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
    • 59 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Again and Again
    Again And Again feels like it's skimming the dreaminess of that era without retaining any of its prickly quirk-or worse, any of its personality.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    When Fish Ride Bicycles
    Fish feels a little warmed-over.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fly from Here
    It may not be entirely fair to measure Fly From Here against the Anderson metric, but when the Anderson-aping results merely tread water, it's impossible not to.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Two-Way Mirror
    After a decade of excellence from like-minded groups such as Liars and TV On The Radio, Crystal Antlers can't help but sound like a mildly intriguing afterthought, even if Two-Way Mirror holds the line in hopes of greatness to come.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Pint of Blood
    Holland gets points for loosening up, building a blue mood, and going with the flow, whatever that flow is supposed to be. But it doesn't keep the majority of songs on Pint Of Blood from bleeding together.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Sorry for Party Rocking
    Sorry For Party Rocking is a dumb party record that knows it's a dumb party record.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Devil's Music
    Devil's Music lives and dies on the strength of the collaborators (lightweights like Laza Morgan lack the personality to elevate the material), as all the instrumental tracks just sound like long intros to better songs.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Go Tell Fire To The Mountain
    For all the outsider posturing, Mountain is a pretty conventional indie-rock record circa 2011, drawing on celebrated warhorses like Arcade Fire's Funeral and Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion, as well as somewhat less fashionable sources, like Vampire Weekend and Kings Of Leon.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
    Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark seems uniquely constructed to frustrate the expectations of U2 fans, musical-theater lovers, and even train-wreck enthusiasts, who will be disappointed to find that the show isn't as bad as some have suggested--at least when experienced solely as an album.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Unknown Mortal Orchestra
    Unknown Mortal Orchestra lines up nicely with the ex-Beatle's McCartney and McCartney II LPs. And like those two releases, Unknown Mortal Orchestra's idiosyncrasies and straightforward melodies portend greater, untapped potential.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Harrow and the Harvest
    Relaxed and steady-a little too much.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Finally Famous
    The long-delayed debut struggles for identity.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    All Things Bright and Beautiful
    For the most part, the songs are unable to transcend their cheesiness, turning Young's formula from winning to wincing.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ninth
    Where his menace once oozed, it now hiccups.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    It's a Corporate World
    The Detroit-based outfit has pieced together a streamlined collection of pleasant but forgettable pop tunes that come and go without much punch.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Sondre Lerche
    This eponymous release is as flavorless as its moniker-in spite of the notable piano, string, and accordion flourishes, the rest of the mostly subdued bunch isn't all that memorable, with the possible exception of the closer, "When The River," which gets its laid-back groove on and ends up making a pretty impressive showing with dramatic synths, echo-y vocals, and jangly guitar.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Suck It and See
    Only five years ago, Turner was a fresh-faced quipster hopefully eyeing a crush on the dance floor, but now he's playing into the tiredest archetype: the jaded, sunglasses-shaded rock traditionalist on the hunt for an easy lay.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Head and the Heart
    Though the songwriting is sturdy, the choruses hearty, the melodies time-tested, and the recording vibrant, The Head And The Heart falters most on account of Jonathan Russell and Josiah Johnson's pre-packaged, Cracker Barrel lyrical conceits.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Destroyed
    Destroyed is slower than 2008's bright, clubby throwback Last Night and livelier than 2009's oft-despondent Wait For Me, but it's more like the latter, if only because none of the hooks stick.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Love?
    In general, though, Love? is as vague and unfocused as its titular inquiry suggests, a musical shrug that seems to mean even less to Lopez than it will to listeners.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Moment Bends
    The new record goes too far toward buffing out the quirks of its predecessor, mistaking studio compression and unexciting genre exercises for more focused songwriting.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Hotel Shampoo
    The result of Rhys' soft-focus dabbling is, surprisingly, a samey batch of songs, Muzak for the psychedelic set.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Golden Era
    Del takes a trip down memory lane on Golden Era, but it's never as special or profound the second time around.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    GB City
    Bass Drum Of Death is likely best appreciated live, where the excitement of seeing a thunderously loud, amped-up group of shaggy hooligans compensates for any shortcomings in songwriting and originality. GB City falters without that infusion of energy.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Who You Are
    In trying to be an über-pop-star, she ends up becoming an every-pop-star.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Share the Joy
    Like a broken record, Vivian Girls appear doomed to repeat themselves.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Most Incredible Thing
    Even more problematic is that the music, while ambitious and appropriately dramatic, hardly approaches standalone greatness. The Most Incredible Thing needs Javier De Frutos' choreography to do justice to the story.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Rolling Papers
    Like Snoop, Khalifa raps extensively, even obsessively about marijuana; unlike Snoop, Khalifa never seems to be having much fun.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Blood Pressures
    In spite of some solid material and smoky performances by Mosshart, Blood Pressures does little to change that.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Screws Get Loose
    Sadly, Screws Get Loose is a serious step backward, ditching the anarchic honky-tonk of old in favor of ho-hum, girly surf pop in the vein of the Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Too Young to Be in Love
    At times offering an interesting deconstruction of classic love-song tropes via a gay lens, Too Young To Be In Love is long on attitude and short on memorable melodies.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Live on I-5
    While the album features respectable performances of many of the band's biggest hits-even a diminished Soundgarden can't muffle the power of the almighty "Outshined"-Live On I-5 should have stayed in the dark hole it's been buried in for 15 years.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    F.A.M.E.
