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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    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Intriguer
    As promised, Intriguer is indeed Crowded House with a fresh layer of wallpaper. The thing is, the group has always been timeless enough not to need it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Orchard
    Packed with mid-tempo ballads, The Orchard is largely unfocused, with foppish orchestration wandering aimlessly behind half-baked riffs, baroque in the most boring sense.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Our Ill Wills
    At times, Shout Out Louds sounds like a bunch of former high-school band geeks trying to recreate their record collections. And on songs like the wistful, vaguely tropical 'South America,' they sound like they're in a cavernous lecture hall, describing how they spent their summer vacation.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Night Falls Over Kortedala
    His tunes, lusher and more layered here than on his previous efforts, can be just as peculiar as his tales.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The First Days Of Spring
    It’s an intriguing record brimming with solid songs that only loses step by keeping to a narrow path.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Collider
    Collider has plenty of commercial sheen, but Roberts has lost some of the scrappy directness of his best work.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    29
    His music takes some sifting, but the gold always glitters.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    In Rolling Waves
    The band doesn’t seem to feel beholden to making a breakthrough--and In Rolling Waves may provide it regardless.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sleepwalkers
    It’s just Fallon and his microphone, crooning and crowing over these rhythm and blues-focused rave-ups, holding court over an old-school rock revival to match his restless mood.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Civil War
    The album is mostly interchangeable with its predecessors, right down to the silly samples that bookend the songs.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Everything Is New
    As with most things Penate does these days, it entertains its titular possibility in no uncertain terms.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Big Echo
    Ultimately, the lushness is merely an entry point, and the influence-ripping distracts, but doesn’t derail: Big Echo is best enjoyed for its clutch of memorable moments pinned on a pretty backdrop.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Tre3s
    You Forgot It In People producer (and BSS member) David Newfeld is on board, as are a few other labelmates, but the band's own noise-pop personality ultimately shines through.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Tomorrow's Harvest
    Tomorrow’s Harvest is easily the Scottish duo’s most ghostly, bleak effort to date.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Untitled
    Nas finds a wonderful groove in its final third, as the rapper takes a break from heady theorizing to rap allegorically from the perspective of a cockroach and pens a love song to fried chicken.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Uglysuit
    It never coheres long enough to be truly transcendent, but The Uglysuit hints at greater things to come--and offers up enough great, though too easily recognizable, moments to recommend it already.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Native Speaker
    Even when the songs struggle to find their end, Native Speaker remains a remarkably confident first outing.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Mellow Waves
    Don’t let the lightness of Mellow Waves fool you; its pleasures are substantive and lingering.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Black Times
    For the most part, the music backs up his mood. It’s faster, tougher, and more blood-boiling than usual, but it’s still malleable, growing to a furious peak on “Corporate Public Control Department” or slowing to a mournful groove on “African Dreams.”
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Vessel
    Some of her ditties don’t even top a minute, as in the appealing piano plinks of “Ur Up,” and some of her rhyme schemes can get a bit laborious.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    New View
    It’s keenly observed, totally genuine, and eminently listenable, though one can’t help but miss the choppy energy and anxious undercurrents of Personal Record. Maybe comfort-zone types work best in tight spots.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    War Child Presents Heroes
    Heroes rarely proves unpleasant. And it’s for a good cause. Just check out that subtitle again.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Origin: Orphan
    Origin: Orphan may be more about withholding, but at heart, The Hidden Cameras will always prefer pleasure.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever
    The Cribs' songs run together some, and Strokes-y guitar eruptions on songs like "My Life Flashed Before My Eyes" make it hard to deny the over-familiarity of this sound
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lo Tom
    Sometimes quick-and-dirty is the way to go, and with just eight straightforward songs, Lo Tom does it really well. It’s hard to say if anybody beyond the Bazan-devoted will jump on board--or even find a record like this--but his flock should be delighted.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Black Velvet
    Even as Black Velvet occasionally fails to gel as a cohesive album--it is, after all, essentially a B-sides collection--it succeeds as a tribute to an authentic talent.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Revolutions Per Minute
    Revolutions Per Minute is strongest when guests push Reflection Eternal in intriguing new directions.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Fomo
    His sophomore effort, FOMO, is a valiant, largely successful attempt to carve out a unique identity by dint of buzzing guitars, overdubbed harmonies, and busy production.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Autumn of the Seraphs
    The band has crafted yet another delicate indie-pop bauble. Finely spun as it is, there's a hint of sinew.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Tao of the Dead
    At last, the band sounds breathless and unbound again, and as punk-prog as it wants to be.
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