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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    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Flowers for Vases/descansos
    Heartbreak, anger, acceptance, new love, mental health, and hope converged into something a little more well-rounded. Flowers For Vases, for all its beauty, appears single-minded in comparison, focusing solely on pain-tinged recollection and the challenge of moving forward. But if Williams chooses to spend some extra time wading through the uncomfortable emotions that mark a particular breakup—especially when those feelings make way for more personal growth—then it’s a worthwhile bit of exploration.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Daddy's Home
    This is a record in love with the bygone spirits it conjures, and even the sparsest tracks sound like they’ve been punctiliously determined. It’s an album that sounds like it wants to be messy, yet is anything but.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Path of Wellness
    Given that none of the tracks on Path Of Wellness are eager to commit to any one style, the blend of influences almost feels like a conversation.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Montero
    Everything’s he’s done has led to this engaging debut record, a work that allows his inner self to shine.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Queens of the Summer Hotel
    It may fall on the more mellow and restrained side of her catalogue, but this is a record to be savored—mining beauty (and yes, some humor) from pain is an Aimee Mann specialty, and this record serves as further testament to that fact.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Time Skiffs
    Time Skiffs is a record meant to be played front to back; for those willing to ride the mellower waves, it’s a satisfying skiff, indeed.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Heterosexuality
    Heterosexuality’s first three tracks, which rank among Shamir’s best songs to date. The rest of Heterosexuality uses synths not as sandpaper to drag across the ears, but as a melodic invitation to join Shamir in his quest toward internal betterment.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hygiene
    Hygiene is a record wholly unconcerned about how derivative it sounds, or with how it fits into the wider rock landscape—happy instead to carve out its own niche, straddling genres with aplomb. That it’s so much damn fun to boot is the good part.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Back in Black
    Back In Black is an album-length reminder of why the group has managed to have such staying power. It straddles that difficult artistic line between being devoted to what made the rap outfit great, while changing things up just enough to stay relevant.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Unlimited Love
    Casual fans may be disappointed by the lack of hooks until they’ve heard it another twenty times, while hardcore fans will slowly discover there’s a musical depth the Peppers have long been striving for. The bulk of the album blends into its own flavor, and it’s a good one. Unlimited Love doesn’t do it all, but what it does, it does damn well.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Words & Music, May 1965
    The clarity of Reed’s voice as a songwriter contrasts with the tentative musicality in kinetic ways, making Words & Music a rare thing: a historic document that is also compelling listening.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Loneliest Time
    The Loneliest Time ends up toggling between this effervescent disco-inspired pop and Laurel Canyon folk sensibilities, with neither shedding light on a new facet of the other. In spite of The Loneliest Time’s tinge of cynicism when it comes to relationships, the title track (which serves as the album’s finale), ends everything on a high note.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nextdoorland
    It wouldn't be difficult to pass off as a mildly disappointing unreleased Soft Boys album from 1981.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Double Figure
    The disc ranges from Vangelis-esque dirges to beautifully chiming background music to sprightly pop melodies, and Handley and Turner rarely fail to give the impression that somebody is in the studio pressing the buttons.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Civil War
    This time Matmos crafts a convincing sonic history project that works its digressions into something more probing and consistent.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Argyle Heir
    Continuing in the vein of 1999's The Albemarle Sound, Argyle Heir offers sun-drenched, intricately arranged pop with a pleasant approachability that masks its ambition.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat
    Junior Senior plays pop music, pure and simple, and the abundant joys on D-D-Don't should make even the most hopeless cynic reevaluate priorities that don't allow for pop's fleeting glories.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Down With Wilco
    While Down is ultimately just a collection of minor pleasures, they're the kind of pleasures that add up.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Closer
    Closer's metallic tracks couldn't be more stripped-down, but they make good on minimalism's aim to command space without necessarily occupying it.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Digital Bullet
    Digital Bullet is both every bit as self-indulgent as it sounds, and far better than it has any right to be.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sign [EP]
    Bypasses the wiry, anxious suggestiveness of his medium in favor of thought-clearing contemplation.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Promise Of Love
    Promise Of Love has a leftover-ish feel, especially coming on the heels of the accessible, eclectic Know By Heart, but the Texas lounge-rock group remains pleasantly listenable.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A New Day At Midnight
    Gray is smart enough to stick to a winning formula, making these dour but likable songs instantly recognizable as his own.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    More Light
    The disc is loud, unfailingly melodic, and pretty laid-back.... Whether More Light will prove strong enough to once again set the tone of indie music, let alone contemporary guitar-rock, is another question entirely, though it's no doubt the last one on Mascis' mind. As usual, he sounds more concerned with unfashionable navel-gazing rock than earth-changing works of mass cultural importance and emotional resonance...