    On F.A.M.E.'s effervescent slow jams and up-tempo R&B struts, Brown makes a solid case for himself as an adult artist. He inevitably falls flat, though, when he tries to reclaim his teen-idol mantle on oversold ballads.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Goodbye Lullaby
    Lavigne is a divorced singer-songwriter about to enter her late 20s, but on Lullaby, she would've been better off not acting her age.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Fading Parade
    On Fading Parade, Papercuts (a.k.a. Jason Robert Quever) hasn't changed too much, sticking with the fuzzed, hazy, '60s dream-pop that's the musical equivalent of a shoebox filled with old Polaroids.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Best of Gloucester County
    So while chants of "I love my Lord!" were deemed acceptable by listeners not used to listening to such things, Smith has finally offered something that might be a bit too unsettling: straightforward pop songs.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Violet Cries
    The pattern of temper tantrums and sulks that makes up Violet Cries eventually begins to feel like a substitution for songwriting. It's difficult not to long for the more mature band that Esben And The Witch will hopefully become.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Catch My Shoe
    The Ex has always absorbed the flavor of whatever it's paired with-and de Boer is mostly flavorless. His hiccupping, singsong vocals try to operate on the same level as Sok's raspy, poetic chants, but the result is tentative and forceless.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    There Are Rules
    There's no doubt that these guys can still rock with all the heart-on-sleeve younguns they've influenced; now they just have to rediscover something worth writing home about.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Outside
    Like a car trip across North Dakota, Outside takes a long time to get where it's going, and doesn't offer enough of interest along the way.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Man on the Moon, Vol. 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager
    They're simply more window dressing on a piece of work that needs all the help it can get.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    King Night
    The rest of King Night is, for the most part, similarly forgettable.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Reggie
    Reggie introduces a kinder, gentler Redman, and while the lack of skits is refreshing, it'd be kind of nice to have the old one back.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Weight's on the Wheels
    The Weight's On The Wheels is peppered with nice hooks and a few clever moves, and it ends just as strongly as it began, with the dream-poppy "Horseshoe Fortune." But precious little tunes like this need more than just catchiness to make an impact.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Michael
    Michael mostly reflects the paranoid, musically out of touch, deeply unhappy person he became -- and who many fans would just as soon forget.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Northern Aggression
    Those who hoped Wynn would bring that inventive spirit and boldness back to his band for its third album will be disappointed: Northern Aggression is almost surprising in its straightforwardness.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Death to False Metal
    In execution, though, Death To False Metal is frustratingly hit-or-miss.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Endlessly
    Duffy is clearly striving for growth with Endlessly, but outside her comfort zone, she comes up short.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    4 x 4 = 12
    He takes the stage in headgear so cartoon-cute it could have been devised by an ad firm. Unfortunately, Deadmau5's albums sound that way as well.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Born Free
    On Born Free, Kid Rock has become Grown Man Rock, setting aside the bombastic mélange of hip-hop, metal, country, and bad taste that made his name a permanent fixture on the asses of strippers across this great land.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Death Seat
    As a self-consciously serious singer-songwriter, Toth consistently underwhelms. As with Waiting In Vain, Death Seat showcases Toth's evocative, starkly poetic lyrics....But neither his voice nor his music effectively convey any of those bleak, morbidly witty themes.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dreams
    There isn't a bad song--well, apart from "Alone Again (Naturally)"--or a tacky arrangement on the album, but the material suffers from excessive familiarity.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Sidewalks
    The album is awash in synths, Kim's drums are allowed to gather dust, and the indie-pop sounds more akin to, well, regular pop. As with previous efforts, Sidewalks doesn't mind starting with dessert, even if that means appetites will be spoiled for the lesser delights that follow.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Nothing
    Williams and his N.E.R.D cohorts Chad Hugo and Shay Haley are adept in the studio; their musical constructs are always polished, and often at least somewhat impressive. But their lyrics and point of view are so entitled that there's little sense they're aiming much further than the nearest frat house.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    As U Were
    It wouldn't hurt him to slow his roll here. Most of the record is spent on blithe, fruitless trips down other people's styles.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Metallic Spheres
