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For 421 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Remedy
Lowest review score: 10 Bizzar/Bizaar
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 311 out of 421
  2. Mixed: 94 out of 421
  3. Negative: 16 out of 421
421 music reviews
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per page
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Travelogue
    This collection shows Mitchell as the self-conscious and restless innovator, picking her way carefully through the minefields of human relationships, leaving a trail of eloquent breadcrumbs, as she describes the passing scenery with her evocative and off-kilter imagery.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse
    Here again, it's a maddening ping-ponging between genius and plain stupidity.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Touching Down
    It's refreshing to see a high-profile album like this take a long-form risk and stand on the merits of intuition and musical construction alone.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Justified
    A fun, contemporary pop record that's uber-cool without ever seeming forced.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lucky Day
    It's the "experimental" tracks like the humorous "Hey Sexy Lady," laced with mariachi trumpet, flamenco guitar, and castanets, and the bubbly old school reggae-country hybrid "We Are the One" that elevate Lucky Day to higher ground.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    OST
    Mathers slips only when he tries to play out the movie's rags-to-riches vibe with his friends.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Scarlet's Walk
    Her message, so powerful when unadorned, tends to get diluted by the awkward arrangements that accompany it.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Stripped
    As a pop record, Stripped is practically flawless.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shaman
    Like Supernatural, the record tends to smack more of market research than the soulful expression of a rock legend at times. But in some instances, the duets pay huge dividends.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It Had to Be You... The Great American Songbook
    A tasteful selection of pre-war era classics in a supper club jazz setting.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    New Earth Mud
    Unfortunately, Robinson too often relies on shoddy -- if not overly elemental -- lyrical passages, which ultimately prevents New Earth Mud from lodging itself into your musical memory.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One By One
    Arguably its most cohesive and dynamic effort yet.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Let It Rain
    A dark, methodical, and ultimately beautiful album.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Melody A.M.
    Unlike most acts who tend to get over-hyped and fall far short of expectations, Norway's Röyksopp does not disappoint.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    10
    10 is a return to form for LL, and the album finds him doing what he does best: Making relaxed, radio-friendly jams while giving the ladies a little something extra.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sean-Nós Nua
    Sean-Nós Nua takes a few songs to find its footing, but then it towers with her best.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bounce
    Bon Jovi's best one-two album kickoff punch since Slippery When Wet's "Let it Rock" and "You Give Love a Bad Name." But unfortunately, it's downhill from there.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    BareNaked
    Hewitt's problem on BareNaked, ironically, is that she lacks "it." Whatever magnetism she carries on screen, whatever eye-candy poise she possesses; it all comes off as vanilla in her music.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Richest Man in Babylon
    The essential internationalism that characterizes this global showcase of a disc is mind-blowing in both scope and quality.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Do You Know Squarepusher
    Somewhat of a Squarepusher overview: digitally diced, partially digested, and sometimes brutally regurgitated, of course.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Twisted Angel
    She may have been young and naïve at age 13 covering Patsy Cline songs, but she had much better source material than the sappy, saccharine numbers she's getting from the middle-age songwriters who scripted Twisted.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sea Change
    Certainly his most personal record, arguably his best.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Up
    It's not likely that Up will have the same kind of cultural significance as a milestone like So, but there is no way that fans can write Up off as a disappointment, either.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Instigator
    Miller explores his usual subjects -- getting out of places and into relationships -- with more unusual touches.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lost Tapes
    Nas has compiled an imaginative State of the Union address to the streets.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Voyage To India
    Certainly a talented guitar-playing songstress, she also takes her lyrical cues from Hallmark cards, a mix at once comfortable and off-putting -- and difficult to put one's finger on.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Hundred Days Off
    What's so striking about A Hundred Days Off is that frontman/producer Hyde and producer Smith have reshaped Underworld as a duo without coming off as incomplete, overzealous, or jaded.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trust
