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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    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
    Echoes has some characteristic Foo Fighters rockers, but even they sound quieter: Producer Gil Norton keeps the guitars, along with everything else, subdued. And without the usual standout hits (though 'Long Road To Ruin' is solid), Echoes will probably leave fans wanting.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Civilians
    So many of his songs sound damnably similar, blanded-out by his pinched rasp and seeming disinterest in melody.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Oblivion With Bells
    Expansive, unfurling bangers like 'Beautiful Burnout' help keep Underworld above the line that separates has-beens from are-stills.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Rock N Roll Jesus
    Jesus spits in the face of good taste with such unbridled enthusiasm that it's almost possible overlook its more cringe-inducing tendencies. Almost.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Carnival II: Memoirs Of An Immigrant
    Immigrant goes down smooth. Just don't expect it to linger.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Field Manual
    Add Walla to the list of producers who should stay producers: Field Manual sounds great, but it isn't always worth listening to.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Heretic Pride
    Without the gripping autobiographical elements of recent Mountain Goats releases (or the tape hiss of the band's lo-fi days) to justify them, Darnielle's idiosyncratic, occasionally annoying vocals and elementary folk melodies fall a little flat.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Robotique Majestique
    Robotique Majestique, the latest from Austin electro-rock weirdo outfit Ghostland Observatory, is a good EP trapped inside a mediocre album.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Red Of Tooth And Claw
    Red envisions turbulence, stages it professionally, and downplays Murder By Death's power to frighten listeners and conjure up dust storms.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Portrait Is Finished & I Have Failed To Capture Your Beauty...
    Bejar wanders in and out with backing vocals and extended guitar lines, but the overall feeling is of two artists taking a little time out for themselves.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Mountain Battles
    While Deal's music has often been enhanced by its try-anything roughness, here, she sounds like she's just hoping something will stick.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Konk
    They're reasonably tight, and each song is just melodic enough to seem catchy until its memory is erased by the next.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Hard Candy
    Hard Candy is a serviceable and sometimes very good pop album that also happens to be a confusing and even dismal Madonna album.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Nouns
    Nouns' effect is hazy, numbing, and merely pleasant--quite the opposite of experiencing No Age in person.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Supreme Balloon
    The songs are generally jubilant, as signaled by the whirring synth giggles and quasi-Cuban bassline in 'Rainbow Flag,' but also slight in a way that suggests much of Supreme Balloon would have been a lot more fun to make than it is to listen to.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Formula
    The Formula should please 9th Wonder and Boot Camp Click cultists, but hip-hop heads eager to hear 9th Wonder collaborate with rappers worthy of his talents are better off waiting for his next album with Murs--or praying for a reunion with Little Brother.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    El Rey
    His guitar hooks are reliable enough on El Rey, the seventh all-new studio Wedding Present album (compilations and live discs abound), and Steve Albini engineers them vividly enough, but it's the words that fail him.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    A Thousand Shark's Teeth
    Too often, Teeth sacrifices that for experiments that translate into beautiful arrangements, but turn songs as a whole into frustrating, incomplete muddles.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    22 Dreams
    There's a sense of fun and wonder to 22 Dreams that keeps it from feeling pretentious--just not any less tedious.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Nude With Boots
    Nude sounds, well, a bit naked. Lean and not mean enough, songs like "The Kicking Machine" and "The Stupid Creep" are as conventional as anything the band has ever recorded.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Life Death Love and Freedom
    With producer T-Bone Burnett stripping his rootsy jangle down to a monochromatic, almost lo-fi rumble, Life Death Love And Freedom practically demands to be called "Mellencamp's darkest yet," but it's really just relentlessly downbeat and one-note.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Fragile Future
    Guitarist J.T. Woodruff has assumed all vocals duties, and his nasally whine is virtually indistinguishable from the hordes of similar sounding emo frontmen; that and disappointingly bland hooks make Fragile Future feel formulaic.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Airborne Toxic Event
    It's all perfectly competent and smoothly produced, and it's polished within an inch of its life. It's also lifeless.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Rhumb Line
    Mildness and friendliness help things flow along so nicely, in fact, that The Rhumb Line softens the impact of generally nuanced and energetic songwriting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    How To Walk Away
