The New York Times' Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Simply Grand
    Ms. Thomas sings warmly and forthrightly amid the two-fisted rumbas, R&B vamps, jazz ballads and barrelhouse flourishes. And without getting heavy-handed the song choices haven’t forgotten what happened to her beloved city.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Rhumb Line
    The album holds together, not only as a memorial to past tragedy but also as a testament to whatever emotional terrain lies ahead.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Intimacy
    At times the music, like the lyrics, does illuminate the problem of a band taking itself too seriously. But Bloc Party has always favored drama, and there’s plenty of precedent for overblown sentiment when it comes to pop and broken hearts.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fast Paced World
    The material roams freely and excitably.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Stand Ins
    Self-conscious as the lyrics are, the music is uninhibited: lurching into motion like a bar band, picking up speed, piling up instruments and letting them fall away.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Learn To Live
    Learn to Live, his second solo album (in 2002 he released “Back to Then,” a tame, awkward, largely unpleasant collection of neo-soul), is impressively eclectic and sharply written. It’s one of the year’s most vibrant country albums.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Acid Tongue
    Ms. Lewis, also the frontwoman for Rilo Kiley, is unwrapped here, emboldened in her songwriting and more flexible in her voice.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One Kind Favor
    The ache, the anger, the elegance and the edge of Mr. King’s blues are undiminished and authentic.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Red Letter Year
    In this diary, the groove can be as meaningful as the words.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
    For the familiar songs the original album choices were usually better, with tauter lyrics and arrangements pushing away from the generic. Still, with a songwriter like Mr. Dylan the rough drafts, alternate lyrics and multiple versions of “Dignity” and “Mississippi” are fascinating glimpses of how restlessly he tinkers with mood and meaning.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Un Dia
    The sounds themselves, produced by Ms. Molina in what sound like very private and very light-headed sessions, have few edges; they’re rounded and melted like chocolate left in a summer sun. Each song feels as if it could go on forever, or quietly vanish into the mist.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chemistry Of Common Life
    So this album--its best, and indicative of a band that can keep climbing--contains two great punk songs: 'Days of Last,' with an echoed guitar line, and 'Crooked Head,' based on a 12-beat drum rhythm.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Some Are Lakes
    Elizabeth Powell, the lead singer of this three-piece Montreal indie-rock band, sounds marvelously self-assured on Some Are Lakes, its reverberant full-length debut.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    4:13 Dream
    The territory is familiar, occasionally too familiar....But it’s not a comforting nostalgic reprise; it’s another plunge into the maelstrom.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Microcastle
    In Deerhunter’s latest songs Mr. Cox sings about time, perception, crucifixion and murder, while the band maintains its gift for realizing just how far a small idea can be carried through repetition and accretion.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Alegranza
    The repetition of the loops turns from mechanical to hypnotic to hallucinatory to ecstatic as the songs barrel along.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rio
    Reflective but never dour, and serious about staying hopeful, Aterciopelados proposes “a bombardment of love/attack of laughter/invasion of smiles.”
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Thr33 Ringz
    He has a point, though, and on Thr33 Ringz, his third album, he makes the case for his misunderstood genius.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sycamore Meadows
    For much of the album, Mr. Walker sings about breakups and aftermaths, and songs like 'Here Comes the ...' and 'Vessels' show he can still write pop choruses. Now and then, his instinct for drama makes him sound mawkish. But he’ll probably never be so unguarded again.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    At Carnegie Hall [Live]
    There’s still something to be gleaned here, perhaps especially from the frisky pianist Ruben González and the debonair vocalists Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer, all of whom are now gone, having enjoyed twilight acclaim.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Door
    At the center of the album’s sound is Mr. Eick’s trumpet, with its pristine yet penetrating tone. He’s a commanding improviser, capable of serious drama and conscious of what goes unsaid.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Emeritus
    It is also among his breeziest, with just a touch of nimbleness animating his reliably sleepy growl over surprisingly exuberant production.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    OnMyRadio
    The album isn’t such a departure after all. Beyond that aberrant (abhorrent?) single, its tone is imploring and the sound is warm.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blood Bank [EP]
    His new EP, “Blood Bank,” is due out on Tuesday on the same label, and three of its four songs abide by similar prescriptions [as “For Emma, Forever Ago."]
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future
    Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future is a useful title for this record, which can feel like a stroll through Tomorrowland with an archly enthusiastic guide.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dear John
    The melodies are exquisite, and with each verse he surrounds them with more and more parts, creating pop crescendos of dizzying ingenuity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    To Willie
    To Willie is more than a curatorial feat; Phosphorescent reaches down to the pain.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Two Tongues
    Mr. Conley and Mr. Bemis have honed each other’s songwriting; each track on the album tries something different.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Spirit Of Apollo
    All those guests have a lot on their minds--the economy, the history of hip-hop, their own skills--and the N.A.S.A. team makes sure no one wears out a welcome.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Middle Cyclone
    Instead of fixed verses or choruses there are two-chord patterns that run as long as Ms. Case wants, or as short; they might add or subtract a beat, suddenly switch chords or support an entirely new tune in mid-song. Subliminally that rhapsodic approach keeps the songs off balance and suspenseful, ready for every possibility of disaster or exaltation.
Page: