wub bass, and Britney sounding synthetic and irresistibly at home.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Raising Sand
    At just under an hour, Raising Sand borders on indulgent sometimes.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    100 Days, 100 Nights
    They sound like they've matured in isolation, developing flavors that didn't exist in 1967.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    In Defense Of The Genre
    Bemis has concocted a deliciously confounding album that transcends emo more than defends it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hvarf/Heim
    Von (the title track and 'Hafsól') absolutely crush the originals in scope, especially the latter, which stretches to nearly 10 glorious minutes. But the second disc, Heim, is even better.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Smoke
    The world probably doesn't need a new Beck, but Smoke proves there's one floating around, just in case.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Frank
    Frank inevitably feels like a warm-up for Black, but as rough drafts go, this one's a keeper.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Alive 2007
    The intensity simply builds and builds, until it becomes wondrously hard to sort the noise from the rhythms, and vice-versa.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Growing Pains
    Growing Pains sprints out of the gate with a potent double-shot of empowerment anthems.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Angels Of Destruction
    'Angels On A Passing Train' and the terrific rock-soul ballad 'Blue But Cool' don't have anything particularly interesting to say--the lyrics are all about salvation, redemption, and other big ideas Craig Finn repackages far more ingeniously--but they jump out of the speakers with just the right mix of conviction and craftsmanship.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Women As Lovers
    Rather than using art as a cloak, Stewart constructs an exoskeleton out of precious wordplay and florid arrangements--armor that makes him as clumsy as it does strong.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Keep Your Eyes Ahead
    It's a lot of sound for two guys (singer-guitarist Brandon Summers and drummer Benjamin Weikel), suggesting that every minute since 2004's "Love And Distance" was utilized to perfect the pair's already steady hand at soaring, addictive melodies, pleasant layers of guitar and keyboards, and clean, visceral drumming.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Here's To Being Here
    Here's To Being Here is the best kind of homage, a folk-gospel-blues mash-up that sounds like it could be The Velvet Underground's critically adored long-lost country record, if such a thing existed.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Working Man's Cafe
    Café draws Davies out just enough to refresh and reinforce his legend.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Devotion
    Devotion's half-submerged, half-weightless ambience feels like a shaky yet sure transition into something even more abstract and fragile.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Real Emotional Trash
    Real Emotional Trash features lots of long songs with prog parts ripe for '70s Camaro rides, but Malkmus' apparent glee in playing them helps keep excess at bay.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
    Yes, Dig bears little concept or nuance, but it more than makes up for it in raw, oozing passion.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ego Trippin'
    Ego isn't exactly tight, but Snoop's silky sonic seduction proves awfully irresistible.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Trouble In Dreams
    Destroyer sounds focused as a band this time out, but there's an uneasiness at play in songs that tend to wander.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Transnormal Skiperoo
    White is a pro at stretching his craft through arrangements while respecting the long-buried source.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    NY's Finest
    The chill-out-room throwback sound is back, and Rock confidently handles hook, verse, and beat duty with lyrical assists from the likes of Redman, Little Brother, Styles P, Raekwon, Masta Killa, and Papoose.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rockferry
    That ice-queen intrigue adds a certain cachet to the 23-year-old's occasionally overstudied lyrics.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Seldom Seen Kid
    As ever with Elbow, the album is too long, ever ready to make room for more lush melancholy. But beneath the superficial drabness and gloom is a band as diverse as any of its flashier contemporaries.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Odd Couple
    The Odd Couple is the exhilarating sound of the band geeks and theater weirdoes taking over the school.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Funplex
    That material is sometimes far too automatic for its own good--see 'Deviant Ingredient,' which is as trite as its title portends. But on 'Eyes Wide Open' and the lustrous 'Juliet Of The Spirits,' a Pierson/Wilson song as strong as any they've done in mystic mode, the songs are up to the legend, and should sound as good at the B-52s' joyous shows.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Accelerate
