Village Voice's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Saturnalia
    The result's a bit grungy, sure--but there's also an undercurrent of dark, sinister country and blues that suggests they're not just rehashing old times.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Rush Of Blood To The Head
    Coldplay's new record is a little edgier, trancier, and more conversational than their last. It is called A Rush of Blood to the Head, and in waves and swells of major tunes and frisky then looping time signatures, that's just about the effect it has.
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Black Swan
    As profound as anything in his oeuvre.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
    Whether it inspires bosom-heaving, jersey-rending, or chopper-flagging, Explosions in the Sky will have true believers again faint with praise.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Electric Circus
    Beautifully engineered, Circus sounds chocolaty and recombinant even when it doth protest the Enlightened Guy angle too much.
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Grind Date
    A superbly sequenced set chock-full of clever entendres, oozing with existentialisms on par with those of Buhloone Mindstate and De La Soul Is Dead.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Now Here Is Nowhere
    Too bad FM radio still has its head stuck up its pre-1980 ass, 'cause the album is so FM—so non-single-driven AOR—but in such a cool robot-from-the-2004-future-sent-to-save-rock-in-the-past sort of way.
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Party Intellectuals
    No surprise, Ribot's versatility as a guitarist is the main draw here.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rising Down
    The production style displays unique shadings and shifts in sound, suggesting an attention to sonic detail emblematic of a drummer with the deep musical (especially jazz-related) knowledge that ?uestlove owns. But this may also sustain the most oft-heard complaint against the Roots: the seeming inability of their lead vocalist, Black Thought, to unfailingly deliver "hip-hop quotables."
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Coral Sea
    Like all of her wordplay--as written, sometimes spontaneously spoken, and occasionally sung--it fits.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Confessions On A Dance Floor
    Easily dance record of the year, Confessions is an almost seamless tribute to the strobe-lit sensuality of the '80s New York club scene that gave Madge her roots, which she explores with compelling aplomb.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Antics
    What makes Antics such an improvement over Bright Lights is how capable Interpol have become at complementing Banks's lovely ambiguity with an increasingly precise post-punk throb.
    • 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.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Gang Of Losers
    Strangely, what the sloppier approach really does is highlight bandleader Murray Lightburn's wondrous voice.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sea Change
    The most disappointing aspect of this record is that Beck has fallen into the trap of confusing earnestly repeated clichés for personal lyrics.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Grey Album
    Of course it's a gimmick, but about half of it works anyway.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Liars
    A masterpiece? No. Disturbingly solid noise? Sure.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All That You Can't Leave Behind
    All That You Can't Leave Behind returns to the grand gestures of old. Practically every song a potential hit single. Soulful, exuberant, at peace with its own clichés, this is one U2 record that will never be called antianything.... Call it their R.E.M. album, monster rock filtered through a sophisticate's restraint.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    So This Is Goodbye
    Junior Boys' brand of synthpop can't help sounding rooted in the '80s, and with Scritti Politti and thePet Shop Boys recently resurfacing to scratch the same itch, there may be no burning need for what Manitobans Jeremy Greenspan and Matthew Didemus do. Which doesn't mean they don't do it well.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Desire
    What Desire offers instead is at times cerebral and at times depraved, but invariably provocative.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
    Much more realized than last year's Young Liars EP, it's also a bit more conventional.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Give Up
    album hits people who love the sound extravaganzas of overdubbed guitar symphonies, can't hang with the folkiness full-service singer-songwriters inevitably preserve, and expect melodic flair and beats, yet sometimes want to hear words.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Year Of The Gentleman
    Ne-Yo's fantastic third CD, The Year of the Gentleman, reconfigures "grown and sexy" by detailing relationships with an often uneasy mix of heartache, reflection, wit, lust, and resignation.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Hip Hop Is Dead
    A Dante-channeling journey through the many diverse facets of hip-hop.
    • 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.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nextdoorland
    It definitely doesn't disgrace the Boys' past, but that might be because Hitchcock's wise enough not to try to upend his classic material.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Way I See It
    Even while Saadiq pays homage to soul's golden era, he brings his own flavor through his tell-tale tenor; still, if it ain't your cup of tea, just slip this in your parents' record collection and they won't notice a thing.
Page: