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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    • 68 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Dos!
    Dos! is the sophomore slump of a trilogy that's shaping up to be far less fun than it was supposed to be.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Ode To J. Smith
    Ode To J. Smith is the sound of a band too boxed-in to do the hooky melancholy it used to do so well, but too neutered to really rock out.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    This is PiL
    PiL's last album, 1992's That What Is Not, left the outfit hanging on a slick and inconsequential note, one that couldn't be further from the dubby murk of the group's pioneering work from the '70s. This Is PiL circles back to that murk, then buries its head in it.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Share the Joy
    Like a broken record, Vivian Girls appear doomed to repeat themselves.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Louder
    Sadly, a compilation of tracks randomly culled from the best Rachel Berry solos recorded for the show would yield a stronger album than this one made up of originals.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Who You Are
    In trying to be an über-pop-star, she ends up becoming an every-pop-star.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Real Feel
    The Pavement member released two full-lengths with Preston School Of Industry earlier this decade, during a relative lull in Pavement-mania; both essentially defined “workmanlike,” and sadly, The Real Feel is no different.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    It Is Time For A Love Revolution
    From its title on down, It Is Time For A Love Revolution is spiritually interchangeable with his debut, 1989's "Let Love Rule."
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Fire Theft
    Oddly formless and forgettable, The Fire Theft finds Sunny Day Real Estate diminished in more ways than one.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mad Season
    "Last Beautiful Girl"... would be good enough to inspire a wholesale reassessment of Matchbox Twenty if the material surrounding it weren't so average.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Breathe
    Breathe is fine for what it is, but each time Leaves bandleader Arnar Gudjonsson launches into yet another midtempo space-rocker in which he shifts from a mushy monotone croon to a lilting falsetto, the move becomes less a genuine expression of personal style and more a shameless attempt to get with the new rock mainstream.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Meteora
    Mercifully brief but mercilessly repetitive, Meteora is little more than a tolerable rehash of a formula that's been on the wrong side of its sell-by date for some time now.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Snare
    With the murmured, strictly cadenced vocals, The Snare resembles an especially wan, uninspired rap record.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    England, Half English
    While his rhetoric remains fiery, the material is weak.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    New Danger
    A sprawling mess.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    14 Shades Of Grey
    Not memorable enough to be bad, not heavy enough to pack visceral power, most of these songs–even radio-friendly ringers like "So Far Away"–are indistinguishable from the work of a hundred other bands with misspelled names, hotshot producers, plentiful tattoos, and optional silly facial hair.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Pain Is Love
    Ja Rule's only real gift is for crafting undeniable pop hooks. That talent is underrated, but it still does little to cover up the rapper's derivative lyrics and crassly recycled 2Pacisms.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Purple Haze
    Purple Haze lumbers drearily through a sea of gangsta-rap clichés.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Airdrawndagger
    Airdrawndagger fades so listlessly into the annals of anonymity.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Last Temptation
    Rule is up to his old tricks on Temptation, wrapping thuggish sentiments in candy-coated R&B-flavored tracks, shamelessly dispensing 2Pacisms, and yelling his catchphrase "Murder!" at regular intervals.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Street Dreams
    While a delight on guest appearances, he has yet to prove that he can construct memorable songs, let alone a solid album.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Around The Sun
    In eliminating both the mystery of its early years and the restless spirit of more recent times, R.E.M. leaves just exactly what R.E.M.-haters probably felt the band made all along: midtempo, largely hookless adult rock.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sound of Water
    Saint Etienne has made an egregiously Cardigans-esque wrong turn, abandoning impeccable craft and Motown melodies for the breezy if aimless experimentation of its wildly uneven EPs.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dear Heather
    Mostly, Dear Heather just coasts on poetic phrasing and inoffensive tunes.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    C'mon C'mon
    Though she's a master of the explosive chorus, too much of C'Mon C'Mon sounds calculated around that talent, dropping hooks into otherwise unremarkable songs.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Masquerade
    Yet another overreaching, overlong musical erector set, the album offers an uneven, conceptually muddled tour of the rapper's current musical obsessions, from gritty underground hip-hop to Caribbean music.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Production
    What could have been a huge breakthrough instead sounds staid, as if he were so used to rocking the house that he didn't want to risk rocking the boat.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    American IV: The Man Comes Around
    His song selection has rarely made less sense.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rebirth
    Though Lopez often comes off as little more than a featherweight studio concoction, Rebirth contains a few moments with the sugary snap of fresh Bubble Yum.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Boomslang
    Boomslang's heavily treated vocals, nondescript songwriting, and swirling, noisy production doesn't leave much room for personality to pop through.
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