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Electric Circus
    Like The Roots' new Phrenology, Electric Circus possesses many of the weaknesses associated with ambition: a bloated running time, the faint aroma of pretension, an obligatory spoken-word piece, and songs that outlast their welcome.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Souljacker
    The group's most spirited and rock-oriented record to date.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The New Folk Implosion
    For impassioned Barlow fans, The New Folk Implosion's minute forward progress means a lot.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Draft 7.30
    An album that applies Confield's ideas to less embarrassingly stunted ends.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings
    Though marred by characteristically unrevealing packaging and inexplicable brevity, I Might Be Wrong casts new light on the band's much-examined recent material
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Beauty Party
    An album that so faithfully conveys the obsessions, sound, and tone of jiggy hip-hop that, out of context, it would be easy to mistake it for the music it parodies.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    L' Avventura
    On paper, the album sounds like more of a lark than it is: In terms of production, it rivals any Luna disc, and since it's a one-off, it's freer to roam outside the band's sound.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Noise Made By People
    Broadcast's strange mix of electric keyboards, sampled strings, soundtrack chic, and Trish Keenan's coolly regulated vocals offering hypnotic chill-out music for the new century.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Precollection
    There probably won't be another piece of music like it this year. But then, maybe there shouldn't be.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kill Them With Kindness
    Gratifying both in spite of and because of its slickness.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Id
    Amazingly, the disc still feels cohesive in spite of its unpredictability, aided by can't-miss crowd-pleasers like the irrepressible disco-pop blowout "Sexual Revolution."
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Up
    For the most part, it's a bleak, deliberate, decidedly mature meditation on death and grief.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    1st Born Second
    The overreaching inevitably hurts the disc's consistency in spots, but it's easy to admire Bilal's ambition, and when it works, it works well. He can't quite do it all, but he does what he can as well as anyone out there, making 1st Born Second sound like the first highlight in a compelling career.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Eternal Youth
    Like many Merritt projects, Eternal Youth contains its share of filler, and might have worked better as an EP than as a proper album. Still, its transcendent moments should win it a place in the hearts of those who once viewed their Cure or Bauhaus shirts as shorthand for a world of pain and alienation.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Long Knives Drawn
    There's a lot to be said for the more refined Rainer Maria.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Beaucoup Fish
    Like its predecessor, though, Beaucoup Fish is too unfocused to prove consistently potent.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fragments of Freedom
    The disc flirts with dozens of styles, with so much diversity from track to track that the album never quite builds up artistic momentum. But several moments are more than worthy of the band's legacy.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Playgroup
    The album favors songs over tracks, taking a rewind approach to a time before dance music took on dutifully functional connotations.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Elephant Shoe
    It's some of the most depressing music ever made, and unlike The Cure you can't even dance to it, but that appears to be the point.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Seven's Travels
    Though leavened with self-deprecation and lacerating wit, Slug's unsparing self-analysis can feel a little solipsistic and oppressive, particularly over the course of the album's 70-minute run time.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Burned Mind
    After establishing its grim M.O., the album settles into a mesmerizing set that scours the edge it leaps over so unhaltingly.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Frozen Orange
    Producer Mark Nevers emphasizes vamping, letting songs rev up and down in such a way that listeners can imagine them still existing somewhere outside the disc itself.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heart
    More than a few songs... possess some of the kitschy cool of recent records by Ivy, Venus Hum, and Sixpence None The Richer, though they stick lower to the ground.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Life On A String
    Anderson's best work has always been simultaneously opaque and pointed, suggestive, and even topical, without being didactic. Those qualities apply again here.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Boss
    A strong (if characteristically overlong) album.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tha Last Meal
