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
    • 50 Critic Score
    (III)
    Instead of anarchist dance jams full of crunchy 8-bit noise, (III) is more like a static-filled radio station fading in and out of range.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Dos!
    Dos! is the sophomore slump of a trilogy that's shaping up to be far less fun than it was supposed to be.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lotus
    Aguilera has always been an unstoppable force when she pours her heart and soul into her music-and not as adept at dumbing down her voice or lyrics for the sake of lightweight tunes or prevailing trends. Unfortunately, by focusing on the latter route, Lotus becomes disappointingly faceless.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dreams and Nightmares
    Everything is executed competently enough, but the album's stuffy backward focus hardly complements an excitable rapper whose best work comes from rapping in the here and now.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Music From Another Dimension!
    Aerosmith's best album in years, still sounds like a watery echo of what the band once was.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Department of Disappearance
    On the whole, however, the album is even-tempered where it should be adventurous, mild when there should be marvelous.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Former Lives
    While still being firmly planted in the category of mainstream indie rock, the album is all over the place both thematically and musically.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The 2nd Law
    For a band so seemingly full of big ideas, Muse sounds on its sixth album like a hard-rocking collection of other bands, some that they've previously been compared to, and others new.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Gold Dust
    While anyone who lost touch with Amos over the years will certainly enjoy Gold Dust--and the sonic upgrades to some of her best songs are sublime--in the end, it's not essential.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lightning
    In getting back to basics, however, the record leaves out the memorable hooks that make the whole formula work.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Push and Shove
    The album sags in the midtempo-heavy middle, with Stefani's slang-laden lyrics transitioning from campy to corny without a boost from adrenalized production. But Push And Shove rallies in the end.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Sugaring Season
    Without a steady beat to ground it, Orton's music tends to float into the ether. And unfortunately in the case of Sugaring Season, this means many of the album's best, moving moments fade into the background.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Cruel Summer
    With Cruel Summer, Kanye's corralled an impressive roster of allies and contemporaries to make a sleek, state-of-the-art album that's not half as good as one of those more modest old offerings.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Putrifiers II
    His [John Dwyer's] experiments seem less about evolution and progress, and more about exploring every permutation of his influences that are mathematically available to him. While that still makes for some decent songs, it's not nearly as exhilarating now that Thee Oh Sees' mix 'n' match methodology is so plainly evident to all but the most casual listeners.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Centipede Hz
    Centipede Hz insists that listeners think their way to liking it.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac
    The tinkering these acts do with Fleetwood Mac's songs is mostly on the surface, making them sound either more electronic and alien or more old-fashioned and rootsy, without really illuminating them in any significant way.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Carry Me Back
    Carry Me Home, the band's latest, doesn't suffer from a shortage of whimsy, but its surplus of cringe-inducing aw-shucks hokeyness is problematic.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Living Things
    Shinoda and Bennington's brotherly chemistry remains undiminished, but what troubles is how little they've matured lyrically.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Triple F Life: Friends, Fans and Family
    What Triple F Life lacks in inspiration, it can sometimes compensate for with sheer sweat.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    That's Why God Made the Radio
    The best bits of Radio sound like a fan finally getting to play with all the toys. It's a respectful approach, let down too often by sub-par material.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    This is PiL
    PiL's last album, 1992's That What Is Not, left the outfit hanging on a slick and inconsequential note, one that couldn't be further from the dubby murk of the group's pioneering work from the '70s. This Is PiL circles back to that murk, then buries its head in it.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    A Joyful Noise
    While Gossip prove themselves capable practitioners of disco-fraught anthems like Noise's "Move In The Right Direction" and "Get Lost"--Ditto in particular continues to inject more nuance into her bullhorn vocals with every record--the most compelling tracks on A Joyful Noise are the few that don't entirely conform to the template.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Here
    He sounds absolutely defeated on this short, non-starter of a record.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Choice of Weapon
    Without any standout songs to propel it, Choice Of Weapon may be a return to style, but it's not a return to form.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Not Your Kind of People
    For an outfit that's never denied its plastic-coated glamour, Garbage exits Not Your Kind Of People remarkably well-preserved.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Exister
    A handful of tracks manage to convey some sense of energy and urgency. Few of them, though, rustle up the dark hooks that used to be HWM's greatest strength.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Little Broken Hearts
    Jones is good at what she does, but it never feels like something she burns to do.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Pluto
    A few more bangers like them would have gone a long way to help balance out this sporadically engrossing, frequently frustrating curiosity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Different Ship
    Framing Temple's songs in display-case glass only reveals how little they have going on, and the tidy production saps his band of its best trait: its scrappiness.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Frkwys, Vol. 9: Icon Give Thank
    Ultimately, Icon Give Thank sounds more like a Sun Araw album with a few guest vocalist features rather than a mutually beneficial musical conversation.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Strange Clouds
    Strange Clouds is ultimately too weighed down by joy-killing self-importance to match [his] debut's hit ratio.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Block Brochure: Welcome to the Soil, Pt. 2
