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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    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Chief
    Chief is a record made for Saturday night, but it's worth playing on Sunday morning, too.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    El Camino
    El Camino is so relentlessly crowd-pleasing that it feels a bit inconsequential; there's no room for the sad, sludgy ballads that used to anchor Black Keys albums in the band's new, sugar-heavy music.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Diamond Hoo Ha
    Supergrass sounds loose and inspired throughout.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Oxymoron
    Schoolboy Q elicits a lot of emotions throughout Oxymoron, but sympathy isn’t one of them.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Twelve Nudes
    The record is as raw as a scraped knee and more furious than a woman scorned, a brick through the window of our reactionary era that draws inspiration from the equally pissed-off first wave of punk rock.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Congrats
    Congrats is the welcome return of a foursome of dudes that are still plenty proficient at creating crooked, cock-eyed, almost-club jams (“Acidic”) and piling on swirling effects and rhythms to a critical mass without ever sounding like they’re losing control (“Sabbatics”).
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Burn It Down
    The best songs on the band’s second album Burn It Down are laid-back, Love Boat-ready ballads.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Charmer
    More often than not on Charmer, though, she is able to match her ideas to music with real kick.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ole! Tarantula
    Olé! Tarantula... is one of the eccentric singer-songwriter's best in years, mainly because it sounds almost exactly like something he would've recorded two decades ago.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Replica
    Its great strength and most beguiling feature is its ability to sand spiky textures down into soothing ones, and to transform the anodyne into the anxiety-inducing, simply through repetition.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Tin Can Trust
    Tin Can Trust is more of a straight-ahead rock record, relaxed in approach and spirited in performance.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Circus
    For better or worse, Spears is, as she says on the title track, "a put-on-a-show type of girl," and when she sticks to that credo, Circus works.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Queens of the Summer Hotel
    It may fall on the more mellow and restrained side of her catalogue, but this is a record to be savored—mining beauty (and yes, some humor) from pain is an Aimee Mann specialty, and this record serves as further testament to that fact.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bossalinis & Fooliyones
    Many of the tracks on Bossalinis & Fooliyones focus on typical hip-hop fodder, like struggles with women, weed, money, and success, but--when successful--avoid feeling contrived due to their heavy sense of apathy.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rock or Bust
    All these years later, AC/DC is still able to deliver on the simple, singular promise embedded into the very fabric of its makeup as a band—they do, indeed, rock. Nothing more, nothing less.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Adult Nights
    Adult Nights is sweet and upbeat--so relentlessly so that at times it comes off as a little facile.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lifetime of Love
    Remarkably, Archuleta has joined those random bits and pieces into something that feels like it’s always been together, a surreal broken record with songs that are able to grow and change, despite being snagged on hypnotic loops.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Everything Will Be Alright in the End
    While the record is first and foremost concerned with winning back the faithful, in its most abandon-free moments Everything forgets it’s a return-to-roots album and takes some exciting leaps.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rare Forms
    Most impressive is its flexibility: The band forges further into the rock side of the void than most of today's eternally looped bedroom solo projects and generates a great deal of electricity.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hercules And Love Affair
    He knows when to kick disco into action and when to just kick back and listen.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Capacity
    Capacity may not be breaking any new boundaries. But with a songwriter as undeniable as Lenker, it doesn’t need to.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Live From Home
    This is basically a best-of record played by guys who were obviously still excited about stuff that goes back as far as 1990, and while it ultimately doesn’t seem essential for anyone other than hardcore fans, it’s always great to hear Nathan Larson getting glammy on songs.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Swords
    Yet as good as Morrissey’s throwaways can be, they aren’t all good. Many of the tracks on Swords feel like one more drag through the usual obsessions with crime ('Ganglord'), bad education ('Children In Pieces'), and wilting virgins ('The Never-Played Symphonies'). But the standouts deserve to be rescued from obscurity.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Say Goodbye
    The way she pulls off such a potentially off-putting formula is a testament to her grace, ambition, and charisma-though not necessarily her taste.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Appeal To Reason
    Longtime fans need not worry: Uptempo anthems like 'Savior,' 'Kotov Syndrome,' and 'Entertainment' should satisfy anyone still uneasy about Rise Against's radio aspirations.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Faulty Superheroes
    Pollard has forged a distinctive sound that ultimately merits comparison mostly to his past work, light years from his early days as an R.E.M.- and Who-infatuated music geek who wore his influences like a badge.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    As Above So Below [EP]
    It's a lovely balance of melancholy and optimism that is classic Azure Ray, yet shows emotional and musical progression.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Eat Pray Thug
    Eat Pray Thug is nothing if not awkwardly paced (the forgettable braggadocio of “Hubba Hubba Hima” clumsily follows “Home”), but it does manage a rare feat in being at once Heems’ most personal and political work.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Not Without A Fight
    Even these songs give way to the loud-guitar/crunching-rhythm style that drives the rest of Not Without A Fight, demonstrating that, softening middle years be damned, New Found Glory still hits hard enough to matter.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cigarettes After Sex
    What saves this El Paso-born, Brooklyn-based group from being just another trafficker of “Lynchian” indie-rock tropes is Gonzalez’s ability to capture moments and stretch them into lusty little pop daydreams.
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