    While Low turns to touches less subtle than before on Trust, the drape of ambient tension over gently ramping repetitions results in the band's most assertive album to date.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jerusalem
    The eclectic, pan-genre disc opens -- as did 2000's Transcendental Blues -- as an unabashed rocker, but this time around Earle uses the heavy artillery to underscore weightier worldly themes.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Demolition
    The rockers here, however, aren't his best work, sounding like the Goo Goo Dolls with steel guitars.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    How Sweet It is
    How Sweet It Is shows Osborne's strength as an interpreter far more than her already-established singing talent.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Believe
    Comes with the same muscular, confrontational power that made The Sickness so infectiously exciting, but twists things just enough to make the second time sounds as fresh as the first.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dim Stars, Bright Sky
    The tunes here are full of immediately memorable, if not obvious, hooks, and the vocals capture a tenderness and vulnerability he's never before revealed.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Night Works
    With Night Works, the gung-ho Layo and Bushwacka! have made an intelligent album that doesn't stray too much from it's shadowy overall mood, aided by determined breakbeats and drawn-out orchestral sounds.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mind Elevation
    A good chunk of soulful melody tinged with delightful, lackadaisical vocals and reggae vibrations.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Attention
    Sleek and motorized, gusgus has paid close Attention to detail in etching a metallic mural of current interests.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    A Rush Of Blood To The Head
    The most disappointingly safe alternative album of the year.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Daylight
    Sheik... seems uncomfortable with the slicker presentation.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tropical Storm
    The smoothed-out international pop sound lets Beenie focus on doing what he does best -- making party music for party people.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    October Road
    Carefully written, elegantly performed, and generously emotional, it's another work by an artist still at his creative peak.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Trinity (Past, Present and Future)
    Trinity is a more diverse album than their last, but there are times when the songs feel too disjointed.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Miss Fortune
    It's a richly textured album, often filled with a melancholy that suits Moorer's dark, rich voice just perfectly.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    OST
    A feast of post-punk and seminal house.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Faces & Names
    Faces and Names' new sonic explorations are a welcome change from the early '90s alt-rock sound Soul Asylum had bludgeoned into the ground, though the lyrics here don't approach Pirner's best.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Learning From Falling
    The album as a whole isn't quite as brilliant as it ought to be, given the ideas at play.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Daybreaker
    Daybreaker's more conventional nature puts a greater and more intriguing challenge on Orton's vocal cords to be the album's main instrument; that voice, a breathless cry that falls somewhere between Natalie Merchant and Bjork, is more than equal to the task.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Amalgamut
    The only misstep is in the pacing.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    X
    There's artistic maturation, and there's just plain old selling out. This, friends, is a prime example of the latter.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Reanimation
    As on Hybrid Theory, there's a definite formula at work in all 19 songs, but it's flawless and effective.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Rising
    Both sober and celebratory, The Rising makes a strong case for the transcending power of rock and roll.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Don't Give Up On Me
    Okay, call it a comeback, because it ought to raise Burke's profile higher than it's been in decades.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Full Circle
    This time, their quiet storm sounds like it's lost its thunder. There are no big emotional booms on the ballad-heavy album, just a confluence of harmless little raindrops and heartstring tugs.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Lonely Position of Neutral
    Its tight-as-a-drum musicianship and the sense of threadbare vulnerability resonating in singer-guitarist Kevin Palmer's songs elevate the band above the ever-expanding pack of like-minded acts.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Revolverlution
    Spending the last decade releasing mediocre discs with great tracks surrounded by filler, Public Enemy returns with an album reminiscent of Fear of a Black Planet.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Busted Stuff
    As cohesive and potent as Everyday or anything else in the DMB's catalog
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dreamland
    While Dreamland is a dignified, pleasant album, you can't help but give the edge to 1975.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Highly Evolved
    Highly Evolved is clunkiest on long, drawn-out stuff like "Homesick" and "Country Yard," but singer Craig Nicholls has most of Kurt Cobain's shrieking mannerisms down, and, like most grunge, the band's simple three-chord rock is most exciting when played extremely fast.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
