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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    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nostalgia, Ultra.
    He's an intuitive r&b stylist, with a firm sense of song structure (he's written for Justin Bieber and Beyoncé) and a conversational talk-singing voice that is as indebted to Justin Timberlake and Pharrell as it is to R. Kelly.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Weather
    With Weather, Ndegeocello shows how she's poised to follow Animal Collective down the rabbit hole and into a promised land of greater musical freedom.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Take Care
    Take Care is a carefully crafted bundle of contradictory sentiments from a conflicted rapper who explores his own neuroses in as compelling a manner as anyone not named Kanye West.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wild Flag
    The result is a collection of songs where the choppy, dreamy prog of "Glass Tambourine" can exist within a few tracks of the pogo-inducing "Short Version" and still come off as a cohesive, energy-rush-inducing whole.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Worship Music
    Anthrax's tenth album, Worship Music, should rightfully be seen as a triumph.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gold Cobra
    The album plays to the band's strengths, but there's simply nothing here as catchy as "My Way" or as infectiously fun as "Break Stuff."
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nothing But the Beat
    Overall the album is a triumph of collective will and creativity, but not every track fits every performer perfectly.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Tha Carter IV
    This is a bad rap album, and one that needed the shock of Internet promotion that the Jay-Z diss on "It's Good" gave it when C4 leaked.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The R.E.D. Album
    When there is a firm hand reining him in, Game can still make good rap music. Left to his own devices, however, he produces a dismaying mess.
    • 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
    • 70 Critic Score
    Chief
    Chief, like Church's other work, walks the line between hard Southern boogie and softie singer-songster sap, but with plenty of chug.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dedication
    Zomby's early work stood out for the care with which it was created, but even given that, there's something startlingly mature about the production here.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Pink Friday
    Pink Friday is full of boring....the most confounding thing about Pink Friday is that it lacks style, lacks weirdness, whatever your opinions of how deeply that weirdness goes.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Last Summer
    There's not much screaming on Last Summer. Like I'm Going Away, it's a basic, modest studio-rock record, the kind common in the '70s, with flavorful detours reminiscent of that era.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Black Up
    That's Black Up's predicament: It wants to be experienced viscerally, but it's being stripped of life by over-intellectualization.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    King of Hearts
    Once the heat and light brought by Lloyd's nuclear P-bomb wear off, King remains utterly replayable.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Larceny & Old Lace
    Righteous dilettantes, the Coathangers' songs are simple and jarring-they're irreverent towards melody and their hooks jut at odd angles.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    David Comes To Life
    It's a true testament to the band that its windswept glory-rock stays exhilarating for nearly 80 minutes.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Planet Pit
    It's cocky, it's manufactured, it's too reliant on industry pal-downs, ugh, it's inorganic. Then again, it's perfectly of a moment where "All I Do Is Win" is the must-have self-fulfilling prophecy, and Planet Pit sounds like it's winning. And even if it isn't, well, it all but tells you to go ahead and groan.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bon Iver
    Vernon seems torn between selling his lyrics and using his voice as just another emotional cue in the thick mix. But if you're looking for an album to get lost in, who knew a guy previously feted for stripped-down "realness" would provide the year's best?
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Finally Famous
    Finally Famous, which contains a handful of other tracks produced by No I.D. as well as collaborations with the likes of the Neptunes and Wiz Khalifa, is a slick triumph filled with muscular drums and rolling synthesizers.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    4
    Beyonce's art is delivery, and 4 is a gorgeous frame for her voice at its absolute best.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rated R
    You are way, way better off not projecting any kind of emotional subtext onto this record.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Past Life Martyred Saints
    She has a huge talent for drama--when to build, when to break, when to whisper or coo or yell, when to camp a while in a looping melody and when to move on--and the album's 37 minutes feel majestic and unhurried.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Born This Way
    For as overblown as Born is clearly intended to be, it's very difficult to love it for its nature--its gentler moments are more rewarding.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Goblin
    The repugnant misogynistic bullshit on Goblin sort of cancels any goodwill I have toward the guy. Particularly because it feels more like search engine optimization; Tyler makes no bones about his desire to hit the pop charts, and on too much of Goblin, he's doing it in the tawdriest way possible.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eye Contact
    Eye Contact delights with its danceability and synthetic pleasure, but it's frontwoman Lizzi Bougatsos who holds the jams together.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Who Kill
    Garbus's engagement is loud and hard to ignore. That she engages without despair is the part I find most admirable of all.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Screws Get Loose
    Screws aspires to the high-end pop of Lowe's Pure Pop for Now People or the Flamin Groovies' mid-'70s work, and gets there more often than not.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rolling Papers
    The idea of ascension, both literally and figuratively, is the album's prevailing motif, and it's the tracks that focus most intensely on this theme that are the strongest.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Femme Fatale
    Even more telling is her frequently blank-eyed delivery: She's never been a great vocal interpreter, but on Fatale she sounds about as present as she did on Blackout.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Collapse into Now
    What makes this record better than Accelerate is the feeling that R.E.M. have figured out how to be R.E.M. again--how to affect the signature balance of folky and punky that's inspired bands far less worshipful than Pearl Jam or the Decemberists.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Goodbye Lullaby
    Faced with competing for "pop" ambitions this "rock" wannabe never really had, she instead strides toward brunette-dom on the new, stalwartly unfun Goodbye Lullaby, which--if you couldn't tell from the piano on the cover-means Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch. This is the death of Auto-Tune, moment of silence. Except, you know, for the single.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    James Blake
    James Blake's most compelling moments come when you can't tell where he stops and the machines begin.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dynamite Steps
    Gorgeously produced by the Syndicate, many of these tracks are piano-driven, mid-tempo dirges that take a while to get rolling; occasionally, as on "Be Invited," they just circle the block.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Greatest Story Never Told
    What really strikes you about its 17 tracks (only two failed to make the final cut due to sample- and guest-artist-clearance issues) is Saigon's sincerity.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    21
    21 probably isn't the best album Adele has in her, but it just might make her famous enough to finally be a pain in the ass.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Magic Place
    The Magic Place, Barwick's first release on Asthmatic Kitty (after two self-released albums), trails a dreamlike reverie across its 45 minutes.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Let England Shake
    this time, she has found a middle ground therein, an appropriately murky backdrop as she channels another of her early inspirations: Bob Dylan. Like vintage Bob, Shake pores over history's indignities with a fine-toothed comb.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kaputt
    He's the smartest guy in the room and bent on walking into rooms where nobody wants to listen to him [...] These are the juxtapositions that make Kaputt-and all of Bejar's music-smart and worthwhile.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Late Registration
    Each of these songs offers more exquisite details than I could earmark in twice this space, many of them literary, which the English prof's dropout son rightly claims as his calling. But secret brilliance is more likely to emerge from the sops to his hip-hop base.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Fool
    Their stupendous debut full-length, The Fool, triangulates Moon Pix–era Cat Power's ghostly, morbid, gorgeous bedroom folk with the Slits' lithe, muscular post-punk.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The DeAndre Way
    I increasingly doubt I'll crank much of whatever comes next from this self-enamored rascal nearing the limits of his gig, but he's had his uses: He's vexed all the right sticklers and coined ample catchy hooks during the commercial breaks.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beautiful Dreamers
    In every way that matters, it's typical Frisell-as lyrical in approach as it is eclectic in outlook, touching on Stephen Foster, Blind Willie Johnson, Benny Goodman, the Carter Family, and Little Anthony and the Imperials, together with its characteristically wounding originals.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    DIRTY BABY
    The result comes across like the score to a film that never quite stays in focus, except for a bit of Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone in the second movement.
