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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    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Potato Hole
    There are no chart-baiting superstar guest vocalists or gimmicks, just gut-punching, funky, loose-limbed, rock 'n' soul jams recorded in down-and-dirty sessions without an inch of fat.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Harakiri
    There's never a ponderous or self-righteous feel to Tankian's tunes.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Jeff Bridges
    Like many actors who try their hand at music, Bridges may have made this record because he could, and the acclaim for "Crazy Heart'' offered him a prime opportunity. It's so winning, however, because Bridges had something to say.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Breeze: An Appreciation of J.J. Cale
    Clapton shares some of his most transcendent guitar playing in years, especially the slide-guitar peaks of “I’ll Be There” and “I Got the Same Old Blues.” Most of his collaborations are inspired.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Our Bright Future
    What has marked Tracy Chapman's work over the course of her two-decade career is her emotional intensity and clarity of vision, and both are in evidence on this fine new disc, her first in three years.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Planet Earth
    Somehow these songs don't beg for a repeat listen.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Four
    Four does not break or even bend any rules in pop music, and it certainly doesn’t aim to be cutting edge. Its mix of driving power pop, muscular harmonies, and acoustic alchemy is as manicured as the group’s previous bestsellers.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    X
    Even the filler feels like a well-deserved celebration, lit up in bright neon and glittering with tinsel.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Strange Clouds
    B.o.B.'s sophomore record shows he is one of the top hit-makers in contemporary pop.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Blueprint 3
    The music doesn’t disappoint.... [But] The flaws are obvious. The three Timbaland songs feel out of place. Lyrically, Jay-Z works only as hard as he has to.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There's No 666 In Outer Space
    This is a challenging album that Frank Zappa, Rush, Miles Davis, or Slayer could each call their own.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Burn Burn
    The disc, produced by the band, is tighter, focused, and much more melodic than in the past. While most of it is fiery, some of the best moments ('Signs of Life') recognize that it’s often as important to glow as it is to burn.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Versus
    With its compact running time "Versus'' is in some ways better than the album that spawned it.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In the Grace of Your Love
    With its meat-and-potatoes disco-punk beat and rousing keys, it feels like it's reaching beyond the known universe of the typical club scene.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hard Candy
    Thanks to the blunt force of her personality, Hard Candy feels perfectly concerted, without a whiff of desperation.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pocketful of Sunshine
    Bedingfield's second record is slight but filled with hooky, crisply produced songs that sound great on a sunny day.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Here I Stand
    The honesty on display in the songwriting and the deft, diverse production are both startling and satisfying.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Top Ten Hits of the End of the World
    The album is consistent in its Eastern-minded psych-pop, and aside from a few flourishes to distinguish the "bands"--goth synths in "Receive," a song supposedly by a German architect band called Taohaus, for example--it sounds like the effort of a single group.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    AIM
    A world-weary yet ultimately optimistic statement about the power people may not even know they possess.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Because the Internet
    The production is as rich as the raps, spanning pop, underground R&B, club music, and psychedelic experimentation. The project is further heightened by Glover’s knowing irony, his gift for hooks, and his visionary theme.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tooth Of Crime
    Burnett has fashioned a sumptuously spooky, if lyrically opaque, work that feels both spacious and claustrophobic.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When The World Comes Down
    If sonic similitude is any indicator of future successes, When the World Comes Down will only cement the band's top-of-the-heap status.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chinese Democracy
    It's an exhilarating album. Seriously, after finally hearing these 14 tracks in their finished form I was so energized I wanted to climb a mountain.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Here I Am
    The songs overflow with self-affirmation and confidence.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Songs of Innocence
    Yes, it’s big and shiny and sometimes bombastic, but it also takes chances and pushes forward the band’s legacy.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Here Lies Love
    Here Lies Love is a sumptuous two-disc feast of harmony, melody, and Latin-accented grooves that the Studio 54-loving Marcos herself would likely appreciate.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Penny Sparkle
    The exploration of yet another new form on Penny Sparkle shows how exquisitely Blonde Redhead can continue to add cogs to an amorphous musical wheel without tripping up.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Desert Skies
    These “lost” recordings are generally better than anything the band has done since.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    E=MC2
    As sequels go, E=MC2 is better than most, boasting a higher, and more consistent, quotient of slinky, dance-floor charm and stronger ballads than "Mimi."
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Love Story
    This roots-rap hybrid might appall rap purists, but it’s a striking improvement over 2011’s messy, compromised “Radioactive.”
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