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
    • 91 Critic Score
    Volume One
    The overall effect is an endearing, successful addition to Ward's never-ending quest to assimilate every single populist song form of the 20th century.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Andorra
    In its journey from form to formlessness, the record feels like Caribou reaching back toward a primordial pool of sound.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Soft Sounds From Another Planet
    While everything on Japanese Breakfast’s proper sophomore effort isn’t entirely fresh, and its structure is somewhat loose, there’s a confidence and crispness to Soft Sounds that shows just how fully realized Zauner’s formerly homemade experiments have become.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Okovi
    Zola’s latest, Okovi, is more homecoming than course correction.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Love Remains
    Love Remains is an immersive experience that transcends its chilliness (and speaker-crackling sonic limitations) through pure emotio.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Surf
    Surf is so vibrant, so alive with triumphant vibes and unadulterated joy, that it never leaves any room for cynicism.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Be the Cowboy
    Although Be The Cowboy sees Mitski fully transformed from her lo-fi beginnings in terms of production, her post-Pixies guitar-rock tendencies still come through strong, albeit now more lush and kaleidoscopic than buzzing and raucous.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Stone Rollin'
    The end result is a warm, sometimes reckless, but always deeply moving and wildly creative effort that is absolutely dizzying in the best, most indelible sense.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Suburbs
    Butler and company imbue The Suburbs with such a strong sense of place and mood that it builds in impact throughout.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Drums And Guns
    What seemed like a radical departure two years ago now sounds like a waystation on the journey to this more disjointed, more fragmented, more demanding, and ultimately more rewarding work.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Resurgam
    Resurgam is brimming with glacial, lucent, keys-driven beauty.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Knot
    Wye Oak isn’t breaking any new ground in the exciting field of drone-exploration, but the band’s tone is striking--like a tuning fork with the blues.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Emotional Mugger
    Segall has such control of the chaos on Emotional Mugger that once you’ve reached the halfway point you’ll realize that you were never doubting him--because as he’s developed as a songwriter, he’s grown more adventurous and even more dependable. The bigger the catalog, the better.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Art Brut vs. Satan
    While it’s misleading to call an album “mature” when it plunders rock history for riffs and features an ode to comic books, Argos has done some growing up.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Contra
    The 10 songs here don't collectively match the near-perfection displayed on the band's debut, but Contra is varied and vivacious enough to make each spin as revelatory as the first time you realized what the band was getting away with and how well it pulled off the feat.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dream River
    Dream River doesn’t chew an inch of scenery; instead it dwells in knowing glances and haunted whispers.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Magnificent City
    It's the product of two remarkable artists working in perfect unison, powered by an effortless chemistry that recalls similarly blessed collaborations between Madlib and MF Doom, or MF Doom and Danger Mouse.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Long Live the King [EP]
    Any of these songs could've fit on The King Is Dead; instead, they've come together to form another excellent record.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    In The Future
    Loud-quiet-loud has never been so dizzying.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Years Of Refusal
    Not since 1992’s "Your Arsenal" has he combined barbed wit and fast-moving, backward-glancing guitar rock so piercingly.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Hungry Saw
    Tindersticks remains a champion at feel-bad soul strings, but those who've found the group's previous work oppressive might want to try again: Staples' vocals haven't changed, but with the music as pared-down as one of their impressionistic soundtracks, it's a new sound.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    No Depression [Legacy Edition]
    No Depression: Legacy Edition chronicles this collision between restlessness and ambition, and portrays a band successfully wrangling both.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Aisles [EP]
    These don’t feel like your average indie-goes-’80s covers; they’re a reminder that even when Olsen’s having fun, she can turn something simple into a gut-punch, consuming your thoughts and evoking reflection of the emotional connection tied to her words.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
    Today's politically charged songwriters can drop coy manifestos and clever metaphors all they want--Silver Mt Zion's 13 Blues actually flushes out the psychic, karmic residue of a suicidal civilization just to stomp around in all that apocalyptic plasma.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Bon Iver
    But for all its introspection, Bon Iver feels a lot more open than Vernon's previous work, the sound of a lonely guy taking his first steps into a larger world.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Mature Themes
    With such impressive versatility and broad musical perspective, Mature Themes is Pink's best album to date, and sets an invigorating, expansive tone for his work to come.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Idols Of Exile
    There are 12 distinct songs on Idols Of Exile, united by Collett's light touch and sense of snap.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Alright, Still
    A great summer record it remains, even in the dead of winter.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Blackstar
    For all its jazz accents and solos, Blackstar ends up becoming a stage for the things that first made Bowie a pop star: his incessantly catchy melodies and elastic voice.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ceremonials
    Ceremonials is Welch barreling off a cliff on wings made of dear-diary sentiment, art-school theatrics, and pure-cut sincerity, and somehow, against all odds, she manages to soar.
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