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
    • 47 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Hotel
    An album that finds Moby half-remembering ideas for songs that are hard not to forget.
    • 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.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Earth To The Dandy Warhols
    They were better as clever corporate whores.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Weird Revolution
    Weird Revolution sounds dated and quaint, both in its "Pepper" rehashes ("Dracula From Houston," "The Shame Of Life") and in its halfhearted attempts at caustic shock ("Shit Like That") and misfit mission statements ("The Weird Revolution").
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Lulu
    An utter wreck that curiously, miraculously, might have been great.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    T.O.S. (Terminate On Sight)
    The once-fascinating, now-tedious gangsta-rap superstar's creative losing streak continues with G-Unit's dreary new posse album Terminate On Sight.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    8
    Too many songs get halfway there, starting promisingly, then petering out quickly.
    • 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.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Hannicap Circus
    The problem with shock, of course, is that it quickly loses its novelty, and anyone who doesn't find the topics of pedophilia, drug abuse, or incest innately hilarious will find Hannicap Circus rough going.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    The Weirdness
    Even at 40 minutes, this album is interminable.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Crown Royal
    The musical equivalent of Willie Mays stumbling around in the outfield years after his skills were gone, Crown Royal fails in the most arbitrary, impersonal way possible, piling on so many ringers that Run DMC often seems like a guest at its own party.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 16 Critic Score
    The Rebirth Of Venus
    The Rebirth Of Venus, his seventh full-length, offers a more direct kind of terrible.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Scream
    The problem with Scream isn’t that Cornell is too much of an artist to go pop, it’s that the fit is so unbecoming.
    • 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.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Somethin' 'Bout Kreay
    There's only so much blood to be squeezed from that stone, so instead, Somethin 'Bout Kreay contents itself with using that stone to bash listeners over the head.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    What The...
    Demons used to be what drove Black Flag toward hitherto extremes of punk-rock brinksmanship, and there are glimpses of that savagery on What The.... Mostly, though, it’s a footnote to a legacy that never needed one.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    14 Shades Of Grey
    Not memorable enough to be bad, not heavy enough to pack visceral power, most of these songs–even radio-friendly ringers like "So Far Away"–are indistinguishable from the work of a hundred other bands with misspelled names, hotshot producers, plentiful tattoos, and optional silly facial hair.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A Day Without Rain
    Self-seriousness and artistic water-treading aside, there's nothing wrong with A Day Without Rain. It's just that few households need more than an hour or so of Enya music, and Shepherd Moons and Watermark serve that purpose far more effectively.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Gameface
    A mercifully brief running time (less than 50 minutes) and a few scattered moments of autobiographical storytelling help make Gameface marginally less disposable than its most recent predecessors.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Liz Phair
    Worst of all, the album closes with three decent songs, reminders of Phair's talent that are muted by what's come before.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 0 Critic Score
    Graffiti
    Musically, Graffiti is a fairly ingratiating affair: The production is clean and often lively, and Brown sings well enough. The problem is what he’s singing.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    BAYTL
    BAYTL is an album for B-movie lovers who prefer their entertainment blaring from the blown speakers of a rust-spackled Cadillac.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Shwayze
    Shwayze is remarkable only in how unremarkable it is.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    United Nations of Sound
    Ashcroft himself is disappointingly meager. For a man with a true gift for epic pomposity, he's mostly dull here.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Fortune
    Not all of Fortune is so unctuous, but none of it is inspired.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    I'm Back! Family & Friends
    Contrary to its emphatic title, I'm Back! Family And Friends isn't so much a full-fledged comeback album as a mildly inspiring three-song EP surrounded by truly horrible re-recordings and remixes of Stone's biggest hits of the late '60s and early '70s.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    Rebirth
    Rebirth sounds like a strange dispatch from a lost ’80s in which Wayne trafficked in cheesy power chords, cornball hard-rock atmospherics, lame guitar solos for beginners, rock clichés, and Reagan-era synthesizers.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Machina II: The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music
    A world-class band giving away more than an hour of strong material is historic in and of itself, but Machina II also holds up artistically. Purportedly drawn from the Adore and MACHINA sessions, the disc reflects Corgan's obsession with dream-pop, Cure- and Depeche Mode-styled synth-Goth, and glam-tinged heavy metal. But Machina II is not only far more cohesive than the sprawling double-album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, but tighter than the initial MACHINA.
next
Page: