The A.V. Club's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Nothing Is Wrong
    With Nothing Is Wrong, Dawes comes far, and appears to be only getting started.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Castlemania
    While it's technically another hack-and-slash assault on the senses that scorches the garage rock's hallowed ground, the album manages to find a fresh detour for the group to stagger down.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Alpocalypse
    While a parody of a 2008 Taylor Swift song may not sound particularly fresh, Alpocalypse is the most enjoyable collection of Yankovic tunes since 1996's Bad Hair Day.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Howl Of The Lonely Crowd
    Old indie hero Edwyn Collins of Orange Juice produced the band's sixth album, and the joy is palpable.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    H-P1
    In spite of the ostensible lull of its distorted, discordant undertow, the album forcibly draws attention, not just to itself, but to the corrupted world around it. Rarely has an album so narcotic felt so sobering.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    King of Hearts
    Lloyd's fourth album, King Of Hearts, doubles down on his amorous enthusiasm, pushing it to such delirious extremes that these songs feel risky and uncharted even as they play to his most obvious strengths.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Skying
    Skying boasts countless vague allusions to waking up, seeing things, rain, and/or the ocean.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Last Summer
    On Last Summer, Friedberger shows that her compositional voice is equally compelling when she's freed from her brother's watchful eye.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dedication
    For all his ADD tendencies, Zomby knows how to sequence.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Let It Beard
    Let It Beard's 26 songs shoot a bleary-eyed glance at GBV's past with snatches of four-track caterwauling, even as they hurtle into previously unexplored territory like "Chevy Marigold," with its soulful backing vocals.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sky Full of Holes
    Fountains Of Wayne dutifully settles into adulthood on Sky Full Of Holes.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mega Rama
    The wiry melodies clanked out by guitarists Lindsay Baker and Chris Diken, which surge and retreat on alternating waves of furious feedback and bright-eyed jangle as hopped-up drummer Robbie Guertin holds down the rhythm section, strongly recall an unheralded period in rock history that's suddenly considered legendary.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Thee Physical
    Though the music often suggests a frozen remove, Egedy's voice conveys a need to connect, which smartly reinforces the album's lyrical themes of feeling isolated and disconnected from the physical self.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Big Biz Quadruple Single
    Throughout, Martin wrings squalls, squeals, and a rat's nest of tortured notes out of his frets, dressing the band's majestic shit sandwich with a schmear of battery acid.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Giving
    Giving aggressively stakes out its territory, never wasting a moment--or a percolating bubble of sound--as it barrels thrillingly forward.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Closer to Closed
    The EP comes and goes in 16 minutes, but it's nice to see Braid picking up as if 10 years hadn't passed. Here's hoping more music follows.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Duke & the King
    Even when they're smiling sweetly and rubbing sleep from their eyes, Felice and crew know how to come on larger than life.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Concrete
    The songs chronicle wrecked relationships from all sides, with Sweeney usually coming out on the losing end.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Lenses Alien
    Lenses Alien bears traces of Modest Mouse, Superchunk, Cap'n Jazz, Slint, and others, but the songs exude a craftsmanship that simple re-appropriation couldn't achieve. The band may be trying too hard to emphasize that by opening the album with an epic track, but the point isn't lost.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wild Flag
    Considering the personnel involved, it's no surprise Wild Flag works as well as it does, or that it picks up in a familiar place. It's just nice when a super-group actually lives up to the title.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hell On Heels
    At a lean 30 minutes, Hell On Heels is too slight to deliver completely on the trio's promise, but the sense of fun and sisterly affection that pervades the album makes it a winning opening salvo from an intriguing new group.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Relax
    A joke band that isn't really a joke band, Das Racist makes a serious impression on its debut full-length, Relax.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mountaintops
    It's seldom less than catchy, and often moving as well.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Metals
    The off-the-cuffness of her earlier work is missed a little, but there's a satisfying fullness to Metals, as Feist maintains the dramatic fragility of a moment even as the kettledrums boom.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Believers
    Believers, captures that middle-of-the-night restlessness just as powerfully as his first two releases, and the record's illusory beauty is equally captivating.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Night of Hunters
    Just describing the album makes it seem like Amos has completely disappeared down the rabbit hole, but Hunters is actually her most enjoyable album in years.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Megafaun
    Megafaun is as distinctive as its predecessors, showing a prettier, more approachable side to a band that appears to be constantly evolving.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Hunter
    Hinds hasn't delivered a logical sequel to Crack The Skye, but The Hunter triumphs in a less profound, more immediate way: It's the first truly fun Mastodon album.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Conatus
    Slashed by shards and shadows, Conatus is Zola Jesus' best album to date.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Year of Hibernation
    There are only eight songs on Hibernation, but each track goes from murky depths to total transcendence as Powers, the wizard behind the curtain, attempts to dream himself out of the bedroom.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Romantic Comedy
    Fortunately, the songwriting matches the level of ambition on Romantic Comedy, with Craig and Drennan expanding on their bedroom-pop roots with lush, exquisite arrangements that remain rooted in shiny guitars, simple rhythms, and bright hooks.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    In the Pit of the Stomach
    ["Boy In The Backseat" and "Human Error"] plus the resounding "Pear Tree" end the album with impressive bluster, and stirring reminders about the power of the individual: to screw up, to fight on, to howl into the night.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    TKOL RMX 1234567
    The best of these remixes excite and innovate in ways their counterparts didn't.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Breaks in the Armor
    Surfaces aside, the songs on Breaks In The Armor are impassioned and crafty--right in line with what Bachmann has been up to for decades now.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Gauntlet Hair
    It's a mess of over-processed noise that sounds like one really long song. Incidentally, that's also what makes it such a layered, interesting listen.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Tarot Classics [EP]
    Without sounding like a throwback, Surfer Blood might be the best band currently in business that's playing by the same musical rules that made indie rock such a force back in the day. Exhibit A is the Tarot Classics EP.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    A Map of the Floating City
    Dolby takes care to construct whole worlds, making sure there are people to talk to there, and scenery to drink in.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Four the Record
    The bevy of writers and co-writers guiding Lambert results in a ranging, not especially cohesive album that makes up for the occasional dud (the schmaltzy power ballad "Better In The Long Run," a duet with Lambert's husband Blake Shelton) with plenty of solid earworms (the catchy mid-tempo "Safe") and a couple of welcome left turns (the loping, back-porch sing-along "Easy Living").