    Tha Last Meal may exhibit no artistic or lyrical growth, let alone maturity, but few artists coast on their free-flowing, larger-than-life charisma quite as enjoyably as he does.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shake The Sheets
    Leo exploits rock dynamics with the timing of a veteran stand-up comic. He bounces vocals across half-riffs, drops the drums in and out, and invariably holds back a little for the big finish.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sailing to Philadelphia
    Sailing To Philadelphia often sounds outright anachronistic, from the "Sultans Of Swing"-like "What It Is" to James Taylor's voice on the title track, yet it never comes across like another old English coot courting Baby Boomer record buyers. Knopfler's ability to keep his talents in check serves the music, which benefits from the simple structures and tiny (but significant) guitar flourishes.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Stillmatic
    Stillmatic wouldn't be a proper Nas record if it didn't contain at least a few regrettable detours into bad taste, and the album boasts its share.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Futures
    The album's radio-ready polish might strike some listeners as soulless, but it's really just a different kind of soul.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blueberry Boat
    In the end, this suite of suites sounds too inherently disorienting, however thrilling its fragments, and however entertaining it is to hear the Friedbergers' wordy, fantastical non sequiturs.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This Island
    The band remains committed to making its political pill go down as easy as possible.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Old Kit Bag
    As the disc turns down one shadowy corner of the soul after another, it's hard not to wish that the witty, romantic, storytelling Thompson would show up to give the other guy a break, at least for a song or two.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Together We're Heavy
    The problem with rapture is that it's exhausting, so Together is best enjoyed a few tracks at a time.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    De-Loused In The Comatorium
    Taken as a piece, the record's free-flowing synthesis of Santana, Yes, and Metallica is overwhelming in a good way.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Busted Stuff
    Busted Stuff does strip away some of the Lillywhite mystique, dropping the exaggerated façade of "lost classic" status, but it further illustrates that Matthews' discards are often more compelling than his hits.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    God Bless The Blake Babies
    While not an overwhelming album, God Bless The Blake Babies certainly suggests that the group is better off together than apart.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Red Dirt Road
    Red Dirt Road is sort of the Seabiscuit of country records--a cornball bit of entertainment that works because it carries great truths.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bright Yellow Bright Orange
    Bright Yellow almost never reaches the highs of the group's classic early albums, nor does it embarrass itself by straining to duplicate them.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Complex
    Very little of The Complex comes off as more than sophisticated videogame music, mainly because Blue Man Group is good at filling big spaces, but not at unearthing the small, precious pockets of stillness.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Love & Distortion
    Summons enough winning moments to make comparisons a secondary concern.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Thorns
    If there's a follow-up (and there should be), perhaps Droge, Mullins, and Sweet will give more thought to what makes a Thorns song, besides the gleaming surfaces.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Get The Picture
    It's hard to get excited about it, but just as difficult to dislike it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Scorpion
    While a step up from her promising debut, Scorpion is far from perfect: Eve is too smart for testosterone-heavy, shout-along nonsense like "Cowboy," "Scream Double R," and "Thug In The Streets."
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sumday
    Is so dominated by mid-tempo story-songs that it rarely breaks through into the rapturous highs that Grandaddy is capable of producing.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dreamland
    Dreamland's lack of ambition doesn't translate into irrelevancy
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Storytelling OST
    The vocal tracks have the unforced charm of the singles that Belle And Sebastian regularly turns out between albums: sunny pop with rainy lyrics.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Indestructible
    It often lacks the charge of inspired discovery that accompanied its '90s predecessors.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Revelling/Reckoning
    Revelling/Reckoning represents DiFranco at her best and worst.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Punk Rock
    Some of the songs have aged better than others, making this a better album for longtime fans than for newcomers.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    OST
    Works nearly as well on its own as it did when accompanying the film.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Howdy!
