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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    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wu-Massacre
    Though the tight, cohesive, filler-free 12-track project sometimes feels more like a super-sized EP than a proper album, it’s worth remembering that Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) changed hip-hop with just 13 tracks.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Holiday Destination
    On her third LP, Shah displays the patience to let an idea stew. And she’s not moving on until she’s sufficiently chewed it over, swished it around her mouth, and dragged her tongue across her front teeth.
    • 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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rose Mountain
    It may not be their best--it’ll be hard to top Ugly--but it’s taking steps in a new direction, and positioning the band for even greater things to come.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    National Ransom
    There's never been an Elvis Costello album like National Ransom, even though nothing about the record is especially new.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Black Sun
    In spite of its sprawling palette, Black Sun is tight and compact, an album rather than simply a showcase.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blue Smoke
    On Blue Smoke, she handily harnesses those charms--coupled with that stellar musicality, of course--to produce an absolutely lovely LP.
    • 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
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hawk
    Two more complementary sets of pipes have rarely been paired-and while that's been the intention all along, the duo's third full-length, Hawk, still banks on that delicious friction, and does it well.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Growing Pains
    Growing Pains sprints out of the gate with a potent double-shot of empowerment anthems.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Interpreting The Masters, Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall And John Oates
    It isn't revelatory, but it's a natural fit that makes up for its familiarity with listenability and pure fun--no irony necessary.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dance on the Blacktop
    While much of the album intermixes the gritty and the gorgeous with all the economy of an Anton Corbijn photo, there are moments of open-hearted purity, too. But unlike just about every other band on earth, NOTHING is at its best when it closes itself off and spins into oblivion.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Public Warning
    Even if Sov doesn't cross over the way she or Def Jam might want her to, she still sounds like an original--even for people who know half the songs already.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Autumn Defense
    While The Autumn Defense lacks the deeper sense of purpose of a neo-soft-rock band like Midlake, the insinuating "This Will Fall Away" and the pristine "Simple Explanation" run deeper than homage.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Tomorrow Morning
    Everett is a complicated dude, and perhaps he'll return to the dark stuff soon. That said, Tomorrow Morning proves a welcome change of pace.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Spirit If...
    Drew makes the most of his solo-album freedom on 'Lucky Ones,' doubling piano and guitar into a hook that, in just a few notes, matches the wonder of any number of BSS songs.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Remedy
    Old Crow is having fun and playing songs without a thought toward self-importance, and these days, that might be the punkest thing a band can do.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    First Impressions Of Earth
    Casablancas and company sound loose, and they've regained a lot of the coolest-dudes-in-New-York swagger that made them so initially exciting.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ringleader Of The Tormentors
    Track for track, Ringleader is unquestionably Morrissey's best in ages.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Chill, Dummy
    There are moments where he falters, often lacking hooks to make a track resonate beyond its runtime, but those failings exist in flashes. What sticks with you is a sense of joy that surmounts all the anger and angst.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Vestiges & Claws
    Assessed independently, Vestiges & Claws’ progressions may be modest, but its adjustments cohere into a record of uncommonly evocative capacity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Gift Of Screws
    It's a delicately crafted album that alternately rages against the dying of the light and sounds resigned to it, even if Buckingham's particular light sounds in no danger of burning out soon.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ivy Tripp
    It’s Crutchfield’s commitment to embracing both sides of herself--and not downplaying either--that makes Ivy Tripp the most accomplished record to bear the Waxahatchee name.
    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Or Give Me Death
    Terry's miniaturist inclinations don't always mesh with Aqueduct's increased technical polish.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Acid Tongue
    Unfortunately for those still hoping for an old-school Rilo Kiley redux, Lewis' new Acid Tongue is the sonic midpoint of those two releases, matching "Blacklight's" freewheeling, schizophrenic vibe with "Fur Coat's" alt-country foundations. For those ready to move with Lewis down those paths, however, the new one is a confident amalgam of tracks that sparkle, stew, and storm.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    I Don't Like Shit: I Don't Go Outside
    At just under a half hour, it’s even more understated than its predecessor, with fewer guests, almost no outside producers, less variety--less everything, really. That may sound like a downgrade, but it’s not, since here the anti-spectacle becomes a kind of spectacle of its own, as Earl tests how far his music can retreat into itself.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    My Dinosaur Life
    In the end, Motion City Soundtrack has created another in a series of impeccably constructed pop albums.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Libertad
    Velvet Revolver still mines sleaze-rock formula on songs like "She Builds Quick Machines," the band has also expanded its sound considerably, taking turns at rambling country and gauzy psychedelic pop before returning to the boozy classic rock.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Piñata
    Piñata may not be Madlib’s best personal handiwork, but it’s well tailored to suit his partner’s impressive rhyming abilities.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Shining
    The Shining's biggest flaw is that it feels awfully slight, thanks to a run time of less than 37 minutes.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Ark Work
    What keeps The Ark Work from being just another metal album with non-metal influences, and elevates it above a post-modern stunt, is the uncompromising, uncategorizable beast that results from this vision.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    If I Should Go Before You
    These are only relatively fresh spins on familiar concepts, but presented via an enjoyable framework that proves Green’s still loaded with stimulating ideas.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Monitor
    Clocking in at just over an hour, The Monitor is a self-indulgent statement, to be sure--but some of the best ambitious works are often the most personal.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    King of Hearts
    Lloyd's fourth album, King Of Hearts, doubles down on his amorous enthusiasm, pushing it to such delirious extremes that these songs feel risky and uncharted even as they play to his most obvious strengths.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Compton
    Compton successfully crams the magnitude of his origin story into ambitious, densely packed sonics.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    In Defense Of The Genre
    Bemis has concocted a deliciously confounding album that transcends emo more than defends it.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Swanlights
    Even when Swanlights doesn't always take corporeal form-that looseness also means several of its melodies simply fade into the shadows-Antony's voice remains a spectral wonder.