    • Village Voice
      • Posted Dec 22, 2010
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Silent Movies
    You also come away wondering why Ribot isn't as widely celebrated as Frisell. Don't tell me contemporary jazz has room for only one high-plains drifter.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
    The reason this convoluted rock opera can't match the Who, U2, Green Day, or even Styx is that Danger Days is a story constructed without rising or falling action.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Last Train to Paris
    Paris looks back to dance music as soulful catharsis and emotionalism, not the cold thump that's taken over as of late.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Lady Killer
    It remains to be seen if The Lady Killer will continue his hot streak, but it should-it's one of the best records of the year, and also his most commercial, and that's not an insult.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
    Kanye is rapping and singing better and with more tenacity than he ever has on Fantasy, but also less often, wisely allowing others to speak for him-every single guest artist on this album senses the moment and rises to the occasion.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Speak Now
    She can still sound strained and thin, and often strays into a pitch that drives some people crazy; but she's learned how to make words sound like what they mean.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Merry Christmas II You
    The near-crazed desperation to please listeners for her own sake is all over Merry Christmas II You: A "gift" to her fans (or so she claims) that they, of course, must pay for, it's her fascinating, career-long saga of self-obsession in a nutshell.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hurricane
    The cast includes Sly & Robbie, Brian Eno, Tricky, Wendy & Lisa, and aristocratic former lover Ivor Guest, who brings his experience as a soundtrack composer to an album rich with cinematic splendor.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Solo
    It's easy to hear what Iyer means when listening to Solo, his latest disc. For sheer cohesion, it tops Historicity, and since he's alone at the piano throughout, his reflective streak is telegraphed.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Flamingo
    Though the record is more believably grown than his main band's overblown 2006 Bruce ode Sam's Town, it's still a bit heartbreaking to see such a lovable peacock purposefully fading his colors.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lisbon
    2008's You and Me arguably represented a high-water mark in the Walkmen's sturdy career; the new Lisbon does nothing to erode that goodwill. On the whole, it's less raucous than its predecessor.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Majesty Shredding
    Majesty Shredding is the band's first new studio album in nine years, vigorous and kicking, much more so than you'd have right or reason to expect out of a band this deep into their career.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Guitar Song
    It's got a few clunkers and slow spots, and, especially given the depressive tempos Johnson's so fond of, it's inadvisable to ingest in one sitting. But surprisingly Guitar is packed at least as solid as his last set, and it's less conventional to boot.
    • 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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Interpol
    On Interpol, he and his bandmates manage the seemingly unmanageable task of finding new wrinkles in a tightly defined sound, one that's been theirs for nearly a decade.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black City
    The lyrics themselves--overstocked with darkness, paranoia, and bodily fluids--are as indecipherable as the vocals are buried. They're scene-setters. It's the death-disco groove that intoxicates and defines this City.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Suburbs
    It's profoundly self-serious, expertly workmanlike, occasionally transcendent, but lacking that childlike volatility, that glorious willingness to look and sound ridiculous. It's rare that so much nonetheless leaves you wanting more.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    King of the Beach
    Williams's record is brisk, clocking in under 40 minutes. But it takes far more risks, dabbling in Animal Collective–ish psych pastiche on "Baseball Cards," Kurt Fauxbain dummy posturing on the riotous "Idiot," and Phil Spector homage not once but twice-on the magical "Da Doo Run Run"–lifting "Mickey Mouse" and, less impressively, with a rip of the "Be My Baby" beat on "When Will You Come."
