Boston Globe's Scores

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For 2,093 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 66% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 31% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 72
Highest review score: 100 City of Refuge
Lowest review score: 10 Lulu
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,670 out of 2093
  2. Mixed: 412 out of 2093
  3. Negative: 11 out of 2093
2093 music reviews
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    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Divers
    On Divers, her breathtaking follow-up to 2010’s “Have One on Me,” the singer, songwriter, and harpist affirms her stature as a visionary. It’s the most streamlined of her four albums.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Loud City Song
    Nobody else is doing what Holter is doing, and it’s well worth following her lead.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bad as Me
    His first album of new material since 2004's "Real Gone," it's also one of Waits's most balanced works in recent memory.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Masseduction
    It’s a jittering, coruscating sucker punch of an album--and St. Vincent’s first bona fide masterpiece.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dear Science,
    It's that sprawling sense of humanity that makes Dear Science such a rich listen.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Film Music [Box Set]
    A sublime, succinct overview of the composer’s sprawling catalog.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
    An existential crisis has never sounded like so much fun as it does in Barnett’s songs.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Letter to You
    The record is a celebration of life and a reminder of how rock ’n’ roll can help transcend grief and loss. The E Street Band sounds rejuvenated with Roy Bittan’s piano work and Charlie Giordano’s resounding organ swirls and swells driving the songs and echoing early E Street magic.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Rainbows
    In Rainbows is a wonderful, absorbing album.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Invisible Cinema
    Invisible Cinema is the opposite of a silent film. The soundtrack is provided; the listener brings the visuals.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    You're Dead!
    Less glitchy and bass-led than FlyLo’s previous work, it enters him in the canon of mystics and psychedelic journeyers who’ve sought to crack the doors of perception.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Exit
    Exit, which was mixed and recorded on a laptop, using a popular program called Pro Tools, is a tribute to the unexpected beauty of everyday things.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pacific Ocean Blue [Reissue]
    The album manages to co-opt elements of the Beach Boys - soaring harmonies, tack piano, orchestral arrangements - yet doesn't particularly sound as if it were recorded by the group.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blackstar
    The album is dense and intriguing, neither a straightforward rock record nor so wildly experimental as to be inaccessible.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Something More Than Free
    Quieter but equally captivating.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    M B V
    While the sound of mbv is reassuringly familiar--openers “she found now” and “only tomorrow” tread melodic paths that seem strangely familiar even as they wander--its newness is remarkable.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My Woman
    It’s a roller coaster, to be sure, but it’s one that Olsen controls with a steady hand even as she sings for her life.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
    'We Call Upon the Author to Explain' goes the title of one song, but Cave offers no explanations and no justifications merely another lean, assured set of glamorously gloomy songs.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Grohl Sessions, Vol. 1 [EP]
    In addition to producing the set with an ear for warmth, Grohl plays drums on “Let It Rain” which definitely gives the band some extra snap. And the group’s signature harmonies are lush throughout. Given the title, we look forward to a possible “Vol. 2.”
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The River & the Thread
    It’s among her finest work in a 35-year career, assured and at ease, and one of 2014’s first great albums.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Historicity
    It's a perfect point of introduction to one of the most challenging and satisfying talents in jazz today.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Slow Me Down
    While there are a few standard contemporary country tracks included in the mix--including a serviceable cover of Gavin DeGraw’s “Not Over You,” featuring DeGraw on harmony vocals--the tracks that stand out have a fresh appeal.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Puberty 2
    The album is simultaneously beautiful and shocking, its razor-sharp originality infinitely relatable.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Summertime '06
    Vince Staples goes all-in on his sprawling double-LP commercial debut, and the returns are decent if not world-beating.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Raising Sand
    Raising Sand is the stuff of which music lovers' dreams are made: an unexpected collision of two distinct but complementary worlds that transcend the sum of their parts to create something unique and mesmerizing.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Be the Cowboy
    With 14 tracks clocking in at around 30 minutes, the album is a remarkably fast listen given the amount of detail packed into each song. Mitski is generally successful at wrapping big ideas into impactful vignettes, although there are some points that move so fast they feel inconsequential.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Random Access Memories
    There’s definitely an epic heft to it, aided by a deep, varied bench of guest talent.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Neon Bible
    Not quite of this world and not quite over the edge, these earthy, epic songs aren't meant to save us, only to supply some monumental crescendos and a wide-screen view on the way down.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Suburbs
    You barely detect it at first, but something miraculous happens on Arcade Fire's revelatory third album. The songs breathe--occasionally in long exhales, sometimes in staccato gasps.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Colour
    It’s refreshing to hear Jamie xx go so widescreen.
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