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
    Starboy
    The record is a few songs too long, and it loses steam as it progresses. But such imperfections are par for the course: He’d rather express everything he’s feeling than put forth an airbrushed or idealized version of himself. In that sense, Starboy is one of the most confident releases of the year, one bold enough to reveal the cracks in The Weeknd’s façade for the sake of resonant art.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hardwired...To Self-Destruct
    Hardwired is never embarrassing in the way of St. Anger or Lulu, but it’s rarely revelatory either. It’s not so much that Metallica is incapable of writing a good song in 2016; it’s just a little too complacent to write a truly great one.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    24K Magic
    24K Magic is easily his most cohesive and enjoyable collection, an escapist record that comes by its evocations of the past honestly.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service
    It’s good, an unexpected victory lap by Tip, Phife, producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and estranged founding member Jarobi.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Devil Music
    Devil Music sounds like The Men took that talent, gave into their most primal, terrifying desires, and built a raucous, bruising--and never harmless--noise out of it.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Jessica Rabbit
    Sleigh Bells has grown up plenty since their 2009 lightning-strike arrival, but perhaps that strike is starting to feel like more of a distant memory than it should.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Slugger
    The songs all work inside established frameworks but twist them until they feel fresh. And really, that’s all Speedy Ortiz has ever done, too. It shows that Dupuis is a songwriter who can make any genre feel her own, regardless of what moniker she elects to release it under.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Goodnight City
    The many perspectives on Goodnight City add up to a dynamic record that speaks to the power of letting others--be they family, friends, idols, alter egos--help pull us out of and realize fuller versions of ourselves.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    You Know What It's Like
    More meditations on moods than songs, these eight tracks are preoccupied with impermanence and ambiguity.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Babes Never Die
    Producer James Dring (Jamie T, Gorillaz) skillfully amplifies Honeyblood’s bewitching hooks and taut arrangements, while preserving the band’s scruffy, DIY-pop vibe.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    FLOTUS
    Missing is the color and vibrancy of the Van McCoy disco original, but that’s consistent with what FLOTUS is all about. To add something meaningful to the current electronic-music canon, Wagner has fully cut the tethers to the past.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Honeymoon on Mars
    On most of Honeymoon On Mars, the band seems resigned to the apocalypse and modern society’s devolution, resulting in a shockingly limp record overflowing with empty bluster.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Joanne
    Joanne may not become the multiplatinum blockbuster Bella Donna was, but the record absolutely feels like Gaga is once again on an upward trajectory.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Winter Wheat
    These are hopeful, triumphant themes, but what Samson captures so well is the melancholy lurking beneath progress, the sense that we’re in the midst of perpetual loss. This makes for a provoking listen, but also a heavy one.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Integrity Blues
    In the case of Integrity Blues, the band’s truisms prove much sexier than expected, and the fact is that it’s their strongest album in well over a decade.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    American Football (LP2)
    The intervening years have been kind to the group; its easy chemistry remains a dialogue full of endearing, if not ample, surprises.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    You Want It Darker
    He’s choosing to examine his life (and life’s work) rather than ponder the abyss. That ensures You Want It Darker doesn’t feel like an ending, as much as it feels like one more chapter in Cohen’s songbook.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Building a Beginning
    Difficult to switch off, Building A Beginning promises to carry balmy summer vibes across winter’s chill.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ruminations
    It works because Oberst keeps the music moving and doesn’t let his voice over-quiver with rage or sadness. He’s rather calm, and his songwriting is strong as ever.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    First Ditch Effort
    Musically, the band is still in frenetic first gear, proudly sticking to its well-tested formula of power chords, metal-infused riffs, and biting humor. That sameness dulls some of First Ditch Effort’s luster, but it’s still a spirited late-career entry for the veteran punks.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cody
    Cody shows the band hasn’t run out of good ideas, even when its subjects still seem to have no idea what they’re doing.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Revolution Radio
    Revolution Radio, the band’s solid but sometimes unfocused new album, can’t stop looking to the past, to the present, anywhere but the future.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Head Carrier
    Unlike Indie Cindy, Head Carrier knows exactly what it is. Whether that’s something we’ll remember is another discussion entirely.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    22, A Million
    22, A Million can stand confidently as the only album to bridge Hornsby’s The Way It Is with Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fires Within Fires
    Fires Within Fires is yet another invaluable contribution from this legendary band.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
    He [frontman James Alex] retains a sincere and lasting understanding of the frustrations of the young outcast, and works that angst into tracks.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Return to Love
    It’s the band’s most accomplished work to date.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pretty Years
    Pretty Years is joyous, revelatory, and the moment where the varied sounds of those past three records all come together.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Shape Shift with Me
    Those who like their alt-punk laced with introspection and intellectualism will continue to like Grace’s music, and perhaps learn a bit about what it’s like to be her as well.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Stage Four
    Stage Four reverberates because it’s a concept album, the tracks linear and part of the greater whole.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    AIM
    AIM sounds like a field recording made in the middle of a bustling Sri Lankan market: colorful, flavorful, and most of all, noisy. These inescapable Eastern vibes prove to be a blessing, uniting an otherwise fragmented album.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016
    An album like this should reveal something about the artist, if only to highlight how an unplugged Jack White has differed over the years from his garage-rock side. Acoustic Recordings doesn’t really do that. It’s more like fragments out of context, squarely framed.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Schmilco
    Schmilco is Wilco’s most musically simple and emotionally resonant record in a decade, gorgeously naked and efficient.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Going, Going...