    After a while, though, it's a bit like hiring a master painter to doodle a flock of birds into the background. Gilmour and The Orb meld enjoyably enough in their comfort zones. If only they'd focused more on pushing beyond.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Mixed Race
    while there are moments when his old jaggedness cuts through--the scraping "Early Bird" brings Tom Waits to mind, while "Ghetto Stars" has an eerie keening quality suggestive of industrial screech--Mixed Race is long on half-digested detours.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Pete Yorn
    The self-titled album he bashed out with Pixies frontman Frank Black before the recording sessions for Back And Fourth is seeing the light of day, and in spite of Black's assertion that he was attempting to strip Yorn and his songs down to their core essences, the results feel anonymous, cycling through half a dozen different voices while displaying only fleeting glimpses of the effortless pop chops that made Yorn so inescapable a decade ago.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Le Noise
    The man responsible for enduring political anthems like "Ohio" and "Rockin' In The Free World" gets a pass for similarly mawkish songs like "Love And War" and "Angry World" that don't go any deeper than their titles. But Le Noise doesn't deserve the same concession.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    History of Modern
    It's a return to form only in the sense that it finds OMD, several decades on, still struggling with its identity.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Barking
    Despite its title, Barking is, in some ways, the most tuneful Underworld album yet, which isn't saying a lot.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Sleep Forever
    At only eight tracks, Sleep Forever feels self-indulgent, the sketchiness of its songs covered up by its layers of exhausting excess. If Crocodiles want to be more than just a photocopy, they need to start drawing their own lines a little sharper.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    All We Grow
    Carey has an eye for sonic detail that will surely benefit the next Bon Iver record, but on All We Grow, neither his songs nor the way he delivers them stick around once the blurry cacophony fades.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pickin' Up The Pieces
    Make no mistake--Fitz and his Tantrums are a great time, but so is Maroon 5, and that more maligned act might well have made this exact album, had vintage soul been trendy in 2002.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Teenage Dream
    Unfortunately, the fun peaks around the time that Snoop Dogg officially hands over his thug-life card during the previously released "California Gurls," a slice of sunny disco-pop perfection that suggested Teenage Dream just might trump 2008's spotty but enjoyable One Of The Boys. Instead, Perry returned with lots of ho-hum ballads and lackluster radio fodder as limp as the discarded lover in the dis track "Circle The Drain."
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Black City
    In the end, Dear has successfully turned a tense, eerie mood into songs. They just aren't songs most people will feel like hearing.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise
    Yes, it's pleasant escapism, but when there's nothing genuinely heartfelt at stake, who's going to care after the credits roll?
    • 58 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    31 Minutes To Takeoff
    Think Justin Timberlake's less-talented cousin, or Andy Samberg.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Remix
    Most of the time, The Remix settles for simply putting Gaga's slim catalog to faster and more blaring use.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Nightmare
    Avenged Sevenfold continues to sound like five different bands on every album, none of them particularly good.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Mines
    In practice, there's nothing particularly challenging about Mines.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Disconnect from Desire
    The lyrics never step beyond New Agey, four-elements platitudes, and the arrangements, even when ostensibly dark, never cut against the vocals' immaculateness.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    How To Destroy Angels
    As it is, How To Destroy Angels resembles a subdued Nine Inch Nails with female vocals.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Street Songs of Love
    The rush of Escovedo's ecstasy and agony proves frustratingly one-sided on the stale, hard-to-embrace Street Songs Of Love, which reduces all the unruly feelings that go with rough-and-tumble romantic relationships down to a series of blustery, MOR power ballads.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Sellout
    Easy as it is to root for the freaky underdog in any endeavor, Gray doesn't sound especially engaged here.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Bionic
    Outside of her exceptional vocal abilities, Aguileraâ??s main talent thus far has been absorbing and regurgitating trends with such commitment that she essentially disappears behind a calculated varnish.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Family Jewels
    Needless to say, that overbearing need to prove herself just ends up being exhausting. But the lady doth protest too much: There are hints of the darker, weirder dance-floor diva she wants to be hiding beneath the avant-garde pretensions of tracks such as “Shampain,” “I Am Not A Robot,” “Guilty,” and “Oh No!”