    With Accelerate, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills sound like a band again, albeit now one not afraid to look back a little.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Antidotes
    Thanks in part to indie super-producer David Andrew Sitek, they've got a vibrant sonic presence, and they write excellent songs.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Visiter
    It's a winning formula The Dodos repeat throughout Visiter, and yet never run into the ground.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Flight Of The Conchords
    Best of all, the Conchords never force their hand, frequently letting bizarre sonic references and awkward lyrical fumbles serve as unspoken punchlines.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Robyn
    The overall mood is light even when the lyrics get pointed--which is plenty of the time.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
    Musically, Lemons is lusher and more ruminative than the harder-hitting Imagine, with producer Ant calling on Atmosphere's live backing band--plus guests, including Tom Waits (beatboxing!) and TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe--to flesh out the sound, enhancing his already-organic approach.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Staying In
    To be sure, the beats and atmospheres of diskJokke tend toward what could be called tacky extremes. But there’s also a darkness to them--a fertile sense of mood that amplifies dance-floor energy as well as the kind of pathos that adds a little something extra.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rising Down
    The Roots' uncompromising sucker punch of an album captures the sound of battle-scarred survivors intent on being the last band standing in a world and music industry steadily falling apart.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    See You In Magic
    As always, this stuff is better suited for the stage, and it would be foolish not to assume that horns could make The Night Marchers even better, but with the assistance of a band that includes a couple of fellow ex-Snakes, Reis has made his best record since Rocket's "Scream, Dracula, Scream!" heyday.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mudcrutch
    Mudcrutch might be about wrapping up unfinished business, but there's plenty of new life in this old, thankfully resuscitated band.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Show
    At 24 tracks, The Show can't exactly list brevity as one of its myriad virtues, but this is one of those rare hip-hop albums that goes on forever because its members have a lot to say and a charming way of saying it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    We Have You Surrounded
    The experimentation falls flat in places, but it's still exhilarating to hear something as stock as garage-rock fed through the Play-Doh Fun Factory of Collins' deranged brain.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Velocifero
    Ladytron's strength is its sure grasp of Pet Shop Boys-style pop songcraft, which weaves memorable melodies into songs about anxiety-ridden love affairs and the ennui of a Sunday afternoon in a world where God is dead.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Fleet Foxes
    The wilderness goes from breathtaking to sort of boring after a while, but the overall effect is as refreshing as country air.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Viva La Vida
    Whatever the case, Viva La Vida sounds as if it comes as close to the experimental edge as Coldplay dares. It isn't a bad place for the group to be.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Bake Sale [EP]
    From the monster first track, 'What Up Man,' onward, Cool Kids ain't saying nothing new, but they have a damn infectious way of saying it; they're charmingly obnoxious in the best possible way.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Boo! Human
    Boo! Human is a tough listen that just gets tougher. But the window Kinsella opens into his bruised soul almost reads like a mea culpa, some twisted kind of penitence for two decades of cryptic, evasive lyrics.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Stay Positive
    A record made for blasting and getting blasted, Stay Positive makes it easy to follow through on its title.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    O
    Tilly And The Wall are excellent at writing instantly infectious pop songs ("Dust Me Off" may be their best yet), and they've finally corralled a full palate to go with it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Feed The Animals
    Gillis' sense of sonic proportion gives the whole mix a curvaceousness that make even the most unnatural tandems seem perfectly logical.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Langhorne Slim
    Langhorne Slim is a well-crafted but blessedly unfussy collection of songs about the simple pleasures of being young, rakish, and devil-may-care.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Agony & Irony
    Once again, the Trio lives up to expectations--but it's easy to wonder how much longer that will cut it.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ice Cream Spiritual