    Gedge could’ve reached this happy ending with fewer tracks and less gas money, but as anyone signing up for this road trip knows, his rambling never really gets old.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    False Readings On
    False Readings On leaves you with as much unease as it does catharsis. But these steps forward make sense for the composer as he forges on.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    My Woman
    My Woman is one of the realest albums of the year.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Stay Gold
    The album is most compelling when Walker attempts to figure out how the shoulda-beens or close calls haunting his life fit into the present day.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    And the Anonymous Nobody
    An eclectic genre mashup with an enviable roster of guests, And The Anonymous Nobody… bristles with creative rebirth and more than a touch of hard-earned, “we’re back” braggadocio.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Endless
    For the most part, the musicality--much sparser than the maximalist sonic feasts of his earlier work--still holds the same synesthetic power of the past, even for those who don’t claim to have the ability to see sounds.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blonde
    As Blonde gets closer to the finish line, the same themes get explored again and again with a more collagelike musicality.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    One Day All of This Won't Matter Any More
    The album as a whole leaves a blurry impression, not a crisp memory.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Real
    By not shying away from writing about messy relationships, hard truths, and personal failings, she’s created an album with incredible emotional and lyrical resonance.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Fishing Blues
    Overall, this is undeniable rap therapy. Like the rest of us, Slug and Ant are just trying to get by, and for the most part, they’re succeeding.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Innocence Reaches
    It’s when the consistency falters (as with the record’s end, when the unfocused “Trashed Exes” and “Chap Pilot” close out the album) that Barnes seems to be losing balance. Still, the highs are dizzying.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tween
    Despite the all-over-the-map vibe, Tween doesn’t sound like a bunch of leftovers or music pushed to the side. Every song is fully formed, and is imbued with a sense of purpose.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not
    The intimacy it reaches on Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not is as hard won as it’s ever been. The band approaches it from the obtuse angles only it can, arriving there because of its excessive volume, its unorthodox tempos, and its lyrical inscrutability, not in spite of it. To the uninitiated, it may seem formulaic, but it’s the self-imposed limitations that make Dinosaur Jr. so distinctive.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Boy King
    More so than ever on the new Boy King, Wild Beasts seem especially comfortable and confident with their wayward electro. Which only shows in the added coats of glitz.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Guidance
    Although Guidance may have a few minor shortcomings, the Chicago trio’s sixth LP is yet another example of its ability to examine and depict multifaceted emotions without needing to utter a word.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Over There That Way
    Over There That Way’s pandering play for indie-pop acceptance makes it a more leisurely listen. But, with no need to periodically clean a little heavy-metal grit out of the ears, the album just doesn’t demand much attention.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The King of Whys
    Songs rarely adhere to one form, instead taking bits and pieces of Kinsella’s career and making them all sound fresh. It’s the kind of record that will appease Owen fans, but it’s lush enough--and inspired enough--to suggest that Owen is perhaps the best it’s ever been.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hypercaffium Spazzinate
    At 16 tracks, Hypercaffium Spazzinate contains some filler, but with only three songs crossing the three-minute mark, these lesser moments breeze by without consequence.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Afraid of Heights
    The more interesting moments on Afraid Of Heights come when the band begins to face their own mortality.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    This Is Gap Dream
    While This Is Gap Dream stands well enough on its own, all of its effects, intended or otherwise, are magnified when taken in the context of Fulvimar’s 2013 release, Shine Your Light.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Operator
    MSTRKRFT is certainly far more inventive than most, so the songs aren’t boring, just unmoored. However, it does make Operator a frustratingly uneven listen.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Youth Authority
    Youth Authority does an admirable job updating Good Charlotte’s sound in ways that should please both long-term and new fans.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Love & Hate
    Love & Hate is a massive leap in accomplishment for Kiwanuka.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    32 Levels
    It’s in the back half of 32 Levels, where Volpe drops rap entirely to pair off with singers, that he pushes himself in less familiar directions—to outcomes both revelatory and slightly banal.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wildflower
