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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    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Blueprint
    Trades the chilly, futuristic minimalism of S. Carter for a warmer, more organic sound rooted in the soul and funk of the '60s and '70s
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    In Rainbows
    Elsewhere, it's business as usual--mostly amazing business, to be sure, but never entirely unexpected.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Woods
    Although hard to digest at first, The Woods ingratiates itself on subsequent listens, making the band's other albums seem half-baked by comparison.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kill The Moonlight
    Daniel diminishes his melodies to fit the demands of arty cadence throughout Kill The Moonlight's first half, which makes the more generously melodic second side not just welcome, but inspiring.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lonerism
    The band's latest, Lonerism, digs even deeper into those themes and sounds [early-'70s psychedelia, proto-metal, and British pop], and pulls out a masterful collage.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Bandana
    The first record was a grower, gradually establishing itself as one of the great producer-emcee efforts of the young millennium, but Bandana seems designed to dazzle, to assert a joint legacy.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Foundations of Burden
    That the band took it upon themselves to subtly yet profoundly revamp--aand exquisitely humanize--doom is just part of the reason why Foundations Of Burden is such a brave record. The other is the fact that it’s quite simply moving, the sounds of dislocated souls finding a voice at last.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    All We Love We Leave Behind
    While All We Love lacks cohesion in spots, it solidifies Converge's position as one of hardcore's most progressive yet soulful stalwarts.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Art Angels
    It’s slick and gritty, fun and funny, and horrifying and grotesque all at once. It will also make you shake your ass like nothing else.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness [Deluxe Edition]
    [Mellon Collie was] daringly diverse and compellingly grand.... Though Mellon Collie's inflated reissue will surely garner Corgan and company a couple extra bucks from holiday shoppers, it's a disappointingly conventional treatment of an album that once represented unease and discomfort with convention.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus
    There's hardly any drop in quality over the discs' 17 tracks, and Cave maintains his ability to startle.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Am A Bird Now
    Antony's musical presence haunts and hypnotizes long after he's left the stage.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Fishscale
    Sure, Fishscale has its share of pointless skits. But that's what the fast-forward button is for, just as the play button seems to have been designed specifically to let people listen to Fishscale over and over again.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    No Devolucion
    As raw yet coldly deliberate as self-surgery, No Devolucion isn't a return to form for Thursday; it's a searing, scarring reinvention.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Arular
    As an MC, M.I.A. sounds brash and sassy, a party-starter first and a polemicist second.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    You're Dead!
    You’re Dead! is his most confidently structured work yet.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Remedy
    The duo's self-proclaimed "remedy" is nowhere near as revolutionary as the hype would insinuate, but it does offer its distinct pleasures
    • 88 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Science Fiction
    Brand New has put in the work, making a record that erases any doubts about whether the final product would live up to eight years of mystery and hype. And it’s effectively erased its past by making good on every far-flung expectation placed upon it.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    For Emma, Forever Ago
    Wisconsin singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, who records as Bon Iver (a bastardized version of the French phrase for "good winter"), still manages to put his own stamp on a moribund genre with his quietly startling debut, For Emma, Forever Ago.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Pacific Ocean Blue [Reissue]
    The new Pacific Ocean Blue: Legacy Edition corrects that [being out of print] while confirming the rumors of the album's greatness.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Plunge
    Beyond its aggressive peaks, there is also true beauty here, and even nuggets of stark synth-pop that call back to her past work.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Fleet Foxes
    The wilderness goes from breathtaking to sort of boring after a while, but the overall effect is as refreshing as country air.
    • 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.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    New Adventures in Hi-Fi [25th Anniversary Edition]
    For die-hards, having these extra tracks in one place, rather than scattered across CD singles or long-lost downloaded MP3s, is a plus; for the unfamiliar, these extras help flesh out the main album’s contours. ... A fascinating chronicle, New Adventures is finally—and rightfully—taking its place as one of R.E.M.’s best, most consistent works.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    A Hairshirt Of Purpose
    At a time when it’s once more trendy to declare that rock music is dying, there’s a band like Pile putting lie to that hyperbole and still pushing the form to its outermost limits.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Person Pitch
    Sometimes ominous, sometimes celebratory, always compelling, Person Pitch is as clattering and tactile as a beaded curtain.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    College Dropout
    With sterling quality to match its massive advance hype, The College Dropout is one of those wonderful crossover albums that appeal to a huge audience without sacrificing a shred of integrity.
    • 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.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blackstar
    For all its jazz accents and solos, Blackstar ends up becoming a stage for the things that first made Bowie a pop star: his incessantly catchy melodies and elastic voice.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Something More Than Free
    Isbell’s lyrics on Southeastern sharpened to a poignancy that he’d mostly hinted at before, and though Something More Than Free may not repeat Isbell’s album-of-the-year accolades, it continues the magic of that breakthrough LP.
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