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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    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Beekeeper
    Mainly there's either promising melodies (the "Crucify"-aping "Parasol") ruined by cringe-y lyrics, or decent lyrical ideas executed like a Yoplait commercial. ("This is sooo good." "Pirates good!" Cue bongos.)
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Manzanita
    One problem though: Mia peaks too soon. That opener is by far the strongest song. The rest is by turns meditative, breezy, intimate, and snoozy.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Before The Poison
    Unless you dig Nick's poetry, grab the Polly songs and run.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    World's Apart
    It's all so precious; let's hope they still break shit live.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Digital Ash In A Digital Urn
    Up against the carefully realized Wide Awake, Digital Ash is a mess, and not just sonically.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
    A handsome channel 13 complimentary tote bag of an album that polishes his image as the fantasy rebellious son who hangs at socialist bookstores and swipes your Gram Parsons records.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Documentary
    A rep-building, played-out retread of gangbang reveries set to so-so def beats by this hiphop minute's latest multiplatinum matinee thug-idol for the girls-gone-wild set.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Black Mountain
    I'd call it "psych-drone-sludge" except it's more tuneful and lively than those words imply.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
    This time, Steve Lillywhite and the other producers assembled simply construct a U2 album in miniature, mixing in the Edge's processed-guitar trademark whenever you fear they're straying into unforgivable un-U2ness. That's just not enough.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    New Danger
    A couple of creative notches below 2000's gleaming Black on Both Sides.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Size Matters
    Hamilton's vocals are occasionally plotted now with pronounced melodies, which is nice. But his strikingly affectless, prep-school delivery is abandoned in favor of a gritty, generic bark.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Has Been
    On the scale of Singing Shat, Has Been ranks above the Shakespeare rap in Free Enterprise, but below "Mr. Tambourine Man."
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Chronicles Of Life And Death
    Good Charlotte have hooks for days and the fun, gloomy Life and Death sounds like a moody missing link between Fountains of Wayne and Thrice.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Burned Mind
    Every track is a pure battle, with searing bursts of abrasion chopping at lava flows of insane density.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Damage
    Damage seems yoked to the early '90s.
    • 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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Beautiful Struggle
    Is cumbersome when it seems self-conscious, and works well when it seems effortless, when Talib ceases overcompensating with overproduction, diva guest spots, or repetitive political invective.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sweat
    Anchored by predigested melodic hooks, Nelly's songs seem composed with the sole intention of ending up as your next ringtone. [Combined review of both discs]
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Suit
    Anchored by predigested melodic hooks, Nelly's songs seem composed with the sole intention of ending up as your next ringtone. [Combined review of both discs]
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Revolution Starts Now
    It makes sense that, of the improvised songs, the rockers turned out best.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Venomous Villain [VV:2]
    VV:2 does have a bit of a for-hire feel.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Drag It Up
    Drag it Up doesn't have the gut-level impact of the older stuff.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Miss Machine
    The last 10 or so minutes of the CD veer between bursts of riff noise more smoothly recorded than expected and washes of music to watch soft porn by, indicating the charm of being proudly abrasive and busy is wearing off.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Together We're Heavy
    Grandiloquent, glorious gobbledygook.
    • 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.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Seventy Two & Sunny
    Confused rock and r&b conceits wander into onrushing 16-wheelers of c&w—barbershop quartet-ish background vox, crisp git-fiddle plucks, lyrics equal parts syrup and cheer. The tightrope he's walking is dental floss, but he still leans into every note.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Hunger For More
    Banks lacks 50's humor, vocal playfulness, and stone-cold articulation.
    • 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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Red Bedroom
    These scuzzy Voidoids are as immature as Blink-182 were; they just have hipper ways of hiding it—like pretending punk and new wave were the same thing.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    On My Way
    Beatles-style tunes crank out with steady snares, blaring power riffs, and languid keyboard interjections, but feel mundane.
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