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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Reunion Tour
    The band sounds quieter and richer than ever.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Widow City
    Widow City is among its least convoluted and most straightforward.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Family
    True, she sometimes lays it on too thick: edging close to self-parody with bluesy groans and growls, or waxing inspirational (in 'Doesn’t Everybody') about our common need for love. She’s more convincing in 'What I Cannot Change,' a pretty, cello-driven ballad.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Rainbows
    Rhythmic layers crackle and coil, percussion spatters prettiness, and noise sometimes looms from murky corners....Radiohead has also reclaimed its tunefulness. Its new songs take care to string long-lined melodies across the rigorous counterpoint.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Night Falls Over Kortedala
    The music is smoother and grander than before (it turns out orchestral disco suits him well), but he remains defiantly unabashed.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Make Sure They See My Face
    The striking thing about Make Sure They See My Face, then, is how reassuringly familiar it feels.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Comicopera
    Comicopera, his 12th solo record since 1970, has indulgences and longueurs, as all his records do. But it also has some burstingly beautiful songwriting.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Elect The Dead
    while System of a Down would have given these songs more sheer brawn, Mr. Tankian’s versions are the next best thing.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    La Cucaracha
    It’s not a return to the primordial, tape-hissy grandeur of the early recordings, but it is a return to playful, genre-scrambling pop; this is probably the best and funniest Ween album since “Chocolate and Cheese,” from 1994.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Situation
    His voice scrapes against minor-key tracks full of moody keyboard lines as he raps about a pornography photographer in 'Shutter Buggin',' jazz and poetry in 'Beatific' and a vice-squad cop in 'Spread ’Em.'
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Art of Love and War
    The album is filled with lush, suavely undulating ballads that have Ms. Stone cooing quietly and intimately.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    System
    For most of System, the indefatigable drum thumps and whizzing keyboard tones prevent Seal from getting too vaporous, while all his yearning comes through.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As I Am
    As I Am radiates not just confidence but also experience. On the whole it’s her strongest effort yet.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dirt Farmer
    It’s Mr. Helm who holds the spotlight, playing drums as well as mandolin and acoustic guitar, and singing the lyrics--however bleak or jubilant--with a steady ardor.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    M.A.D.E.
    No one can accuse Scarface of overstuffing this CD: it lasts barely 40 minutes, just long enough to provide a satisfying dose of stories and boasts, delivered in a rich, bluesy voice that often makes him seem even older than he is.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Solution
    A cunning, hybrid album that isn’t quite as mixed up as it first seems.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Angels Of Destruction
    In Rolling Stonesy stomps and skiffle bounces, easygoing vaudeville shuffles and driving rockabilly boogies the songs make allegorical visions sound like barroom banter.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In The Future
    On repeated listening the impression [of being a genre exercise or a hipster parody] gives way to the songs themselves, envisioning angels and demons and plaintively wondering about violence and inevitable desolation.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jukebox
    She doesn’t outdo the originals. Instead, like a fan, she claims them by pondering them.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Brighter Than Creation's Dark
    This is a typically crowded Drive-By Truckers album; it doesn’t need all 19 songs. But the overload is part of the point.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mission Control
    The Whigs are from Athens, Ga., and like Kings of Leon and My Morning Jacket, they give what they’ve learned from indie-rock a distinctly Southern stamp: a drawl in the vocals, twang and resonance in the guitars, a sense of continuity with the past..
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lucky
    While Nada Surf is only a trio, in the studio it stacks up guitars and vocals, multiplying Mr. Caws’s thin voice into a dreamy or determined chorale.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Watershed
    The frame of reference effortlessly spans country, bossa nova and a few different shades of vintage pop, with only one distracting allusion (the late-era Beatles crescendo that swells up within “Close Your Eyes”).
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Just A Little Lovin'
    At heart Just a Little Lovin’ is one fine singer’s homage to another, but the album also serves as a lean platform for the material.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Devotion
    As with many a lasting romance, the album’s secret is variety within the constancy.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Backwoods Barbie
    Once again she’s the voice of rural innocence all dressed up in big-city trappings, and still coming through as herself.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Robotique Majestique
    Old electro sounds and disco-era strings might hint at camp, but not for long; Ghostland Observatory hits too hard.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Real Emotional Trash
    The album is both a generous, transparent body pleasure and a flinty, oblique mind pleasure.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Magnificent Fiend
    The songs are written handsomely, and with effort: solemn introductions, multiple gear-shifting bridges, cruising solo passages.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Attack & Release
    While the sound of this blues-rock duo has been fleshed out, none of its grit has been glossed.
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