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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    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Distortland
    Distortland, the band’s ninth album, sounds downright insular: fully formed, in its way, but nearly impenetrable.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    SongVersation
    Musically, she remains a sophisticated, confident formalist, but a sense of playfulness or adventure is missing.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Rodeo
    His versatility, combined with a high-profile guest list, conspires against him; among 14 tracks, Scott conjures just a handful of moments that hint at untapped reserves of talent.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    My December
    "My December" offers an appealing if uneven snapshot of a girl with a big voice and big emotions who's in transition.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ye
    Over seven songs spanning 24 minutes, “Ye” is immediately disturbing (“I Thought About Killing You”), slightly exhilarating (“Yikes”), bafflingly underwhelming (“All Mine,” “Wouldn’t Leave,” and “No Mistakes”), and fleetingly brilliant (“Ghost Town”). The one thing it’s not is coherent.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Songs of Experience
    Taken as a whole, Songs of Experience isn’t a bad U2 album--just an uneven one. For every dull rehash of past glories, there’s something like the slinky Zombies pastiche “Summer of Love” to restore one’s faith that U2’s well of inspiration hasn’t gone entirely dry.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Honey
    With nearly 20 production collaborators, the record has plenty of invention--and way too many cooks in the kitchen. ... [A] busy, unfocused record.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Picture Show
    The album feels artistically rudderless.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Kiss
    Pleasant, sung well, and firmly in the middle of the road.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hands All Over
    Really this is lead singer Adam Levine's show. Thus, the band's success lives and dies with his delivery. That delivery remains technically sound, though as a whole, the band underwhelms here.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Age Of Miracles
    Her voice is still pure and graceful, and her viewpoint is still optimistic, but there’s a noticeable lack of energy in these ballad-heavy songs.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Global Warming
    Ultimately, Pitbull sounds like a slave to the beat, while rhymes become an afterthought.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Eat Me, Drink Me
    It's not his best effort, but it's the perfect mood setter for your midnight absinthe and auto-erotic asphyxiation party.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Peter Gabriel Tribute Album: And I'll Scratch Yours
    With other contributions from folks like Bon Iver, Regina Spektor, Randy Newman, and Paul Simon, it’s an interesting, if uneven, experiment but Gabriel fans will likely find versions that scratch their itch.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Need You Now
    The band is playing on the safe side on its less vibrant and surprising sophomore release.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fly International Luxurious Art
    If a collaboration with Snoop Dogg, “1, 2 1, 2,” exceeds expectations, it also reflects this record’s flaw: It needs more Raekwon.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Everything Is Borrowed
    His delightful sense of narrative is virtually missing, and a lot of the verses meander and build to banal choruses.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ludaversal
    The party anthems (“Lit Up”) aren’t as convincing as they once were, yet his star producers mostly serve him well; only David Guetta steers him wrong.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pocket Symphony
    Where "Pocket Symphony" springs to life are tracks when Nicolas Godin and J.B. Dunckel dabble with 1960s-influenced folk-pop.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Georgia Clay
    The music is well-crafted, and Kelley a more than passable singer, with a voice that breaks or gets a bit husky in all the right places. But there isn't anything that makes him stand out from other inhabitants of Music City's sensitive-guy subdivision.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Battlefield
    Safe is only good in baseball, but in pop music it can be numbing, and such dull tunes like 'No Parade' or 'Let It Rain' find the singer trying to inject some life into music even she must realize is D.O.A.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Last Night
    Last Night is a remarkably impersonal work.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Apocalyptic Love
    Slash and Kennedy rely on formula rather than chemistry and yield some thin songs tucked into the record's second half.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Kisses on the Bottom
    The album is inconsequential.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nothing
    The side project of superstar producers the Neptunes makes a stark departure from its hot mess of grinding funk-rock on this often disappointing mixed bag.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Paper Walls
    Throughout Paper Walls, band members work themselves into laughable tizzies of teen angst, propelled by Key's capable-but-whiney voice and his bandmates' capable-but-generic uptempo rock.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    MPLSound
    'Dance 4 Me' cribs the throwback electro beat of 'Erotic City,' while 'Here' should be served with a tall glass of wine to wash down all the cheese. 'Valentina,' the album's most unintentionally hilarious song, is a musical valentine to actress Salma Hayek.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    MGMT
    Occasionally the band’s vision pays off here.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    IV Play
    The-Dream barely breaks new ground artistically and the set doesn’t approach his finest effort, “Love vs. Money,” but the music is often so seductive it’s easy to ignore a misstep (“New Orleans”) and often distracting auto-tuning.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Stronger
    As on her past albums, not all the songs on Stronger are worthy of what Clarkson brings to them vocally.
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