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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    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dirty Gold
    A labored crossover grab that mistakes conviction for substance, Dirty Gold marks Haze as just the latest in a long line of promising mixtape rappers to whiff a major-label debut.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Out From Out Where
    But for all its diligent progressivism, Out From Out Where collapses under its own weight, sounding every bit as stubborn and hermetic as Autechre's infamous Confield.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Somebody's Miracle
    While Somebody's Miracle marks an improvement over Liz Phair, there's still nothing revolutionary, or even memorable, happening here.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Emperor of Sand
    Emperor Of Sand is both progressive and regressive, as Mastodon takes two different parts of its past and slaps them together. And while it occasionally works, more often than not Mastodon just sounds confused.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Critical Equation
    Dr. Dog’s music is usually far more engaging and inventive, so hopefully Critical Equation’s monotonous tedium is a mere blip.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Crooked Shadows
    Of all his very short albums, this is his shortest, and where he once packed his songs with knotty chord changes and shout-along confessions, here he tends toward conventional structures and lowest-common-denominator couplets.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    More
    C has described More as more adult than her debut, and while no one is likely to mistake her for Serge Gainsbourg, it does draw on far more respectable sources than those of her TRL peers, leavening her trademark sound with disco, new wave, and electronica. At her best, C sounds like an American, more mercenary version of Saint Etienne's lead singer, Sarah Cracknell, as she lowers her already-thin voice into a breathy, evocative whisper.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Man Against Machine
    Instead of building on Brooks’ strengths, Man Against Machine is firmly rooted in midair.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lost on the River
    The New Basement Tapes is a mostly pleasant collection of sleek and sometimes forgettable tunes.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gandhi Kahn
    Like its predecessor, the album features flashes of brilliance interspersed with Van Helden's weak spot for frustratingly clownish contrariety.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Damage
    Damage doesn’t offend, but it doesn’t offer much that’s memorable, either.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    An Awesome Wave
    An Awesome Wave washes over its beached listeners, pleasantly cooling them for a second, then making its retreat back into an ocean of sameness.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Black City
    In the end, Dear has successfully turned a tense, eerie mood into songs. They just aren't songs most people will feel like hearing.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.
    The only thing repeated, however, is an unfortunate pattern: For Feel’s every plus, there’s a significant minus, such that listeners could actually buy the album’s even-numbered tracks, and skip all the odds.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hysterical
    CYHSY has reeled back the infectious madness, softening the edges once made so acute by pinwheeling guitars, buoyant bass, and danceable rhythms.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ninth
    Where his menace once oozed, it now hiccups.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Own the Night
    While the average age of Lady Antebellum's members is a relatively youthful 28, Own The Night is purposely old-fashioned, even geriatric.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stronger
    The album suffers from a heavily produced electro-sheen, and ends up feeling more manufactured than magical.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    It's a Corporate World
    The Detroit-based outfit has pieced together a streamlined collection of pleasant but forgettable pop tunes that come and go without much punch.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mr. Beast
    Beast lumbers instead of flows.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Death Seat
    As a self-consciously serious singer-songwriter, Toth consistently underwhelms. As with Waiting In Vain, Death Seat showcases Toth's evocative, starkly poetic lyrics....But neither his voice nor his music effectively convey any of those bleak, morbidly witty themes.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    All Things Bright and Beautiful
    For the most part, the songs are unable to transcend their cheesiness, turning Young's formula from winning to wincing.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Dreamer/The Believer
    It's a passable album of mostly neutral jams and bare-minimum production.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    After the Party
    While The Menzingers’ best work has always been about grappling with personality flaws in the interest of becoming a better person, After The Party only offers surface-level reflections, to the detriment of the band itself.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tangerine Reef
    The record captures all the noodling self-indulgence that makes the psych-poppers such a maddeningly inconsistent live act. But Tangerine Reef is an incomplete object in this form: It’s accompaniment, not feature presentation, the drowsy soundtrack to the iridescent undersea visuals of Australian filmmakers Coral Morphologic.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lightning
    In getting back to basics, however, the record leaves out the memorable hooks that make the whole formula work.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hall Music
    With Hall Music, Svanangen has proven he can compose big arrangements, but he might not write big music.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Sellout
    Easy as it is to root for the freaky underdog in any endeavor, Gray doesn't sound especially engaged here.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Places Like This
    In spite of Architecture In Helsinki's trademark bounce and imagination, Places feels far more like work than play.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Britney Jean
    Far too much of Britney Jean defaults to EDM-by-numbers and the numbing lyrical repetitiveness that appears to be Will.i.am’s calling card.
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