    If only there was more of this devilish grit on How To Walk Away.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Raw Footage
    The rap legend's second independently released solo album is a long way from "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted," but the old man is still good for a larf.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Block
    There's a lot to like on The Block, even if it doesn't stand a chance of being heard as anything so simple.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Glasvegas
    It's a textbook example of a promising debut from a humorless band that has nowhere to go but down after the opening cut.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Year Of The Gentleman
    With his latest, Ne-Yo's winning groove devolves into a rut, and his quiet storm gets awfully sleepy
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    A Certain Feeling
    Beneath such a surface, a band needs to keep screwing with the formula to hold interest. Bodies Of Water gets around to that often enough on its second album, A Certain Feeling, but lets the clever bits sit naked for too long.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Loyalty To Loyalty
    The loyalty to the exact sound--minus the real hooks--that got Cold War Kids noticed keeps things mostly stagnant.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Way To Normal
    Here, only a few moments stand out amidst the knee-jerk bitterness.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Snowflake Midnight
    At its best, Mercury Rev is secretly an Americana band (see Levon Helm and Garth Hudson's appearances on Deserter's Songs), tricking out solid songs with studio know-how; their collapse into catchall experimentation is brave, but ultimately not the best route.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Landing Gear
    Devin's singsong flow remains hypnotic, and his silky, seductive croon can make a dis feel like a kiss, but this time, it's in service to forgettable songs unworthy of his singular talent.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Universal Mind Control
    On his eighth solo album, Common stops trying to save the world and uplift the human spirit, and gets in touch with his inner freak, with results that are often more bewildering than sexy.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Leave It All Behind
    Nicolay has never been afraid to go soft and smooth, but his production on Leave It sometimes borders on easy listening.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    For All I Care
    If anything, the group's sixth studio disc is a little too reverent, not so much on the instrumentals as on the pop-song covers.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dance Mother
    Dance Mother has a few bright spots: the para-diddling drums at the beginning of 'In Your Line' give it a real open-air sweep, the song itself is straightforward and affecting, and “Devil’s Trident” features buzzy synthesizers that open up a bracing, jittery mood. But most of the rest isn’t all that engrossing.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
    It’s just that, based on Isbell’s track record, it’s hard not to have an empty, unsatisfied feeling when listening to the rote Americana-lite he’s now turning out.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    All I Ever Wanted
    Now she’s working with pro songwriters full-time again, and the result is a likeable but ultimately hackneyed album that presents her as the über-everygirl.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    LotusFlow3r
    Prince’s guitar works overtime on Lotusflow3r, often patching over some unfinished ideas.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    MPLSound
    The beats do the heavy lifting, often making the album sound like a throwback to the ’80s funk he helped define.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Elixer
    Elixir showcases Bria Valente, whose sultry-but-dull vocals don’t foretell great things.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Country Club
    For the collaborative LP Country Club, Doe and the Goods take a fairly reverent approach, mixing just a few pastichey originals into a set of well-worn C&W covers.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Quicken The Heart
    Maximo Park’s third LP, Quicken The Heart, is equally reassuring--sometimes to the point of tedium.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Manners
    Manners attempts to synthesize Michael Angelakos’ natural talent for dance music with more straightforward, heart-on-sleeve rock, but can’t quite commit to either.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Yours Truly, The Commuter
    Lytle settles for repetitive mood-setters that merely re-shuffle the elements he’s been working with for more than a decade now, with no discernible progress or mastery.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs Of Desire
    Hombre works best when it fully embraces its titular beast: 'Fresh Blood' finds excitement in a brooding groove, and rattles when Everett literally howls. Unfortunately, those are exceptions: The rest of the album just isn’t cohesive enough to entice much repeated listening.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Varshons
    It’s great to see the notoriously troubled Dando lighten up and give fans a taste of what he enjoys, but it’ll be better when he can convert that personal passion into something original and enduring.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion
    Dredg gets a bit lost in the pursuit of redefining itself; thankfully, the current coordinates aren’t too far off from what once made the band so promising.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The People Or The Gun