    • 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.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Visions of Us on the Land
    Though the collab with Swift has resulted in easily Jurado’s most fascinating records as a songwriter, the wide-open road might be a little too inviting at times--because occasionally you need to consult a map for fear of driving off the end of the Earth.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Strangers to Ourselves
    Like 2007’s We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, it’s a comfortably familiar return to the less-than-comfortable mix of weighty lyrics and jittery, crazy-eyed indie rock that’s sustained Modest Mouse’s illustrious career.
    • 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
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hesitation Marks
    It’s obvious on the rest of the album that the fear of living isn’t holding Reznor back anymore. This outlook has given a huge boost to NIN’s creativity, and helped the group re-emerge as a relevant, vital, and still weird band.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Invented
    Invented is less a return to form than a compendium of what Jimmy Eat World does so well.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Researching the Blues
    What makes Researching so great, though, is its tight focus.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life
    It may lack the punch of Nikki Nack, but for those willing to hang around and appreciate its jammier approach, it’s a cathartic, worthwhile stop along the Tune-Yards catalog.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Basic Volume
    Basic Volume is noisy and abrasive, but it’s also frequently beautiful, and it speaks as loudly as it takes to be heard.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Admiral Fell Promises
    Kozelek's Dylan-esque knack for delivering intensely internal narratives over simple folk melodies stretched out for several hypnotic minutes has once again resulted in top-notch mood music.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Music For The Long Emergency
    There’s a strange but rewarding matching of talents that takes place on Music For The Long Emergency.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Qualm
    Like all of Hauff’s work, Qualm offers a lot to chew on while also resisting overanalyzing. You let it lure and lash you, let it move you or just move on.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Civil Wars
    Even in the quieter moments, like Williams’ dreamy French lead vocal on “Sacred Heart” and album closer “D’Arline,” there’s the sense that such raw, bare emotion has enabled The Civil Wars to delve deep to intricate details, but also to amplify the internal conflict to greater heights.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Tell 'Em I'm Gone
    It’s Cat Stevens singing rhythm and blues, with a combination of originals and covers that showcase attractive playing (legendary guitarist Richard Thompson helps here) and production (cue Rick Rubin). Best of all, his voice remains intact, providing a familiar and favorable sound.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Further
    Rowlands and Simons have a tighter grip on the material-an odd thing to say about an album with eight tracks built to sprawl, maybe, but Further really does flow from beginning to end, just the way its makers intended it to.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Smoke
    The world probably doesn't need a new Beck, but Smoke proves there's one floating around, just in case.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    SR3MM
    SR3MM delivers quantity and quality by zeroing in on its creators’ charisma, clarifying the appeal that’s been there the whole time. In the strange pantheon of triple LPs, there’s nothing else like it.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Femme Fatale
    While Spears' vocals are inevitably the least impressive element of any given song, she doesn't exactly disappear into the production on Femme Fatale; she settles into it, game for whatever and confident in the hands of trusted professionals who know how to best utilize her.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Live At Reading
    It’s a monster of a concert film in any case, with a band at the height of its powers--and not yet totally sick of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.'
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's
    The geekily amateurish indie splatter-pop of the young London trio couldn’t sound more different than Crimson’s heavy prog.
    • 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.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Local Business
    Three guitars, a sense of humor in the face of despair, and an unwavering commitment to the underrated art of the rock 'n' roll sing-along are what define Local Business.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    1989
    Swift’s never going to be as bleak as Del Rey or as sexually frank as Madonna, but, on 1989, she’s figured out how to be an adult once and for all.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Official Body
    The Official Body proves why it’s remained durable over so many iterations and, for the London trio, across three albums. There’s a directness to its pleasures that’s unflagging for all 10 tracks here.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Volta
    Volta is a weird mess of an album, but it's also Björk's most approachable and immediate since Homogenic.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    All Eternals Deck
    All Eternals Deck is one of the smoothest, most delicate iterations of Darnielle's thorny storytelling to date, though the infamously word-wise, lo-fi pioneer hasn't exactly buttoned down since signing to Merge Records last year.