    Wildflower may not inspire the same years of obsessive unpacking as its predecessor, but the joyful feelings it leaves behind linger just the same.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Command Your Weather
    Command Your Weather may signal the start of a new era for Big Business, but paradigm shift it ain’t.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hit Reset
    Hit Reset is commendable not because Hanna is a pioneer in the punk world, but because, after all she’s been through, she still has the vigor and passion to be a worthwhile participant.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Bride
    The most memorable song from the back half of the album, “In Your Bed,” sounds like it could have come from a different set of songs, judging by its lyrics.) As a result, The Bride goes past dreamy and into lullaby territory after a while, and the listener’s engagement with the music may drift off as well.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    California
    California is the sound of Blink-182 desperately trying to remain relevant by outsourcing its creativity.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Freetown Sound
    What keeps Hynes grounded is his sense of emotion, demonstrated in the seductively smooth funk undercurrents of “E.V.P.” (featuring Debbie Harry), evoking George McCrae’s stunted yet whisper-like vocals.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Autodrama
    While the now-self-assumed production remains complex and meticulously nuanced, it also doesn’t help that the melodies just don’t stick to the ears as much. Autodrama is by no means a failure, and warm, lush tones still captivate in parts; given Puro Instinct’s proven talents, hopefully those aren’t just the embers of a flash in the pan.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hot Hot Heat
    At its best, Hot Hot Heat is a reminder of what’s made these guys consistently good and periodically great.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Mountain Will Fall
    Not everything works--“California” succumbs to a kind of spare, thudding aimlessness, as though the track wasn’t sure what to include and what to lose--but overall, this is DJ Shadow’s best work since his early-aughts heyday.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Magic
    The Magic, the band’s aptly named 13th album, is the loosest, most expansive Deerhoof LP in some years.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Johannesburg [EP]
    Johannesburg’s thrills develop as the band participates in and gently incorporates something unfamiliar--without claiming ownership of it.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    You Will Never Be One of Us
    Nails constructs towers of noise tall enough to blot out the sun.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Puberty 2
    Puberty 2 exposes new dimensions to Mitski’s voice, revealing its true richness and range. Mitski is an exceptionally keen observer of the human condition, and Puberty 2 marks a triumphant new step in her evolution.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Glowing Man
    Gira feeds on the drawn-out, high-tension passages of accelerating cymbal crashes and swelling guitar dissonance, many of which exist on the 25-minute “Cloud Of Unknowing.” But while the axis on which that track rotates features deconstructed, incohesive drum rolls and a kind of radiant summoning from Gira--one that bleeds and pools into negative space you didn’t know existed--the plodding, sinister rhythm that precedes it proves more hypnotic.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Getaway
    The tame, disco-fried band they’ve become is the only group you’ll hear on the second half of the album, and the instrumental moments that provide redemption wear thin as Kiedis dampens their purpose.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Twentyears [Super Deluxe Edition]
    Like most anthologies, the rarities and unreleased tracks are pure icing--nice to have but often superfluous, and more often rarities for a reason.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Double Vanity
    Double Vanity is a major sonic leap that comes at the expense of energy and songwriting.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    What One Becomes
    What One Becomes shows Cook and Turner again occupying highly coveted space on the zenith of aggressive music--this time alongside Yacyshyn, the percussive mastermind. It’s hard to imagine a better metal record coming out this year.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Turn to Gold
    Turn To Gold’s shift in songwriting is subtle, adapting the instrumental assault to different ends without losing its visceral thrills.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Strange Little Birds
    20-plus years after forming, each band member is still fired up to mine new sounds and approaches for inspiration. That willingness to be uncomfortable and look beneath the surface makes Strange Little Birds a rousing success.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Fall Forever
    The contrast of Weiss’ effortlessly sophisticated, crystalline vocals with the icier tone of the band’s newly electronic slant certainly gives Fall Forever special character. Fear Of Men hasn’t survived the sophomore turn without losing a few traces of what made the band so appealing initially, but then again, Weiss says it herself in “Erase (Aubade)”: “I erase these things / I don’t need what I left behind.”