    Ponytail has rendered Ice Cream Spiritual insidiously infectious--and bursting with an oddly tuneful virtuosity that aches to share rather than show off.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Exit Strategy Of The Soul
    Without pushing, Sexsmith lures listeners into a world filled with disappointments offset by the hope of a better tomorrow, even though there isn't a lot of common sense backing up that hope.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Object 47
    That misstep ['Patient Flees'] aside, no band mocks harder, and Object 47 is a smartly sardonic piece of work on par with Wire's late-'70s heyday.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Coral Sea
    It's a moving work, intensified by Shields' improvisational guitar and the way Smith's voice makes Mapplethorpe's particular story universal.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Holy
    Holy is another reliable blast of Jayne's ostensibly lazy, bread-and-butter indie-rock.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Time:Line
    It's highly conceptual, introspective hip-hop from a producer whose gently tranquilizing mood music feels like the antithesis of crunk. Like "NY's Finest," Time:Line's beatscapes are as soothing as a stiff drink after a hard day's work.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Harps And Angels
    Some of the more on-the-nose satire falls flat....Still, heart-on-the-sleeve tracks like 'Losing You' and 'Feels Like Home' feature Newman at his most affecting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Chemical Chords
    They're editing, giving simple ideas more impact by reducing their exposure, preventing a "Saturday Night Live" skit from becoming a "Saturday Night Live" movie.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Forth
    Forth proves that The Verve still has it, and it's all about chemistry.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Music Tapes for Clouds & Tornadoes
    At the core of them all is Koster's invested, angelic voice and his singing saw.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
    Everything That Happens is an unexpected album, but a stirring one nonetheless.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Pro Tools
    GZA's cold-blooded sonic cinema invites and rewards repeat visits.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Stand Ins
    Sheff's narratives are still generous with details about porn stars and bland rich kids but they're also more focused than before, sharply describing characters who embrace the lies they find in art or in their heads for the sake of sanity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mothertongue
    It's searching, quizzical, and filled with alternately fleeting and sustained passages of astonishing beauty.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Gift Of Screws
    It's a delicately crafted album that alternately rages against the dying of the light and sounds resigned to it, even if Buckingham's particular light sounds in no danger of burning out soon.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    House With No Home
    It leaves a lot implied, but slowly clears the way for a chilling catharsis.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Skeleton
    Mostly, Skeleton is jagged and weird....But if you can take the knocks, the band is at its finest when embracing discordance.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Acid Tongue
    Unfortunately for those still hoping for an old-school Rilo Kiley redux, Lewis' new Acid Tongue is the sonic midpoint of those two releases, matching "Blacklight's" freewheeling, schizophrenic vibe with "Fur Coat's" alt-country foundations. For those ready to move with Lewis down those paths, however, the new one is a confident amalgam of tracks that sparkle, stew, and storm.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Motion To Rejoin
    Lazy saxophone exhalations, lightly swung beats, and female R&B backups answer for the southerly side of Motion To Rejoin's southwestern roots, while that inescapable feeling of finding a way out of a listless hangover is universal.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Laulu Laakson Kukista
    group functions as a collective led by two born-again Christians, but the sounds they make suggest Christians of an extraordinarily mystical sort.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Tennessee Pusher
    OCMS's scrappy, fervent playing--live, the band is a mesmerizing mess of strings and sweat--reinvents old-time for a whole new generation.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Soft Airplane
    VanGaalen's first two Sub Pop albums were compelling, but Soft Airplane gives him a stronger identity.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Paper Trail
    A welcome return to form after the underwhelming, muddled concept album "T.I. Vs. T.I.P.," Trail is an uneven but oft-invigorating combination of velvet and grit, angst and celebration.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    This Is It & I Am It & You Are It & So Is That & He Is It & She Is It & It Is It & That Is That
    Her songs always at least suggest pop, and the sense of tune at their core adds an inviting thrill to Stern's fitful guitar and Zach Hill's ridiculously, miraculously agitated drums.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    WLIB AM: King Of The Wigflip
