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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    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World For Tomorrow
    Overall, the songs are weaker than before--too many feel cheesy, bland, half-baked.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Raising Sand
    Though Alison Krauss and Robert Plant make strange bedfellows indeed, the result is an engrossing, powerfully evocative collection.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chase This Light
    Thanks to singer Jim Adkins's bottomless well of high-flying choruses (not to mention the general shittiness of current affairs), the formula still delivers.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Make Sure They See My Face
    The greatest thrill, however, is that Kenna's square-peg edges still never quite line up with the mainstream hole.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Alchemy Index Vols. I and II: Fire and Water
    Some of the sound makes for gorgeous fury.... But a little concision--and a bit of Pete Wentz's tune sense--would've gone a long way.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Random Spirit Lover
    Lover's defects stem less from long length than from how densely Krug packs each nervous tic.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Cease To Begin
    With 10 tracks adding up to a mere 34 minutes, this follow-up is much more wan and insubstantial than its predecessor.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mantaray
    Mantaray, Siouxsie's blazing solo debut, earns accolades with no trace of fatigue, padding, or confusion, as on-it and of-the-moment as Justin Timberlake.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Magic
    Magic, a maddeningly uneven record that often sounds like legends coasting, most apparently on 'Living in the Future' and 'Last to Die.'
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    White Chalk
    As usual, the excellent mix--opaque but sunlit--helps; as usual, we eagerly await her next album.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Our Bedroom After The War
    Only a great fool would be satisfied with just a track or two.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Just Like You
    You can't deny the pleasure of finding a ride-or-die chick who's vulnerable, but can still kick your trifling ass.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shine
    Coupled with other woodwinds, these horns sound elegant, almost classical. But too often the lead tenor veers dangerously deep into Grover Washington territory--such meandering (God forgive me if it's Wayne Shorter) damns otherwise lovely arrangements to elevator-music oblivion.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Scene Of The Crime
    LaVette sings Scene as if she's been backed into a corner and relishes the sensation.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Asleep At Heaven's Gate
    Asleep at Heaven's Gate now continues that same kind of expert carnival of noise, even as its songs are longer (six of the 12 creep over five minutes) and flirt with jam-band explorations. Oddly, though, it feels like a step back.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Death Is This Communion
    DITC will still melt your speakers. Jack Endino's clean yet full-tilt production fills out the sound, but it's drummer Des Kensel's ability to push forward and hold back--not simply pound monochromatically from start to finish--that truly creates the thriving, volatile atmosphere here.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Curtis
    Curtis is stuffed with tightly wound 21st-century pop songwriting, full of that invisible craft and flow that renders a thing eminently listenable even if it's gratuitously raunchy, politically reprehensible, and sexually retrograde.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strawberry Jam
    Just because there's an onslaught of verbiage and weird noises (like most pop these days) does not a pop album make. It is their most oxymoronic, though.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Graduation
    Grating bouts of narcissism aside, Graduation contains killer pieces of production: 'Stronger' uses Daft Punk's 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' to practically revive Eurodisco, while 'Champion' snarkily snatches its hook from Steely Dan's 'Kid Charlemagne.'
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Happiness Ltd.
    So while '5 Times Out of 100' and 'My Best Friend' revive old times, you miss Steve Bay's unhinged vocals and jagged keyboards elsewhere when HHH instead try to compensate with a funky chant- rocker ('Give Up') or a big-drama Raspberries tribute (the title track).
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Attack Decay Sustain Release
    It's love song 'I Believe,' really sets the group apart from 2007's other big-beat revivalists, draping ex-Simian bandmate Simon Lord's FutureSex'd croon in Italo-disco shimmer. By keeping its heart, the result edges out Justice's more brutal † for most exciting, um, "blog house" debut of the year.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Autumn of the Seraphs
    Opener 'From Nothing to Nowhere' also makes the case that Pinback's ready for some new fans: It's fast and furious, nicely setting a tempo that suggests they're not fucking around while conveying a (much-needed) immediacy through Rob Crow's voice.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Liars
    A masterpiece? No. Disturbingly solid noise? Sure.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    None Shall Pass
    You can't decipher most of what he's saying, and sometimes you're better off. And the beats, provided variously by Blockhead, El-P, and Aesop himself, are rarely more than serviceable. Still, when things come together, as on the title track, we're reminded why many consider this guy the reigning champ of indie rap.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Places Like This
    Places Like This ultimately shares qualities with its IM-chat womb: It's entertaining as hell, but eventually you'd rather just minimize the window and get on with your day.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Challengers
    The Pornographers work better when they move quicker and don't overthink.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Under the Blacklight
    Under the Blacklight is a brief and often bizarre record, jiggling with artificial rhythm and awash in backup singers imported from 1981.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ear Drum
    Ear Drum marks the self-proclaimed BK MC's third full-length feature, and astoundingly, it's a captivating, cocksure rejoinder to everyone who abandoned him.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Hair, The TV, The Baby & The Band
    They've become lapidary masters. The trouble is, who's listening and learning?
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    30 Year Low
    They've said their piece and torn each other into pieces–we're left to rubberneck at the crack-up.
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