    Fatigue sets in hard on the second album, where the beats sound a good deal cheaper, E-40's eccentric flow begins to nag, and the overall energy nosedives.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Kill For Love
    The ambience is fine enough, but it's probably worth just waiting for the movie.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Grinderman 2 RMX
    When the tracks tend toward the predictable--which is more often than not--Grinderman 2 RMX stumbles.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    New Life
    It's far from being her best work. It engages her vocal strengths without ever really challenging them-for better or worse.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Love You, It's Cool
    The overindulgence comes off as an indistinguishable wall of sound and, even worse, as a terrific bore.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Making It
    Too many songs here--such as the sour break-up anthem "Curse" and the "is all art autobiographical?" meditation "Pretend"--come off as overworked lyrically and underdeveloped musically.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    MDNA
    An album that's competent, but equally perfunctory.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Hell in a Handbasket
    Too much of Hell In A Handbasket is just generic songwriter-mill fodder, over-cranked and over-sung.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Roses
    The group has successfully channeled its signature sound after a decade of silence, but the lack of growth makes Roses feel stuck in the past.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Reign of Terror
    On Reign Of Terror, Sleigh Bells is cornered in by its own sound, unwilling to risk more adventurous metal excursions or get vulnerable enough to fully embrace its emerging lighter side.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Six Cups of Rebel
    Six Cups seems determined to resurrect the bad decisions of pop's past.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Blues Funeral
    Lanegan's voice may be timeless, but its versatility has its limits--and Blues Funeral tests those limits just a little too much.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Kisses on the Bottom
    Here they sound like preludes to a nice cup of tea and an afternoon nap.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Black Cocaine [EP]
    Judging by this underwhelming return, Prodigy's stint in the correctional facilities merely constituted time lost.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Rad Times Xpress IV
    Whether by accident or not, though, Rad Times hits some genuinely artificial notes, in just the right way.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bangarang [EP]
    Bangarang is the work of an entertainer still insecure in his ability to hold his audience's attention without resorting to loud gimmicks.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Which Side Are You On?
    The problem with DiFranco's current work is not the fading anger of her youth. Instead, it's her inability to sound engaged in the current events she sings about.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition
    There's nothing about TM 103 that suggests Jeezy has any interest in moving on.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    BAYTL
    BAYTL is an album for B-movie lovers who prefer their entertainment blaring from the blown speakers of a rust-spackled Cadillac.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Purple Naked Ladies
    Without that blessed cohesion that is the groove, Purple Naked Ladies is an alternately jaggy and listless dream, rather than the narcotic romp it is meant to be.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Dreamer/The Believer
    It's a passable album of mostly neutral jams and bare-minimum production.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    rEvolver
    Despite the title's promise of evolution, the record mines the same club-banging, shawty-romancing formula of the singer's boom years, to ever-diminishing returns.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Lioness: Hidden Treasures
    The result is a collection so clean-scrubbed that it sometimes seems to be eulogizing an entirely different singer than the one fans remember.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Total Decay [EP]
    Total Decay's main drawback is its lack of contrast.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Radioactive
    For an uncomfortable seven-song stretch, the rapper seems so alienated from his own album.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bruiser
    As it is, Bruiser is an album with some promise, but not much.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Here and Now
    Even as Here And Now inspires massive eye-rolls, the nefariously catchy songs stick like stepped-in dog crap.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Coco Beware
    As pleasantly promising as CoCo Beware is, Caveman has yet to move past that phase, or to fully harness the alluring darkness at its heart.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Camp
    A meaty concept album about how the insecurities of youth carry into adulthood, Camp is heavy with themes of racial expectations and cultural ostracism--big ideas that aren't always done justice by Glover's cartoonishly exaggerated, one-liner-laden flow.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stronger
    The album suffers from a heavily produced electro-sheen, and ends up feeling more manufactured than magical.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    In the Key of Disney
    In Mickey Mouse terms, this album is more the blandly suburban color Mickey than the anarchic black-and-white Mickey. The shape is the same; the spirit isn't.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Live Music
    The absence of sonic violence and impenetrable murk has made the Strange Boys sound unexpectedly emaciated and bloodless.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Apokalypsis
    Wolfe's goth experimentalism is certainly harrowing stuff, but it's missing the chilling detachment and roughness that made The Grime And The Glow feel dark in unfamiliar and unsettling ways.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    He Thinks He's People
    He Thinks He's People feels like an autobiographical mix-tape, with a few phases worth forgetting.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Conditions of My Parole
    Conditions verges on dour, monochromatic humorlessness.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Soul Punk
    It's a produced pop record with electronic, danceable bits and vocal harmonies that sometimes seem much too enamored with Michael Jackson worship.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hall Music
    With Hall Music, Svanangen has proven he can compose big arrangements, but he might not write big music.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Own the Night
    While the average age of Lady Antebellum's members is a relatively youthful 28, Own The Night is purposely old-fashioned, even geriatric.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Sea of Memories
