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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    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Glitter In The Gutter
    By and large, the songs on Glitter In The Gutter are confident and well-crafted, in the street-poet tradition of Tom Waits and Willie Nile.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Cyrk
    Cyrk is a bright, airy affair.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    All-Amerikkkan Bada$$
    He’s still reaching to the golden age for inspiration, but updating it so thoroughly that we’re reminded why we considered it golden in the first place.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Come Around Sundown
    Kings Of Leon's fifth album, Come Around Sundown, is just as much of a crowd-pleaser as Only By The Night, but the four Followills bring back more of the chasing-a-whim personality of their earlier albums.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    græ
    The intensity and diversity of Part 1 hinted at even more bombastic and unexpected songs to come on Part 2, which instead mostly continues the sound he already mastered on Aromanticism. It’s not that Part 2’s songs aren’t gorgeous and poignant; it’s just that, given Sumney’s unwavering focus on shattering longtime boundaries, Part 2’s songs occupy shockingly familiar musical territory.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Divers
    The sheer array of sounds on this record is amazing--not just in the variety of instruments employed, but also in the ways they are utilized.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Black And White Album
    The Black And White Album continues its predecessors' winning trend.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Devotion
    Devotion's half-submerged, half-weightless ambience feels like a shaky yet sure transition into something even more abstract and fragile.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Robyn
    The overall mood is light even when the lyrics get pointed--which is plenty of the time.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Why There Are Mountains
    He’s certainly not the first kid to see the death of innocence in a “maelstrom of mail-order Marlboro memorabilia,” but he might be the first to sing about it--here’s hoping that future Cymbals Eat Guitars songs wrap such observations in similarly singular packaging.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Ghost Notes
    It’s a celebration of the two of them--Post and Gordon, back together, joyous and rocking out, the past behind them.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    FLOTUS
    Missing is the color and vibrancy of the Van McCoy disco original, but that’s consistent with what FLOTUS is all about. To add something meaningful to the current electronic-music canon, Wagner has fully cut the tethers to the past.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Narkopop
    Voigt certainly hasn’t lost touch with electronic music, though Narkopop reclaims the sound of it that is most unmistakably his, while also giving it more variance in tone.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Untethered Moon
    Untethered Moon, the band’s first album in six years, wastes no time in reaffirming what Built To Spill does.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Antisocialites
    Rather than clashing, those two halves--one romantic and aspirational, one blunt and realistic--sharpen each other and create an album that delivers, and then some, on the promise of the band’s self-titled debut.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Fragile Army
    Such hugeness can be either exhilarating or tiresome, depending on the listener's capacity for joyful crescendos and enthusiastic shouting. But the album's most intriguing moments come when the church-choir antics are scaled back in favor of some introspection.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Noble Beast
    About a third of Noble Beast coasts along like this, generating an amiable atmosphere while advancing the album's contemplations of evolution and the loss of self. But then Bird arrives at a song like 'Fitz And The Dizzyspells', or 'Anonanimal', and suddenly Noble Beast turns into a higher form of pop music, so beautifully, horrifyingly evolved.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Familial
    Even though this style of music has been done, and done well, by many others since the late '80s, the familiarity of Selway's debut makes it that much more agreeable.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    God Help The Girl
    Ireton’s vocals grow more appealing with each listen, as does the album. Murdoch has created such a lush, cinematic world here that turning Girl into a movie almost feels redundant.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Oshin
    It may be out to sea, but Oshin is anything but lost.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    From A Birds Eye View
    From A Bird’s Eye View is a fitting sequel to Lost Boy both sonically and lyrically. That lost boy is gone and in his place a self-assured artist plotting his next moves in the industry.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Babes Never Die
    Producer James Dring (Jamie T, Gorillaz) skillfully amplifies Honeyblood’s bewitching hooks and taut arrangements, while preserving the band’s scruffy, DIY-pop vibe.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    No Shouts, No Calls
    The British quartet is primitive, almost amateurish in its approach—the vocals waver in and out of key, the drumming can generously be described as "plodding," and the songs are kiddie-band simple. But what simplicity, what plodding, what wavering!
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Langhorne Slim
    Langhorne Slim is a well-crafted but blessedly unfussy collection of songs about the simple pleasures of being young, rakish, and devil-may-care.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Robyn Hitchcock
    He’s been doing that for years now, but on his 21st record, he again accomplishes that goal in his own inimitable style, still mining the uncommon depths and winning melodies within his own bizarre parameters.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Exile On Main Street [Reissue]
    Everything that made it on the album--and much of what didn’t--belongs exactly where it is. (Yes, even the blazing but unfortunately named blues jam “Turd On The Run.”)
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Holy Fire
    Holy Fire slightly refines the agenda Foals established on Total Life Forever, and that’s certainly not a bad thing.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Kindred
    The advantage of Kindred, though, is that Angelakos’ focus on being more versatile requires attention, which results in a greater appreciation for all that he does.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The King of Limbs
    As is Radiohead's custom, The King Of Limbs hasn't been designed for immediate comprehension or acceptance.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blue Banisters
    While Chemtrails was cause for concern that Del Rey had perhaps lost her magic touch, Banisters is a reminder that when the singer-songwriter is in charge of her vision and fully taps into her emotions, she’s still capable of crafting breathtaking beauty.
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