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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    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Popular Problems
    As usual, the freshest-sounding songs are those that tread the farthest from Cohen’s gypsy-folk roots, but here that’s most of them, save the plodding thud of “Samson In New Orleans” and the lilting, acoustic “You Got Me Singing.”
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ravedeath, 1972
    Complex and rewarding in a way that the telescoping salvia trip of An Imaginary Country never was, and tougher and more fibrous than the excellent Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again, Ravedeath, 1972 somehow manages to soothe even as it disorients.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    American Dream
    It’s a beautifully produced, masterfully realized album, but it’s also a bit of a downer and an unusually slow burn.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    All Hands On The Bad One
    Song for song, this could be its best album.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Wind
    Sounds cranky, cynical, sentimental, and mordantly funny--in other words, like a good Warren Zevon record.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lemon Of Pink
    Some of the exposed-seam splicing sounds sloppy and/or twee, but the guys in The Books wield a solid musical hand over melodic figures that hint at swooning grandeur without falling prey to florid temptation.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine
    A major album from a major artist, Soul Machine works with a sonic, lyrical, and emotional palette that encompasses everything from joy to rage.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Acid Rap
    What he’s accomplished with Acid Rap is nothing short of remarkable: Just two years removed from high school, and with no label support, he’s crafted the most assured breakthrough Chicago rap release since The College Dropout.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    David Comes To Life
    They're also bracingly potent and screamingly vital; David Comes To Life is the work of a band openly aspiring to be great, and pulling it off.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Surf
    Surf is so vibrant, so alive with triumphant vibes and unadulterated joy, that it never leaves any room for cynicism.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
    As Dylan's official bootlegs go, this is one of the series' best.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lost In the Dream
    The War On Drugs aims for listeners’ feelings about them, and for our collective radio unconscious. On Lost In The Dream, they nail us good.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    L'Enfant Sauvage
    Gojira suffuses L'Enfant Sauvage with a refined, at times contemplative take on its signature catharsis and assault.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Underside of Power
    Underside feels like a quantum leap from [its 2015 self-titled debut] both musically and thematically, newly charged with the righteous anger of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, and explosively unleashed by artists and activists who sense that this is their moment to seize. The result is a collection of songs that articulates that fury and despair with such authority, it deserves to become the soundtrack for whatever future documentary montage captures the mess of 2017.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Happier than Ever
    Billie Eilish’s second album expands upon everything that worked the last time and pushes it in new directions, a creative muse restless and bold in its ambition. It may not always land, but this is a terrific release that proves Eilish’s staying power, demonstrating she’s more than up to the task of delivering on the promise of her debut.
    • 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.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Convincer
    Lowe keeps turning out albums that sound like the best of his career.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    untitled unmastered.
    It may be a while before Lamar releases a project with such low stakes again, so take Untitled for the casual gift that it is: a bonus disc that improbably holds up as an essential album in its own right.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Poison Season
    Poison Season is the sound of an artist in complete control of the strange chaos around him.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Mysterious Production Of Eggs
    He collides substances that shouldn't mix to create a sound that not only survives the impact, but thrives in the aftermath.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Shaking the Habitual
    Shaking The Habitual has minor drawbacks—it wastes too much time on shambling instrumentals, and a wall-to-wall rager would have been great—but this brother-sister team is still heroically alienating and giddily perverse.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hitchhiker
    For fans of Neil Young in the ’70s--his pretty undeniable peak--this one is fantastic. Beyond that, it could easily serve as an introduction to a generation that hasn’t heard his music.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lucifer on the Sofa
    Lucifer On The Sofa is one of the band’s most focused songwriting efforts yet: Every note feels deliberately placed and well-constructed, with crisp arrangements (the piano-sprinkled ballad “My Babe”), piercing hooks (the elastic “The Devil & Mr. Jones”) and sweeping dynamics (the melodramatic, glammy art-rock waltz “Satellite”).
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Agent Intellect
    The Agent Intellect is an impressive addition to the band’s small discography, and it hints that bigger, bolder work may lay ahead.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Knock Knock
    There hasn’t been a more purely enjoyable record released in 2018.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Rook
    Meiburg's voice focuses each track on quietly bold melodies, strung through with excitement, wonder, and joy.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Party Music
    The Coup's warmest and most organic effort to date, both lyrically and musically.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Life...The Best Game In Town
    Life… isn't easy listening (the anvil-heavy ballad 'Roses' alone could drive the clinically depressed to suicide), but the improved contrast between upbeat and harrowing makes Harvey Milk's extremes that much easier to appreciate.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    50 Words for Snow
    Her first full-length of new material since 2005, 50 Words is by far the subtlest and least immediately accessible she's ever made.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
    There's a confidence here that carried over from Case's remarkable 2004 live album The Tigers Have Spoken.
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