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For 232 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 68% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 29% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: 92 Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
Lowest review score: 20 When It All Goes South
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 198 out of 232
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 232
  3. Negative: 2 out of 232
232 music reviews
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    • 75 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Pt. 2)
    Wasp Star adheres to the bouncy melodicism and skewed humor that's been XTC's stock in trade for 25 years.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    First of the Microbe Hunters
    They've offered us more inventive, more substantial work in the past...
    • 69 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Binaural
    A formless collection that drifts from one tune to the next, weighed down by a general sense of murk that pervades everything from Tchad Blake's production to the song arrangements and the lyrics.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    nyc ghosts & flowers
    The band members unleash meditative, self-consciously poetic jams, solidifying their status as the hipster's Phish.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Beautiful Creature
    Some of Hatfield's best work ever... [v]irtually every track here is memorable, and often heart-rending, revolving around Hatfield's strengths as an artist: her baby-girl voice; her frank, naive lyrics; and her acoustic melodies.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure
    An unseemly, almost unnecessary foray into heavy metal and hard rock, especially in light of her success on the acoustic side.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Oops!... I Did It Again
    Oops! does succeed in making Spears sound sexier and meatier -- and not that innocent -- as its team of top-shelf producers (particularly Max Martin and Rodney Jerkins) supports her adenoidal vocals and breathy hiccups with bottom-heavy arrangements that provide a bit more thrust and pump to the proceedings.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    This Time Around
    The blond brothers' creative maturity is evident all over the disc's 13 songs.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Wishville
    The band hasn't taken the same sort of strides it has in the past. That's not to say Wishville isn't a strong album, but in the realm of Catherine Wheel recordings, it doesn't deliver on the promise of Adam and Eve.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    Dusty Trails
    Too often it sounds only half completed...
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Geometrid
    But while it contains its fair share of hypnotic pop gems, The Geometrid is missing that extra something...
    • 86 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    All Hands On The Bad One
    All Hands on the Bad One returns to concise song structure, making it more accessible and ultimately more satisfying.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bachelor No. 2 (or, the last remains of the dodo)
    Bachelor No. 2 makes good on the promise hinted at by Mann's work on the Magnolia soundtrack. In her mastery of sophisticated melodies and sly turns-of-phrase, Mann brings to mind a number of heralded composers.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    White Pepper
    White Pepper may make listeners put off by Ween's crudeness give them another chance.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    XTRMNTR
    The band continues to mine both the rock and dance worlds with a jagged gruffness that is simultaneously abrasive and catchy.... The end result, though pleasing at times, is ultimately disjointed and erratic.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Silver & Gold
    With hushed arrangements that feature little more than acoustic guitar and piano over bass and drums, plus the occasional steel guitar or pump organ, the album is Young at his simplest and most easygoing.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Good Looking Blues
    Their sound has congealed into a silvery core, rooted in moody dance music, and incorporating bits of acid jazz, lite funk, and minimalist classical stylings.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Figure 8
    Smith has shifted his focus away from crafting the perfect pop epic; though this description fits several of the new tracks ("Son of Sam," "Junk Bond Trader"), there are just as many melodic fragments or simply structured ballads ("Everything Reminds Me of Her," "Somebody That I Used to Know").
    • 68 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Return of Saturn
    The music on Return of Saturn... is a bit darker than it was on Tragic Kingdom, but it's no less energetic.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Come to Where I'm From
    Because the songs jump so radically between styles, the ultimate reaction to Come to Where I'm From is confusion. Arthur seems to be looking for an identity but not feeling totally comfortable with any of the ones he adopts.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Ecstasy
    Reed has lost neither his lyrical bite nor his sonic perfectionism.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Gung Ho
    Gung Ho feels like it's operating slightly outside the constraints of time, as if it were simultaneously a product of the past four decades and a look back at them from a vantage point far in the future.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    NakedSelf
    NakedSelf feels more like a transition than a treatise, like a little bit less when more is actually called for.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Original Motion Picture Score for The Virgin Suicides
    A mesmerizing 13-track suite that ebbs and flows with a continuous hallucinatory lushness from start to finish.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    MACHINA/the machines of God
    At nearly an hour and a quarter, the album does feel a little long, especially when it falls prey to the ponderousness that made Adore drag...
    • 77 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Two Against Nature
    Familiar-sounding as these songs may be, they function as well as any blend of jazz and rock...
    • 62 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Pieces In A Modern Style
    A deeply contemplative album...
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
    But fans of the band certainly won't miss the amplification, because they, like the band, have grown up. That's one reason why most of them will conclude that And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out is the band's very best album.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Bloodflowers
    Fans who have waited patiently for a proper follow-up to 1989's acclaimed Disintegration should be pleased, if not necessarily bowled over by Bloodflowers, a deeply felt album with a similarly downcast mood.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    The Night
    Sounds nothing like a swan song, but rather like what should have been a mid-career album from a band whose ideas and abilities were still in full effect.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Disco and The Half Way To Discontent
    Pretty self-indulgent and insular, sounding at times like it was made for its creators' pleasure and little else.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    I Am Shelby Lynne
    There is much temptation in all of this, but little satisfaction. It all sounds like someone named Shelby Lynne, for her voice is impeccable throughout. But despite its title, the album comes no closer to suggesting who she might be than her previous outings have. And too few of the songs -- despite their technical virtuosity -- beg to be played over and again.
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