    The Sea Of Memories plays like an endless replay of Rossdale's past musical miscues.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Biophilia
    As minimally executed as it is maximally conceived, Biophilia doesn't sculpt emptiness; it swims in it.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Chickenfoot III
    As the title suggests, Chickenfoot III is stupid like a fox, filling a VH-shaped void created by the inaction and endless drama of Hagar's former bandmates.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Beauty Queen Sister
    Emotional sappiness isn't a new concept for the Indigo Girls. Unfortunately, neither is the rest of Beauty Queen.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Radiosurgery
    While steeped in New Found Glory's same old mix of hormonal angst and simple syrup, the album shows a marked drop in metabolism.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Working in Tennessee
    Working In Tennessee is often sleepy to the point of being narcoleptic. Still, even when he strains to hit notes, which he does often, Haggard sounds like he's enjoying himself.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    In Heaven
    Most of In Heaven, however, lacks tension, build, or direction.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Elsie
    It's because Elsie sounds so much like The Gaslight Anthem operating at half-power that the album proves disappointing.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hysterical
    CYHSY has reeled back the infectious madness, softening the edges once made so acute by pinwheeling guitars, buoyant bass, and danceable rhythms.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dreams Come True
    Dreams Come True throws in the towel, leaving the impression of a half-sketched idea that failed to materialize fully no matter how much it was fussed over.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Portamento
    The group's sophomore effort, Portamento, finds the band maturing but not yet mature, as it pumps out two-note New Order guitar riffs and whiny screeds against parents, religion, and its members' empty wallets.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Glazin'
    Compared to the gleefully scrappy No Seasons, the band has clearly put in more deliberation this time around, though some creativity has been lost in the studio clean-up: Clangy guitars, thumping drums, and no-frills keyboards make for easy sing-alongs, but other songs are too simple to have staying power.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Nothing But the Beat
    Nothing But The Beat is obsessed with the sex, swagger, and sensation of club culture, and taken individually, its songs are well-made, euphoric paeans to the dance-floor gods; but a deficiency of texture and emotional build causes them to blend into a predictable, exhausting murk of smoke and lasers.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    I'm with You
    As the forgettable I'm With You shows, there's a difference between surviving and thriving.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Tha Carter IV
    There's plenty of great rapping on Tha Carter IV, but for the first time, most of it isn't coming from Lil Wayne.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The R.E.D. Album
    Throughout The R.E.D. Album, he runs himself ragged trying to realize the masterpiece he pictures in his head, but he just doesn't have the coordination to pull it off.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Ancient Romans
    As with every other Sun Araw album, appreciating the 80-minute entirety of Ancient Romans requires a high level of patience in order to uncover the record's best moments of mysticism and wonder. But while Ancient Romans doesn't always make captivating music, it does create awesome scenery.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Leave No Trace
    Leave No Trace is an enjoyable time, but the party peaks early.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    You Are All I See
    You Are All I See is the debut album from Active Child, the band that Los Angeles singer-songwriter Pat Grossi has steadily built around his sweeping harp, pining falsetto, and shuddering beats.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Jeff Bridges
    The album might be an extension of its namesake's enduring Dude-itude, but this time he's takin' it a little too easy for all us sinners.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Out of Love
    Out Of Love is an only slightly rewarding diversion from Kattner, Thorburn, and Plummer's day jobs.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    In Waves
    New drummer Nick Augusto seems to be pushing Trivium toward a choppier and at times more primal sound, but for a band that was recently poised to evolve into something more sumptuous and ambitious, In Waves is a return to form Trivium doesn't need.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Red River Blue
    Like a lot of good-looking country fellas, perhaps Shelton is better seen and not heard.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Timez Are Weird These Days
    For those who can look past the shallowness of London's re-imagining of the rap fantasy for the American Apparel set, there are some real party-starters here, including two that make clever use of guest singers.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dum Spiro Spero
    What's most disappointing about Dum Spiro Spero, though, is how empty and unfinished it sounds, even as the group sets in motion an intricate apparatus of grinding riffs, pinpoint leadwork, and labyrinthine time signatures.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped
    The truths on Organ Music are captivating enough; it's just too bad there aren't more of them.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    LP1
    LP1 is an almost shockingly forgettable slab of forced adult-contemporary rock, destined for a Whole Foods aisle near you.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Yours Truly
    Yours Truly is based on the same assumption as Sublime With Rome, which is that fans will appreciate the superficial similarities to a band they once loved, and won't look close enough to notice the gaping holes.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Pleasure
    For the most part, Pleasure delivers less on the promise of its title with every rehash of the same, endlessly whirring formula.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Mirror Mirror
    As much as the album buzzes with new energy-thanks to producer J.D. Twitch, hailing from the DJ duo Optimo-it also creaks with growing pains. Mirror Mirror is never as immediate as its predecessor, and it buffers its outstanding highlights in forgettable combinations of spooky textures, disembodied vocals, and bloodless guitars.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Together/Apart
    Effective as it is, that voice wears thin over the run of Together/Apart's 16 mostly guest-free tracks, as Grieves' interchangeable choruses and pensive verses about lost youth and addiction's pull begin to bleed together.
Page: