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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    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ta-Dah
    Arch and ostentatious, their music both falls victim to and exalts in Warhol's 15-minutes-of-fame declaration. Like a screenprint of a soup can, it's at once timeless and pointless.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Little Bit Longer
    Too many of these songs get bogged down in chord changes and lyrics likely to sound worn-out even to a 10-year-old.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Grey Album
    Of course it's a gimmick, but about half of it works anyway.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Nancy Sinatra
    Jack White took Loretta Lynn indie-rock Nashville with an unquenchable musical hunger and attainment that never had to feel sheepish about following the work of a music maestro as juicy and august as the late Owen Bradley. AJ Azzarto, Matt Azzarto, and Don Fleming, Sinatra's producers, do something else. They craft an indie-rock Nancy Sinatra, way too much of which is way too 1994.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Zoomer
    At times it's a bit like a post-techno Jesus and Mary Chain, burying tambourine rattle and two-chord bangers beneath an avalanche of clicks and static.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    L.A.X.
    Somehow, the Game is still coasting on wispy, West Coast–nostalgia fumes--chronic, red rags, lolos, etc.--but the goodwill, at this point, has pretty much exhausted itself.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Hunger For More
    Banks lacks 50's humor, vocal playfulness, and stone-cold articulation.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sunday At Devil Dirt
    Although Devil Dirt has its rewarding moments, they're usually matters of arrangement rather than execution or personality, which means it's more about the chemistry of boy-meets-girl than about the specific boy or girl.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Senor Smoke
    Half the time, we get songs of ambiguous quality, with more filler lines than killer ones, a big change from Fire's all-or-nothing approach.... But when everything comes together, the results are massively more rewarding than anything on Fire.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Black Parade
    For all that sonic triumph, the lyrics feel like an empty gesture, sub–Trapper Keeper woe-mongering that'll thrill suburban teens but sounds odd coming from guys old enough to know better.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    SelmaSongs: Music from the Motion Picture Dancer in the Dark
    Too much dark and not enough dancer--textured passages that might sound great with luscious visuals, but are mere din from a cheap CD boom box.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Before The Poison
    Unless you dig Nick's poetry, grab the Polly songs and run.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Damage
    Damage seems yoked to the early '90s.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Viva La Vida
    When the pastoral Eno flourishes that started Vida off so promisingly return for a quick coda, Martin reverts back to his suavely crooning self, but blows it with his first four words: "And in the end . . . . " Bam, you're thinking 'Abbey Road,' and while Vida is far from a dog, it's just another unflattering comparison that the record itself needlessly invites--an extremely overconfident way to handle a crisis of confidence.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Slow Wonder
    Though there's little of the powerpuff zoom associated with the New P's here, uptempo grins like "On the Table" make denying the pleasantness of it all impossible.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    God's Son
    Nas doesn't ruin a decent beat, but rarely is he able to improve one.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gift Of Screws
    When he flexes his craft, he corrals multi-tracked vocals of himself that coast over static guitar arpeggios, like a priest who prefers to clack his rosary beads in his bedroom rather than pray aloud in a chapel with his peers. If there's a Lord, he's grateful for the devotion, but for eavesdroppers, it does get tedious.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mail On Sunday
    The result is so robotic in its attempt to jolt every single pleasure center every single second that any twist of human joy, lust, awareness, or reflection is assimilated into its brittle, crunky Borg cube.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Yours Truly, Angry Mob
    They're the English equivalent of Fountains of Wayne.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Rising
    He sounds as genuinely hurt and confused as any of us, but if he's gained any insight into that hurt or confusion, he's not about to express it.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Untitled
    Much of the music bears little resemblance to the down-tuned chug-and-glug found on the band's early records.
    • 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.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Winter Women / Holy Ghost Language School
    Without Sis, Matthew still does just fine, but let's be honest: You know the style by now.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Tipping Point
    For a group who can be so compelling when they aim high and fall short, an effort so squarely average is all the more disappointing.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Walk It Off
    Problem is, Walk It Off is recorded like a single, 45-minute Big Event, rendering the alleged omniharp, tubular bells, and timpani mere liner-note abstractions.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    From A Compound Eye
    That Eye is neither great nor terrible and often very good can be attributed to one part talent and two parts luck. But the fact remains that Pollard is far too willing to leave all the heavy lifting to the listeners.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Body Talk, Pt. 2
    And what a voice it is, dominating Body Talk Pt. 2 to a severe degree. Her alto, which sometimes mimics but never goes as far out as Kate Bush or Cyndi Lauper's, is like a fluorescent light on her music, washing out everything in its wake. If you love her voice, great; if you don't, it will cloy you to death.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Morningwood
    Calculated space-age power rock.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Ecleftic 2 Sides II a Book
    So while Ecleftic ain't wack, it's no carnival. It realizes the B-boy boho dream much better than caricaturist "hiphop metal" acts, but Clef served our interests much better last time at bat.
    • 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.'
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