Boston Globe's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Weezer (White Album)
    The music ranges from Beach Boys baroque-pop to the awkward hip-hop flow of “Thank God for Girls” when not reiterating rote (if pleasant) Weezer crunch-pop anthems.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Divine Providence
    Deer Tick lacks the discipline not to attack the latter like a barnburner, as well as to fill every inch of its 75-plus minutes like Wilco did.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Terra
    The hodgepodge of instrumentals and lopsided melodies felt like they were working together toward a weird, wobbly, warm center on "Mare," but on Terra they ultimately prove more confusing than captivating.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Angles
    Is this it? Don't feel ashamed if that's your initial reaction to the Strokes' new album, the natty New York rockers' first in five years. Stick with it, and you'll be rewarded with a record that's completely oblivious to expectations and past glories.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Whatever, My Love
    There’s a temptation to view Whatever, My Love as a companion piece to its lone predecessor, 1993’s “Become What You Are,” when really it’s just another Hatfield album. As such, it lives and dies by standard Hatfield calculus.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Still Standing
    There’s a wealth of talent involved, no doubt, but Monica is capable of a more consistently satisfying effort.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Bachelor
    There’s talent here, but it seems Wolf’s spent so much time devising a plan to smuggle abstraction over the pop barricades that he neglected to pack the payload.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Born This Way
    After months of hype, teases, and a handful of singles, Lady Gaga's new album has arrived - and it's a letdown, the most deflated moment in pop music this year.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Nausea
    Despite the deluxe treatments, the tracks on Nausea tend to blend into a blur, and their richness sometimes seems at odds with Vallesteros’s maudlin charms. Fans of “Labor” may be left wondering if beige is really a step up from gray.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    He And She
    The compositions are magnificent, and the performance sparkles....Marsalis has interspersed the songs with snippets of poetry, which he wrote and recites. I'm not qualified to critique poetry, but I can tell you this: You're not going to want to hear this stuff every time you play the disc.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    GO:OD AM
    The Pittsburgh MC has undeniably matured; a firmer command of internal rhymes adds slight intricacy to his verses. Unfortunately, he still sounds like the sum of his influences.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Another Country
    More coffeehouse than roadhouse, it recalls the tasteful country-pop of her debut, "Bramble Rose," which makes it a step backward in more ways than one.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Thr33 Ringz
    Like Pain's guest spots, the album's all over the place, from forlorn strip-club love numbers to songs that sound like Jodeci slow jams converted to digital.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Teenager
    While at times fun and lovely, this release exemplifies the very treachery of maturing that it addresses with such earnestness.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Damn Right Rebel Proud
    Cliché-ridden and full of awkward rhymes and stilted phrasings, his songs are too often fixated on his own bad self, on celebrating his excesses, romanticizing their dark side, and asserting his outlaw bona fides.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Pale Emperor
    There are other winners here: “The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles” (sheer autobiography by Manson) and the unexpected “Killing Strangers,” a slow, dirgey track that appears to pinpoint a terrorist’s mind-set: “We got guns, you better run, we’re killing strangers.” Elsewhere, the album often flounder.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Alexander
    "Awake My Body" crash-lands somewhere between "Yellow Submarine" and Harry Nilsson's kid-friendly "The Point!" and it's as clumsy as that analogy implies. When the songs stay on track, though, they are often otherworldly.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Seen It All: The Autobiography
    Backed by mostly familiar trap music production, Jeezy is steady (“Been Getting Money” is especially fine), but hardly inspired.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Coco Beware
    Debut album CoCo Beware swirls around just fine, but it's all shapes without edges.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blown Away
    This is nebulous pop music dressed up in country fringe, zoomed out so far that Underwood never nails anything in particular.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Five Ghosts
    Stars may be moving beyond songs like the soothing and dramatic opener "Dead Hearts," but it's not quite clear where they're going.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    King Animal
    There's nothing bad about these 13 tracks, but nothing remarkable either.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In Our Bedroom After The War
    But as pretty as all of the proceedings are--right down to the elegant bound packaging--the overall feel is of Sunday brunch music that goes down easy but rarely quickens the pulse.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Color Before the Sun
    The music was recorded in a Nashville studio with few overdubs, which lends a welcome organic crunch at times. But overall, the consistency is not what it could be.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Night of Hunters
    The bulk of the album's melodies and arrangements are too busily discursive to hum after the fact, making it tough for Night of Hunters to do what Amos set out to do: haunt the listener.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Within and Without
    Easy to listen to but impossible to feel excited about, this album is compelling evidence that chillwave's allure has been eviscerated.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jeremih
    It sounds like a disc from a 21-year-old who hasn’t developed a fully formed musical vision yet has great potential.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin
    While the ambition and musical dexterity is admirable, the work doesn’t feel fully realized.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bitter Rivals
    It’s the rare number not bracketed by abrasively chintzy guitar noise meant to read as “rawk,” shudder-inducing synths, and jarring percussive machinery.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Beneath the Eyrie
    Lack of distinctiveness pervades “Beneath the Eyrie,” both on a song-by-song basis and taken as a whole.
Page: