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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    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Head Over Heels
    Chromeo specializes in upbeat, retro-embracing synth-funk—but, unlike others in a similar vein, the Canadian duo exists in an area somewhere between a come-hither wink and a seduction parody. On Head Over Heels, the group strikes a perfect balance between these extremes. Credit for this goes to the roster of impressive special guests.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Hope Downs
    Hope Downs more than delivers on the promise of the Melbourne quintet’s two early EPs, doubling down on the melancholy pop it forged on 2015’s Talk Tight and last year’s The French Press while also polishing its sound.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Bon Voyage
    Lyrically, Bon Voyage searches for healing and “some kind of light to come,” and the chemistry Prochet found with Swahn and Fiske seems to deliver it; this album is as freeing to listen to as it must’ve been to create.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Kids See Ghosts
    Kids See Ghosts marks his true return only a year and a half after he checked himself into rehab to fight depression and suicidal ideation, and taking the time out to work on himself seems to have done him wonders. Cudi is, without qualification, the spiritual and artistic backbone of Kids See Ghosts, the source of its truest artistic risks and the instrument of its greatest triumphs.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Remain In Light
    Kidjo’s Remain In Light, now arriving in studio form, is a stunning transformation that sheds the nervous, alien nature of these well-worn songs, turning them into something more human, danceable, and, in some cases, more meaningful.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    so sad so sexy
    Lykke Li’s fourth album, So Sad So Sexy, is more introverted and meditative than her previous efforts.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    No Shame
    This is a prettier, more heartfelt record than Sheezus, but only a slightly better one.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lush
    The crushing sameness of the existence described in Snail Mail’s music means that not every song on Lush is essential, but when Jordan hits, she hits a bullseye.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ye
    It’s a prismatic album, reflecting its creator’s entire body of work--and also whatever you think about him going in.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Testing
    Though the finished project is as loose and incohesive as its title might suggest, there’s a lot to like about Testing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    LUMP
    All that surrealist pop plays out over 30 minutes of interlocking songs, enough to keep you thoroughly entranced and get you hoping LUMP might soon inspire its hosts to deliver more.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    God's Favorite Customer
    There’s little to adorn most of these songs—lyrically economical, sonically without much pageantry--but the intimacy and honesty results in some of Tillman’s most stunning songwriting.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Hell-On
    Case’s restless exploratory impulses are contained within relatively conventional song structures, with much more compelling results.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Age Of
    The result is a remarkably accessible, yet still resolutely avant-garde work, with Lopatin taking various musical forms--cough-syrupy R&B jams, country ballads, baroque chamber pop--and wresting unexpected nuances out of them, the same way he does that harpsichord.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    DAYTONA
    For the first time since going solo, it all feels of a piece. ... The sonic setting he [Kanye West] places this performance from Pusha in is an absolute masterpiece of minimalism.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    V.
    Momentum is lacking throughout much of the record, as comatose tracks like “Already Gone” drone on with little to grab the ear. Thankfully, the band perks up again during the closing stretch.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Love is Dead
    The songs sound bigger and more layered, but the core of hook-laden, synth-based pop and Lauren Mayberry’s lilting vocals remains undisturbed.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dirty Pictures, Pt. 2
    Dirty Pictures (Part 2) is an album for all occasions: whiskey-fueled dance parties in dark bars, heartbroken late-night sobfests, and introspective moments pondering life’s vicissitudes.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rausch
    Rausch picks up right where Narkopop left off. The new effort—pointedly intended to be listened to in a single sitting--finds a pulse early on that almost never ceases, with Voigt filtering in guitar plucks that hit like wind chimes.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sparkle Hard
    Sparkle Hard is Malkmus at his most compelling: balancing his experimental whims while revealing pieces of his arcane heart.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wide Awake!
    Wide Awake! is a full arc of an album, one that captures both Parquet Courts’ usual keyed-up exasperation and their new, hard-earned optimism.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tell Me How You Really Feel
    Tell Me How You Really Feel is a disappointing and muted record that never quite lives up to its potential.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Mark Kozelek
    Newcomers are unlikely to care much, but anyone who’s been following the man’s career since the Red House Painters should appreciate how he keeps looking for new ways to convert his very existence into art.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer.
