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
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- Critic Score
Bazan has, it's reported, fallen out with God and off the wagon, and those tumbles get painful airtime on his solid first solo LP, Curse Your Branches.- The Boston Phoenix
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Somehow, though, they forgot the crucial dollop of excitement or charisma, so we're left with an earful of directionless heartbreak and failure.- The Boston Phoenix
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As a post-Occupy album, it's less ripped-from-the-headlines and more cribbed-from-older-and-better-ideas.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Mar 6, 2012
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This record is a sequel to 2007’s "The Stage Names," and it shares its predecessor’s concerns: artifice, authenticity, and above all, the sniveling insincerity of hazy-eyed media zombies.- The Boston Phoenix
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Call it what you want, just be prepared to call it something other than music.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Nov 27, 2012
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Lack of body heat and dynamics aside, the ideas on Warm Heart of Africa are pretty strong, perhaps awaiting ironically fairer treatments in the hands of future remixers.- The Boston Phoenix
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Very few of their melodies go anywhere memorable, and when they do, they never go anywhere else. ("Courage" plays like one long mid-tempo drone.)- The Boston Phoenix
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Throughout, a messy æsthetic attempts to cover up pop sympathies--or simply proves that dissonance and sweetness needn't be kept in their separate corners.- The Boston Phoenix
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Galactic Melt is entertaining in a novelty sort of way, but the vintage (or vintage-sounding) equipment produces such over-the-top sonics that it sinks the record, unless you're super starved for some already-been-done nostalgia.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Jul 26, 2011
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With a clearer eye to the cultures whose stereotypes they’re furthering, the Bells could have made a provocative connection between the European forms they’re comfortable with and any number of traditional Middle Eastern and Indian instruments and forms they’re interested in but not serious about.- The Boston Phoenix
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There’s plenty in the way of ambition on Widow City, but little substance to back it up.- The Boston Phoenix
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Suuns' debut LP is pieced together from a few decent ideas and a lot of bad ones.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Feb 10, 2011
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- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Feb 21, 2012
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So far--on two full-lengths and a pair of EPs--the results have been underwhelming. That trend continues on this homonymous disc.- The Boston Phoenix
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The Luyas do supply some exquisite instrumental ingredients--a French horn sent through pedals, an obscure zither-like contraption called the Moodswinger, and various electronic effects--but they have a tough time making anything memorable out of them. Timidity eventually renders their work tedious.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Mar 15, 2011
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Long on tweedly solos, rambling structures, and songs about being trapped in space and time, Prior to the Fire--love the title, dudes, despite my disappointment--is sure to satisfy hardcore stoner-metal devotees with no fear of the occasional eight-minute track length. Everybody else should seek out "Hello Master."- The Boston Phoenix
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The songs, a handful of covers and about a dozen originals, aren't terrible, but the ukulele gets really old, really quick.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted May 25, 2011
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Argos's unrepentant superstar imitations aside, Brilliant! Tragic! holds some well-written standouts.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted May 25, 2011
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The music simply crawls by in a maddeningly static mid-tempo blur, going about its melancholy business on the way to nowhere.- The Boston Phoenix
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The collection itself is haphazard; what's worse is that the individual tracks build and remain suspended in mid air by very thin and awkward threads, rarely growing into full-fledged arrangements.- The Boston Phoenix
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Beady Eye's eagerly awaited debut represents Liam Gallagher's uninspiring foray into the spotlight without Noel, his battle-weary brother and Oasis's chief songwriter.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Mar 3, 2011
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Davis-Jeffers sounds bored throughout The Flexible Entertainer, and her languid, half-rapped vocals are entirely affectless.- The Boston Phoenix
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Gordon isn’t much of a tune man; his melodies rarely take a memorable shape here, and his adenoidal singing turns what he does have into open-mic mush. The lyrics, too, are on a pretty low burn.- The Boston Phoenix
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If Esben and the Witch don't quell their sonic histrionics, they may not get a second curtain call.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Feb 7, 2011
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This may work as a singles record, but it lacks the depth to hold much interest.- The Boston Phoenix
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WYWH is a darker, thinner, more digitized affair whose only compelling moments come courtesy of a new-found sex appeal of the disco variety.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Nov 16, 2010
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Throughout, you can feel the tension between RJ's desire to make something real, in spite of his limitations as a performer, and his discomfort with his true strengths in sample-based pastiche. In the end, it's a colossal waste of talent and time.- The Boston Phoenix
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Even Folds’s knack for a well-placed f-bomb has devolved into a lazy device masquerading as irreverence. His attitude may remain young at heart, but his irony’s over the hill.- The Boston Phoenix
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- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted Oct 24, 2012
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- Critic Score
The pointlessness is grating. XI Versions' final three songs do show signs of life--Animal Collective, Walls, and Pantha himself manage to work up a buzz--but they can't compensate for time killers by Lawrence, Carsten, and Efdemin that make inoffensiveness offensive.- The Boston Phoenix
- Posted May 5, 2011
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