Under The Radar's Scores

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For 5,870 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 40% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 56% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Kid A Mnesia
Lowest review score: 0 Burned Mind
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,061 out of 5870
  2. Mixed: 1,679 out of 5870
  3. Negative: 130 out of 5870
5870 music reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Autodrama
    The elementary laments on "Peccavi" conjure a shrug at best. Lines like "Skeptics, eat shit" won't help either (see "End of an Era"). The early Madonna mood of "Tell Me" is the album's finest instrumental moment, but even this feels borrowed.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    In Glendale
    Heidecker's voice isn't the greatest thing you've ever heard, but it is passable and radio-friendly. It is too bad most of this album is just skippable.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Strange Little Birds
    Too much of Strange Little Birds is filler.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    The Magic
    There's no escaping a diminishing ability to knock listeners to the floor.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Youthful Dream
    Arguably the album's biggest weakness is that its muffled, messy production doesn't lend itself to the best songs. Still, these guys are just kids and their potential makes them likeable enough.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Love You To Death
    Love You's sticky problem is the same one that plagues all but the Thriller/Purple Rain-iest of pop records, and it's that everything that comes between the hits sounds like filler in comparison.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    My Best Human Face
    This seems to be the goal, to tigh-0rope sentimentality and emotion, sarcasm and genuineness, spoof and homage, and to that end, My Best Human Face succeeds. [May - Jun 2016, p.95]
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ash & Ice
    Certain moments glimmer brighter than others in the murky depths, but the kinetic urgency that hummed under the surface has dissipated and the album mostly just moseys along for 13 tracks. [May - Jun 2016, p.94]
    • Under The Radar
      • Posted May 26, 2016
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    X-Communicate
    It's hard not to think that either she just hasn't perfected this style yet or it's a one-off detour. Only time will tell, but wherever Dee Dee or Kristin goes, this album proves that it's well worth keeping up with her output.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Congrats
    The buzz never quite lasts. Cuts such as "Neon Dad" and "Acidic" are less thriller, more filler; each is executed with admirable precision, but unable to reach the peak of cranium-dismantling album closer "Crapture."
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Under the Sun
    It's a sinuous and, at times, difficult listen, but these songs are supple enough to sink into, given space and the necessary inclination. It's dance music, sure, just not as we know it.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Hopelessness
    Some tracks come across like impromptu recording sessions where ANOHNI worked through recently-penned material over production pieces messed around with just before she'd arrived at the studio. Still, there is enough in this unexpected assimilation of talents to hold intrigue.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Paradise
    Paradise sounds contemporary in the worst way, instantly dated and likely soon forgotten by any new audience the band might find.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Ship
    The Ship sees Eno try his hand with the darker, cinematic side of minimal, and for the most part it works. The melancholic catalysts for the record (The First World War and the sinking of the Titanic) don't transcend quite as powerfully as they could have, though.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Until the Horror Goes
    While the production sustains its vitality, Congleton's narrow singing range--hidden in the more bizarre, cinematic numbers--gets exposed nonetheless.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lost Themes II
    The band element is Carpenter's saving grace and is hopefully a sign of what's to come, as the potential for this project remains enticing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gore
    Despite the promise of first single "Prayers/Triangles," most of Gore sits in the latter category--a hillock of doomy pop that cowers beside the band's formidable peaks.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Painting of a Panic Attack
    Alas, it is disappointing to opine that on Frightened Rabbit's fifth release, Painting of a Panic Attack, the incorporation of frontman Scott Hutchison's verses of cagey lament and realization into Dessner's poignant pop arrangements feels contrived rather than meant to be.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Super
    All in all, it makes for a record whose potential to be exceptional is all-too frustrating.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    The Life Of Pablo
    There is plenty here to suggest that West's magic has not entirely left him, but as a statement of art or true intent, this is a significant misstep from an artist with so much to praise.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Weezer (White Album)
    Although The White Album is predictable in that its singles are stand-outs, that just feels like another way that Weezer are doing a great job at sounding like Weezer.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Glitterbust
    The record is less a head-on collision of Knost's signature brand of hazy slacker pop and Gordon's famed confrontational leftfield punk than it is a complete reconsideration of the pair's prior dynamics.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    We Disappear
    We Disappear's weak spots appear in the occasional retread "whoa-oh-whoa" pop chorus. The band is strongest in scrappy and loud moments like "Hey You."
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Girl at the End of the World
    The closing title track is a pleasant enough number but reverts to the more safe James sound, a slight disappointment after the forward-sounding songs of the late middle of the album
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    K 2.0
    The reverberating sitars that kick off K 2.0 signal that it's business as usual chez Kula Shaker.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Need Your Light
    Despite its slick, bouncy energy, it doesn't make much of a splash. [Jan/Feb 2016, p.58]
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Night Driver
    Unfortunately, Night Driver's opening and closing tracks either fade together all too quickly or wade too far into an unpleasant '80s pool. [Jan/Feb 2016, p.57]
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Yes, I'm a Witch Too
    This time, tUnE-yArDs, Ebony Bones, and Cibo Matto provide the three most interesting re-creations. Given the strength of their contributions, and the fact that Ono remains such an inspiration to so many experimental female musicians, it's a shame that more women weren't invited.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hymns
    Bloc Party has always been capable of great and deep thought, even when moving at a high rate of speed. Without that added urgency, Hymns falls flat. [Jan/Feb 2016, p.54]
    • 80 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Night Thoughts
    It's "Pale Snow" and "Learning to Be" that take us furthest in this listening experience. These two dark, sparse ballads ground us; they're the Suede we know and love calling to us through the mists of this parallel twilight where they're setting up camp. One hopes further listens will reveal the rest of the songs somehow doing the same.
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