The New York Times' Scores

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For 2,073 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Live in Europe 1967: Best of the Bootleg, Vol. 1
Lowest review score: 0 Shatner Claus: The Christmas Album
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,595 out of 2073
  2. Mixed: 443 out of 2073
  3. Negative: 35 out of 2073
2073 music reviews
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    • 99 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sign O' the Times [Deluxe Edition]
    Some of the Vault tracks are early or alternate versions of familiar songs, but dozens are newly revealed. Prince’s original choices for the album hold up. But it’s a delight to hear so much more.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years 1963-1967 [Box Set]
    A thorough but imposing six hours of material, this collection is less about any specific unearthed gem than the larger transformation it charts.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Little Oblivions
    Magnificent. ... Although she played all the instruments on “Little Oblivions” herself, she built out most of its arrangements so they could be performed with a full band onstage. This choice brings a new, sweeping dynamism to Baker’s music, and keeps “Little Oblivions” from feeling sonically repetitive.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sour
    Nuanced and often exceptional debut album. ... Songwriting flourish is emblematic of what Rodrigo has learned from Taylor Swift on this album (which, in shorthand, is Swift’s debut refracted through “Red”): nailing the precise language for an imprecise, complex emotional situation; and working through private stories in public fashion.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In These Silent Days
    “In These Silent Days” consolidates Carlile’s strengths: musical, writerly, maternal, political.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Valentine
    “Valentine,” her remarkable second album as Snail Mail, is alive with such crackling and revelatory emotion.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    30
    Even as she sings about desperation and uncertainty, on “30” Adele’s voice is more supple and purposeful than ever, articulating every consonant and constantly ornamenting her melodies without distracting from them. Details are fastidious.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dawn FM
    “Dawn FM,” his fifth major-label album, is sleek and vigorous and also, again, a light reimagining of what big-tent music might sound like now, in an era when most global stars have abandoned the concept.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ants From Up There
    Throughout “Ants From Up Here,” and through the course of every song, Black Country, New Road tests and reinvents itself, creating music that sounds both intricately plotted and precarious.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The 7th Hand
    Another collection of all originals, it is just as unrelenting as “Omega.”
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Big Time
    Superb. ... “Big Time” (which she recorded in Topanga, Calif., with the producer Jonathan Wilson) is charged with a continuous current of weighty, transformative and bracingly cleareyed emotion.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Revolver Special Edition (Super Deluxe) [Box Set]
    With a few takes of each song, the session tracks hint at how intuitively the Beatles worked. ... The new mixes on the expanded “Revolver,” made with current technology and 21st-century ears, are a pleasure; they have more transparency and a more three-dimensional sense of space than the 1966 mixes. ... The new set insists that the clearer it’s heard, the odder it is. “Revolver” still holds surprises.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
    Every so often, this imperative to speak big-tent truths can become strained and make her lyrics frustratingly vague, as on “Children of the Empire” (“we tend to live long, that’s why so many things go wrong”), but that song’s gorgeous vocal melody and Mering’s impassioned performance lift it beyond its limitations.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Seven Psalms
    “Seven Psalms” stays true to Simon’s own instincts: observant, elliptical, perpetually questioning and quietly encompassing. ... It has places of lingering contemplation and it has sudden, startling changes; its informality is exactingly planned.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (world war)
    It is just as electrifying as the group’s first two LPs, but with a wider sonic horizon and more parts in motion. And there’s a triumphant streak running through it that only heightens the pain of Branch’s demise.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Guts
    Poignantly fraught, spiritually and sonically agitated. .... Her self-doubt is a powerful animating force. Throughout this album, she kiln-fires her anxieties into lyrics that cut deep. .... Here [on "Teenage Dream"], and in the most potent moments on “Guts,” Rodrigo’s music pulses with the verve of someone who’s been buttoned tight beginning to come loose. Unraveling is messy business, but it is also freedom.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Black Rainbows
    “Black Rainbows” is one songwriter’s leap into artistic freedom, unconcerned with genre expectations or radio formats. It’s also one more sign that songwriters are strongest when they heed instincts rather than expectations.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Orquídeas
    It’s an album of breezy confidence and sly ingenuity, easily moving among futuristic electronics, 1990s nostalgia and Latin roots. .... Lavishly layered vocals nestle among glimmering electronic sounds and programmed beats, and on “Orquídeas,” her voice sounds completely untethered by gravity.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Coming Home
    An album that sums up and expands what Usher does best. .... Throughout the album, Usher cruises through the musical and dramatic challenges that he has set for himself.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    trampin'
    At 57 Ms. Smith has made the most diverse music of her career.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Love And Death
    Weird and catchy and unexpectedly funny. [11 Oct 2004]
    • The New York Times
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Talkie Walkie
    The arrangements are light and immaculate, the vocals coo and cajole, and the melodies are addictive.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Pretty Toney Album
    "Pretty Toney" doesn't match the high standard of Ghostface's first two, "Ironman" and "Supreme Clientele," but it's a strong album nonetheless, packed with dense narratives and weird conceits.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Homesongs
    He uses a roomful of instruments and toys to turn the album into a homemade pop symphony.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Now Here Is Nowhere
    There are moments when the Secret Machines imitate their influences a little too closely, and at times the brothers' voices aren't as imposing as the arrangements. But for most of "Now Here Is Nowhere," the Secret Machines make music that matches the scale of their ambitions.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Split The Difference
    If only all stupid rock music could be this intelligent.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ONoffON
    Tense, febrile and messy, but tuneful and cohesive at the same time. [2 May 2004]
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What I Do
    He often starts with a familiar scenario or sentiment, then finds a way to wriggle free of predictability without giving up on the initial idea.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sweat
    These are easily Nelly's best albums so far.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Suit
    In his world, being grown and sexy doesn't mean being complacent - it means being curious, maybe even brave.
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