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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    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Cloud Nothings
    The Cleveland teenager slashes though catchy melodies like broken guitar-strings on his full-length debut as Cloud Nothings, as if mad dashes of melodicism grew on trees.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Slave Ambient
    Slave Ambient doesn't recall the past so much as a bright, unexpected future, where bands like this inexplicably are still dreaming in new, refreshingly outsized ways.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Friend Opportunity
    Friend Opportunity is adventurous and strange, but not insular. It lets everyone share the triumphant feeling of a puzzle reaching completion.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    What Will We Be
    On this, his major-label bow, the (now beardless!) prince of freak-folk has harnessed his many left-field tics and energies to craft his most elegantly driven work yet.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sky Blue Sky
    It's an album of shiny surfaces and great depths.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Trees Outside The Academy
    Moore turns inward and turns down, which works to his advantage.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Weathervanes
    Weathervanes' intriguing, thought-provoking lyrics and concept-album nature-it's about a boy who falls in love with a girl ghost-make it a literate-pop gem.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Warm Heart Of Africa
    Though Radioclit seems to draw production ideas from the already existent ether--largely the African-Western pop alliances of the ’80s--that does nothing to take away from this fascinating and happy moment captured on record.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
    Unlike the singer’s rootsy solo work, Down In The Weeds is rich in what brought many of us to Bright Eyes in the first place: the drama. ... There’s the mature reflection he intertwines with his urgency. There’s his hard-fought optimism. And there’s the embrace of community, the sense that Oberst doesn’t want to stare down these songs alone.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Entanglements
    While certain details are kept shrouded, the acts and emotions are hyper-real, and the story's arc is plenty navigable.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Forget
    Twin Shadow manages to stand out in a cluttered genre thanks to world-beating, danceable hooks and a surfeit of style.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    New Adventures in Hi-Fi [25th Anniversary Edition]
    For die-hards, having these extra tracks in one place, rather than scattered across CD singles or long-lost downloaded MP3s, is a plus; for the unfamiliar, these extras help flesh out the main album’s contours. ... A fascinating chronicle, New Adventures is finally—and rightfully—taking its place as one of R.E.M.’s best, most consistent works.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Brain Thrust Mastery
    Brain Thrust Mastery wouldn't exist without the '80s, but We Are Scientists offer up more than just retro-rock, even when they get as danceable as The Killers.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Melted
    Melted is a true, terrific, and times gleefully terrifying mirror of its maker.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Together Through Life
    For all the pain and peril of the lyrics, there’s a lot of sly humor, too, underlined by the album’s loose, joyful sound.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    To The Races
    Most of To The Races is arresting and alive, filled with little moments--a snaky violin, a warm harmonica, a lilting melody--that serve as reminders of how important the concept of "performance" can be.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Double Cross
    The Double Cross is just an unapologetic celebration of Sloandom, and a safe place for those who believe good dual-guitar breaks--like the ones on the stomping "Unkind"--are the reason why we're here on Earth.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    April
    April, his third full-length under the Sun Kil Moon moniker, and the first made up of new songs since 2003, easily bears the weight of expectations, proving once again that he really does transcend any slowcore or singer-songwriter tags that have been tossed his way.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Painted Ruins
    In all, Painted Ruins represents the band’s strongest compositions since Yellow House--and still, there’s something weirdly revolutionary about this kind of formalism in 2017.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ear Drum
    Sexual and spiritual, conscious and just plain fun, Eardrum is a master class in lyricism from a man supremely comfortable in his own skin.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Seventh Tree
    The disc is buoyed by an underlying pop sensibility, epitomized by the bubbly 'A&E' and 'Caravan Girl.'
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Seeker Lover Keeper
    Yet songwriter trio Seeker Lover Keeper's debut album is as frictionless as a walk on the moon, full of the welcome sounds of mutual appreciation.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    New Multitudes
    The effect is both panoramic and cloistered, an aptly manic-depressive tribute not only to the band's source material and Guthrie's lasting relevance, but to the lonesome crowded West that so many have worked to document since.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Glitter And Doom Live
    As usual, it’s worth any amount of trouble to hear Waits live.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Gossamer
    Despite the emphasis on struggle, Gossamer couldn't sound more assured.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    B'lieve I'm Goin' Down
    It hews much more closely to Isaac Brock’s hallucinatory scorched-earth apocalyptic premonitions on Modest Mouse’s finest moments, and musically, it’s the purest distillation of Vile’s idiosyncratic style to date.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Charity Starts at Home
    With his gloriously grown-up solo debut, one of the smartest, most incisive lyricists alive proves it's possible to grow older in hip-hop while retaining your dignity.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    You're Dead!
    You’re Dead! is his most confidently structured work yet.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Empros
    Empros doesn't just defy gravity, it defines it.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Diaper Island
    While he's certainly revisiting his familiar aesthetic, VanGaalen has refined his style, resulting in a focused, cohesive album with a rocker's confidence powering through each track.
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