    Trafficking exclusively in warm, timeless, pleasant power-pop, Howdy! represents the musical embodiment of its agreeable title.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Forget Yourself
    Forget Yourself is overlong and largely unoriginal, but it possesses a craft and sophistication largely missing from many of its modern-day guitar-pop peers.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Diamonds On The Inside
    Harper assuredly rushes through virtually all of his available quirks, flaws, and genres of choice, in a mad rush that's equally exhilarating and exhausting.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Songs From An American Movie, Vol. 2: Good Time For A Bad Attitude
    Bad Attitude is aided immeasurably by its oil-slick choruses and Alexakis' suitably bombastic production. It may lack the vivid, slice-of-life evocativeness of 1995's outstanding Sparkle And Fade, but the album's catchiness is a decent consolation prize.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Trouble in Shangri-La
    Though her newfound confidence mostly allows the disc to transcend the safe "comeback" label, her trademark witchy-poo persona is what actually makes the album so welcome.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Coverage
    She's got a strong, appealing voice, and Coverage mostly demonstrates how well great songwriting translates.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Welcome To The Monkey House
    Guest stars (from Simon LeBon to Tony Visconti) arrive at a faster clip than truly memorable songs, but the slick vibe allows the album to slink by until it arrives at bright spots like the transcendently trashy "You Were The Last High."
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fabulous Muscles
    It's harrowing and difficult, but occasionally insightful enough to be powerfully gravitational. [24 Mar 2004]
    • The A.V. Club
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Keep On Your Mean Side
    It would make the perfect soundtrack for an evening spent terrorizing hitchhikers and toppling portable toilets.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Standards
    Given that Tortoise's previous recordings have spawned a procession of remixes and re-imaginings, is Standards to be judged on its own merits, or as the raw material for music yet to come? As always, the band is poised between capturing a momentary, malleable inspiration and shaping that moment into some timeless anthem, and as always, it chooses to dither and delay, settling for a sometimes pleasant, sometimes maddening, almost always stimulating exploration of atmospherics.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Platform
    Platform would benefit from greater lyrical diversity, and it suffers from moments of monotony and inertia, but it's a promising debut from a group that should only improve with time.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Creatures
    The record is as tuneful and spirited and bordering-on-goofy as anything in the Elf Power catalog.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Essence
    Williams sounds withdrawn and mysterious, awash in feelings that may be too personal to share this time out.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Magic & Medicine
    Magic And Medicine's draggy Bob Dylan homage "Talkin' Gypsy Market Blues" shows the limitation of using old rock as window dressing, while the bulk of the disc presents a better-integrated fusion of varied hypnotic pop sounds.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Yanqui U.X.O.
    Stripped of some of Godspeed's hallmarks, including its creepy spoken-word samples and propensity for building to an overbearingly climactic full-on pummel, the disc's power lies more in its subdued shading and slow, methodical builds.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ten
    Some of cLOUDEAD's lyrics are too precious and oblique not to shrug off, but the good ones rub rich images from their absurdist couplings. [24 Mar 2004]
    • The A.V. Club
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Circulatory System
    Plays like a musical companion piece to Richard Linklater's film Waking Life.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Spirit Stereo Frequency
    Listening to Spirit Stereo Frequency is like driving through an area of broadcast clutter and getting simultaneous sonic bleed from three or four stations, at least two of which are playing The Shins.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Master And Everyone
    There's nothing aggressive or urgent about the record, and oddly, that works in its favor.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Regeneration
    Hannon's latest takes The Divine Comedy in a promising new direction.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Probot
    It's a righteous and wholly legitimate throwback to old-school metal's power and fury.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Menace
    It's hard to imagine Elastica's fans being patient or loyal enough to care much either way about The Menace, though it's artistically solid enough to warrant consideration.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Ride
    The Ride is both party and primer, taking listeners through what one set of musicians has learned about their craft over 30 years.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Built From Scratch
    Purists might object to Built To Scratch's overt commercialism, but the four-man crew succeeds in making turntablism accessible to a mainstream audience without sacrificing the kinetic demolition at the heart of its music.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kittenz And Thee Glitz
    Kittenz features a few too many barely sketched ideas, but its rough-hewn surface ultimately tightens the psychic squeeze.
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