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Str8 Killa [EP]
    While Str8 Killa is every bit as consistent as his first two tapes, there's a sense that Gibbs has hit his ceiling, both artistically and in what he can hope to accomplish without a record deal.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Crazy for You
    Her lyrics are a tricky thing-their literalism is both their greatest strength and a crippling weakness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Teflon Don
    The ridiculously extravagant and extravagantly ridiculous new Teflon Don is certain to only rile folks up further; in its sound, scope, ambition, and arm's-length relationship to reality.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    MAYA
    She remains vitally important to The Discourse for that reason alone. Maya both reminds you of that fact-of that sickly sweet spot only she can hit-and warns you how long and punishing a road it can be to get there. For her, and for you.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Flesh Tone
    These songs, for all their Top 40 disco glitter (will.i.am. signed her to his label and executive-produces here), compel with their tradeoffs between vulnerability and euphoria, though if you aren't paying attention, they're slick enough to pass as merely exceptional pop-radio or club-floor fodder.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
    The resulting, mercifully final product is, as you might have suspected all along, fantastic, by turns triumphant, defiant, and gleefully crass.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Can't Be Tamed
    A lot of its songs are ballads that ooze sap like an abandoned sponge.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    American Slang
    The Gaslight Anthem's profound affection for and commitment to their forebears are just as present as they were before, but only here does the band sound as eager to bury as to praise them.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Thank Me Later
    Drake is not changing rap, because the thing Drake is worst at is rap. It's everything else that can-and probably will-change. Perspectives, tempos, the very notion of entitlement . . . they're all up for grabs.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bionic
    Left unasked is the question of whether you needed that-the bondage theme, the 10-octave tantrum, the synth war, all of that-but don't expect the rest of her new album, Bionic, to inquire, either.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    White Crosses
    White Crosses is all shiny and fresh and proudly expedient, without proving a thing except that Against Me! are fully capable of doing it again.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Merriweather Post Pavilion
    MPP is filled with enough new achievements that it's a waste of space to lament the past. It's a rhythm record with an atmosphere.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Emeritus
    Scarface remains trapped in the four-cornered room of his mind, but he seems to have found a measure of peace in solitude, turning out quietly masterful albums like this one, and letting time turn him into a weathered monument.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
    Byrne's singing was never exactly the first thing you loved about him--he so often has the high-pitched blankness of a sustained yawn. But he sounds lovely here, age bringing a surer and rawer tone along with more confidence in his question mark.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    808s & Heartbreak
    808s & Heartbreak can be queasy and even morally indefensible sometimes. But that puerile sentiment also gives it its force.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Theater Of The Mind
    As a consequence of his preoccupation with acting and "lyricism," Luda neglects to do what he does best: make fun music.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Dark Horse
    Their latest is ridiculously brazen, comically outsized, and defiantly Bruckheimer-esque.
    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Thr33 Ringz
    Even when veering wildly away from good sense--and 'Change' is hardly a sensical move--there’s an unwitting pop hit right around the bend.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fearless
    Swift may not possess the vocal power to fully sell her more lyrically generic material (Underwood's great gift), but for the most part, this remarkably self-aware adolescent's words don't falter, masterfully avoiding the typical diarist's pitfalls of trite banality and pseudo-profound bullshit.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Singles
    The first 25 minutes of this loose compilation come as close to perfection as you could hope....The five remixes that make up the rest of The Singles aren't bad by any stretch, but they all try to drag the band closer to conventional dance music, whereas the band's power lies precisely in the way they already belong on the dance floor without overselling themselves or smoothing out their rougher edges.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night
    Love Is All's boisterous clamor is the real draw here. The band skips over cerebral tricks and hep posturing, instead going straight for adrenalized kicks, and it's a rush that lasts long after the record ends.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Soul
    His signature baritone, with its raspy textures and controlled intensity fits well with Southern soulster styles. However, he rarely diverts far from the original arrangements.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Renaissance
    After myriad delays and label woes, it's clear the interminable wait for new material was worth it.
    • 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.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Call Me Crazy
    Call Me Crazy arrives and hedges the bet: Downy pop blooms next to pedal-steel-driven barroom weepers. The title is apt--this one’s got a pronounced multiple-personality disorder.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Flashy
    The world only needed one Electric Six album, but for a few understated moments, this one makes the case for a second.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Receivers
    Receivers is what die-hard fans refer to as the record too far.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Ice
    Quality stuff. Sorta like 'Send for the Man,' but better.
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