AllMusic's Scores

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For 17,266 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 64% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 31% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 The Marshall Mathers LP
Lowest review score: 20 Graffiti
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14,383 out of 17266
  2. Mixed: 2,861 out of 17266
  3. Negative: 22 out of 17266
17266 music reviews
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    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ancestral Recall
    Ancestral Recall is a stylistically and culturally dynamic album borne out of Scott's deep awareness of his New Orleans roots and African American history, and his ability to push his forward-thinking post-bop skills into musical traditions far beyond jazz. However, the real revelation is that the album also manages to feel intensely personal, imbued throughout with a deep sensuality and romantic creative vision that feels distinctly his own.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Souvenir
    The result is indie rock, and Omni, at their 100% best and most exhilarating.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Soft Bulletin
    Not just the best album of 1999, The Soft Bulletin might be the best record of the entire decade.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Mouse And The Mask
    The best album of the year in the hip-hop underground.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
    Orphans is a major work that goes beyond the origins of the material and drags everything past and present with sound and texture into a present to be presented as something utterly new, beyond anything he has previously issued.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Apple Years: 1968-75 [Box Set]
    It's hard to deny the ups and downs to be found here, but combined they paint a picture of Harrison's complexities and contradictions, and the music has never sounded better--and each album has never looked better--than it does here.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition
    All this extra material may not carry the same deliberate weight as so much of Brighten the Corners, but it enhances the album considerably, bringing it closer to an album that can stand with Pavement's first three classics.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Drill Music in Zion
    On DMIZ the rapper finds a third gem in the post-T&Y crown, building his incisive pen into smaller frameworks -- with stunning consequences.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Complete BBC Sessions [Remastered]
    The 2016 triple-disc set The Complete BBC Sessions adds those songs as a third disc to a remastered version of the original 1997 compilation, an addition that doesn't greatly alter the overall picture of Zeppelin's BBC Sessions but offers a whole lot of additional value. Without those sessions, the compilation remains a stellar showcase of Led Zeppelin in ascendancy but with them the portrait deepens.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    La Futura
    La Futura is the best album from ZZ Top since that '80s landmark but it flips Eliminator on its head, using synthesized elements as accents, not as a skeleton.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Les Égarés
    Together they wander the landscape like a band of joyous nomads, relishing the journey over the destination.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Last Night in the Bittersweet
    It's an album that leaves you feeling quietly joyful and, as in the spare, poignant closer "Writer," in which Nutini ruminates on the interplay between art and life, might just make you cry.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Robyn
    Robyn defines what she's all about. Even if it took a few years to put together the label and album (and a few more to get it released everywhere), this is the pop tour de force that Robyn has always had in her.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Pearl Sessions
    Hardcore Joplin fans and historians have an excellent retrospective package which, while illuminating the process of the creation of Pearl, doesn't replace it in the canon.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Face Stabber
    Any band looking to play psychedelic music should look to this album (and Smote Reverser) to fully understand the possibilities that exist within (and far outside) of the style and just how far a band with limitless imagination can go if they don't settle for cliches and easy answers and push hard to make something unique and beautiful like the Oh Sees do here (and almost always.)
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mr. Davis
    The songs pop, the production is memorable, and the guests weave effortlessly into their respective tracks without detracting from Gucci's signature delivery.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Siesta
    They've made a classic pop record that deserves play by anyone who recognizes that songs don't need to make the most noise or be the shiniest new thing to have an impact in the emotional life of the listener. Sometimes gentle and calm gets the job done, and that is definitely the case here.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?
    An impressive 13-song set that's reliably original and streamlined.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Back To Basics
    It may be all about style, it may be a little crass and self-centered, but it's also catchy, exciting, and unique.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
    Add it all up and subtract the hype, and this one is still potent enough to rise to the top of the pile.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Pang
    Polachek further distills her approach with a collection of deeply emotive songs that showcase her delicate vocals and intricate pop sensibilities.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Cut the World [Live]
    Cut the World is easily the most revealing Antony and the Johnsons album to date, joining material from various recordings in one extended, sublime document.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Lola
    Rodriguez has been hinting at the ambition displayed on Lola for some time. What's surprising is how a record of such scope and imagination can be rendered so intimately and elegantly.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Third
    Here, the sad sounds aren't quite so soothing, but that human element of Portishead gives them a sense of comfort, just as it intensifies their sense of mystery, for it is the flaws--often quite intentional--that give this an unknowable soul and make Third utterly riveting and endlessly absorbing.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The New Year
    The New Year also stands as an equal to the brothers' best work and that makes it absolutely essential to any card-carrying indie rock devotee.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    So Beautiful or So What
    He's merely living in his time and reporting, returning with an album that's vivid, vibrant, and current in a way none of his peers have managed to achieve.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    OST
    This soundtrack is a powerful tribute not only to the time-honored but commercially ignored genres of bluegrass and mountain music but also to Burnett's remarkable skills as a producer.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Twin Cinema
    While that may disappoint some waiting for a masterpiece, there's no shame in mining the same ground as long as they make records as tight and tuneful as this.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Obviously
    There's never a sense that Lake Street Dive are preaching with heavy hands, and cuts like the bluesy "Hush Money" and the lyrical "Nobody's Stopping You Now" have a universally relatable feeling. That they also evoke the classic album-oriented work of artists like Fleetwood Mac and Carly Simon speaks to Lake Street Dive's ever-deepening sense of songcraft.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Absolute Dissent
    They're playing at full strength, with the rhythm section pumping hard on the opening title track and the three that follow it.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mad for Sadness
    Malcolm Middleton's moody musical constructions -- sometimes punchy, sometimes hallucinatory and somnolent -- positively glisten in the live setting, and serve due notice that the most important trait of the band is its sound.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Push Barman To Open Old Wounds
    Even if you already have all the EPs, you'll want to get this disc. It is reasonable priced, housed in the usual attractive package, and hearing all the songs back to back reinforces what an amazing group Belle & Sebastian were and are.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Modern Times
    It feels live, immediate.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Comb the Feelings Through Your Hair
    Truly a bold step forward for the band, the album takes Grooms to their next plateau the same way Daydream Nation proved Sonic Youth's breakthrough almost 30 years earlier.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Wasting Light
    What really matters is that nearly ten years after Songs for the Deaf, Josh Homme's influence finally rears its head on a Foo Fighters record, Dave Grohl leading his band of merry marauders -- including Pat Smear, who returns to the fold for the first time since 1997's The Colour and the Shape -- through the fiercest album they've ever made.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    No Sun
    It's raw and fearless, and just as the earliest Nite Jewel albums quietly set the course for entire musical movements of their time, it wouldn't be surprising if No Sun helped usher in a new era of forward-moving conceptual pop.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Liam Gallagher John Squire
    There's no denying the sensibilities of Liam Gallagher & John Squire lie in 20th century guitar rock, but there's a freshness in how the duo's sensibilities intertwine that gives the record a warm, welcoming pulse.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Across the Multiverse
    This time out, the best things are brought out in sharper focus and dressed up in finer clothing, and the record nearly achieves perfection.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    ONoffON
    Though Onoffon doesn't quite top Burma's 1982 masterpiece Vs., it manages to sound like the more-than-worthy follow-up they could have cut a couple years later ... only with two decades of experience and musical detours informing its nooks and crannies.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Earthling
    On a strictly musical basis, Earthling is the most varied project Eddie Vedder has ever released, and it's also his lightest album: there's a palpable joy to his free experiments here that's infectious, even fun.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Discover A Lovelier You
    Between the perfect production and the genius batch of songs, [it] makes a case for the Pernice Brothers as the best pop band on the planet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Playing The Angel
    Like the best Depeche Mode, almost everything on the album will make an initial wowing impact while remaining layered enough in subtle details to surprise and thrill with repeated listens.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Zeroes And Ones
    Zeroes and Ones is probably the album that best showcases all sides of Eleventh Dream Day, and might just be their best album yet.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mr. Misunderstood
    Where The Outsiders was designed to dazzle, Mr. Misunderstood is built for the long haul: it settles into the soul, its pleasures immediate but also sustained.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    As the Love Continues
    It may have taken Mogwai 25 years to open up like this, but it was well worth the wait: As the Love Continues is another peak in their long and influential career.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    We Are Science
    We Are Science sees Dot Allison going beyond even the highs of One Dove and crafting an accessible, evocative masterpiece that consistently surprises and thrills.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Sophtware Slump
    An album that shares a spacy sadness with Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider and Radiohead's OK Computer. Though it's a little more self-conscious and not quite as accomplished as either of those albums, it is Grandaddy's most impressive work yet and one of 2000's first worthwhile releases.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Private Press
    The depth of his production sense and the breadth of his stylistic palette prove just as astonishing the second time out.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Goodbye, Hotel Arkada
    It's ambient music at its absolute best, providing a space that the listener can be enveloped in completely just as easily as they can drift away from it without noticing.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King
    What makes Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King the Dave Matthews Band's richest, and quite possibly best, album is the implicit message that all the love and loss can be felt and shared through the music, that the creation of the music itself is the reason why they're here--and that's not just a moving tribute to LeRoi Moore, it's a reason for the band to keep moving on.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Blood And Candle Smoke
    Here, on Blood and Candle Smoke, he's perfected this method of songwriting and learned to record in a completely new way, to boot.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Return of Saturn
    With Return of Saturn, No Doubt have made a terrific, layered record that exceeds any expectations set by Tragic Kingdom.