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Humor Risk
    Humor Risk might be another downer from this accomplished singer-songwriter, but its pulse beats strong as it bleeds.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Inni [Live]
    Fans who lamented the band's shift will be rewarded, but those drawn to the fuller arrangements might find some songs lacking in splendor.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Freeclouds
    Tanton's strengths are his ear for hooks and his brassy vocals, which lift the choruses on Freeclouds to billowy levels of '70s radio-pop splendor.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Carrion Crawler/The Dream
    The music is equally scattered, slapdash, and frantic. It's also brilliant.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Gish [Deluxe Edition]
    In its weaker moments, Gish relies on generic, boogie-friendly classic-rock retreads ("Siva," "Bury Me") but the physicality of Chamberlain's drumming-rivaled at the time only by Dave Grohl-gives even the bum tracks a powerful kick.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    New Album
    The occasional flaws are still fascinating twists of Boris' art-metal genome-and the rest of New Album tackles that mutation with beauty and brilliance.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Barfly
    There are moments of eroded aimlessness to Barfly, but they're few and far between. What's left is a fierce, simmering, ghost-steeped album that finally gives form to one of rock's great unresolved mysteries.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mac and Devin Go to High School [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    If Cheech And Chong are looking for a continuation course, they could do a lot worse than to start here.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Echoes of Silence
    It's Tesfaye's total commitment to his ghastly persona that makes Echoes Of Silence so entrancingly chilling.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Let's Go Eat the Factory
    Factory finds the band falling into old, glorious habits.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Clear Heart Full Eyes
    As a solo artist, Finn has created a new world of characters and songs that's rich enough on its own, and worth someday revisiting.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Cyrk
    Cyrk is a bright, airy affair.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Resolution
    Resolution is sharp, focused, restless, and pitilessly ferocious.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Iron Balls of Steel
    Iron Balls has a lot more grit and gristle to it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    And They Turned Not When They Went
    Imbogodom's ear for corroded beauty only makes And They Turned that much stranger and stronger.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Tramp
    For the most part, the production serves to accent rather than overwhelm Van Etten's greatest asset, her voice.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    No One Can Ever Know
    The bleakest of the band's albums, No One Can Ever Know works because The Twilight Sad knows exactly what old bits to jettison and new ones to embrace without tinkering with its cold, black heart.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rich Forever
    It's a big project, but it never drags, overreaches, or stumbles; Ross rhymes throughout with so much power and economy that it just keeps barreling forward.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Paralytic Stalks
    Paralytic Stalks feels like a marathon at times, but it's a trek worth repeating.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Animal Joy
    Animal Joy, in its hunt for instinctual performance, comes close to the classic album Shearwater surely has in it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?