    Forgoing original instrumentation in favor of a dense collage of samples, The Body conjures an oddly catchy apocalypse on “Nothing Stirs” and “Off Script,” while guest vocalists like Uniform’s Michael Berdan--whose hate-choked bellow makes the NIN influence explicit--provide decipherable counterpoint to frontman Chip King’s slaughterhouse sq
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Floating Features
    La Luz’s sound is a lot like a mai tai: Both sweet and strong, it goes down easy before knocking you flat.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    7
    With 7, Legrand and Scally have gotten freer themselves. This is the sound of a band that knows itself extremely well and yet, in seeking outside perspectives and embracing imperfection, has discovered a whole new level to explore. If this album feels like an alternate-reality Beach House, it’s because Legrand and Scally have altered their reality.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
    The album feels unmoored and even plodding due to a lack of structure.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    SR3MM
    SR3MM delivers quantity and quality by zeroing in on its creators’ charisma, clarifying the appeal that’s been there the whole time. In the strange pantheon of triple LPs, there’s nothing else like it.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hollow Ground
    Clarke’s tendency to drift into the otherworldliness of his act’s namesake brings some much-needed grime to all that bubblegum.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Knock Knock
    There hasn’t been a more purely enjoyable record released in 2018.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dove
    Shaving a few of the middling cuts like “Heartstrings” and “Stars Align” would have helped the album overall, as Belly’s comeback songs runs together in a cranky sea of relationship angst.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rebound
    Rebound sees bits of the Fiery Furnaces sound creeping back in. There aren’t any backwards-mixed vocals or abrupt key changes, but synths and programmed drums return to augment a batch of songs somewhat less rooted in concrete storytelling details.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Beyondless
    The group hasn’t abandoned its post-punk, just refined it.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Singularity
    There’s no prescribed narrative, but Singularity still tells a grand story--a synesthetic evocation of how it feels to be alive.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Dirty Computer
    There is a concept here, but it is Janelle Monáe; there is a story here, but it is Janelle Monáe’s. And she’s outdone herself in both the execution of this vision and its resonance.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Critical Equation
    Dr. Dog’s music is usually far more engaging and inventive, so hopefully Critical Equation’s monotonous tedium is a mere blip.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Twerp Verse
    With few absolute standouts, it’s a consistent, engaging listen full of little surprises and ongoing discoveries.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    In the Rainbow Rain
    The songs here are among Okkervil’s lushest productions, adorned with choruses and horns and washes of sunny guitar, paired well with whatever subject Sheff happens to be tackling. Even when he gets too sappy, there’s always those stellar arrangements to serve as a saving grace.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Grid of Points
    Grid’s abbreviated runtime (seven tracks in just over 20 minutes) doesn’t give you much time to linger in it, and some melodies simply prove too gossamer to grab on to. Harris’ lyrics, as ever, are more sensed than received. Yet it’s another uniquely immersive, meditative experience, however briefly it lasts.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Everything's Fine
    It’s a sprawling and intentionally distancing record, but never less than fascinating.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Pinkus Abortion Technician
    Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne says in the album announcement that Pinkus Abortion Technician was “a stone groove to record,” a statement that accurately describes both its heavy-psych sound and “jamming in the garage” vibe.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Eat the Elephant
    That nothing here much resembles the band’s heyday hits is theoretically admirable; this is not the work of a lazy nostalgia act. But as end-of-the-world music goes, it’s more whimper than bang.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    44/876
    Mostly, 44/876 is just unremarkable, limply competent reggae lite, designed for Sandals resort lobbies and Sting’s office.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Beautiful Thing
    Yo-yoing of tempos and moods aside, whether it is on the stripped-down “A Hit Song” or the jerky, David Byrne-esque “Oh Baby,” Taylor sounds pretty emotional, a sadness underscoring his signature vocals throughout.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)
    Shearer’s vocals, especially on a four-minute-plus opus like the title track, unfortunately demonstrate why he was never that band’s lead singer, detracting from another promising rock opera like “Faith No More.” For die-hard Tap fans only.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Resistance Is Futile
    Resistance Is Futile, the band’s thirteenth studio album, distills the Manics’ pomp and melancholy into buoyant pop songs with biting electric guitars, sugary synths, and majestic strings.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Pinned
    When the low end is there--as on “Act Your Age” and “Attitude”--Pinned sounds more immediate. Those moments are great, but not as frequent as fans may like.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Persona
    Persona is uneasy listening, with heavier rhythms and more fragmented melodies than West deployed on previous works like Howl and Night Melody, yet it’s equally engrossing. It leaves a deep psychic impression--a truly “arthouse” album that begs repeated revisiting, to explore its many conflicting faces.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    My Dear Melancholy, [EP]
    On Melancholy, the Starboy wallows in heartbreak. It can be a bit tedious, at least until French producer/DJ Gesaffelstein shows up for “Never There” and “Hurt You,” which plays like a two-part song.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Invasion of Privacy
    Cardi B got here by rapping her face off, and on Invasion Of Privacy, she determines to stay here by doing it for--well, nine more tracks. So far, so good.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation
    Moosebumps won’t replace anyone’s copy of Dr. Octagonecologyst, but it’s a worthy addendum to the story.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Sex & Food
    Although Sex & Food’s heavy-lidded moments can occasionally meander too far afield into somnolence, the record’s sharp observations about life, politics, and society are focused.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Isolation