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Maniac Meat
    Since the sound of Maniac Meat is really no different than BMSR (or Tobacco's earlier solo albums), the lack of memorable melodies or thoughtful composition becomes increasingly frustrating as the record drones on. An album called Maniac Meat shouldn't be so predictable.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Grey Oceans
    Some will have the patience and tolerance for searching repeatedly through Grey Oceans to uncover moments of thoughtful beauty. But they're a little harder to find than they should be.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Omni
    The spacey, psychedelic flourishes and harmonies have been ditched in favor of blandly inoffensive solos and big, arena-rock choruses. And there'd be nothing wrong with any of this if the songs were stronger.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Suite #420
    Nobody expects maturity from Devin, even though he jarringly mentions that he has a 17-year-old son, but he usually makes eternal adolescence sound a lot more fun than this.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Oversteps
    The songs are usually too singular to fit together in any immediately recognizable way. Instead, structure and emotional resonance emerge slowly from a mix of disparate sounds, providing a soundtrack capable of transforming the mundane into the alarming, then the consoling, and back again.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    In The Dark
    At times, Parker Gispert's voice is buffed clean of any individual characteristics; at other times, it's contorted into a hackneyed imitation of Southern rockers such as Jim James. The album's best moments, unsurprisingly, are those in which the band lays off the mixing knobs.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    El Turista
    It also, sadly, carries on Rouse’s newfound emphasis on pleasant textures over passion and songcraft. Rouse never settles into any of these styles; he’s just breezing through.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Scratch My Back
    Scratch comes off like a ponderous exercise in re-branding--an uncomfortable place to be for one of pop’s great innovators.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    In This Light & On This Evening
    The highlights are few and far between: Editors may have thought they were progressing by getting synthesized, but it’s ultimately a case of one step forward and two steps back.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    VH1 Storytellers
    West’s performance, which focuses heavily on Heartbreak, seems to violate the entire spirit of Storytellers. He’s one of music’s great shit-talkers, but the rambling semi-stories here are disappointingly dull.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    We Are Young Money
    Money is pure bubblegum, the kind of instantly disposable pop ephemera listeners forget about while it’s still playing.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The State vs. Radric Davis
    He’s clearly made The State to a template, and it suffers as a result, particularly when he blatantly courts radio on the unimaginative, lifeless likes of “Sex In Crazy Places” and the Usher-assisted “Spotlight."
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stir The Blood
    Peppered with aimless, pointless prog-rock, Stir The Blood wants to be fun and affecting, and the band’s failures in the latter regard destroy its ability to manage the former.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Untitled
    Kelly is still intermittently hilarious--if never intentionally so--but too much of Untitled feels generic, which is a curious flaw for a larger-than-life eccentric with the most, though not necessarily the best, personality in mainstream R&B.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Rated R
    Much of its music is a dull wash, difficult to differentiate even across several plays, and not especially compelling outside of the real-life drama the singer examines and exploits. The exceptions are songs that have nothing to do with the Brown affair.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Reality Killed The Video Star
    In its defense, Reality isn’t a “comeback” album--even Williams admits it’s too late to recapture his former glory--but the blandly derivative collection raises the question of what the aborted 2007 album sounded like. Compared to this, maybe art.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Seventh Seal
    The Seventh Seal is a record that’s been made a hundred times or more--one that attempts to save rap while rocking beats that prove the producers aren’t sure what rap’s current state is.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Alter The Ending
    Alter The Ending nose-dives into the studio of Butch Walker, the man behind Pink’s "Funhouse" and Weezer’s "Raditude," and he comically overproduces the damn thing.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Raditude
    Hooks only go so far, and outside of 'Put Me Back Together' and 'I Don’t Want To Let You Go,' Cuomo doesn’t appear interested in propping them up with human emotions.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Real Feel
    The Pavement member released two full-lengths with Preston School Of Industry earlier this decade, during a relative lull in Pavement-mania; both essentially defined “workmanlike,” and sadly, The Real Feel is no different.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Run Rabbit Run
    It’s a lot of talent (among the arrangers gathered is Philip Glass protégé Nico Muhly), and a little novelty--par for the course when it comes to Stevens.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Crash Love
    The limited palette this time around doesn’t do the band any favors.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Break Up
    Mostly, the record suffers from the same symptoms most flings do: In time, the dreaminess dissipates, leaving those involved searching for something with a little more weight to it.
Page: