The A.V. Club's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Wolves
    Wolves is somehow even more polished, almost glossy to a fault with its compression and ladled-on sweetening of the distortion. At times, it veers dangerously close to latter-day Metallica.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Ti Amo
    It’s gorgeously produced and does a bang-up job of updating the sounds that it’s clearly so enamored of. It’s just not the kind of album—unlike Wolfgang Amadeus or 2006’s It’s Never Been Like That—that feels particularly urgent. Maybe it’s a pleasant diversion for band and audience, which is fine—it’s just never much more than that.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Witness
    Despite the presence of bulletproof hit-makers (Max Martin, Sia, Jeff Bhasker) and inventive electro artists (Purity Ring, Hot Chip, Duke Dumont), the record is curiously flat, a shapeless slog that feels remarkably sluggish.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Teenage Emotions
    He is at his most interesting on the few occasions where he slips into a sort of uncanny valley of pop music--a bizarro fantasia that he arrives at honestly, like a less satirical PC Music.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    City of No Reply
    City Of No Reply is an album of stylistic hybrids. Coffman’s voice stitches all of these disparate influences together, at home among glistening neo-soul and phaser-pedal funk.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Waiting on a Song
    Still, competent and charming as it is, Waiting On A Song never quite has the spark to rise above homage and carve out something distinct.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone
    While the lyrics can be blunt, even casual in their demeanor, they’re paired with plenty of sonic turmoil.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Gone Now
    While Gone Now features a few cuts that are much more piercing than you might expect, it doesn’t quite go all the way.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Somersault
    Far and away Beach Fossils’ finest record yet.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Shake the Shudder
    There’s no reason not to throw on Shake The Shudder and dance it out, but like many fun-yet-hazy late nights, it doesn’t leave much of an impression afterward.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Goths
    As part of the band’s rich story, It’s still a journey worth taking, both for the band and listeners. But the latter will find themselves staring out the window, brooding over the gray and dismal scenery a bit more.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    You're Welcome
    You’re Welcome isn’t a mere homage to the history of popular music; the band has assimilated these influences into its own sonic approach. As a result, even Wavves’ familiar inspirations feel invigorated.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Life After Youth
    Life After Youth is a welcome reminder of why Land Of Talk was missed, and a promising glimpse at a second chance.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Party
    All the fantastic background experimentation, bleating wind instruments, and appearances by Mike Hadreas (Perfume Genius) are ultimately too slight to lend the record much in the way of dynamics. Still, Harding’s command of her craft is evident and worth witnessing on Party--and worth keeping an eye on in the future.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    World Be Gone
    Ffor the most part, World Be Gone is better suited for relaxing after a rousing march or successful phone-bank campaign than something that would rally the troops.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rocket
    Even though Rocket sometimes feels messy, only a songwriter as prolific and uninhibited as Giannascoli can make the chaos this thrilling and affecting.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Harry Styles
    The sheer confidence on display here suggests he’s more than up to the challenge; hopefully the songs will someday catch up to his ambition.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Everybody
    “Amiable” is sort of the operant word for Everybody, which, like Joey Badass’ All-Amerikkan Bada$$, strives to create a trenchant pop-rap polemic for the Trump era, but unlike that record—or any other record ever, for that matter—frequently gets lost in minutes-long spoken-word segues in which Neil DeGrasse Tyson speaks as a benevolent god about the nature of self-worth.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    White Knight
    Mostly, White Knight sounds like an album that was probably a lot more fun to make than it is to listen to.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Powerplant
    The rest of Powerplant’s brief 29-minute running time can’t quite live up to “123,” though it has plenty of powerful moments.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pageant
    No amount of perma-teenage angst can dim PWR BTTM’s light, and by owning the hard work it takes to love yourself and others, particularly as a queer person, they celebrate the beauty and value of our lives.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    This Old Dog
    None of these songs rank among DeMarco’s best melodies, but like the winning Salad Days bedroom-pop exercise “Let My Baby Stay,” they meld vocal style, lyric, and arrangement into something that feels authentic.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    in•ter a•li•a
    Inter Alia sounds unmistakably bored with itself.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Compassion
    Compassion may feel especially timely, but music this passionately realized will always be worth revisiting.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    I Can Spin a Rainbow
    “The Sun Still Shines,” suggests that Palmer and Ka-Spel should have really focused their energies on composing interstitial music for a stage production.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    In Spades
    He [Greg Dulli] can still hit that sweet spot of come-hither crooning, but the production hides much of his more agitated wails in the mix. The vocals are therefore no longer the dominant element of the music.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Pollinator
    Delivering the synth-driven dance-rock it does best.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Slowdive
    Slowdive is not a quantum-leap record, nor does it slavishly replicate past successes. Rather it’s another collection of thoughtfully written songs, filled with evident joy for the band’s reformation.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Satan's Graffiti or God's Art?
    Even with its lumbering back end, this is a return to form for Black Lips, who’ve once again found a middle ground between the manic, abrasive rock of their earliest records and the more clean-cut punk of 2014’s Underneath The Rainbow.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    No Shape
    It has moments of populist ambition (the soaring chorus of the lead single, “Slip Away,” for example) and self-consciously arty experimentation (“Choir”), and it’s a credit to Hadreas and producer Blake Mills that its 13 tracks sound as seamless and cohesive as they do.
Page: