Austin Chronicle's Scores

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For 1,951 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 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: 100 Wincing The Night Away
Lowest review score: 20 Luminous
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,539 out of 1951
  2. Mixed: 380 out of 1951
  3. Negative: 32 out of 1951
1951 music reviews
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    • 93 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Life's Rich Pageant
    A 25th anniversary minibox stuffs poster and postcards in with a mother lode second disc of 19 "Athens Demos," from punky ("Bad Day") to finished ("All the Right Friends").
    • 93 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Room 25
    At just 35 minutes, she's now produced one of the tightest and most complete albums of 2018, while advancing philosophical wax on contextual freedoms of her black body.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Live At Reading
    New DVD/CD combo Live at Reading rides the wave of mutilation that was Nevermind, but its best moments dump Bleach, the busy shoot pausing to catch Cobain picking out debut detention "School."
    • 93 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Love And Theft
    He's a thief, a con, a 60-year-old with nothing to say. And he continues saying it.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Achtung Baby [Super Deluxe]
    An alternate and/or nascent mix of Achtung Baby not only doesn't add to the dialog, it perhaps subtracts from it.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Dolly
    It's largely successful, because it's hard to go wrong with Dolly Parton; 26 gold and platinum albums make her arguably the most successful female country singer-songwriter, and Dolly goes a long way toward that.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    My Dusty Road
    The first disc of the 4-CD trove provides the best comparisons, showcasing the troubadour's most familiar tunes ("This Land Is Your Land," "Pretty Boy Floyd") with vocals and picking that are rich and unblemished.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    ...And Justice for All [30th Anniversary Expanded Edition]
    Combative and hostile even 30 years later, ... And Justice For All delivers exactly what its title promises.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Blur 21
    Twenty-one discs address it in explosively comprehensive detail for The Box, all seven of Blur's full-lengths now doubled by a brimming parallel disc of era singles, B-sides, demos, and live swaths.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Lemonade
    By effortlessly topping her own best work. Lemonade now sets a new standard for cross-genre collaboration.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) [Box Set]
    Not only are these titles among David Bowie's best--dystopian "Rebel Rebel" rock, Soul Train albinism, and Berlin trilogy precursor, respectively--their refractions here bolster each case.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition
    Nicene Creedence Ed. doesn't exactly unravel Malkmus' lyrical labyrinths, but the sprawling, double-disc, 44-song set ties up all loose ends, gathering essential B-sides ('No Tan Lines'), outtakes (instrumental 'Beautiful as a Butterfly'), and live sessions.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
    After 30 years, Waits keeps getting weirder and weirder while still aging gracefully.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial
    Woody at 100 doesn't aim to be the definitive, exhaustive guide to Guthrie's singular legacy; it's far too egalitarian for such ambitions.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Channel Orange
    It's a headphone masterpiece that bangs on shelf speakers.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Elephant
    A baby elephant still, bigger, brighter than its two siblings, but it's in your kitchen, and it ain't leaving anytime soon.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
    It's like Lennon and McCartney solo albums: plenty of solid tunes, but the pen held together is mightier than a solo sword.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Born Against
    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.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Higher! [Box Set]
    Higher! details every ounce of Stone's genius, while cropping just enough to avoid the lengthy, late-Seventies tailspin continuing on today.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
    The quotidian problems and longings of the title track making up the real heart of the album, a rough and tumble struggle to the top.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    A Grand Don't Come For Free
    The first hip-hop classic of the new millennium.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    The Ties That Bind: The River Collection [Box Set]
    Bruce Springsteen's fifth release proved a cardinal development in his storytelling, and The Ties That Bind: The River Collection dissects it across four CDs, a 2-DVD concert from the same year in Arizona, and an hourlong documentary on a third DVD, plus over 200 coffee-table-ready photos.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Is This It?
    No chips or cracks in this debut's silly-grin inducing veneer, just one short, sharp jolt of postmodern skank.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Quadrophenia [The Director's Cut]
    With the CD mix the same as the 1996 remaster, plus a poster, 7-inch single, replicas of Townshend's handwritten notes and drawings, a DVD of 5.1 mixes, and a hardback book packed with photos and creative musings, this Director's Cut earns its indulgence.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Illinois
    The 22-song epic marries Stevens' personal history to that of the state, as well as knitting spare emotional lyrics with lush orchestral and choral arrangements, upping the ante for singer-songwriters everywhere.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Buffalo Nichols
    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.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    No Cities to Love
    The Oregonians' confident comeback is balls-out bold, the threepiece returning with fresh vitality.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Complete Beat
    [Graceland is] perhaps, the musical mash-up of all time... a summit of Western self-reflection and African spirituality.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 14
    More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 also validates Bob's brother's urging to scrap and drastically rerecord five songs last minute. It's all especially enlightening if you have the blood and guts to listen to the collection in one sitting.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    In Utero [20th Anniversary Edition]
    A 2013 mix of the LP, reportedly overseen by Albini and surviving group members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear, and boasting an alternate guitar solo on "Serve the Servants" and a different cello overdub on "Dumb," but otherwise it's indistinct. The bonus material gets worse: ubiquitous B-sides ("I Hate Myself and Want to Die"), boring instrumental demos, and a "Forgotten Tune" that simply sucks.
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