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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    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Celestial Lineage
    The latest of those hymns is Celestial Lineage--and as great as the group's two previous full-lengths were, Lineage is the first to truly, fully capture the Weavers' unholy vision of sylvan majesty and pagan mystique.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Days
    Real Estate set itself up to falter by comparison, but Days pulls off the impressive feat of earning that company [of Beach Boys' Today, the Byrds' Notorious Byrd Brothers, and The Shins' Oh, Inverted World].
    • 96 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The SMiLE Sessions
    Wilson has always said he wanted to make a "teenage symphony to God." This Smile is so wonderfully close. Hallelujah.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Achtung Baby [Super Deluxe]
    Achtung Baby sounds a like a typical U2 record--a terrific U2 record, arguably the best record U2 has ever made, but not exactly the decisive break from the band's past it is remembered as. What Achtung Baby instead represents is U2's last great creative gasp.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Some Girls [Deluxe Edition]
    Some Girls showed that the Stones could pull off the old magic using some flashy new tricks.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Siamese Dream [Deluxe Edition]
    The meticulously constructed cathedrals of guitar sounds on Siamese Dream--so clean and melodic, yet also heavy-make the album more comparable to A Night At The Opera or Boston than Nevermind or Vs.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Undun
    With the tight, concise, ferociously focused Undun, however, the immensity of the project's ambition is matched by its seamless, masterful execution.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Open Your Heart
    With Open Your Heart, The Men have taken that breath. And it's only made their hearts beat faster.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Silent Hour/Golden Mile [EP]
    Rossen proves he can stand on his own.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Sunkissed
    Bad Weather California has done an excellent job here; each track is filled with energy and positivity that just makes for a fun album.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Dopesmoker [Reissue]
    It's an album of endless pleasures, and its arcane, foggy-headed mysteries never stop revealing themselves.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Cancer4Cure
    Cancer For Cure is a triumph of imagination and intelligence in service of a pervasive sense of personal and political unease.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ram [Deluxe Edition]
    It's more of a "real" record than McCartney, but it just as firmly rejects rock-star self-importance.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Celebration Rock
    Celebration Rock starts strong and stays there over the course of its eight songs and 35 minutes.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Graceland [25th Anniversary Edition]
    The music of Graceland is as stirring as always.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do
    The beauty of The Idler Wheel… is how it transmits each of those feelings in excruciating, frank, and lovely detail.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Channel Orange
    Channel Orange is so arrestingly smooth that all of its unusually shaped pieces fit together as a seamless whole.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Seer
    Swans has never traveled a straightforward, clean, or uninterrupted path. But with The Seer, one thing is certain: Even during its quietest lulls, Gira has never sounded louder.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Bend Beyond
    Woods works well to find the right space for each instrument, maintaining the balance between accuracy and capriciousness that continues to define the band.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    METZ
    For all its abrasion and denatured noise, Metz isn't a statement of nihilism or finality; it's a bright, exploratory scalpel making the first of hopefully many incisions.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Blue Lines: 2012 Mix/Master
    Twenty-plus years later, it still sounds ahead of its time and remains an influential, genre-spanning work.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Pedestrian Verse
    Hutchison falls in with another proud Scottish tradition: the ability to make the gloomy anthemic.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Modern Vampires of the City
    The band itself probably doesn’t know quite what that is yet, but as a capstone to what it’s done so far, Modern Vampires Of The City feels pretty perfect.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Sunbather
    What’s undeniable is that moments from Sunbather will resonate long after the pointless babble has died down, proving that sometimes the greatest beauty can only be found in the face of chaos.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Bones of What You Believe
    She, Doherty, and multi-instrumentalist Iain Cook have crafted one of the year’s best albums, which means that buzz won’t be dying down any time soon.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Workbook 25 [Deluxe Edition]
    Although the mix sounds from another era, it also doesn’t sound compressed to within an inch of its life.
    • 99 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Spiderland [Box Set]
    It’s a thoughtful look at a legendary act, and one that’s both long overdue and well deserved. Just as Spiderland rewards the patient listener, the box set rewards the patient fan.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Seek Warmer Climes
    Seek Warmer Climes is itself predatory--but with a delicate, skeletal shudder, it turns that hunger into a lonely howl.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Heal
    Showalter does Coldplay better than Coldplay has in a long time, delivering an invitation into his world through this profoundly affecting work of artistic necessity.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Foundations of Burden
    That the band took it upon themselves to subtly yet profoundly revamp--aand exquisitely humanize--doom is just part of the reason why Foundations Of Burden is such a brave record. The other is the fact that it’s quite simply moving, the sounds of dislocated souls finding a voice at last.
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