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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hug of Thunder
    Hug is also a welcome retreat to those earlier records in terms of production, forsaking the leaner sound of 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record for the shaggy excesses of both You Forgot It and Broken Social Scene.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hallelujah Anyhow
    Unsurprisingly, the stellar Hallelujah Anyhow often feels like a restless fever dream.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Run Fast
    Despite Hanna’s avowed penchant for creative forward momentum, Run Fast’s ruminations on the past are most touching.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    OFF!
    Off! makes up for its self-serving petulance with sharp songwriting and pure, crusty potency.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    LIFE ON EARTH
    Overall, Life On Earth has plenty of strong music that shows how much Segarra’s artistry has evolved.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rest
    The influence of Gainsbourg’s famous musical parents, both Serge and mother Jane Birkin, has been a constant in her music, but on Rest, she seems less daunted by her lineage, and she begins to bend it to her own ambitions.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dark Was The Night
    This being a compilation, not everyone brings their A game—contributions from The Arcade Fire, Spoon, Iron And Wine, and Cat Power come off as disappointingly perfunctory and hastily sketched--but as a yearbook photo of the class of 2009, it should age remarkably well.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blaqkout
    The lyrics aren’t going to win awards for thematic originality, and there’s an especially egregious spoken-word bit poorly justifying the excessive use of the word “bitch,” but most of the time, Quik and Kurupt sound invigorated by each other.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Random Access Memories
    The album is nonetheless an entrancing and endlessly entertaining musical experience, a fun collection that can soundtrack a great party from start to finish, but also rewards the focused listener with a collage of fascinating quirks.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Star Wars
    Star Wars is absolutely that journey to challenging parts unknown, and, thankfully, it’s a trip worth taking.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Pure Heroine
    Pure Heroine makes the strongest possible statement that she belongs.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Echo Party
    Of course, it would be nice if Edan’s first album in four years actually featured him rapping, but until he picks up the microphone again, Echo Party serves as a more-than-acceptable substitute for a proper Edan solo album.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Winter Wheat
    These are hopeful, triumphant themes, but what Samson captures so well is the melancholy lurking beneath progress, the sense that we’re in the midst of perpetual loss. This makes for a provoking listen, but also a heavy one.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ego Trippin'
    Ego isn't exactly tight, but Snoop's silky sonic seduction proves awfully irresistible.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Light Chasers
    Minowa, who also produced, dives in with typical gusto, building the album into a sprawling, intricately interconnected 56-minute concept that often soars into emotionally operatic, cathartic heights.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Fall
    The Fall at first listen seems more interesting as a concept than as music. Still, there are plenty of rough-cut pop gems.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    God Is Partying
    With God Is Partying, W.K. isn’t closing the chapter on the persona that attracted so many fans in the first place. He’s merely showing that there’s a different side to the poster child for partying—and it’s not always going to be uplifting.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dr. Dee
    Only with the exquisite, hazily-focused Dr Dee, Albarn has succeeded in alchemically--if not perfectly--transforming cotton and foil into silver and gold.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Micah P. Hinson And The Opera Circuit
    The deep-voiced young troubadour has constructed some songs worthy of his blue moods and obsession with the old-timey.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wincing The Night Away
    Mainly, the new disc is just more tentative than Chutes Too Narrow, with a lot of songs—like the first single, "Phantom Limb"—sounding like foggier, heavier versions of what The Shins have done before.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Funplex
    That material is sometimes far too automatic for its own good--see 'Deviant Ingredient,' which is as trite as its title portends. But on 'Eyes Wide Open' and the lustrous 'Juliet Of The Spirits,' a Pierson/Wilson song as strong as any they've done in mystic mode, the songs are up to the legend, and should sound as good at the B-52s' joyous shows.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Paper Trail
    A welcome return to form after the underwhelming, muddled concept album "T.I. Vs. T.I.P.," Trail is an uneven but oft-invigorating combination of velvet and grit, angst and celebration.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    WWII
    This sugary trio supposedly formed over pizza and pop a few years back, and while that almost sounds too good to be true, it's also fitting; WWII's songs are just begging to be the soundtrack to an evening of food and fun.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Who Kill
    Whokill's sonic imagination outlasts the novelty of Tune-Yards' debut, and even better, a lyrical persona as playfully warped as the rhythms punching away behind it.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    With Love And Squalor
    Even though With Love And Squalor quickly ingratiates itself, some of its best parts reveal themselves over time.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Imps of Perversion
    Imps Of Perversion is a singularly mutilated and lecherous mess that functions as a compelling monument to the band’s incestuous relationship with its influences.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Devotion
    There's a youthful, warm energy emanating from Ware's vocals that enervates Devotion, making it more than a mere exercise in restrained, sophisticated sexiness.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Cut the World [Live]
    The 12 tracks place Antony in an exposed and elegant state: away from the studio, under the lights of a concert hall, and engulfed in harmonies. On that stage, he soars.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Wild Hunt
    Matsson's sophomore outing as The Tallest Man On Earth ups the visceral appeal of the already surprisingly accessible songwriter, with heightened production lending satisfying crispness to the guitar picking and Matsson's twisty-turny delivery.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Drum's Not Dead
    Drips with a sense of myth and mystery.
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