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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    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Bronx (IV)
    The Bronx has turned rage and desperation into a perpetual state of being--and (IV) into a monument not just of survival, but also evolution.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Anastasis
    Anastasis' musical world isn't insular or sealed off; it's the rare album meant for longtime fans that is also accessible to new listeners.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Normal Happiness
    Normal Happens is a collection of short, breezy power-pop songs with a lo-fi edge. It's easy to listen to, easy to like.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Antifogmatic
    While its previous album, Punch, took that sophistication to a level bordering on esotericism, the new Antifogmatic is as warm and welcoming as the bracing 19th-century drink that gave it its name.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Celebration, Florida
    Celebration, Florida is the band's full-on Tom Waits apocalypse record, finding signs of our imminent destruction in-what else?-our most banal diversions.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Jarvis
    The main difference between Jarvis and Pulp's final album, We Love Life, is that the new record feels far less portentous, and more brightly poppy.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Graduation
    Fascinatingly flawed, Graduation finds an imperfect man seeking, and occasionally finding, perfection in his music.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Business Casual
    The record opens with a powerful three-part salvo crafted for maximum dance-floor penetration.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Vulnicura
    The musical moments that capture Björk’s heartbreak are frequently stunning on Vulnicura, but the whole thing is a little shy on hooks and reasons to take the grueling journey with her often. And that’s what keeps it from being her Yeezus: The heartbreak makes it powerful, but also difficult to enjoy.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Primary Colours
    The Horrors have gone from terrifying to haunting, an effect that lingers far longer.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Redemption
    Throughout Jay fixates on a specific sort of paranoid despair, chasing bottles of Henny with painkillers. His favorite move is to not move at all, finding a good flow and digging into it, often delivering tiny clipped phrases like a boxer practicing his jab.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Undisputed Truth
    Ali's unselfconscious candor engenders an intimacy between artist and fan that makes each new album feel like a letter from an old friend.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Incessant
    The Incessant serves as a demarcation point for both Sutter and Meat Wave. It’s the sound of a band fighting through the darkness in order to find something new and sounding emboldened by the process.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Harps And Angels
    Some of the more on-the-nose satire falls flat....Still, heart-on-the-sleeve tracks like 'Losing You' and 'Feels Like Home' feature Newman at his most affecting.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Further Complications
    Steve Albini’s production retains some of the lushness Cocker favored on Pulp’s later albums and his solo debut, while investing it with a new punchiness. The approach ups the drama on Cocker’s tales of mid-life desire and failure.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Northern Passages
    On Northern Passages, their 10th studio album, The Sadies cut 11 fresh paths through well-trodden territory. Because band-leading brothers Dallas and Travis Good have made adaptability their defining characteristic, they’re best served when bigger personalities take the helm.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Last Romance
    Arab Strap's dark, funny, miserable, and--gasp--catchy The Last Romance sounds like the album Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton wouldn't let themselves make in the past, but finally relented to.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Budos Band III
    Whoever has the spotlight at any given point, III is The Budos Band's most confident-sounding album, like a soundtrack to a Shaft In Africa if it were actually made in Africa.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    False Priest
    On False Priest, the spirit of collaboration does for Of Montreal on record what it has done for the band's live show, building a thrilling, carnival-like atmosphere around Barnes' fractured perspective.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Skying
    Skying boasts countless vague allusions to waking up, seeing things, rain, and/or the ocean.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Long Slow Dance
    There's still some muscle here; it's just not as frequent as the moments when Cohen and company sing about how "the future is bright," shooting for beauty.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rockferry
    That ice-queen intrigue adds a certain cachet to the 23-year-old's occasionally overstudied lyrics.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    We Have You Surrounded
    The experimentation falls flat in places, but it's still exhilarating to hear something as stock as garage-rock fed through the Play-Doh Fun Factory of Collins' deranged brain.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Calcination Of Scout Niblett
    The Calcination Of Scout Niblett is less a record to be heard, and more a spectacle to be gawked at, one from which it’s difficult to turn away.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sky Full of Holes
    Fountains Of Wayne dutifully settles into adulthood on Sky Full Of Holes.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    War & Leisure
    Miguel wears War & Leisure’s looseness well, and even if he doesn’t reveal much of himself, he still has the charisma to pull the whole ensemble off.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Saturday Night Wrist
    The album is mostly a heady, atmospheric, willfully too-difficult-for-radio wash of sound that, save for a handful of tracks, stretches out and explores Deftones' creative limits more than ever before.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Band of Joy
    What was once Plant's bold reclamation of self has become a little pat, but it's hard to complain about the predictability of Band Of Joy when the songs sound so good, with their softly sawing guitars, syncopated rhythms, and voices rising from the fuzz, strong and sure.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Soft Pack
    Granted, The Soft Pack has knife-edged pop riffs and crooned vocals galore. But a closer probe reveals a knack for punky songcraft and caffeinated oomph that could have easily been inherited from fellow San Diego group Hot Snakes.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
    By expanding its worldview, Franz Ferdinand has very nicely settled onto a path toward career longevity.
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