    • AllMusic
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Dirty South
    The Drive-By Truckers are the best, smartest, and most soulful hard rock band to emerge in a very long time.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Pacific Ocean Blue [Reissue]
    Beautiful, sprawling, peaceful, wise, and as tenderly romantic as the world is round, these Dennis Wilson gems are as revelatory as they are stunning.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Whatever, My Love
    In other words, it's the best kind of reunion because it's not only lacking in nostalgia, it shows that some things can be better the second time around.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Up On Gravity Hill
    Up on Gravity Hill is a significant step forward for a group that already was doing mighty work, and it suggests any number of places they could take their talents next. Anyone who doubts METZ are one of North America's best bands needs to hear Up on Gravity Hill and find out what they've been missing.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    True Love Cast Out All Evil
    True Love Cast Out All Evil is more than just a comeback, it's the best and most deeply moving album of his solo career.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Panda Park
    Panda Park is uplifting, mesmerizing, glittery, and unapologetically psychedelic while sounding rooted in both '70s prog and skewed latter-day punk rock.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
    M83 is a keyboard band of the best kind: one with nuance, tone, thrash, and color.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Pleased To Meet You
    It’s their tightest, freshest, most contemporary batch of songs, weatherproofed to stand the test of time.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) [OST]
    The track sequencing is skip-proof. This and the film belong in every library on the planet.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Fragile Army
    The melodies are far more varied than on previous outings, and the sense of dynamics and balance of tension in these songs -- and the arrangements that accompany them -- are the most sophisticated this group has ever pulled off.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Island Years [Box Set]
    Ultimately, no matter how heated the exchanges between Martyn and his fans could be during concerts, the respect between audience and performer was total and it was loyal--the same punters who would complain the loudest would be at the very next show. It is for these people, those who knew his true worth as an artist who The Island Years was created for and will appeal to most.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Quality Control
    Quality Control hits all of the same highs as Jurassic 5's excellent EP of three years earlier...
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Decline Of British Sea Power
    With an unlikely rock blend of classicism and narrative, British Sea Power has composed a brilliant album that's nearly perfect. It's not exactly pop, but it might as well be.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Boy In Da Corner
    Startling, tirelessly powerful, and full of unlimited dimensions.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Teenager
    Teenager can stand as the group's crowning glory to date.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Hey Venus!
    By far the tightest record SFA has released since "Radiator"--boasting no song over five minutes and four clocking in under three--this is a concise, song-oriented record, which is somewhat ironic since it began its life as something as a concept album.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    L.A. Woman
    The charm of this edition is that the unreleased material is considerably looser than the finished album.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Further Complications
    The songs here pulsate with perversion, a middle-aged man making damn sure that he's going to get with a tight 23-year-old body yet again; it's the sound of a fetishist turned sexual omnivore.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mezmerize
    Mezmerize doesn't fail to be unique.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    What Were You Hoping For?
