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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    • 54 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Prophets of Rage
    It is an album of obvious statements set to equally thudding music, liable to move and inspire no one.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Try Not To Freak Out
    As a whole, Try Not To Freak Out is a joyful blast, a John Hughes soundtrack on steroids that never loses its sunny disposition.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Native Invader
    Native Invader isn’t as confrontational as Amos’ early work, and as a result, once or twice the album takes a brief detour into coffeeshop cliché. But even the sillier lyrical content is elevated by Amos’ talent for arrangement and distinctive snippets of melody.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    L.A Witch
    On their debut, the three weird sisters in L.A. Witch have conjured up a sexy, enigmatic album that looks forward by looking back.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Parallels
    For all its probity, Parallels is of a piece with its predecessors, another curvilinear and sinuous 30-minute odyssey from one of the most consistent and daring producers working.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Hanged Man
    This seven-year stretch has obviously been both reinvigorating and emotionally devastating for Leo. Fortunately, he’s channeled all that grief, anger, and inspiration into another 14 tracks packed with commentary and experimentation.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Love What Survives
    It’s uniformly pleasurable, occasionally stirring listening, and Campos and Maker have excellent taste.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Mountain Moves
    If Mountain Moves occasionally feels disconnected, it’s because the theme upon which it hinges--injustice--is, sadly, still as broadly defined as it gets. Fortunately, that disconnectedness makes for a bright, lively listen.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Antisocialites
    Rather than clashing, those two halves--one romantic and aspirational, one blunt and realistic--sharpen each other and create an album that delivers, and then some, on the promise of the band’s self-titled debut.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Okovi
    Zola’s latest, Okovi, is more homecoming than course correction.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Sleep Well Beast
    Those invested in the band’s slow-motion refinement of simmering melancholy will find that they’ve discovered yet more fresh nuance to that sound, as they seem to every time.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Expect the Best
    On Expect The Best, Widowspeak returns to the looseness of its earlier output but drops even more of its guard, and the band’s ever-present nostalgia becomes a deeper autobiographical commentary on the passage of time and expectations.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Punishment of Luxury
    In the wrong hands, this kind of thing could come across as heavy-handed or detached, but The Punishment Of Luxury exudes warmth and empathy throughout.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Every Country's Sun
    Despite the odd misstep--like the distant minimalism of “1000 Foot Face”--the album soars with a vibrancy that sustains it over its nearly hourlong running time.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    American Dream
    It’s a beautifully produced, masterfully realized album, but it’s also a bit of a downer and an unusually slow burn.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Who Told You To Think?
    Milo’s still firmly making experimental hip-hop, bridging various through-lines of mind-expanding boom-bap, but he’s also etching his way toward the center, his art getting clearer with each step.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Villains
    On the whole, Villains isn’t Homme’s strongest collection of songwriting. That said, it’s the first Queens Of The Stone Age album where the sounds behind it are consistently strong enough to carry the load.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Invitation
    Invitation is strong enough as a whole to breeze past those weaker moments. Filthy Friends’ debut provides exactly what their lineage promises, and when it comes to supergroups, that amounts to coming out ahead.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Holiday Destination
    On her third LP, Shah displays the patience to let an idea stew. And she’s not moving on until she’s sufficiently chewed it over, swished it around her mouth, and dragged her tongue across her front teeth.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    A Deeper Understanding
    With much higher expectations weighing on the band, it’s produced a successor that shines up and builds on that breakthrough in every way.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Exile in the Outer Ring
    Dread surrounds Exile In The Outer Ring like a thick fog. As much as EMA empathizes with “the kids from the void,” her excellent album offers little comfort besides the gentle urging of “Hey, don’t go away” (“Down And Out”).
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Orc
    It’s a good balance of moods and sounds--a welcome trot from a band more inclined to sprint.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Beast Epic
    Beast Epic perfectly distills a career into a nearly perfect collection.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Science Fiction
    Brand New has put in the work, making a record that erases any doubts about whether the final product would live up to eight years of mystery and hype. And it’s effectively erased its past by making good on every far-flung expectation placed upon it.
    • 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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Warmth
    Taken all together, Warmth is an enveloping listen, whether you’re the type to get up and move to music, or just sit and overthink it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    How Do You Spell Heaven
    How Do You Spell Heaven suffers from having a tad too much of Pollard’s lone influence, and as a result, it’s overloaded with the kind of mid-tempo filler that takes a few listens to really stand out. Even still, it’s a uniformly enjoyable listen, one that’s mostly upbeat.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Cost of Living
    Her message is crystal clear, as is the rest of Cost Of Living. Downtown Boys is determined to be the kind of band we need right now, delivering the kind of punk that that aims to change the world.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Cage Tropical
    Cage Tropical possesses darker dimensions and inspirations, driven by twinges of velocity and an unsettled vibe. This combination suits Rose well: Her music may have emerged from a period of great turmoil, but, in the process, she’s found a new path forward.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Good Time [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    It’s a masterful job of homage, and—as with Thief and Drive before it--all those pulsating synths and cavernous low tones give the film much of its swagger, and they promise to intensify your own, far less exciting commute as well.
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