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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    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Children Running Through
    Suffice to say that if you have enjoyed Griffin's repertoire of considered and emotionally precise songs -- as fans from the Dixie Chicks to Solomon Burke to Jessica Simpson have -- you will find your life enriched by "Children Running Through."
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage: 1982-2011
    As a gateway drug for newbies, "Part Lies" is a good introduction to the rich pagaent that was R.E.M.'s musical life.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Springsteen on Broadway
    Whatever the distance between image and actuality, Springsteen always told the truth to us about the things that mattered. In Springsteen on Broadway, that truthfulness adds up to an honest self-portrait.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Let England Shake
    Her latest album marks yet another sea change, a clanging, clamoring work of art that's as disturbing as it is moving. Let England Shake is staggering, from its seasick melodies to its visceral imagery of soldiers falling like "lumps of meat."
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Sailor's Guide to Earth
    “Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)” starts the record with a foreboding sound that moves to stately piano and tremolo strings before exploding into soul. Nirvana’s “In Bloom” is turned into sweeping countrypolitan; “All Around You” offers killer country soul. “A Sailor’s Guide” confirms that Simpson isn’t content to stand in the same place for very long.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bon Iver
    "Emma" was gorgeous in its austerity, but its follow-up is staggering for its vision. Bon Iver's self-titled sophomore release will go down as one of this year's most arresting albums, drunk on its own impressionistic charms and oblivious to anyone's expectations but Vernon's.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    blackSUMMERS'night (2016)
    His deeply felt meditations on matters of the heart and the soul are matched by the meticulously detailed, gorgeously rendered music that surrounds them.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kaleidoscope Dream
    He's at his best when he slips into his expressive falsetto, but Miguel frequently comes off too remote for a true soul singer.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Once I Was an Eagle
    You’d be hard-pressed to name another songwriter who sounded so fully formed at such a tender age.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Halcyon Digest
    Halcyon Digest is as comforting in its familiar feel as it is startling for its sonic variety.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Midwest Farmer's Daughter
    For those on the lookout for alternatives to what currently passes for country music, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter is the latest reason to cheer.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Luxury Problems
    Stott doesn't just produce these tracks, he haunts their halls.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Platinum
    Platinum is a worthy follow-up; Lambert wrote or co-wrote half of the album’s 16 tracks, which bounce from humid honky tonk to glossy arena stage to rustic front porch with sass and ease.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Blade
    It’s definitely more expansive sonically than Monroe’s previous work, which doesn’t mean it sounds disjointed; rather, it comes across as presenting different sides of the same artist.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This Is Where I Live
    This is soul music with personality and real instruments; best of all, it’s unflinchingly honest.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    3 Pears
    It's nothing more--or less--than the latest chapter in his extraordinary, funhouse-mirror version of honky-tonk traditionalism.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shields
    Grizzly Bear has learned not to stress over its craft, and Shields feels all the more fresh as a result.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    LP1
    LP1 is the kind of soft-focus album that the late American R&B singer Aaliyah might have made.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stone Rollin'
    Saadiq, the former leader of Tony! Toni! Toné! and keeper of old-school R&B flame, delivers a deliciously good set of playful yet engaging songs that nods to the past while sounding thoroughly of the moment.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    To the Sunset
    With both her words and music, Shires isn’t holding herself back on To the Sunset, and though the left turns might take some getting used to for old fans, her growing conviction in herself as a songwriter and frontwoman is enough reason to stick around.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Locked Down
    His latest is the closest he has come to making a masterpiece in a very long time.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Harps And Angels
    40 years after his debut, the curly-haired songwriter continues to play to his strength: three-minute social commentaries that might sound bitter if they weren't so funny.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Popular Problems
    The results are extremely life-affirming.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    American Dream
    Full of irresistible grooves, quotable lyrics, and moments of spine-tingling beauty, American Dream is a worthy addition to the LCD Soundsystem discography.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
    With a musician as important as Bob Dylan, our appetite for fresh material and new insights is as deep as the artist's song trove, and Tell Tale Signs, the eighth installment of the songwriter's Bootleg Series, is a feast for casual fans and Dylanologists alike.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lost In the Dream
    Tone is everything for the War on Drugs. You hear tone, a silvery shade of effortless cool, in the electric guitars that ring out in ricocheting patterns and in singer-songwriter-visionary Adam Granduciel’s expansive vocals.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    All at Once
    All at Once is an accomplished, expertly crafted album, the kind that’s the product of years slugging it out in dank basements and half-empty bars.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    untitled unmastered.
    In a way, it’s all as tightly woven as his Grammy-winning work, even if none of these cuts fit that album’s meticulous narrative.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shaking the Habitual
    Easy listening this is not, but Shaking the Habitual is at least bold and brash, the work of a band hungry to explore strange sonic textures.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    BLACKsummers'night
    A few tracks (the fuzzy 'Fistful of Tears') miss the mark, but this is the necessary R&B return from one of our great--and seemingly lost--soulmen.
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