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
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mobile
    A studious, slightly overcomposed record; we don't hear Mr. Kotche's own rich, natural drum-kit sound so much as the dried fruit of his research. [20 Mar 2006]
    • The New York Times
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Riser
    He’s deliberate in his choice of songwriters, including Shane McAnally and Josh Kear, who provide some of the better songs on this hit-or-miss album.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Back To Basics
    Contains a roughly even number of great songs and lousy ones.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mind of Mine
    Throughout this album, Mr. Malik opts for a low-octane approach, with varying success.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Back To Basics
    Like many dancehall reggae albums, this one often cries out to be sampled more than listened to. [19 Jul 2004]
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Embracism
    For each solid purchase on a strong lyric there’s a mess somewhere else; for nearly every powerful accretion of sound there’s a nearly unbearable one. The record’s volatility both saves and mars it.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Don't Dance
    In places, there is something hasty and unfocused about this album, a sense of grasping for something just a bit out of reach.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Funhouse
    Even though Pink oozes disappointment in herself and others, her music mostly fails to keep up.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Honkin' On Bobo
    Not every song here benefits from the Aerosmith treatment. [29 Mar 2004]
    • 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]
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Honkytonk University
    Part of his appeal is that he's never totally believable: on previous albums, you had the feeling that he wasn't quite as hard as he first seemed; on this one, you get the feeling he's not quite as soft. [16 May 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Blessed Unrest
    The Blessed Unrest is all shoulder-drooping heft, and her musical choices are vexing.
    • 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
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    My World 2.0
    My World 2.0, his debut full-length album, is far sharper than it needs to be, an amiable collection of age-appropriate panting with intermittent bursts of misplaced precociousness.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Somewhere Down In Texas
    The album is short (less than 40 minutes), elegant and neat almost to a fault, with no extra instruments or extra verses. [27 Jun 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Freight Train
    The magic in his stoicism is gone too: Freight Train is filled with songs that are mature but not wise.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Cruel Summer
    Mr. West is often nowhere to be found, and more crucially, nowhere to be felt. Parts of this album - "Sin City," "The One," "Creepers" - feature what's easily the laziest music on any Kanye-related project, with no trace of his trademark meticulousness.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Night Train
    Even at his most powerful, singing hard in his nasal voice--it's got impact but not much traction.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    2:54
    [The album] seems to prefer operating under a steady churn of gloom. But there's real muscle here, both in the singing, which is rendered wide and fat, an ooze of its own; and also in the guitar playing, which is hefty and dark.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Achin' And Shakin'
    "Giddy On Up" is on the shakin' side, which is the weaker half, chaotic and a little glib... The achin' set of songs forces Ms. Bundy to exhale, revealing a lovely voice with alluring nooks and crannies that need no adornment.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kingdom Come
    “Kingdom Come,” then, captures the sound of a grown-up rapper trying to make a grown-up album -- whatever that means. It’s a fascinating experiment, and a halfway successful one.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A Different Me
    Where her voice was once assured and three-dimensional, here, although many of the songs are pleasant, Ms. Cole comes off flat.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All of Me
    [A] comfortable, small and sometimes vague album.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Joanne
    While Joanne is elemental, nothing about it is bare. Instead, it’s confused, full of songs that feel like concepts in search of a home, small theater pieces extruded from other imaginary productions and collected in one miscellany bin.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Femme Fatale
    More than any of her previous releases Femme Fatale is blank. Ms. Spears isn't much more than a celebrity spokeswoman for the work of the producers Max Martin, Dr. Luke and others, who need artists like Ms. Spears as calling cards.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    High Hopes
    The best of them--mostly the resigned or farseeing songs, the songs that have no hero and no story--rise above the odds. But a large portion of the record feels, let’s say, official.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ryan Leslie
    He shows few idiosyncrasies of his own until the final song, 'Gibberish,' with Auto-Tune effects that render some lyrics unintelligible, as if he thinks they’re irrelevant.
Page: