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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    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Chapter V
    One of his most consistently strong albums.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    December Day
    A casual but captivating album.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    National Anthem Of Nowhere
    A dozen tracks of modest but clear ambition. [12 Mar 2007]
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    One Of The Boys
    With “One of the Boys,” her third album, Ms. Wilson rediscovers her greatest asset: her extraordinary voice. [14 May 2007]
    • The New York Times
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
    The words are upfront, with a naturalistic delivery that sometimes recalls Kanye West. These are storytelling songs, not club tracks, moving at midtempos and often easing back toward ballads.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Life On Earth
    She moves slowly, but she’s a good musician and singer; this is the surprise, because in her line of work you expect more dishevelment.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kaleidoscope Heart
    When Ms. Bareilles goes for more straightforward tugs on the heartstrings, she often sounds like Sarah McLachlan's gifted apprentice, complete with Ms. McLachlan's trademark of going breathy at the top of a phrase.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Good Life
    The stylized, old-time country of 'Hard Livin’,' 'Ain’t Glad I’m Leavin’,' 'What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome' or 'Lonesome and You'--yes there’s a theme there--frees him to find glimmers of humor amid the plaints.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Masters Of The Burial
    None of this ever feels oppressive because of Ms. Millan’s light touch as a singer.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Starboy
    Some of the most exciting songs on Starboy are the least expected. ... But brevity is almost too central here: Some songs (“Love to Lay,” “Nothing Without You”) have barely any verses at all, largely relying on pre-choruses and choruses.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Our Version of Events
    What's magical about this album is how Ms. Sande's stance remains unmistakable regardless of what the backdrop is. It's not a flawless album, but rather one with a number of flawless moments.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    With Love
    The singing is bolder and more outgoing than on her previous albums.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rebel Soul
    Kid Rock is an amateurish singer, but over the last few years his unsteady squeal has been become burnished and is now credible.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Chopped and Screwed
    For a few songs the dissonant clatter of Micachu's debut album, "Jewellery," gets transferred to grunting strings and the band's homemade instruments, but most of the new music is slower and spookier, with sliding, wavering massed strings and a sulky, gathering, finely orchestrated paranoia.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Jordin Sparks
    A couple of inspirational songs--'This Is My Now,' her "American Idol" signature, and the heavy-handed 'God Loves Ugly'--are hidden at the end, perhaps to remind listeners of the middling CD this could have been but isn’t.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Help Coming
    Lawyer Dave, a more focused singer and an able musician, holds down the drumming and guitar solos. He prevents the songs from falling apart, while she makes them strange.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    White Trash With Money
    "White Trash With Money" is one of his best albums, partly because it finds a lighthearted way to smuggle recent years' redneck pride into this year's love-song boom. [6 Apr 2006]
    • The New York Times
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Continuum
    Mr. Mayer has been writing songs again, good ones, with all the leanness and directness that distinguish his strongest work.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lickety Split
    The guitar work is explosive and vibrant, and Mr. Randolph’s band is accustomed to turning a congregation into a howling audience (and vice versa). At times it’s easy to forget that this isn’t a live recording, which seems like the point.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sweat
    These are easily Nelly's best albums so far.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Songbird
    In short, [it's] a very good recent Ryan Adams record, except for the absence of Mr. Adams’s voice. [30 Oct 2006]
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mind Over Matter
    Mind Over Matter has a fuller, brassier sound than this group’s debut, and especially emphasizes the guitars of Jacob Tilley and Eric Cannata.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fire Songs
    The songs hold sorrow and longing, keeping self-pity in check with serene grace.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Evolver
    With reverberations and a choral backdrop straight out of Seal, it’s his only overreach. Mr. Legend is more charming one-on-one.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ghost Brothers of Darkland County [OST]
    Those songs rise above the story line, but probably wouldn’t have existed without characters to sing them--reason enough for a rock songwriter to venture into a musical.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Crown [EP]
    Though he’s an often astounding songwriter, The-Dream doesn’t have the carnality of Trey Songz or the athleticism of Usher or Chris Brown; he’s a singer who benefits from all the gifts that modern recording technology has to offer. But like the competition, he’s capable of bluster.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cleopatra
    It’s a move away from crowd-pleasing ditties, a valiant turn inward and, at times--in “Gale Song,” “In the Light” and “Angela”--the songs reach a distillation of yearning and solitude. But over the course of an entire album, a glint of the Lumineers’ old whimsy would have helped.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everything Is 4
    Everything Is 4 is his second strong album in a row.... Here, Mr. Derulo is a shameless collaborator, a gleeful regurgitator of styles, and one of the most surprisingly savvy decision makers in pop.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Loud
    Loud works the pop gizmos as neatly as any album this year, maintaining the Rihanna brand. But the album has a hermetic, cool calculation until it gets to "Love the Way You Lie (Part II)," her take on the tortured hit she shared with Eminem.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Secret Life Of The Veronicas
    Sugar-sharp songs with a hint of intrigue. [13 Feb 2006]
    • The New York Times
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