The Boston Phoenix's Scores
- Music
For 1,091 reviews, this publication has graded:
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63% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.2 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: | Pink | |
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Lowest review score: | Last of a Dyin' Breed |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 956 out of 1091
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Mixed: 88 out of 1091
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Negative: 47 out of 1091
1091
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
The heart is here, but the lyrics have him sounding like a man who’s turned healing into a systematic process — a man who’s heard too much kind advice or maybe sat through too much therapy.- The Boston Phoenix
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- Critic Score
Despite the raucous vibe, Diamond Rugs is flawed - scattered, unfocused, and rather long, at 14 tracks.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Apr 24, 2012
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- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Jan 18, 2011
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- Critic Score
The Donnas get the ball into the red zone from time to time on Bitchin', but they never really score.- The Boston Phoenix
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- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Apr 24, 2012
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- Critic Score
Where's the band's personality? Promises glimmer everywhere, as when off-kilter instrumental breaks start stabbing away at "18th Street," but the entire album eventually drifts past without delivering anything as sonically-or emotionally-provocative.- The Boston Phoenix
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Too often on The Evolution she’s looking over her shoulder, too self-conscious to be a real seductress.- The Boston Phoenix
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- Critic Score
Kasabian can’t do anything besides snarl, a limitation that’s starting to show after only two albums.- The Boston Phoenix
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- Critic Score
The meta quality of the immoral, libidinous singer refracted through unblinking irony feels too transparent for a songwriter of Cocker's depth.- The Boston Phoenix
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- Critic Score
Brian Wilson and his karaoke-smooth backing band the Wondermints have instead given us something on par with 1970s Beach Boys--kinda bloated, kinda silly, mostly out of date, but with enough earnestness and pop intuition to be so, so, so puerile that hating it would be like hating Raffi.- The Boston Phoenix
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The release is not without brief visits to riff heaven, and it’s in the details that there are pleasures to be found....But too often you bop along to the tight drum/bass syncopations only to forget what you’re listening to--or worse, why.- The Boston Phoenix
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Still, like the lovable Muppet, Flaws is just a little too green to have any major impact.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Dec 14, 2010
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- Critic Score
Of all the possible directions the band could have taken, they decided on generic coffeehouse folk pop, with predictably pleasant-yet-dull results.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Mar 23, 2011
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- Critic Score
Diver is depressingly one-note, trimming back the band's scope and muscle. For some reason, Callan Clendenin sings every line in the same tiring, vacant croon, and its charm fades with each track, as does the Garageband-style production.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted May 30, 2012
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- Critic Score
Although Scattered Trees get emotionally expansive throughout this full-length debut, there's a distinct lack of production (and even playing) here, and that colors the proceedings with an anonymous hue.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Aug 23, 2011
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- Critic Score
For a while, it's promising: "Only If for a Night" pits Welch's soulful-and-strange vocal gymnastics against a firecracker beat and a gang of chorus chanters. But elsewhere, Ceremonials feels drained of personality.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Nov 2, 2011
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- Critic Score
Despite always titanic levels of rock-star delusion must at some level be aware that this time they have turned in a truly half-assed piece of work.- The Boston Phoenix
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- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Oct 25, 2011
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- Critic Score
Hooks are competent and decent but never demanding enough for you to race out to get a song's lyrics embedded into your skin.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted May 25, 2011
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- Critic Score
Nothing about The Soft Pack makes you wanna know who these guys are or what they have to say about the world outside their practice space.- The Boston Phoenix
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- Critic Score
Ode to Ochrasy is a little more energized, but Mando Diao still aren’t breaking fresh ground.- The Boston Phoenix
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- Critic Score
Last 2 Walk is a club-banging record, but it’s hard to recommend something so by-the-book.- The Boston Phoenix
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- Critic Score
It lacks the playfulness of the early Faust records, where the band's experiments with jazz, folk, and raunchy rock and roll were coated with acceptable degrees of avant-garde theatricality.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Mar 1, 2011
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- Critic Score
For a visionary guy like Hendrix, this glorified compilation isn't as imaginary as it could be.- The Boston Phoenix
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There’s something melodious and calm about Will.i.am’s third solo hip-hop/R&B album--but there’s also something boring about its euphonic electro-funk dolor.- The Boston Phoenix
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- Critic Score
Lissy Trullie sounds simultaneously hungry and tepid, as if Trullie wants to make a big splash, but her album lacks the conviction or vision to make it happen.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Mar 20, 2012
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- Critic Score
The contrived sheen marring much of the album dissolves, and things get industrial real quick. That dark and uncharted - for Cut Copy - territory might be the way to go heading forward.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Feb 16, 2011
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- Critic Score
Closer to Closed is a testament to the decline of Braid's teen angst, but those who grew up with the band may not recognize this aging friend.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Aug 23, 2011
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- Critic Score
Although only adequate run-throughs of the studio-album tracks, Stage Whispers' live performances do underscore a continuity between songs from both 5:55 and IRM that otherwise wasn't apparent. Stage Whispers' new offerings, on the other hand, are consistently interesting.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Dec 8, 2011
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- The Boston Phoenix
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