    The band isn’t in the same lyrical league as others of similar political persuasions. What they do have is energy, which makes about half the album enjoyable, in spite of lyrics that would sound more appropriate coming from a high-school freshman.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Life On Earth
    The 11 songs on Life On Earth, her second Sub Pop album, average nearly six minutes apiece, and there generally isn’t much going on beyond her blurry, cold-water voice (think of a much more ethereal Grace Slick) and her sturdy strums and/or intricate finger-picking. But though the songs can be hit-or-miss.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Eats Darkness
    Through its ups and downs, Eats Darkness keeps plenty of good ideas circulating. Sometimes the band ties them all together, but not often enough.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    My Old, Familiar Friend
    How odd, then, that so much of Friend is a celebration of aimlessness that, coincidentally, quickly loses focus.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Humbug
    More often than not on Humbug, they sound like a less inspired version of themselves.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    He Was King
    Felix’s work has been steadily declining since then, and He Was King does nothing to reverse the trend.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    My Guilty Pleasure
    Most of Sally Shapiro’s sophomore LP falls victim to that ancient killer of dance music’s credibility: sameness.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Black River Killer [EP]
    These songs, while good, are demos still a few go-rounds from being fully fleshed.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Break Up
    Mostly, the record suffers from the same symptoms most flings do: In time, the dreaminess dissipates, leaving those involved searching for something with a little more weight to it.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Terra Incognita
    Lewis convincingly mixes guttural aggression and haunting sonic effects. However, the songwriting is mostly nonexistent, and some tracks are puzzling non-fits that destroy any consistent atmosphere.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Memoirs At The End Of The World
    Much of Memoirs seems familiar even on first listen; it’s all been done better before.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    In This Light & On This Evening
    The highlights are few and far between: Editors may have thought they were progressing by getting synthesized, but it’s ultimately a case of one step forward and two steps back.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Run Rabbit Run
    It’s a lot of talent (among the arrangers gathered is Philip Glass protégé Nico Muhly), and a little novelty--par for the course when it comes to Stevens.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Raditude
    Hooks only go so far, and outside of 'Put Me Back Together' and 'I Don’t Want To Let You Go,' Cuomo doesn’t appear interested in propping them up with human emotions.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Rated R
    Much of its music is a dull wash, difficult to differentiate even across several plays, and not especially compelling outside of the real-life drama the singer examines and exploits. The exceptions are songs that have nothing to do with the Brown affair.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Untitled
    Kelly is still intermittently hilarious--if never intentionally so--but too much of Untitled feels generic, which is a curious flaw for a larger-than-life eccentric with the most, though not necessarily the best, personality in mainstream R&B.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The State vs. Radric Davis
    He’s clearly made The State to a template, and it suffers as a result, particularly when he blatantly courts radio on the unimaginative, lifeless likes of “Sex In Crazy Places” and the Usher-assisted “Spotlight."
    • 59 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    In The Dark
    At times, Parker Gispert's voice is buffed clean of any individual characteristics; at other times, it's contorted into a hackneyed imitation of Southern rockers such as Jim James. The album's best moments, unsurprisingly, are those in which the band lays off the mixing knobs.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Oversteps
    The songs are usually too singular to fit together in any immediately recognizable way. Instead, structure and emotional resonance emerge slowly from a mix of disparate sounds, providing a soundtrack capable of transforming the mundane into the alarming, then the consoling, and back again.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    El Turista
    It also, sadly, carries on Rouse’s newfound emphasis on pleasant textures over passion and songcraft. Rouse never settles into any of these styles; he’s just breezing through.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Grey Oceans
    Some will have the patience and tolerance for searching repeatedly through Grey Oceans to uncover moments of thoughtful beauty. But they're a little harder to find than they should be.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Mines
    In practice, there's nothing particularly challenging about Mines.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    31 Minutes To Takeoff
    Think Justin Timberlake's less-talented cousin, or Andy Samberg.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise
    Yes, it's pleasant escapism, but when there's nothing genuinely heartfelt at stake, who's going to care after the credits roll?
