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
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It doesn’t always make for a relaxed listen, although it is certainly capable of settling in as a moody background or standing in the forefront captivating rapt ears. The swarms of noise can be both comforting and disconcerting, but each finds a place of its own as this duo continues their run of impressively novel music making.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Featuring the production savvy of Soulwax (who also worked on "Sexor") is an extremely polished and solid release.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A transportive offering in a record full of them--strangely relatable, hauntingly beautiful and in the truest sense, exquisite.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    More distinctive than the arrangements, though, are Topley-Bird's utterly unique vocals. [Sep 2004, p.117]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Devoted fans need not worry, though--the album still holds the melancholic flavor they’ve come to perfect, just with some added twinkling synths, hints at old-school R&B, and a splash of funk for good measure.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is just one entertaining ride for hardcore hip-hop fans all the way down the corridor, one that economically rocks your knot at just under 42 minutes.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You would think that all this grandiose genre-juggling would play out like a collection of songs, but it all works well together and plays like a cohesive album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Two Suns doesn’t have to parade itself around as a concept album to prove that music has always been, and always should be, about telling a story, as Khan does here.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    [The band has] gotten down to the more important work of constructing airtight grooves with just enough weirding-out to show their legion of followers that it takes more than a drummer with good 16th-note skills to rock this party right. [Mar 2007, p.96]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Any notions of the dreaded sophomore slump disappear seconds into their new album It’s a Bit Complicated.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    None of the pairings are out of place. [Mar 2007, p.99]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Milky Ways is a simple yet multilayered album that fires on all cylinders.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Javelin know what they're good at, where they stand, and they aren't trying to shove their knowledge and musical interests in their listeners faces. Instead, they let them find it for themselves by picking up on bits and pieces and carrying them forward, focusing on what interests them without having to worry about what they don't.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Luckily he counteracts offbeat, sad sucker storytelling with endearing Casio tones and token indie rock chords. [Mar 2006, p.123]
    • 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
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Most of the time listening to anything that's on the Hot 100 is considered a guilty pleasure. Music for females, not fanboys. But thanks to Girl Talk, Feed the Animals makes the feeling less filthy—thus the embarrassment is less painful.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A rewarding, intimate listen. [Mar 2007, p.101]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Hawk is Howling is Mogwai at its best.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The tracks... feel more like loose, languid, quiet-loud sketches and fine textures than actual songs. [Jan/Feb 2005, p.96]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Damn decent stuff. [Oct 2005, p.85]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With Similes, he has re-grounded himself using surprisingly un-ambient means: plaintive vocal turns, steady human percussion, traditional and discernible instrumentation
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    From the tip to full metallic thrust, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney slap and caress romantic lyricism deep into the tunnels of harmonic structure, curried by Brian Burton’s (aka Dangermouse) rollicking production.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Albarn claims this album is a letter to the London of today, but it's impossible not [to] get swept into the grandfatherly smell that permeates every number. [Dec 2006, p.127]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hercules head Andy Butler enters into sizable trances of sonic pleasure, keeping a consistent head nodding and danceable bass line while piling up different elements into an anachronistic salad of old and new melodies all combining and fusing to make something refreshingly current.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Lewd and wonderful. [Apr 2005, p.103]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    At the end of the day Maximum Balloon is not a great departure from the TV on the Radio sound. And it's hard to say that's a bad thing.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Takemura's most embraceable album to date. [Jan 2003, p.77]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Draft's second half will hold more sway over those pining for the minor-key melodiousness of works through Tri Repetae++. [Jun 2003, p.93]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    As sophomore albums go, Atlas is far from sophomoric. [Feb 2004, p.79]
    • Urb
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This rocking trio is so good, we don't even care that it made a plethora of best-of-2005 lists--it'll end up on our rocking list for the '06. [Jul/Aug 2006, p.132]
    • Urb