The New York Times' Scores

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For 2,074 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: 1,596 out of 2074
  2. Mixed: 443 out of 2074
  3. Negative: 35 out of 2074
2074 music reviews
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    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Jigsaw
    The album--which, like its predecessor, was produced by Medasyn, another Londoner--merely strikes a few new poses.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sounds Of The Universe
    Even at its most imaginative, this is seamless Depeche Mode filler, music that could be made by any number of acolytes.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Guilt
    Often Mims refers to how hated he’s become for his success, but truly it’s hard to loathe someone so underwhelming.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stupid Love
    This is a scattered, sometimes awkward effort from a singer who has been, until now, tonally consistent and confident.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel
    That nuance is mostly gone on Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, Ms. Carey’s 12th studio album, which manages simplicity and clutter all at once.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Out Of Ashes
    Mr. Bennington strives to sound sympathetic, but after a song or two it’s clear that his only sympathy is for himself; there’s no humility, much less humor or proportion. As real as his prolonged adolescent angst is supposed to be, it quickly curdles into narcissism.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Soulbook
    His new versions are respectful and careful, with his voice recorded in close-up. Compared to the originals, they are just about joyless.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Before I Self Destruct
    Taken as a whole this album has a pleasingly morbid tone, in keeping with the best moments from 50 Cent’s first two albums. But context is this album’s undoing.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Graffiti
    A curiously faceless album that largely thumbs its nose at close reading.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Malice N Wonderland
    But too often on this album Snoop is a fuddy-duddy, domesticated and palatable.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Need You Now
    Its attempts at gravitas--"Hello World," on which Mr. Kelley sets a promising scene ("Traffic crawls, cellphone calls, talk radio screams at me") that doesn’t resolve-- land awkwardly, and its optimistic songs, like "Our Kind of Love," teem with empty metaphor.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ollusion
    Clunky lyrics are everywhere, undoing some of the progress Omarion has made.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Family Jewels
    ["Hermit the Frog" is] a rare moment of fun, though; mostly Ms. Diamandis doesn’t let herself get comfortable. She’s strongest on the songs that nod, obliquely or otherwise, to fame.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Plastic Beach
    This is a dull album, revealing how over the space of three records, Mr. Albarn and Mr. Hewlett have moved from wacky conceptualists to self-satisfied dilettantes.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bionic
    Now, on her new album, Bionic, how has she decided to present herself? Mostly as a sexbot: a one-dimensional hot chick chanting come-ons to club beats.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    This Is Happening
    This music sounds fantastic, as usual--clean, tight and separated in the mix--but songwriting inspiration is in short supply.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Infinite Arms
    The band leans on plain, incredibly legible songs that have little to hide behind; successful in a gestural way, but little more. And the songwriting of the frontman Ben Bridwell, always a little obtuse, has begun to decompose, like sketches drawn from faded memories.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans
    Applying Auto-Tune to her deadpan rapping, she anticipated the sound that helped make Kesha’s “Tik "Tok" an international hit in 2009. Now her debut album, Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans, has to play catch-up.
    • The New York Times
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Sellout
    Her scratchy charm gets her through some of the stompers, like "Kissed It" and "Still Hurts," and her old humor surfaces now and then. But the desperation rings all too true in "Help Me."
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Goon Affiliated
    The brightest moments come from his exceedingly thin attempts at concept.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pilot Talk
    He raps in tight clusters of syllables that sound smooth but say little. Mainly he's interested in getting high and, occasionally, getting high with other people. Still, many of his friends, under the influence or not, perform better.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Acoustic Sessions
    It's not awful. But while Acoustic Sessions carries the hush of a whispered secret, it divulges little beyond the fact of its stylish presence.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    H.F.M. 2 (The Hunger for More 2)
    Mostly, though, he comes up short, delivering rhymes that on paper are clever and punchy, but on record are congested and monotone.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Calling All Hearts
    Keyshia Cole tries for a slow burn but rarely ignites on her fourth album, Calling All Hearts.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Asleep on the Floodplain
    For me it doesn't work; it stomps on the fragility he's been building up for 40 minutes. But because it comes together so slowly, it's of a piece with this record's careful mood.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Who You Are
    These ambitiously sung songs make for tremendous chaos: the lyrics about uplift are often trite, the furiously modern arrangements are often cliched.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ceremonials
    In making the songs so monumental, Florence and the Machine have also made them impersonal.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Four the Record
    Normally, she's emphatic in the right places, but this album also includes some of Ms. Lambert's least committed singing.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Someone To Watch over Me
    Cut by cut, Someone to Watch Over Me is not as strong as its forerunners.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Under the Mistletoe
    Mr. Bieber hasn't ever sounded this good. But even Mr. Harrell can't place Mr. Bieber on equal footing with some of his more accomplished guests
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