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    All We Grow
    Carey has an eye for sonic detail that will surely benefit the next Bon Iver record, but on All We Grow, neither his songs nor the way he delivers them stick around once the blurry cacophony fades.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Sleep Forever
    At only eight tracks, Sleep Forever feels self-indulgent, the sketchiness of its songs covered up by its layers of exhausting excess. If Crocodiles want to be more than just a photocopy, they need to start drawing their own lines a little sharper.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Le Noise
    The man responsible for enduring political anthems like "Ohio" and "Rockin' In The Free World" gets a pass for similarly mawkish songs like "Love And War" and "Angry World" that don't go any deeper than their titles. But Le Noise doesn't deserve the same concession.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Pete Yorn
    The self-titled album he bashed out with Pixies frontman Frank Black before the recording sessions for Back And Fourth is seeing the light of day, and in spite of Black's assertion that he was attempting to strip Yorn and his songs down to their core essences, the results feel anonymous, cycling through half a dozen different voices while displaying only fleeting glimpses of the effortless pop chops that made Yorn so inescapable a decade ago.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Mixed Race
    while there are moments when his old jaggedness cuts through--the scraping "Early Bird" brings Tom Waits to mind, while "Ghetto Stars" has an eerie keening quality suggestive of industrial screech--Mixed Race is long on half-digested detours.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Metallic Spheres
    After a while, though, it's a bit like hiring a master painter to doodle a flock of birds into the background. Gilmour and The Orb meld enjoyably enough in their comfort zones. If only they'd focused more on pushing beyond.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    History of Modern
    It's a return to form only in the sense that it finds OMD, several decades on, still struggling with its identity.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dreams
    There isn't a bad song--well, apart from "Alone Again (Naturally)"--or a tacky arrangement on the album, but the material suffers from excessive familiarity.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Sidewalks
    The album is awash in synths, Kim's drums are allowed to gather dust, and the indie-pop sounds more akin to, well, regular pop. As with previous efforts, Sidewalks doesn't mind starting with dessert, even if that means appetites will be spoiled for the lesser delights that follow.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    As U Were
    It wouldn't hurt him to slow his roll here. Most of the record is spent on blithe, fruitless trips down other people's styles.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Reggie
    Reggie introduces a kinder, gentler Redman, and while the lack of skits is refreshing, it'd be kind of nice to have the old one back.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Outside
    Like a car trip across North Dakota, Outside takes a long time to get where it's going, and doesn't offer enough of interest along the way.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    There Are Rules
    There's no doubt that these guys can still rock with all the heart-on-sleeve younguns they've influenced; now they just have to rediscover something worth writing home about.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Catch My Shoe
    The Ex has always absorbed the flavor of whatever it's paired with-and de Boer is mostly flavorless. His hiccupping, singsong vocals try to operate on the same level as Sok's raspy, poetic chants, but the result is tentative and forceless.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Violet Cries
    The pattern of temper tantrums and sulks that makes up Violet Cries eventually begins to feel like a substitution for songwriting. It's difficult not to long for the more mature band that Esben And The Witch will hopefully become.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Hotel Shampoo
    The result of Rhys' soft-focus dabbling is, surprisingly, a samey batch of songs, Muzak for the psychedelic set.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Best of Gloucester County
    So while chants of "I love my Lord!" were deemed acceptable by listeners not used to listening to such things, Smith has finally offered something that might be a bit too unsettling: straightforward pop songs.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Fading Parade
    On Fading Parade, Papercuts (a.k.a. Jason Robert Quever) hasn't changed too much, sticking with the fuzzed, hazy, '60s dream-pop that's the musical equivalent of a shoebox filled with old Polaroids.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Blood Pressures
    In spite of some solid material and smoky performances by Mosshart, Blood Pressures does little to change that.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Most Incredible Thing
    Even more problematic is that the music, while ambitious and appropriately dramatic, hardly approaches standalone greatness. The Most Incredible Thing needs Javier De Frutos' choreography to do justice to the story.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    GB City
    Bass Drum Of Death is likely best appreciated live, where the excitement of seeing a thunderously loud, amped-up group of shaggy hooligans compensates for any shortcomings in songwriting and originality. GB City falters without that infusion of energy.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Golden Era
    Del takes a trip down memory lane on Golden Era, but it's never as special or profound the second time around.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Moment Bends
    The new record goes too far toward buffing out the quirks of its predecessor, mistaking studio compression and unexciting genre exercises for more focused songwriting.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Destroyed
    Destroyed is slower than 2008's bright, clubby throwback Last Night and livelier than 2009's oft-despondent Wait For Me, but it's more like the latter, if only because none of the hooks stick.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Sondre Lerche
    This eponymous release is as flavorless as its moniker-in spite of the notable piano, string, and accordion flourishes, the rest of the mostly subdued bunch isn't all that memorable, with the possible exception of the closer, "When The River," which gets its laid-back groove on and ends up making a pretty impressive showing with dramatic synths, echo-y vocals, and jangly guitar.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Mirror Mirror
    As much as the album buzzes with new energy-thanks to producer J.D. Twitch, hailing from the DJ duo Optimo-it also creaks with growing pains. Mirror Mirror is never as immediate as its predecessor, and it buffers its outstanding highlights in forgettable combinations of spooky textures, disembodied vocals, and bloodless guitars.
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