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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    • 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.
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