    It's a beautiful, impossible dream, but for 54 mellow, blunted minutes, King Of The Wigflip makes it a glorious reality.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Car Alarm
    Prekop croons out a cool mist of vocal hooks, wrapping these peculiar adventures, as he always does, in smooth confidence.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    In Ear Park
    Ear Park provides a valuable service while showcasing Rossen as skilled composer and arranger in his own right.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Life Like
    Life Like, should reassure longtime Rosebuds fans—those who remember the good ol' days of 2003, when the band revivified the lost arts of jangle and shuffle on their stellar debut Make Out—that husband-and-wife Rosebuds founders Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp still remember how to write hooks, marry them to offbeat lyrics, and render the results cleanly.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Double Night Time
    No part of stately songs like the instrumental 'Nocebo' and especially the would-be pop hit 'Ruthless City' sounds desperate for attention, but they pay attention back with warm details that prove all the more wowing for their restraint.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Love Is Overtaking Me
    The songs--and especially their alternately playful, pained, and purposeful delivery--sell themselves.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The BBC Sessions
    Diehards won't be getting rid of their copies of "If You're Feeling Sinister" or "The Boy With The Arab Strap" anytime soon, but often these alternate versions are tighter and zippier than the originals, which make them a good introduction for new fans as well as welcome contrasts for long-timers.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sunday At Devil Dirt
    As the second song, 'The Raven,' comes in, featuring Lanegan atop Campbell's wordless backdrop, it's clear that their chemistry not only extends beyond the niceties of their voices intertwining, but overcomes the potential for novelty inherent in their initial collaboration, 2006's "Ballad Of The Broken Seas."
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Tapes
    These guys have excellent taste, and they construct an entertaining mélange on Tapes.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Exotic Creatures Of The Deep
    Sparks' last two albums built songs around keyboards and vocals in minimalist 8- and 16-bar loops; Exotic Creatures Of The Deep features verses and choruses and only repeats each line once, which counts as relatively accessible.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ultraviolet
    Kid Sister’s winking lyrics and charismatic flow elevate the album beyond a mere throwback.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Noble Beast
    About a third of Noble Beast coasts along like this, generating an amiable atmosphere while advancing the album's contemplations of evolution and the loss of self. But then Bird arrives at a song like 'Fitz And The Dizzyspells', or 'Anonanimal', and suddenly Noble Beast turns into a higher form of pop music, so beautifully, horrifyingly evolved.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blood Bank [EP]
    Blood Bank leaves something to be desired--namely the fragility and unplanned expansiveness that defined Emma. Fortunately, this set's remaining songs benefit from feeling slightly incomplete.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Keep It Hid
    Keep It Hid, his first collection of solo recordings, never strays too far from the plaque-covered crackle of his day-job riffs; when it does, the well-worn results flirt with rootsy perfection.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Spirit Of Apollo
    Naturally, Sam Spiegel (a.k.a. Squeak E. Clean, and Spike Jonze’s brother) and DJ Zegon’s attempt at album unity is flawed. The real question: Can The Spirit Of Apollo transcend its built-in Achilles’ heel? The short answer is yes, as there’s something to like on every song.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Never Better
    It's a great synthesis, merging verbally dexterous, rapid-fire syllable-spitting and a nimble sense of rhythm with lyrics that are clever, self-reflective, and full of sharp-edged political statements.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dark Was The Night
    This being a compilation, not everyone brings their A game—contributions from The Arcade Fire, Spoon, Iron And Wine, and Cat Power come off as disappointingly perfunctory and hastily sketched--but as a yearbook photo of the class of 2009, it should age remarkably well.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Whisper House
    Sounding like a hybrid of epic, Frames-like angst-rock and unabashedly earnest musical theater, Whisper House is simultaneously more satisfyingly rich in sound than Sheik’s early work and more off-puttingly story-driven.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Beware
    The new Bonnie Billy record, Beware, is fuller in every sense of the word, from the choir of background singers answering Oldham on the opening track ('Beware Your Only Friend') to the way Oldham stops that song cold for a muted interlude.
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