    As she breaks down the triumphs and heartbreaks of real life, she deftly invokes her every musical whim--from 1970s soul to hip-hop beats that wouldn’t be out of place on a ’90s dance floor--to stunning effect.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Bark Your Head Off, Dog
    There’s still experimentation here, with the band incorporating strings, harmonies, and even a verse of whistling (“How You Got Your Limp”), but the songs occasionally lack punch. Still, there are multiple high points to this likable album.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Deconstruction
    E saves The Deconstruction from formula by turning his inner turmoil outward.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs
    While some of the headier experiments fail to rise above their inherent monotony, the results are usually singularly beautiful and beautifully dense.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Czarface Meets Metal Face
    The late-album highlight “Captain Brunch” is a little weirder and more characterful, a hint at what a bolder, tighter collaboration between all these immensely talented artists could sound like. The rest is fine, but for fans only.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Vessel
    Some of her ditties don’t even top a minute, as in the appealing piano plinks of “Ur Up,” and some of her rhyme schemes can get a bit laborious.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Combat Sports
    Keyboards add a shimmering underbelly to the Britpop throwback “Your Love Is My Favourite Band”--but Combat Sports possesses a loose vibe that’s much more welcoming.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Virtue
    For every adequate Strokes throwback or Radiohead soundalike, Virtue antagonizes you with two formless freak-outs cobbled together from influences as wide-ranging as ’90s R&B, Arabic chants, “Monster Mash,” and a shocking amount of nü-metal.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Used Future
    Without the stone-age shredding that was once this band’s life purpose, Used Future is just nostalgic affectation, with the added anti-bonus of pushing frontman John D. Cronise’s Ozzy-lite enunciations and corny lyrics--like those of the vixen-fearing cautionary tale “Deadly Nightshade”--into the unflattering limelight.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hormone Lemonade
    Whenever Gane brings in his laidback-funk guitar (“Phase Modulation Shuffle,” “Automatic Morning”), it instantly evokes Stereolab’s space-age bachelor-pad music, and suffers in the absence of Laetitia Sadier’s coos. Still, there’s enough variety here--the sparkling Terry Riley-esque cascades of “Solarised Sound” and “Phantom Melodies”; the analog Aphex Twin-isms of “Outerzone Jazs” and “Feed Me Magnetic Rain”--to make this a worthwhile spin through such thoroughly explored territory.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    New Material
    New Material is sure to divide fans down the middle, leaving them questioning Preoccupations’ intent as, for perhaps the first time, the band is more keen on playing things close to the chest.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Twentytwo in Blue
    It may be derivative, but it’s never weak: SunflowerBean has channeled the most appealing elements of those past decades’ pop music and retained a sprightly, affectionate touch.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Space Gun
    It’s the the musical equivalent of eggs and toast at your favorite diner, perhaps not the group’s most distinctive release, but warm and nourishing nonetheless.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Boarding House Reach
    Boarding House Reach holds together as a complete piece. The songs complement each other, speaking to the restlessness and reluctance of an artist who’s spent the last decade or so successfully transforming himself into a brand.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    World Beyond
    World Beyond works better as an homage than an inspired reimagining of the politically charged album, which is flattering for Bell and Clarke, but ultimately keeps this release from feeling like a vital contribution.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    I'll Be Your Girl
    I’ll Be Your Girl is a welcome sign of a veteran band eager to experiment, but it’s also the first Decemberists album where the sounds are more interesting than the songs.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Jericho Sirens
    It all works. Whenever Hot Snakes decide to get together, they will always be welcome.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Now Only
    Elverum may spend the rest of his career grappling with his grief. It’s a tough, beautiful privilege to be invited along on that journey.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    There's a Riot Going On
    For the most part, There’s A Riot Going On succeeds in finding strength in the stillness. Two of its best tracks are also its quietest.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Automata I
    The first half of Automata (part two arrives in June) is almost too straightforward, offering plenty of what we’ve heard before from these Raleigh space cadets: the folkish plucking and mad noodling, the burps of intergalactic synth, the way a song like “House Organ” closes the safe distance separating Pink Floyd from Cannibal Corpse.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood
    The album (nominally a concept record about the “the death of whiteness”) has six long tracks that stretch over 42 minutes, and within them are evocative stretches of ominous early synth pop, noodling synth funk, and dreamy dance music in the vein of A.R. Kane. Barnes’ voice and coy, over-accentuated phrasing remain the band’s love-it-or-leave-it factor.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    AmeriKKKant
    AmeriKKKant is cathartically enjoyable, but it ultimately feels as inspiring--and effective--as tweeting Trump-Putin memes at Fox News.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    All That Must Be
    It’s agreeably pleasant stuff, yet ultimately as modest and forgettable as the name might suggest.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Cocoa Sugar
    Ultimately, though, this is another dispatch from the post-genre space Young Fathers have claimed for their own, blasting out triumphant, sincere, and deeply humanistic sound collages that beg for you to join them there.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Still Trippin'
    Still Trippin’ showcases Taye’s ability to structure an album so that it has a genuine sense of dynamics, even if individual songs mainly consist of stuttering beats and vocals.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    American Utopia
    The music is a hodgepodge of styles, techniques, and voices, but there’s a steady hand holding the needle, guided by a singular and seasoned vision--the curiosity and the enthusiasm that have long been his trademarks.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Black Times
    For the most part, the music backs up his mood. It’s faster, tougher, and more blood-boiling than usual, but it’s still malleable, growing to a furious peak on “Corporate Public Control Department” or slowing to a mournful groove on “African Dreams.”
