Absolute Punk (Staff reviews)'s Scores

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For 811 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 86% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 13% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 8.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 81
Highest review score: 100 Harmlessness
Lowest review score: 5 Fashionably Late
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 757 out of 811
  2. Mixed: 48 out of 811
  3. Negative: 6 out of 811
811 music reviews
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Your Anger
    The beauty of an album like Don't Let The Sun is that in between the rickety monuments to group songwriting, there is a simple and subtle message of camaraderie.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    God Forgives, I Don't
    While some tracks may feel more like Bay and Ratner, Ross more often than not hits his mark.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Major
    This is necessary listening for the carefree weeks before school picks up again in the fall, and it's a record you'll end up holding near throughout the entire semester and then some.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Get What You Give
    The combination of Vigil's honest, yet relatable lyricism and the powerful instrumentation make for the band's most powerful statement to date.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Challenger
    When combined with crisp guitar work, meaty bass lines, and thunderous drumming, the screams fire bullets against the enemy track after track, and unlike with Attack Attack's This Means War, Memphis May Fire are winning the battle with Challenger.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Heaven
    It is that constant desire to create new music that makes Heaven so deeply rewarding and so worth the time.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Channel Orange
    The combination of his idiosyncratic creative mind with his highly personal and conflicted lyrics has resulted in something spectacular.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Ten Stories
    While mewithoutYou is still as ambiguous as ever with their music, they've never been as creative and daring as they are on Ten Stories.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life Cycles
    Even if this isn't your preferred genre, there is no denying that Life Cycles is one of the most personal and genuine albums of 2012. There's nothing manufactured here.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    Uncaged
    A genre-bending, head-turning collection that vaults ZBB to the top of the roots-rock pedestal.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    Everything You Ever Loved
    Make Do And Mend has released the best album of their young career and one of the essential, must-have albums of 2012.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Harakiri
    So while the disc may not his best album, it is still one that makes you think and challenges you.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Handwritten
    As listeners, as fans of music, we've already hit the lottery here.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rooster Rag
    Rooster Rag is a fun and inspired effort with far too many careless throwaways. The only lasting grace is that despite mountains of adversity, the Little Feat train keeps on rolling.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Kitsune
    Marriages created a ride not worth getting off until it ends.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Twenty-Five for the Rest of Our Lives
    Their latest is yet another gem that you could spin for a room full of the most down-on-their-luck sad-sacks and get them all high-fiving.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Worship
    The results are loud, punishing, totally lacking in subtlety, and at this juncture, almost completely predictable.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends
    Heady Fwends, rather inexplicably, plays much like a proper follow-up to their 2009 mindfuck Embryonic, and their ability not only to bring a project like this together at all, but to make it work so cohesively and effectively, is as strong a testament as any to their genius.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Overexposed
    While not every song is up to a "Moves Like Jagger" or "Payphone" standard hook-wise, the co-writers and producers never stopped breaking into new grounds for the band throughout the record.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Daybreaker
    Forging a path not quite dismissing their last batch of cuts, Architects' drive to re-assert their heavier influences makes for a back-and-forth slug match that draws on a little too long at points – yet is still memorable enough to keep you coming back for the highlights.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Whitechapel
    This record takes everything the band has done in the past and gives it to us in a rather different, yet just as captivating way.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Go
    It's ... very much worth your while. Many bands should wish that their most impressive work was as good as Motion City Soundtrack's least impressive.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Temper Trap
    Certain songs on The Temper Trap are just not worth listening to more than a couple of times.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life Will Write the Words
    Combining the huge sound of Of Men & Angels with the youthful honesty of Hello, Good Friend and Do You Feel, Avary has created his best record yet with Life Will Write These Words.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Lex Hives
    A fist-pumping, hip-swerving rock record that roars with energy and makes for a most exuberant return to form.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Vulnerable
    Vulnerable contains its share of lemons, but there is a spark, an energy, that hasn't been heard from McCracken's voice in a while.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Exister
    It's punk rock for the same fans who loved Hot Water Music years ago.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired
    Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired is just completely enthralling.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Celebration Rock
    [The lyrics] carry a meaning that doesn't stop when the song does.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Strange Clouds
    The flow of Strange Clouds tends to vary between songs that are helping make the album great ("So Good," "Arena," "So Hard to Breathe"), and then the ones that keep pushing it down the route of a sophomore slump ("Ray Bands," "Just a Sign," "Play for Keeps"). Right when there's about to be a trend of some consistency, it ends up falling short.
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