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Ash & Ice
    Ash & Ice is an incremental creative step in the right direction for The Kills. But the uneven execution demonstrates once again that the band’s undeniable live chemistry and charisma doesn’t always translate perfectly to its studio work.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Basses Loaded
    The Melvins are prolific without taking heed of their stature or prominence, and Basses Loaded is a testament to their nonchalant and fiercely inventive place in the world of loud and angry music.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Ha, Ha, He.
    The record adds drops of depth and drama to the recipe, but the band hasn’t quite cooked up its signature dish yet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Love You To Death
    Love You To Death is an apt title for an album so full of effortlessly addicting pop that nonetheless exhausts a sole musical formula in every permutation.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Sings Favorites
    As relaxing as it is to hear Mark Kozelek sing favorites, the consistent pleasantries result in the album feeling minor and a little safe when compared to something like Benji. Sometimes, it takes a little ugliness and danger to elevate an album from good to great.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Goodness
    It’s a record that, by its end, is a profound statement. It just requires a little patience for it to be heard.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Congrats
    Congrats is the welcome return of a foursome of dudes that are still plenty proficient at creating crooked, cock-eyed, almost-club jams (“Acidic”) and piling on swirling effects and rhythms to a critical mass without ever sounding like they’re losing control (“Sabbatics”).
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Kidsticks
    In the end, Kidsticks’ raw material is sound, and Orton’s attention to detail is impressive. But this adventurous approach could use a bit more structure and cohesion next time around.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Dream Is Over
    In many ways, The Dream Is Over is a record that perfectly captures the moment between bottoming out and rising above. Not many would be able to find this much strength when on the brink of collapse, but PUP’s never seemed all that interested in doing things the easy way.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wild Pendulum
    Pendulum is lovingly crafted, with layers in all the right places.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Fallen Angels
    For whippersnappers, Fallen Angels is a reminder that great poetry and complex emotions existed in American song well before 1962.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Teens of Denial
    That exercise in tension and release, repeated throughout the record, is essential to Teens Of Denial’s blistering greatness. The distortion-laden songs on Teens Of Denial build and soar, often repeatedly within a few minutes.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Dangerous Woman
    Buoyed by this poise, Dangerous Woman possesses more personality than My Everything. It’s also far looser than anything else in Grande’s catalog.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Nattesferd
    Kvelertak has explored its more tuneful side in the past, but here, it pushes things further--and more seamlessly.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Coloring Book [Mixtape]
    Coloring Book delivers one celebratory hymnal after another, emphasizing the natural high that comes with feeling loved and watched over.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Down in Heaven
    While Down In Heaven is a solid display of the band’s musicianship, its true merit will only be revealed in retrospect. The band is willing and able to make that gamble, and with maturity.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Holy Ghost
    In addition to being a powerful examination of self-worth and how it tends to wither beneath the responsibilities of adulthood, the record is also a testament to the band’s growth musically and thematically.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Thank You
    Self-empowerment can shade into self-aggrandizement when it isn’t delivered in a convincing way, and Thank You only periodically rises to the challenge.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Moon Shaped Pool
    It pauses, in awkward fits and starts, even as the overall experience is languid and repetitive, like the daily grind of life itself. The band has figured out how to translate its worldview into an album of tone poems, a record of songs ending in abrupt drops or trailed-off codas, as though each effort--by definition, you get the sense--must inevitably come up short.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Paradise
    What sets Paradise apart, though, is an even finer polish than its predecessor Deep Fantasy, the first album to benefit from a Domino-bequeathed luster. So much of that subtle maturation is due to William’s expansive and inventive playing.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hopelessness
    Compared with the morose, string-laden music Anohni is known for, this is an Ariana Grande album, but it remains experimental and emotional enough to feel natural. Anohni is broadening her audience--not courting a broad audience.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Impossible Kid
    Whereas Rock’s last solo album, Skelethon, showcases his unparalleled knack for abstract imagery and reflection, The Impossible Kid combines hallucinatory wordplay with disarmingly forthright autobiography--a combination that enhances the impact of each mode.
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