Amazon.com's Scores

  • Music
For 468 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 73% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 23% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 76
Highest review score: 100 Black Mountain
Lowest review score: 30 Siberia
Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 1 out of 468
468 music reviews
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    X
    Traditionally, Kylie Minogue has been at her best attempting pure pop, not chasing credibility, but X--her tenth studio album, and the first since 2003's "Body Language"--somehow pulls off the trick of being both
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Accelerate puts the 2007 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame group once again firmly behind the wheel of alternative rock, a genre R.E.M. helped invent.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Out of the blue and virtually as fun as a party out of bounds, Funplex is a dee-lightful reunion record.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Many, many gosh-darn dudes go in for the "vaguely weird indie-rock music with oblique lyrics" schtick, and yet it's still an utter joy to hear Dan Bejar do it.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Eleventh Hour, his largely self-produced fifth solo album--and first in eight years--lacks much of both the lyrical and instrumental verve of his best records.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trash's capriciousness and experimental willingness are what gave Malkmus an audience in the first place--and what promise to keep it coming back for more.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Her third album continues her clear-minded, open-hearted lyricism, though with a ripeness that comes from years on the road and years more to reflect.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Elements of rock, folk, and blues pervade, and producer George Drakoulias (Black Crowes, the Jayhawks) stays out of the way, allowing Merritt’s voice to embody the songs, all 11 of which flow from start to finish, uninterrupted and primed for full-on stardom.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    AMC’s second second-life album (recorded with L.A. musicians on bass and drums) is as gorgeous and disorderly as any in its nine-album catalog.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    For a group with one of the most unmemorable band names ever, it's funny that it's their way with words that elevates them from wannabe status.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Working Man's Cafe feels like exactly the album a 60-something rocker would craft--assured and direct yet searching and restless, a glimpse into the head of a man who's comfortable in his skin but still wonders how he fits into a world that seems to be turning faster and stranger as the years pass by.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Simple Plan's plan--to get you bouncing, bobbing, and otherwise grooving--is still simple. And like all uncomplicated strategies, it's still remarkably effective.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There's not a groan-worthy song on this standout rock/pop/folk/blues album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Watershed has an intimate feel and a sophisticated sound that highlights the warmth in Lang’s voice, the maturity of her songwriting and the simple beauty of her arrangements.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The best evidence arrives two tracks in: though 'Bring It On' features the soothing sitar of Anishka Shankar, it bashes its way through the speakers as though fueled by kryptonite. It is bad-ass, in a word. And so is this album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    District Line, Mould's seventh solo album, is a swell follow-up to his bracing 2005 return-to-rockishness record "Body of Song."
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Just a Little Lovin' achieves the unlikely: a tribute to an immortal artist which both glorifies its subject and elevates the worshipper kneeling at her altar.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The songs on his debut album, Charmed and Strange are quirky and inventive.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bejar's warm, odd voice does not jibe well with the voice of the former Toronto Children's Choir singer.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    DeVaughan simultaneously sounds like every soul singer who has raised bumps on your arms and none of them at all, which is to say he's an artist no matter what banner he flies.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smith adds subtle layers of piano to the formidable 'Wild West Love Song' and the bluesy, Zeppelin-like 'Jesus in the Temple.' But even more newsworthy, her jazzy stylings have rubbed off on the Bielankos.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Overall, ADD demonstrates why Lewis blazed his way into AI's final round: He's out there, sure, but he's willing to reel it in enough to keep it real for the masses.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The contributions of that tag-team of hitmakers take nothing away from the tightness and characteristic chic of the band--that they enhance the hypnotic sheen of Duran Duran, rather than subjugate it--makes a certain sense.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As far as standard Celine fare goes, in fact, Chances is likely her strongest non-French outing since 2002's "A New Day Has Come;" nobody unfolds a lyric with more care or nuance.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For all its cathartic lyrics, I-Empire is actually packed with dazzling, fast-moving songs, like 'Everything's Magic' and 'Sirens,' that bring together U2's widescreen guitar flights with tuneful, straightforward punk melodies.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Like every Backstreet record before it, Unbreakable boasts Super Glue-strength harmonies and an overall tightness of sound--the boys may be practitioners of the kind of pop that music snobs love to skewer, but that doesn't mean they're not exceptionally good at it, or that there's not a lot here worth whistling to.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Helm takes material from a variety of sources and makes it all his own.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shotter's Nation, is surprisingly good and sonically upbeat (if not so much lyrically).
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    What we have here is easily Mr. Young's finest work in years, one that erases the memory of his well-intentioned but anemic 2006 protest album, "Living with War."
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Coheed and Cambria's first three outings were smart, adventurous affairs that didn't eschew accessibility and No World for Tomorrow proves no exception.