    It's the 45-year-old singer's most accomplished album in ages, for sure, though it might also be her straightest.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Always
    While experimentation and weirdness still abound--as on the abrasively sung-spoke "I Luv Abortion"--Always seems much more tempered than past efforts, extending the poppy sensibility of 2010's Dear God, I Hate Myself.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Toward the Low Sun
    Even during its most melancholic and introspective moments, Toward The Low Sun exudes a fervid, unstoppable hopefulness.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wrecking Ball
    At its best, Wrecking Ball follows the model of 2006's ramshackle hootenanny, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, where Springsteen took dusty folk songs and blew them the hell out to the cheap seats.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Clearing
    Barring another break-up, The Clearing marks the path toward the rest of a richly rewarding career.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables
    Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables is Snider's 12th album, and it's one of the roughest-hewn he's ever made.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mixed Emotions
    Those highs could climb higher, the lows could really crawl. But there's no question that Tanlines have found their path forward.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sweet Heart Sweet Light
    From its opening moments, in fact, Sweet Heart packs in one of Pierce's most impressive works yet.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rocket Juice & the Moon
    With a supporting cast that includes Erykah Badu and low-end czar Thundercat, the resulting 18-song album is a shockingly listenable mixtape session of the gods.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Koloss
    The good news is, it's another predictably fantastic Meshuggah album. The bad news is, it's another predictably fantastic Meshuggah album.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Locked Down
    The album is at once classic and modern, and while it's short on timeless songs like "Glowin'," "Loop Garoo" and "Mos' Scocious," on the whole it's a more engaged, eclectic, and ornery set than these types of revivalist projects usually are.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    De Vermis Mysteriis
    De Vermis offers nothing but variations on Pike's well-established fixations. But what stunning variations they are.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    A Wasteland Companion
    It's the album's smaller pleasures-like the watercolor blossoms of strings and synths on "Wild Goose"-that define what A Wasteland Companion is.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Beware and Be Grateful
    Overall, Beware And Be Grateful strikes a more satisfying balance of post-rock creativity and songcraft.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blunderbuss
    There are at least five songs on Blunderbuss that match the excellence of The White Stripes' best, and on the whole the album performs the tricky task of updating White's musical aesthetic without euthanizing its primal nature.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Heartbreaking Bravery
    Heartbreaking Bravery is best when it smolders.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Out of the Game
    Out Of The Game is one of the latter, joining Poses and Release The Stars as the Wainwright album most likely to disarm listeners less inclined to appreciate his occasional forays into the operatic, theatrical, or maudlin.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Money Store
    Even its bleakest sentiments and harshest sounds invigorate.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    June 2009
    What June 2009 captures best is a craft-focused artist willing to try anything once.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dr. Dee
    Only with the exquisite, hazily-focused Dr Dee, Albarn has succeeded in alchemically--if not perfectly--transforming cotton and foil into silver and gold.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    OFF!
    Off! makes up for its self-serving petulance with sharp songwriting and pure, crusty potency.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rize of the Fenix
    No joke: Rize Of The Fenix is one of the year's most enjoyable hard-rock records.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    R.A.P. Music
    [R.A.P. Music] feels like the culmination of his unusual career.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Sister
    As heart-stopping as The Sister is, though, it feels more like an appendix to her body of work than a fresh, essential sequel.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Banga
    By the time Banga gets to its album-closing song Smith has delivered nearly an hour of those kinds of songs [meditations on creativity, immediacy, and centuries of human endeavor.]
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Lex Hives
    Thanks to a few fresh stitches, Lex Hives proves that The Hives still know how to make it work.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Bravest Man in the Universe
    While The Bravest Man In The Universe bears little surface relation to Womack's best-known music, it is-like "Stylo"-in line spiritually with what Womack's all about.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Class Clown Spots a UFO
    As with Factory, the strength of UFO is that it sounds like a true GBV record, rather than simply a clandestine avenue for Pollard's solo material.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Traps
    Traps, gets plenty of mileage from those elements [sun, hot dogs, and babes by the pool], but it shoots them through with just enough worry and weary resignation to land them a notch above the typical empty-calorie summer jams.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Great Chicago Fire
    The overall feel is of skilled vets taking a break to play around, tossing out ideas for barroom jams and wild mash-ups and then daring themselves to bring them to life.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    POP ETC
    The album's a bold move for a band that had just gotten the ball rolling, and it should only boost its momentum.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Under the Pale Moon
    Miles offers some reasons to persevere--if only to enjoy the comfort of clever, heartfelt pop music.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Slaughterhouse
    Slaughterhouse won't go down as Segall's best record, but it's nearly as much fun to play as it sounds like it was to make.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Tarnished Gold
    The beauty of the record is a sum of its parts rather than an inventory of its pieces.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Oshin
    It may be out to sea, but Oshin is anything but lost.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Throw It to the Universe
    Throw It To The Universe's seven-track swan song isn't exactly the band going out on top, but shows it leaving the game admirably, crafting the same catchy, thoughtful songs it's always made.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Longtime Companion
    Companion might have been born of a failed relationship, but it's hard not to imagine Smith's new look is anything but a rejuvenation.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Twenty-Five for the Rest of Our Lives
    By effortlessly pairing clamorous aggression and thoughtful introspection, the record strikes a delicate balance not easily accomplished by the average teenage garage outfit.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Skelethon
    The chorus sums up why Skelethon sits comfortably with his best albums: "Take the brain out / Leave the heart in."
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Handwritten
    On Handwritten, his lyrics have finally settled into a perfect spot between craft and catharsis. And the music isn't far behind.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial
    One strength of this set-apart from its generous but judicious stockpile of Guthrie art, artifacts, and analysis-is that it doesn't overwhelm.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blur 21
    The bonus material contains an abundance of amazing, weird, and brilliant moments. But the type of extras included-like a disc of demos from Blur's early years, when the band went by Seymour--will likely only interest completists.
Page: