Urb's Scores

  • Music
For 1,126 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 35% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: 100 The Golden Age of Apocalypse
Lowest review score: 10 This Is Forever
Score distribution:
1126 music reviews
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    So even as Tortoise integrate guitar surrealism and edgier motifs into their palette, they also progress their unique relationship to electronic music and hip-hop. [#82, p.139]
    • Urb
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    604
    The music is accessible and poppy without dumbing-down the analog arrangements or their coffeehouse terrorist aesthetic. [#84, p.114]
    • Urb
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rich in imagery and suggestive of enviroment -- arctic, urban and mental -- Pan Sonic chisels a sound contradictory in its makeup, utterly synthetic and metallic yet somehow deeply organic. [#82, p.144]
    • Urb
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Super Sound makes up for any lack of focus with attitude and a prevalence of splendid, melodic pop. [#81, p.120]
    • Urb
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There's a quality of randomness on The W that prevents it from cohering as an album. But even if it's just a collection of songs, The W is undeniably impressive, packing the kind of gritty, aggressive anthems that have been notably missing from most of the recent Wu solo albums. [#82, p. 148]
    • Urb
    • 95 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    To call Stankonia the album of the year would be easy. It would also be somewhat incomplete. The Atlanta duo's fourth album is more than simply a great record; it's a complex tome that enmeshes contemporary hip-hop values with a timeless Southern soul, while pushing the envelope damn near off the table. [#79, p.134]
    • Urb
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In The Mode is at its most invigorating when it eschews the now tired-sounding rare groove and cool-jazz format of 'New Forms' for a sound that combines more bounce-friendly radio sounds with a hint of menace. [#79, p.136]
    • Urb
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Photek has always been about his drums more than his bass, so it doesn't surprise that some of the tracks on Solaris are more techno than jungle. But vocal house? (#78, p.115)
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The stance on Essence is less confrontational than its precursor, more a life-affirming offering to elemental forces. [#79, p.128]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mirror Conspiracy's thoughtful drum programs hardly become drowsy or monotonous... Unfortunately the occasional lyrical overdose also leaves some tracks seeming a little too light. [#77, p.130]
    • Urb
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The freshness that figured into De La's previous four albums feels a touch staler here. (#78, p.116)
    • Urb
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    An album that blends genres and forms to spawn a rare breed of funky breakbeat-inspired rock.... Unfortunately, the vocal collaborations with the likes of Jon Spencer, Bobby Gillespie, and Martina Topley-Bird are a bit ill-fitting and disappointing. [#79, p.124]
    • Urb
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This is a considerably more ominous and hardnosed sound from former Can man Czukay than we've had in a while, and La Luna is more than welcome for it. [#77, p.126]
    • Urb