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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    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rainbow
    It’s a bold, focused, universal statement about freedom--from self-hatred, from paralyzing internal conflicts, from gender expectations, from negative influences, and (especially) from other people’s shit.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Bandwagonesque
    For fans of the original, Gibbard’s Bandwagonesque should be a nice, unsurprising treat; for fans of Gibbard’s who may not be familiar with the original’s charms, hopefully it’ll be a way in.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hitchhiker
    For fans of Neil Young in the ’70s--his pretty undeniable peak--this one is fantastic. Beyond that, it could easily serve as an introduction to a generation that hasn’t heard his music.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dead Cross
    Whereas many supergroup albums feel tired and humorless, Dead Cross is a lean hardcore record that drills eardrums like a nitrous-addled dentist.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Call It Love
    This is a record that plays it safe musically, even as it probes uncomfortable emotional states and difficult experiences.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dark Matter
    Dark Matter is dense, complicated stuff, though it’s also an engrossing display of pop theater.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lust for Life
    While Del Rey’s voice remains firmly at the forefront, the spare arrangements encourage listeners to fill in their own emotional blanks for once.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Paranormal
    Somewhat unexpectedly, Paranormal is even more intriguing when it delves into heavier territory.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Everything Now
    Everything Now could stand to be more disciplined, though its looseness is also a reminder of how Arcade Fire leaped past its indie-rock peers by being an honest-to-goodness hot, swinging combo, feeding off each other and the crowd. Building off those chops and that adulation, Win Butler and his mates developed a sound as ornate, ceremonial, and transcendent as a church service.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Flower Boy
    Flower Boy is the first time he’s been equally as forthcoming in his actual music. His flow has tightened up, and for a man whose voice basically destined him for rap stardom, he’s become even better at stretching his booming baritone into novel shapes, employing a plethora of flows.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Black Mile to the Surface
    There’s some beautiful songwriting here, but it’s buried beneath the smudges of its producers.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    New Facts Emerge
    It’s not bad--it’s certainly not an Ersatz GB, or Are You Are Missing Winner (though its half-assed cover art certainly comes close). But now that I’ve written it up, off it will go into the pile, never to be played.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Add Violence [EP]
    Nothing on last year’s Not The Actual Events approached the grabbiness of “Less Than,” but that EP distributed its charms more evenly than Add Violence, which never tops its leadoff track.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Universal High
    At points, Universal High finds a hook and rides it somewhere new, but for the most part it’s content to time-travel to safe harbors, layering clean, jazzy guitar over simple grooves or dabbling in yacht rock.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Eucalyptus
    While Eucalyptus is undoubtedly intriguing, it’s only occasionally enjoyable as music.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Sacred Hearts Club
    Overall, Sacred Hearts Club also signals a return to Foster The People’s more electronic origins, but not in the inventive way that was used on Torches. Rather, it comes off as hackneyed copy, full of the predictable EDM/trap beats that every other chart-topper has shoved in somewhere.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Mellow Waves
    Don’t let the lightness of Mellow Waves fool you; its pleasures are substantive and lingering.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    Times Infinity, Vol. 2
    Throughout, the album is marred by dated, slathered-on digital effects or chintzy, ’70s romantic drama synth-strings, or laden with clunky refrains.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lo Tom
    Sometimes quick-and-dirty is the way to go, and with just eight straightforward songs, Lo Tom does it really well. It’s hard to say if anybody beyond the Bazan-devoted will jump on board--or even find a record like this--but his flock should be delighted.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Dear
    There are stray blasts of righteous melody, like the anthemic crescendos that erupt from the placid surface of “Beyond.” But most of Dear’s sonic earthquakes seem designed to rattle the bones, not catch the ears.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Soft Sounds From Another Planet
    While everything on Japanese Breakfast’s proper sophomore effort isn’t entirely fresh, and its structure is somewhat loose, there’s a confidence and crispness to Soft Sounds that shows just how fully realized Zauner’s formerly homemade experiments have become.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star
    Born On A Gangster Star zeroes in on Butler’s abstract state-of-hip-hop lyrics, epitomized by the booming, beautiful “Shine A Light.” Still, these delineations aren’t exact. Both albums seem to circle each other like binary stars, feeding off of and justifying the other.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines
    Both albums create worlds unto themselves. The gauzy, sensual Quazarz Vs. The Jealous Machines highlights the duo’s more melodic side, moving from lust and consummation to a film-noir spy flick, pursued by nebulous internet drones.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Need to Feel Your Love
    The latter song [“Meet Me In The Street”] sets the tone for the record, as it rails against the ugliness of privilege (“Silver spoon suckers headed for a fall / And justice for all”) and encourages an uprising against authority. Equally galvanizing is “Suffer Me,” a song about the Stonewall Riots, and “Expect The Bayonet,” which is about marginalized groups banding together to fight oppression: “If you don’t give us the ballot / Expect the bayonet.”
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Out in the Storm
    Each Waxahatchee album has felt like a big step forward, and Out In The Storm feels like the biggest one yet.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Walk With Love and Death
    Overall Love isn’t arresting enough to draw listeners in without a visual component. Along with a handful of other Melvins albums, A Walk With Love & Death seems destined to be overshadowed by the band’s stronger output.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 1
    It’s a winning bid for artistic credibility: not going for smarter, more complex, or bigger, just better, more fun. Full of island affectations, soft-rock gloss, and chintzy good-life strings, it is, at last, the sort of fun you don’t have to feel bad about the next day.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Every Valley
    Informative and moving, Every Valley doesn’t exist in the traditional space of an album--it’s almost music as journalism, or a musical collage version of This American Life. If nothing else, you won’t hear anything like it this year.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Boo Boo
    While these 12 tracks are typically lush, they also reveal him to be a pop singer and songwriter of endearing plainspokenness, capturing the intense introspection and confusion of a breakup.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Something To Tell You
    On Something To Tell You, HAIM’s innate sincerity and musical ambitions finally sync up, resulting in one of the more consistent, cohesive, and enjoyable records of the year.
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