    Hunt has outdone himself, and it's possible he's just getting started.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Axe To Fall
    It's the core group that delivers the most astonishing displays of hardcore fury and progressive musical exploration on Axe to Fall
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Radical Connector
    This may not be Mouse on Mars' most ambitious albums, but it's among the group's most successful -- it's not at all difficult to feel a connection to this truly intelligent dance music.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Jasper County
    An album that's not just one of Yearwood's most entertaining albums, but one of her richest records, in both musical and emotional terms as well.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Light Up Gold
    The album is sometimes languid, often jittery and beaming, but mostly an almost subconsciously storytelling collection of moments that would be boring and forgettable if they weren't captured in songs so accidentally perfect.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    How To Walk Away
    It's a tight, cohesive record with a subtle but undeniable resonance, a record that Juliana Hatfield always seemed on the verge of delivering but finally has.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sparrow
    Sparrow is sharply constructed as an album, setting a mood with its first song and then finding variations on this lush, enveloping sound. It's a record designed for late nights, whether those nights are lonely or romantic.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Monoliths & Dimensions
    Monoliths and Dimensions succeeds because it is the sound of a new music formed from the ashen forge of drone, rock, and black metal.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Screen Violence
    Not only is Screen Violence Chvrches’ finest work since The Bones of What You Believe, it’s also their most purposeful. It feels like they took stock of who they want to be and what they want to say, and these epic songs about letting go but holding onto the ability to feel make for a stunning creative rebirth.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light, Vol. 1
    Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light, Vol. 1 represents a further shift in Earth's evolution. It is darker -- even sinister -- and undoubtedly heavier than Bees, but it is more seductive with its mantra-like droning repetition and more elegantly detailed in its textural dimension.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dornik
    The ten-percent of the album that isn't a sparkling slow jam or midtempo cut is a swift and uplifting jam that approximates a super session with Dâm-Funk, the-Dream, and 1984 Prince. It leads off--both a sly fake-out and a hell of a way to open one of 2015's most pleasurable debuts.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Glass Bead Game
    The Glass Bead Game is the most forward-thinking and sublimely executed of James Blackshaw's releases to date.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Creek Drank The Cradle
    A stunning debut and one of the best records of 2002.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    S.O.S.
    Hour-plus length and stylistic variety likewise signal that SOS could be the overreaching kind of highly anticipated follow-up. Still, it's an advancement from Ctrl in every respect apart from cohesion
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A Small Turn Of Human Kindness
    A Small Turn of Human Kindness, finds the band returning to the top of their game with an album that is as heartbreaking as it is crushing.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    On Air
    A bigger soundstage doesn't necessarily suit the BBC sessions, where the primitive production suits the raw performances--for proof, listen to the second disc in the deluxe set, which wasn't de-mixed--but it's ultimately a minor flaw in what's otherwise an essential set.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Speed of Things
    By slowing things down a bit, they're able to let the knack for melody do a lot of the heavy lifting, giving the songs an airiness that's unlike any other electronic band out there. This makes The Speed of Things not only an excellent follow-up to their already stellar debut, but an album that you'd almost have to try not to like.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Official Body
    The Official Body is a frequently dazzling example of how resistance can be fortifying and even fun.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Stranger Me
    Stranger Me is not only a logical title but a demanding and surprisingly successful experiment that challenges both LaVere and the listener, pushing her into edgy, clearly non-commercial areas.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    To the Happy Few
    Other bands thinking about re-forming would do well to follow their lead and not just get back together to play the hits and count the cash, but instead create something vital and relevant; something that makes the group's continued existence worthwhile.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Landfall
    While it may be inspired by Sandy's fallout, Landfall's reach runs to a sea of loss, chaos, and confusion. It's an elemental mystery of quietly epic proportions made exceptional through clarity of thought and feeling.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 [Box Set]
    The tape sources are all official: The Copenhagen gig is remastered from a state radio broadcast and the other two concerts are from producers' archives, making this historic set among the most essential in the Bootleg Series.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Imploding the Mirage
    Imploding the Mirage feels like more than just one of their best albums, but a triumphant and invigorated rut-reversal that shines with a hard-won confidence.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    White Trash With Money
    This is an addictive record, enveloping in its sound and memorable in its songs.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This Is a Photograph
    One of the best chapters in an already impressive catalog; one that finds a new artistic depth as it faces some of life's eternal concerns.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Old Money
    Old Money is so far-reaching, it will likely piss off some of his fans while making others nearly swoon with its unwieldy rockist excesses. As for winning new fans to his cause? You bet.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Turn Ons
    It’s a hell of a good time and it does what a great covers album should: the band never lets their deep, enduring love get in the way of inspiration or imagination.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    I Like to Keep Myself in Pain
    Hogan's style is refreshingly simple, honest, and strikes its target on every track; whether she's tackling country, pop, supper-club blues, or uptempo R&B, she can sing it right and make you a believer, and I Like to Keep Myself in Pain is the triumphant showcase her talent has deserved for far too long.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Pearl Jam
    Pearl Jam hasn't sounded as alive or engaging as they do here since at least Vitalogy, if not longer.
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