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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    • 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.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Funhouse
    Pink can reach unusually stirring heights when in the right register. That register, on Funhouse, is something close to despondence with a lot of tiredness thrown in--just enough to make Pink forego her instinct for winking and simply sound pained instead.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Walk With Love and Death
    Overall Love isn’t arresting enough to draw listeners in without a visual component. Along with a handful of other Melvins albums, A Walk With Love & Death seems destined to be overshadowed by the band’s stronger output.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Messenger
    The disc’s overall pleasantness and pasteurized charm are what save it from being wholly aggravating.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Freedom
    Freedom never seems to settle on a single direction, but it’s hard to say whether that’s good or bad.... But it’s when Refused attempts to sound modern--through ultra-slick production tricks and modern sonic collage--that the album truly falters.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Become You
    Become You tends to err on the side of blandness, lacking a knockout single or any newsworthy experimentation. But it's also Indigo Girls' first album in ages to pass by without a head-slapping clunker or didactic, finger-wagging screed to weigh it down.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rock Steady
    Everything its predecessor wasn't: bouncy, joyful, carefree, and mostly engaging.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    York Blvd
    The new York Blvd. settles on likably shambling, lazily paced pop, but Acetone still hasn't quite cemented an identity for itself. The reason has a lot to do with the fact that, even at its most pleasantly languid ("Vibrato," "Bonds"), York Blvd. just isn't especially engaging.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Solar Power
    Solar Power’s a little messy and rough around the edges, and features a Lorde now moving on from her youth and wanting to keep some things to herself. In short: It’s just like being 24.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Days of Abandon
    Days Of Abandon’s lushly clean tones provide an innocuous foundation upon which layers of warm harmonies are laid. In the end, the record’s flaws aren’t wholly a product of the mellower genre as much as a generally uninspired execution.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Range of Light
    These two tracks ["Alpenglow" and "The Dome"] are outliers, though, emotionally and sonically devastating songs on an otherwise languid and forgettable record.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Finally Famous
    The long-delayed debut struggles for identity.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dylanesque
    He sounds surprisingly disengaged here.
    • 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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Amazing Grace
    At its best, Amazing Grace® finds Pierce and his many supporting players piecing their disparate moods and sounds into moments of catharsis only Spiritualized could create. But too often, those ingredients are doled out separately, as the album jerks through jarringly integrated fragments that should have run together seamlessly.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Teddy Thompson
    The son of Richard and Linda Thompson, Teddy Thompson has genetics on his side, with a powerful voice and, in his best moments, the songwriting skills to match his heritage. Too bad, then, that his debut feels so tentative.
    • 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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Origin Vol. 1
    Soundtrack sounds astonishingly good one song at a time, and surprisingly dull over the course of a full record.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Travelogue
    At moments lush and beautiful, at others overly busy, but never less than daring.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    North
    Bereft of melody and short on memorable lyrics (a Costello first), North is background music in the least appealing sense: Brought to the fore, it falls to pieces.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Formula
    The Formula should please 9th Wonder and Boot Camp Click cultists, but hip-hop heads eager to hear 9th Wonder collaborate with rappers worthy of his talents are better off waiting for his next album with Murs--or praying for a reunion with Little Brother.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shotter's Nation
    Doherty is no mad genius--he's just mad, and it shows in Nation's slipshod execution and undernourished songcraft.
    • 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
    • 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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Friendly Fire
    Friendly Fire's real problem is that Lennon keeps coming up with airy melodies that recall his father's work, only they don't really sound like John anymore, they sound like Elliott Smith.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    For All I Care
    If anything, the group's sixth studio disc is a little too reverent, not so much on the instrumentals as on the pop-song covers.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Man Against Machine
    Instead of building on Brooks’ strengths, Man Against Machine is firmly rooted in midair.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Eucalyptus
    While Eucalyptus is undoubtedly intriguing, it’s only occasionally enjoyable as music.
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