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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Go
    While Go occasionally possesses the scope of IMAX (and Sigur Ros), it never develops the depth or grandeur.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Two Suns
    No question this is meant to be a haunting mood piece, and her gorgeous voice--somewhere between Björk and Tori Amos, to name the obvious referents--makes up in some part for what's lacking in dynamics and compelling hooks.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Arrow
    The ballads that dominate the disc's second half give her too much room to savor her elongated vowels and gulped consonants, contorting the words so much their meaning becomes indistinct.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    King of Hearts
    Lloyd shows little nuance, and Polow Da Don doesn't color in the tracks with enough interesting musical flourishes to mask some of the vocalist's weaknesses.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Masts of Manhatta
    She has always been a skilled composer, but while there are some great songs on Masts of Manhatta, it's not a great album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    To Survive
    Its title notwithstanding, To Survive is JAPW's happy-in-love album, and the lack of tension--romantic, musical, or otherwise--causes it to drag.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    1989
    The music is a bright, shiny, and bland pastiche of electronic pop and faint nods to new wave and R&B. And the songwriting feels generic, a departure from the personable details that have made her a unique voice.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Out Of The Woods
    Too many bleak ballads about lost love and runaways bring down the fun.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys
    It works better in theory than in practice.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Everyday Robots
    Clearly influenced by Brian Eno (who appears on two tracks), it is an ambient snoozefest marred by listless mood pieces.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Just A Little Lovin'
    Her personality doesn't surface--and neither does a groove--until midway through the disc, on a bluesy trio of tunes: 'Breakfast in Bed,' 'Willie and Laura Mae Jones,' and 'I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore.'
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Grass Punks
    Grass Punks essentially consists of scaffolding for material to come later, which may be why Brosseau keeps the proceedings under a brisk half hour. Simplicity can be a virtue, but it’s not enough on its own.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sucker
    Sucker is better when Charli has a bite.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Expo 86
    Expo 86 is ultimately too dense for its own good, with interesting things happening on a surface that's so difficult to pierce that there's eventually little urgency to keep trying.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Twang
    There are some great things here, but not likely enough for Strait to win another Grammy for best country album, which he did last year.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Infinity On High
    Anthems are plenty on "Infinity on High," and odds are good the fans are so well versed in bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz's pun-saturated, self-referential verbiage that they'll simply surrender -- as they should -- to the familiar burly riffs and candied hooks.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    808s & Heartbreak
    It is by far the strangest record he's ever made: a willfully sullen and uncompromising electro-pop album from one of hip-hop's biggest stars.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Partie Traumatic
    While there's a certain bubblegum synth-pop allure and cheeky lyrical irony in songs like 'I've Underestimated My Charm (Again),' it's hard to find ourselves being carried away on youthful pluck and preciousness alone.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Froot
    Grand statements about humanity in “Savages” and “Immortal” fall flat, and moments like the three-syllable “di-a-mond” in “Solitaire” mistake quirk for personality. But a few slices of FROOT are exactly ripe enough.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Long.Live.A$AP
    Harlem's A$AP Rocky finally delivers his long delayed major label debut, and while it builds on his mixtape legacy and emphasizes his strengths as an inventive stylist, it also amplifies his flaws.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Looking 4 Myself
    The groupthink does drain some of the individuality and soul from the process.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Another One
    Some of the 25-year-old artist’s songs here seem unrealized, his slim insights into relationships not as revealing as his often eloquent guitar work. Self-reflection turns to self-absorption, and never quite resonates on a universal level.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Master of My Make-Believe
    Dazzling moments don't come often enough to make up for flat ones.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Day of the Dead
    The few gold nuggets too easily get lost among the many chunks of lead.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Valtari
    Without any sense of grounding, the record seems like an inconsequential fantasy.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Working in Tennessee
    If this intermittently pleasant but insignificant album has a purpose, it's to prove that the 74-year-old country legend can still do it like clockwork.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tripper
    Mostly this parade of midtempo guitar-plus-keys tracks comes off as inert and paint-by-numbers.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Do To the Beast
    The Whigs seem only capable of reclaiming their turf in fits and starts.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn
    Reverence, or at least too much of it, is often the death knell for tribute albums. If a legend's legacy looms too large, artists err on the side of homage instead of interpretation. That's the obvious problem with this salute to country icon Loretta Lynn, which cherry-picks from her 50-year career with an emphasis on songs she either wrote or co-wrote.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Leave Me Alone
    Adhering to basic rock formalism, the all-women quartet captures a raw primitivism that’s undeniably appealing in an era when most mainstream rock acts are as manicured as Bravo housewives. Unfortunately, too many songs like “I’ll Be Your Man,” a sleepy (hungover?) stab at hooky, sunshine rock, seem like first drafts.
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