    • 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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future
    By the time the triumphant final expansive push to the end arrives, it’s become one of Underworld’s most powerful musical statements--and the memorable grace note to a strong return to form.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
    Everything That Happens is an unexpected album, but a stirring one nonetheless.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Belong
    More than anything, Belong shows ambition, with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart clearly aiming for something bigger--a bigger sound, maybe a bigger audience. It nailed the sound part. A larger audience seems inevitable.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    In Conflict
    Pallett has always crafted emotionally rich songs, but he seemed on previous albums to be trying to worm his way into listeners’ heads via inventive cleverness. On In Conflict, he seems much more comfortable taking aim at the gut.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Last Summer
    On Last Summer, Friedberger shows that her compositional voice is equally compelling when she's freed from her brother's watchful eye.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Believer
    Given time, though, The Believer blooms.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Infinity On High
    FOB could've cut an album's worth of club hits and still found an audience. Its refusal to do so shows it still knows the difference between selling records and making fans.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Van Weezer
    With tons of great hooks, and minimal cringe, this is the rare Weezer record that is simply fun to listen to, without fear of having to jump for the “skip” button every couple of songs.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wake Up!
    It's just a shame that, with the exception of a single original that understandably doesn't measure up to the high standards set by the covers, Legend and The Roots had to reach so far into the past to find songs that comment so powerfully and insightfully on the issues of today.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Goon
    While the narrative is compelling, this is a sound-first record, with each lyric fostering the fundamental ideals Jesso has for his music.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Honey Moon
    Rennie’s choice of romantic imagery is as genially warped and haunted as ever.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Tourist in This Town
    It shows that Crutchfield has always been a star. Tourist In This Town is just the coming-out party.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Choose Your Weapon
    The complex, angular song structures beckon only to evade, bolting in unexpected directions just as they seem to settle into a groove.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Undercard
    Undercard peddles in a more mature, assured--though no less skeletal-kind of songcraft.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Love Letter for Fire
    The result is Beam’s best release since In The Reins, with a far more dynamic batch of songs, and a wider introduction to Hoop’s compelling and naturally chameleonic songwriting style.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    This Is For The White In Your Eye
    Makrigiannis’ style makes a strong first impression, as his songs flow naturally from muted sorrow to booming emotion and back. He evokes the calm, the storm, and the aftermath.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Four Stars
    Fox and crew have held their ground, dug in deep, and scored another win for timelessness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dedication
    For all his ADD tendencies, Zomby knows how to sequence.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mac and Devin Go to High School [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    If Cheech And Chong are looking for a continuation course, they could do a lot worse than to start here.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Car Alarm
    Prekop croons out a cool mist of vocal hooks, wrapping these peculiar adventures, as he always does, in smooth confidence.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Romance Is Boring
    It might’ve made a better EP than LP. But even at their brattiest, the Welsh indie-rockers in Los Campesinos are a tough lot to hate. Their cacophony of instruments and voices aptly conveys what the music is about.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    No Mas
    Javelin's No Mas presents 15 handmade jams that might not get the party started, but should at least sustain the hazy sunshine of 2009's "Deadbeat Summer" through summer 2010.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wake Up The Nation
    Taken all together, Wake Up The Nation is either a standout album from a brilliant career, or utter wankery. One thing's certain: It ain't dull.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Carpenter
    While a magnum opus would be compelling, The Carpenter's slight inward turn and few great songs may be enough for now.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Kmag Yoyo (& Other American Stories)
    The spontaneity isn't always the best showcase for Carll, who has a tendency to lean too often on either his mid-'60s Bob Dylan cadence or his two-stepping Hank Jr. voice.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Go to School
    It’s the kind of complicated release that rewards repeated listens, as the story of a disaffected chimp translates into songs about the loneliness and longing for acceptance that linger even as high school fades away.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Idle No More
    Idle No More is as much of a party as anything The Shrines have released. But it’s one that anticipates, and morbidly worships, the hangover that’s about to come.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Hair, The TV, The Baby & The Band
    Even when Imperial Teen reduces its sound to almost nothing, as on the hauntingly spare 'What You Do,' every instrument and voice rings out, appealingly unsullied.
    • 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.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dream Get Together
    The meticulously constructed aural textures created by scores of overdubs by Feinberg and Green make songs like the epic instrumental “Fortunate Son” as much fun to contemplate as listen to, no matter what substances might be clouding your mind at the time.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Life Without Sound
    Life Without Sound is the next logical step in Cloud Nothings’ upward trajectory.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    American Central Dust
    This is Farrar’s most consistent album in years, in large part because he no longer seems to be straining so much. American Central Dust shows Farrar in his comfort zone, recording songs he knows his fans will like, and not much caring whether his detractors get on board.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rainbow
    It’s a bold, focused, universal statement about freedom--from self-hatred, from paralyzing internal conflicts, from gender expectations, from negative influences, and (especially) from other people’s shit.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Silver Gymnasium
    It’s the work of a band that’s learned it doesn’t need to completely reinvent the wheel in order to keep things fresh.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Two Suns
    Khan’s sublime voice easily distracts from any lyrical ponderousness, and it lends even lines about “diamonds burning through rainbows” a dreamy sort of sense.
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