Austin Chronicle's Scores
- Movies
- Music
For 1,951 reviews, this publication has graded:
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43% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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54% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.3 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: | Wincing The Night Away | |
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Lowest review score: | Luminous |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,539 out of 1951
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Mixed: 380 out of 1951
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Negative: 32 out of 1951
1951
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Supplying a few impeccably recorded onstage rockers, $10 Cowboy slots like an exploratory studio in-betweener among Crockett’s comprehensive catalog.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Apr 29, 2024
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- Critic Score
Recasting not only prolongs a song’s life, but renews it – reinvents it, revitalizes it. Airing out lifetimes locked in a closet of emotional gravity, Echo Dancing rechannels these selections’ romantic existentialism and magical realism into a techno meditation.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Apr 1, 2024
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- Critic Score
The album's whole second side rises to a bar set mile-high by the band's national breakout.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Nov 16, 2023
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- Critic Score
End still brims with hope and promise, no more so than on "Moving On," with its beaming synths and stadium drums, and "Loved Ones," which builds atop an extended piano interlude. End might not be a breakthrough, but it doesn't have to be.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Sep 28, 2023
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- Critic Score
Nelson swings looser and more comfortably here, more barroom stage than backroad sage. Self-produced, Nelson noted that he wanted songs that could move a crowd, which Sticks and Stones delivers in sound and ethos.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jul 27, 2023
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Known for their self-mythologizing irreverence, Being Dead uses fairy tales as a heartfelt escape on When Horses Would Run.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jul 27, 2023
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- Critic Score
May to December, Waylon & Willie ride again.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jul 27, 2023
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Swirling strings and thudding guitars compare more than they contrast, brilliantly revealing that the band's "normal" music – a prowling, rhythmic churn that moves like sludge metal but strikes with blackened ferocity – is actually pretty avant. ... You'll marvel at how scrubbed of obvious influences they've become.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jul 27, 2023
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- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jul 15, 2022
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- Critic Score
"Lucifer on the Sofa" has enough endearing moments to sit comfortably in the meaty middle of the band's catalog.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 7, 2022
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- Critic Score
Boland's great concept album endeavor may strike as too convoluted to top his catalog, but it also sets the songwriter free to launch into new creative paths and continue expanding what country music can be.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 6, 2022
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- Critic Score
A marvel of tone and production, the Austin trio's third half-hour aneurysm mutates root metallurgies into a future missing link of punk extremity.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Dec 9, 2021
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- Critic Score
Especially refreshing in this city, the player lets his modern blues simmer and smoke, avoiding pyrotechnic blister. Somber and guarded, opener "Lost & Lonesome" pins the simple tools behind most of the album – evocative acoustic guitar, barely there percussion, and Nichols' wisely pleading voice.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Oct 21, 2021
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Although certainly not the capstone to Wennerstrom's extraordinary personal and artistic journey, A Beautiful Life reaches a new pinnacle for the songwriter, and signals a remarkable turning point on a new path forward.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Sep 20, 2021
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Perfect in vision, voice, harmony – not to mention timing – Treasure of Love delivers quintessential Flatlanders.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jul 8, 2021
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As much Tom Waits as Roy Orbison, both Amigo the Devil and Born Against expertly navigate the twisted path between a metaphorical heart on a sleeve and real live beating one bloodying up his flannel.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted May 26, 2021
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As thoroughly self-possessed as Portrayal of Guilt's celebrated bow resounded in punk and metal pits, follow-up We Are Always Alone now standardizes the locals' splatter into a trademark sound. Success breeds fearlessness, focus, certainty; No. 2 harnesses No. 1's tempest.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 2, 2021
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Unexpectedly, one of the most beautiful and hopeful albums of the year comes from Black Angels singer Alex Maas. Luca capstones 2020 with a reminder of what's truly important and wondrous in the world.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jan 4, 2021
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For certain, the low-voiced local occupies artistic territory with Leonard, but Gold Record also spins reminiscent of Bob Dylan's summer surprise Rough and Rowdy Ways in its zoomed-out lyrical portraiture and employment of pop culture references.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Sep 17, 2020
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My Love Is A Hurricane ransacks David Ramirez to emerge bloody but unbowed.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Jul 29, 2020
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- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Mar 3, 2020
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- Critic Score
Summation of their best recorded moments, X echoes the pulverizing claustrophobia of Source Tags & Codes (2002) and sheer aggression of bone-crushing 1999 debut Madonna, erecting walls of drill-bit noise and floating ennui codas.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Feb 21, 2020
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- Critic Score
Lifting both blast beats and thrash dynamics from metal, the Belgian indie rock trio galvanizes enough sheer fury to knock the needle off your turntable.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Dec 18, 2019
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- Critic Score
Arising from largely improvised performances that accompanied a cosmic expedition at San Antonio's Scobee Planetarium, The Spiral Arm ranks not as the Austin ambient trio's spaciest effort – that's 2016 debut Original Soundtrack – but as their most beautiful.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Dec 17, 2019
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A legendary liquor-soaked session with Tom Waits, two discs containing a ragged-but-right contemporary concert, and a booklet that takes an in-depth look at the making of DTAS crackle and pop, but in revisiting its creators' original intent, a formerly sneered at LP becomes essential.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Dec 5, 2019
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- Critic Score
Sadly, familiar streams – "Matchbox," "That's All Right, Mama," "Big River" – don't yield any gems. Constant studio chatter and fumbled lyrics frustrate rather than charm, and even when duetting, Dylan and Cash's aw-shucks mutual admiration smothers artistic collaboration. Disc three's bonus content with banjo legend Earl Scruggs fares better.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Dec 5, 2019
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- Critic Score
Unsurprisingly, the true treasure for devotees occurs in long-vaulted studio moments.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Dec 5, 2019
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- Critic Score
The salsa-imbued "Green" celebrates heritage and familial commitment as the LP culminates in a dreamy slow-burn.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Dec 4, 2019
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- Critic Score
Brighter compositions match the lyrical demands of more specified storytelling, most vividly on piano-led "Mr. Lee."- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Nov 27, 2019
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- Critic Score
Still relaxed, LAHS clouds over with less reverb, punchier drums, and – at long last – vocals at the front of the mix.- Austin Chronicle
- Posted Nov 8, 2019
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