    • 63 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Drift
    Where other records by The Men showed they could pull from someone else’s playbook and make something their own, Drift’s hodgepodge of styles ultimately makes The Men sound like they couldn’t settle on what they wanted to do.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    All Nerve
    On the whole, All Nerve is a strong, clear-eyed return for Dayton, Ohio’s ’90s alt-rock icons.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Historian
    Historian stumbles occasionally, with some songs taking a while to get up the hill, but it’s rewarding because it carries such weight and commands such attention.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    A Productive Cough
    The songs find charm in their universality, energy, and wit.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    You're Not Alone
    In addition to a pack of his best songs since I Get Wet, he brings with him a trio of spoken-word interludes that further expand on his philosophy, and as stupid as that might sound on paper--and even on first listen--it makes sense in the world of Andrew W.K. ... His confidence is unassailable and contagious.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Fever
    Like all of his albums, it’s good but not great, a consummate professional continuing to perfect his craft.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Pasar de las Luces
    There’s nothing amateurish about their album, which is as thoughtful in its track order as it is in its composition.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Basic Behaviour
    Basic Behaviour’s greatest strength [is] rawness. On the other hand, the album’s dramatic shifts in tone can make it feel unfocused, and as a whole, it burns off quickly. Still, it leaves a hell of an impression.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    All at Once
    Although not every song is essential in its own right, as a whole, All At Once congeals beautifully; in the era of the single, this is a real album, touching on themes of autonomy and control both in a personal and a wider political context.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Music For The Long Emergency
    There’s a strange but rewarding matching of talents that takes place on Music For The Long Emergency.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Sir
    Sir updates Fischerspooner’s old cocaine throb to surprisingly modern, still sleazily enjoyable, then inevitably exhausting results. It’s enough to think it might stick around this time.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Onion
    Some tracks land in an odd middleground between the grandiosity Onion seemingly wants to achieve and the shambolic charm that made The Clams one of the most unique bands to come out of the Bay Area garage-rock scene. Luckily, that scrappy spirit lives on in the album’s many moments of glorious abandon.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    By the Way I Forgive You
    As the title implies, Brandi Carlile’s sixth studio album is about deriving strength from forgiveness and gratitude. But the lovely, languid folk songs on By The Way, I Forgive You also offer nuanced looks at life’s everyday complications.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    What a Time to Be Alive
    What A Time To Be Alive is the rawest Superchunk album since the band’s 1990 debut and undoubtedly its most ferocious.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Make Way for Love
    Williams’ emotive baritone, as ever, commands center stage, but it’s the album’s experimental elements (the Suicide-ish drum machine on “Party Boy,” the strange synth accompaniments throughout) and subtle psychedelia (as on the spellbinding “Can I Call You”) that push Williams’ sound to a more interesting and promising place.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Room Inside the World
    Though it’s hard not to miss the old energy, ultimately, the band’s newfound sense of stability turns out to be a good look for them--and one that suggests the milk of human kindness does a body good.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Twin Fantasy
    With the new Twin Fantasy, Toledo has done the unimaginable: created a reboot that matches its original in tone, passion, and excitement.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Black Panther: The Album
    It all works, really. The tracks play it safe, but the project itself does not, an audacious exertion of energy from one of the planet’s most universally revered musicians.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Crooked Shadows
    Of all his very short albums, this is his shortest, and where he once packed his songs with knotty chord changes and shout-along confessions, here he tends toward conventional structures and lowest-common-denominator couplets.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sleepwalkers
    It’s just Fallon and his microphone, crooning and crowing over these rhythm and blues-focused rave-ups, holding court over an old-school rock revival to match his restless mood.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Brighter Wounds
    Brighter Wounds poses more questions than answers--but that uncertainty only makes the record more absorbing.
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