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
    • 58 Critic Score
    Gold Dust
    While anyone who lost touch with Amos over the years will certainly enjoy Gold Dust--and the sonic upgrades to some of her best songs are sublime--in the end, it's not essential.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Nobody's Smiling
    A collection of mostly forgettable tracks that tries far too hard and has little to show for it.
    • 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
    • 81 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Hiss Spun
    Hiss Spun is a full-on sludge-metal extravaganza, never content to go slow and heavy when it could be going slower and heavier. The bombast is overwhelming, and while there’s an admirable zeal to her drive for making almost every second as intense as possible, it begins to get numbing.
    • 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
    National Anthem Of Nowhere
    National Anthem Of Nowhere is intermittently compelling, but it's more often disjointed and unduly harsh.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Pluto
    A few more bangers like them would have gone a long way to help balance out this sporadically engrossing, frequently frustrating curiosity.
    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Wonderful Wonderful
    That lack of any real direction or purpose colors all of Wonderful Wonderful, a record that, even by The Killers’ standards, boasts little depth beneath its glossy surface.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Camp
    A meaty concept album about how the insecurities of youth carry into adulthood, Camp is heavy with themes of racial expectations and cultural ostracism--big ideas that aren't always done justice by Glover's cartoonishly exaggerated, one-liner-laden flow.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Crack-Up
    The band has always prided itself on ornateness, and in that sense, Crack-Up is its richest release to date. But more often than not, all that fussiness robs it of any impact.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Unknown Mortal Orchestra
    Unknown Mortal Orchestra lines up nicely with the ex-Beatle's McCartney and McCartney II LPs. And like those two releases, Unknown Mortal Orchestra's idiosyncrasies and straightforward melodies portend greater, untapped potential.
    • 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.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Sound City: Real to Reel
    Perhaps due to understandably lower expectations, Sound City has a better batting average when Grohl is collaborating with a lesser tier of legend--or with no legend at all.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    No Sounds Are Out of Bounds
    Overall it’s a baggy mixed bag of dub grooves and warmed-over house beats, dominated by an exhausting tower of babbling dialogue samples that, like No Sounds itself, rarely have much to say.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    How To Walk Away
    If only there was more of this devilish grit on How To Walk Away.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dove
    Shaving a few of the middling cuts like “Heartstrings” and “Stars Align” would have helped the album overall, as Belly’s comeback songs runs together in a cranky sea of relationship angst.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac
    The tinkering these acts do with Fleetwood Mac's songs is mostly on the surface, making them sound either more electronic and alien or more old-fashioned and rootsy, without really illuminating them in any significant way.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Regions of Light and Sound of God
    Pleasant but at times bland or monotonous, the record touches on wholesome ’50s rock, hollow soul, skittering jazz, and pastoral folk.
    • 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.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Glazin'
    Compared to the gleefully scrappy No Seasons, the band has clearly put in more deliberation this time around, though some creativity has been lost in the studio clean-up: Clangy guitars, thumping drums, and no-frills keyboards make for easy sing-alongs, but other songs are too simple to have staying power.
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