The New York Times' Scores

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For 2,075 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: 1,597 out of 2075
  2. Mixed: 443 out of 2075
  3. Negative: 35 out of 2075
2075 music reviews
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    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Certified Lover Boy
    It demonstrates how sonically rigorous even the most casual, tossed-off Drake songs are. But its storytelling doesn’t always hold up to strict scrutiny. ... “Certified Lover Boy” is his least musically imaginative album, the one where he pushes himself the least in terms of method and pattern.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
    It is an album that aims to repel, or if not quite that, then at least is at peace with alienating some of its audience. ... [The album] often feels insular, lyrically and musically. “Mr. Morale” is probably Lamar’s least tonally consistent work. ... Rangy and structurally erratic, full of mid-song beat switches, sorrowful piano and a few moments of dead air.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Harry's House
    “Harry’s House” is a light, fun, summery pop record, but there is a gaping void as its center; by its end, the listener is inclined to feel more intimately acquainted with the objects of his affections than the internal world of the titular character himself.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Special
    When it works, it works. And when it doesn’t, well … you get a song like overzealous-ally anthem “Everybody’s Gay,” which aims for Paradise Garage euphoria but lands closer to Target’s collection of Pride month apparel. The energy of the opening track, “The Sign,” somehow manages to be both relentless and listless.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wasteland
    Trippy, fitful and attitudinal; there are almost no classic soul arrangements, nor even the hard swing of 1990s hip-hop soul. “Wasteland” demonstrates the limitations of that approach as often as its strengths. ... Faiyaz sings with conviction, but he’s rarely grounded. Instead, he lives somewhere out in space — a man regarding his experiences from afar. Its production, which zigzags, wheezes and soothes, rarely feeling steady, sometimes tells the story more effectively than he does.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Her Loss
    “Her Loss” is frisky and centerless, a mood more than a mode. ... Often on this album — “More M’s,” “Privileged Rappers” — it feels as if they are ceding space to each other, side by side but not interwoven. Sometimes, like on “Spin Bout U,” they successfully melt into something greater than their parts.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Gloria
    The quality varies across the 12-track album. ... “Gloria” has moments of boldness, but its occasional lapses into generics keep it from feeling like a major personal statement.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pink Friday 2
    An up-and-down collection that showcases spurts of impressive rapping, some baffling melodies and production that runs all the way from innovative to afterthought. But what’s most striking is that Minaj, more or less, is as she always has been: a star navigating hip-hop on sometimes untested terms.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
    At times, the album is a return to form. Its first two songs are potent reminders of how viscerally Swift can summon the flushed delirium of a doomed romance. .... Great poets know how to condense, or at least how to edit. The sharpest moments of “The Tortured Poet’s Department” would be even more piercing in the absence of excess, but instead the clutter lingers, while Swift holds an unlit match.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    So-Called Chaos
    The music rings proudly, but the narcissism is suffocating.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    One Plus One Is One
    Typically hit or miss.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Happy People / U Saved Me
    There's something rather unambitious about this set.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stone Love
    Stone Love... spreads it thick with bells, harps, string sections and expert evocations of grooviness. These affectations are starting to swallow up her talent.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    All City
    It can be rough going, especially when the three rappers fall back on stilted clichés. [30 Aug 2004]
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Com
    The embarrassingly specific lyrics about her personal life… give the album the feel of a nocturnal diary with the immediacy of a Web log.[16 May 2004]
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Red Light District
    Everyone's always complaining about how CD's have too much filler, but this one could use a little more: more big-name guests, more novelty songs and, most of all, more slow jams. It's that rare hip-hop album that might have been better if it had sounded more like a mixtape. [13 Dec 2004]
    • The New York Times
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    You Are The Quarry
    At this level of lyric artistry, these warmed-over arena rock backdrops are a waste.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Destiny Fulfilled
    A surprisingly perfunctory disc that never quite justifies its existence. [22 Nov 2004]
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Encore
    "Encore" is almost willfully uneven: it includes some of the most exhilarating songs Eminem has ever recorded, alongside some of the most inert. [15 Nov 2004]
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    In Between Dreams
    The songs on "In Between Dreams" (Universal) are so light and self-effacing they might scatter in a tropical breeze. [13 Mar 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lost And Found
    Somewhat entertaining.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Touch
    Unfortunately, nothing else here is as delicious as "1 Thing." [25 Apr 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Suit Yourself
    With a little folk-rock and a little Memphis soul, the cozy arrangements are supposed to play down her craftsmanship and bring a listener closer. But that only happens in the best songs. [12 Jun 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 82 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Broken Social Scene
    Broken Social Scene confuses integrity with indulgence, burying good songs under way too much studio tomfoolery. [10 Oct 2005]
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Time To Love
    There are moments on the album with too many bland and anonymous pop chord progressions...Yet here and there the idiosyncratic, headstrong musician emerges. [17 Oct 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back
    The riffs aren't as well built as the first album's, nor are the songs' conceits. Still, the album's not a disaster. [28 Nov 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Brave And The Bold
    This record is never obvious; it has no agenda. It advances no cultural or historical theory. It is not meant to accompany psychic healing or political protest, and it has no real connection to anyone's alternative-anything movement. There are so many things it isn't, that it barely is. [16 Jan 2006]
    • The New York Times
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    For Me It's You
    The music is often too banal to be good, let alone great. [6 Feb 2006]
    • The New York Times
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Little Willies
    "The Little Willies" is several notches above a living-room jam. It is rehearsed, flowing, expertly produced. But it is still an album that has been hanging around the house all day in its sweatpants. [6 Mar 2006]
    • The New York Times
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Peeping Tom
    Given his abrasive experimentations with Mr. Bungle and Fantômas, his fascination with mildly skewed beatscapes is a surprise, fun but passé. [29 May 2006]
    • The New York Times
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