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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Echoes
    What makes Echoes more than the sum of its inspirations... is that the band audibly, valiantly struggle to create something bigger than they are.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Out Of The Woods
    A masterpiece showcasing Thorn's voice, songwriting, and taste.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Easy Tiger
    The lived-in songs and careful presentation of Easy Tiger make for one of the strongest records of his second career as a solo artist.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Golden Dove
    Weaves enchanting pagan ditties out of cello and euphonium, some cornball New Wave moves, and the serpentine economy of Timony's keyboards and Renaissance-faire guitar.
    • 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.
    • 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
    • 70 Critic Score
    Volume One
    There's nothing offensive about anything on Volume One, which, with its catchy melodies, universally appealing lyrics, and mellow production, might just be a hit.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Intoxication
    The slick Shaggy sex formula is intact, plus he steps off the well-worn with booming first single 'Church Heathen,' already scorching JA parties with its keen indictment of religious hypocrisy, and 'All About Love,' featuring his raw, ragged, utterly compelling singing voice. 'Body a Shake' comes harder than before.
    • 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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Midnight Boom
    More glamorous but less versatile, the Kills are the easier listen, particularly if their superficiality is taken to be deliberate.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Preteen Weaponry
    Weaponry is essential: a particularly overwhelming headphones album not unlike some of Boredoms' more hypnotic work.
    • 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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amnesiac
    Where Kid A couldn't help but be seen as a reaction to fame and intense scrutiny, Amnesiac illuminates what Radiohead are now, and will likely be for a long time: an evasive, willfully experimental rock band who feel uncomfortable in their own skins.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Louden Up Now
    Nimble as they are, !!! are definitely a little too certain of their own funkiness.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Working Man's Cafe
    It could have come across as professional formalism enhancing a half-assed satirist's latest free-market nightmare, but Working Man's Café adds lyricism to the reportage and makes itself useful enough.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fundamental
    Trevor Horn's production has a pleasing fullness, opening the melodies without smothering them.
    • 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
    Venus On Earth
    Venus on Earth, their third album, contains more English lyrics than their previous two efforts, but it also represents some of the band's most sentimental work.
    • 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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Partie Traumatic
    As far as eagerly anticipated debuts go, Partie Traumatic is loose and unforced in its extreme eagerness to please.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ce
    The brightest, weirdest spots—lags are around but ultimately forgivable—are thrilling.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ringleader Of The Tormentors
    A simmering, sultry affair.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blue Eyed In The Red Room
    Blue Eyed... pegs him as a nimble architect of texture and melody, chiseling experimental forms into something refined.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Art Official Intelligence (Mosaic Thump)
    De La may have made their most formulaic album to date in order to speak against the formularization of hip-hop.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    100th Window
    Even in the album's most quiet moments, songs rarely waver in dynamics from their liftoff point.
    • 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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mountain Battles
    In many ways, what follows is the perfect distillation of the Breeders' catalog (and Deal's attendant side project, the Amps).
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Worship Music
    Anthrax's tenth album, Worship Music, should rightfully be seen as a triumph.
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