Village Voice's Scores

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For 764 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 47% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 The Naked Truth
Lowest review score: 10 God Says No
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 517 out of 764
  2. Mixed: 199 out of 764
  3. Negative: 48 out of 764
764 music reviews
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Play
    Its darkness relative to the other stuff here (blues shuffle, surf pastiche, Les Paul tribute, B.B. King duet) is startling, even if the tune turns out to be about his wife.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    (K)no(w)here
    The record moves with an ear toward its broader gains as one song diced into eight, another crafty epic that takes its theme from this year's headlines.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ropechain
    With Ropechain, the emotional turnaround's reversed: An initial, burning desire to hate everything about this album--the stylistic mish-mash, the artistic blackface, the blah cover art--gives way to wary admiration, even though it's hard to shake the sense that its creator's something of a jerk.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Funhouse
    Ms. Alecia Moore turns tragedy into a huge artistic coup once again on the only somewhat inaccurately named Funhouse.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Broken Hymns, Limbs, And Skin
    The music is often cresting and joyous, implying sweating bodies careening through a space designed to hold half their number.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Evolver
    As the dying industry is still breathing in the toxins of useless filler, patrons like John Legend are fully indulging their creativity in all its flawed glory, just like the soul giants of yesteryear.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Alpinisms
    School of Seven Bells, is a far more meditative and electronic affair dominated by former On!Air!Library! entrancers Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, who sing in mesmerizing siren-song unison, even if they sound like a grade-A hookah-bar act at times.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Love Is Overtaking Me
    Everything Russell recorded is worth a listen, but while 'Close My Eyes' will likely soon stand alongside 'This Is How We Walk on the Moon' and 'That's Us/Wild Combination' as one of the most instantly pleasing songs in his discography, this collection only occasionally captures him at the height of his powers.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Saint Dymphna
    These tracks are meticulously constructed to engulf and consume, making layers out of the Casiocore and stone-drones that contemporaries like Black Dice and Growing use to build careers.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Ice
    Quality stuff. Sorta like 'Send for the Man,' but better.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Secret Machines
    The Secret Machines takes the band back where they started, focusing on blistering psych-rock that's nonetheless accessible and doesn't sound like it's overcompensating for something, even if there's plenty to compensate for.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Some Are Lakes
    Like her game soprano, which breaks apart with the same lucid strength it sometimes uses to soar with trepidation, Land of Talk's music unleashes its own aggressive logic.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Murs For President
    So with Murs for President, he just did what he does, churning out another strong album of choppy retro samples that pretend chipmunk-soul and snap never existed.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Power Of Negative Thinking: B-Sides & Rarities
    These guys were rubbish as careerists, essentially banishing much of their stronger material to the depths. So think of The Power of Negative Thinking as the great unveiling.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Double Night Time
    His new Double Night Time is a relatively introspective affair. It's also more satisfying as headphone fodder, thanks largely to a phalanx of synthesizers (burbling arpeggios cushion most tracks) and vocals from Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Hawk Is Howling
    It's a page out of Mogwai grandchildren Ratatat's playbook, and it shows these Scots doing something we haven't seen them do in a while: evolve.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Acid Tongue
    Jenny is a definitely a chosen one in the talent department, but she doesn't really let on.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Year Of The Gentleman
    Ne-Yo's fantastic third CD, The Year of the Gentleman, reconfigures "grown and sexy" by detailing relationships with an often uneasy mix of heartache, reflection, wit, lust, and resignation.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Way I See It
    Even while Saadiq pays homage to soul's golden era, he brings his own flavor through his tell-tale tenor; still, if it ain't your cup of tea, just slip this in your parents' record collection and they won't notice a thing.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Brass Knuckles
    The real problem, though, isn't the music (accomplished and catchy enough for distracted listening), nor is it Nelly's own verses (more stylish than substantive, as always). Rather, it's that a dedicated capitalist--hear his "Buy me the mall" manifesto on 'Hold Up'--is using a business model that's on its way to extinction.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Carried To Dust
    The group never abandoned its orquestra live, and that may be why this return to form sounds so welcoming.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Stand Ins
    The Stand-Ins, reportedly taped at the same time as "Stage Names," is an improvement, not least because Sheff punishes himself (rather humorously) for the sin of relying on tragic heroes at all.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    House With No Home
    Singer Justin Ringle often muffles his words or loses them altogether (as though a wool scarf were covering his mouth) as he trudges through cadences reminiscent of Ryan Adams or Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, delicately dotting his stanzas with multi-dimensional characters weathering the winters of their existence. Which is more enriching than it sounds.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Recession
    His first two albums were well-crafted, uncompromising in their focus, and exceptionally entertaining. The Recession makes it three.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Chemical Chords
    Diehards will probably resent their new predictability and homogeneity, but the group's mature phase is capable of generating one hell of a pop album.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Where You Go I Go Too
    While Where You Go may not be his masterpiece, as a distillation of the space-disco aesthetic, it's unparalleled.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Simply Grand
    Her voice is rich, finely textured, and more expressive now than when it hit r&b charts in the 1960s. But her recordings can sound monotonous. That's not true here.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fasciinatiion
    Mostly the fascination here is with sounds-not-songs, which is fine for the year Portishead came back, as long as the Faint have enough dial tones and farts swiped from Thom Yorke's basement tapes to deck out Fink's traditionally one-note delivery when attention wanders.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Harps And Angels
    Newman is a master of sardonic humor, be it subtle or slapstick. Harps and Angels is further proof.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Preteen Weaponry
    Weaponry is essential: a particularly overwhelming headphones album not unlike some of Boredoms' more hypnotic work.
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