    After fifteen years of continually blossoming brilliance, the Flaming Lips can count themselves among the most essential American bands in rock history.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Charango
    The album finds footing in jazzy downbeat arrangements, and its hip-hop aftertaste gives Charango (and Morcheeba as an entity) a needed one-two punch.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Yeah Yeah Yeahs [EP]
    They're too smart to just be "art punk," so singer Karen O squeals like Kathleen Hanna and Barbara Mandrell because, well, she can.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Halos & Horns
    Fans of both Parton and refreshing acoustic roots music should find the album unambiguously divine.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hard Candy
    Few bands can both rock and pine as well as Duritz and company.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Tight Connection
    The Tight Connection's unfussiness would be the perfect playground soundtrack.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    By The Way
    Sonically, this is the most diverse and intriguing work of their careers.... A welcome surprise.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shenanigans
    One of the band's most colorful listens.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heathen Chemistry
    Heathen Chemistry finds the quintet back in cracking mid-'90s form.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Recordings Of Music For Film
    Largely spare and reflective throughout, Gallo's experimental compositions are intriguing, though the somber beauty of more straightforward pieces such as Buffalo '66's finale, "A Cold and Grey Summer Day," are far more satisfying.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dirty Child
    It's an impressive debut, and one that justifies the hype she's gotten.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nellyville
    Nellyville is quite calculated, right down the tired skits about bootlegging -- it sort of has to be, given what's at stake, though one would wish otherwise.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Universal Truths And Cycles
    Fans might finally have a proper companion to the arena-in-my-closet-rock of '95's Alien Lanes.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Long Walk Home: Music From The Rabbit-Proof Fence
    Unemotional throughout, Long Walk Home is without obvious peaks of joy or valleys of sorrow, offering instead a steadfast, unerring journey.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bunkka
    Spouts off on multiple tangents and never returns.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    lovehatetragedy
    Another solid effort.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Getting Away With It... Live
    One of the crispest and coziest (and, at 21 tracks, one of the most generous) live recordings in recent memory.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No!
    It's great for kids and parents, because TMBG, like former Del Fuego Dan Zanes, are among the only children's musicians who recognize that real rock and roll has always been goofy and childlike.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Untouchables
    It's sort of beautiful in its ugliness, a metal record lovingly buffeted by details and white noise.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Heathen
    While the soul-searching is utterly sincere, the music is only intermittently successful.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cookie: The Anthropological Mix Tape
    Call it urban ethereal, grounded in gritty raps and coiled funk rhythms, bolstered by jazz keyboards, soaring vocals, and synthesizers.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Let Go
    Unlike any of the pop princesses that have gone before her, however, Lavigne offers a sound far more guitar-heavy, and lyrics packed with unshakable attitude.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Last Broadcast
    One of the most stunning and gorgeous records of this young decade.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Loudboxer
    The sounds are simply too dark and sweaty for most fans' home listening.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Eminem Show
    The Eminem Show lacks the overwhelming, single-minded force that The Marshall Mathers LP had.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Title TK
    Title TK sounds as if nothing happened since Last Splash.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    South
    What South demonstrates most effectively is that Nova, who had been awkwardly marketed as an edgy alt-rock chick, is now a performer perfectly poised for adulthood, and the mature listening audience that comes with it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Vapor Trails
    Dispensing with the synthesizers and glossy production that marred previous efforts, the group instead delivers no-frills, arena-ready rockers with a dense, almost punkishly raw sound.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Maladroit
    There's some rehash of the flimsy fun of the Green Album, and the choruses here aren't as memorable as much of the group's '90s material. That said, there's a darkness to Maladroit that will likely satisfy long-suffering Pinkerton fans.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You Can't Fight What You Can't See
    GVSB returns with the hallmark components of its early '90s Touch & Go days: piercing guitar riffs, frequent attacks of twin basses, surging percussion, and a heavy dose of vocal sass from Scott McCloud.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    My Ride's Here
    Zevon, so frequently great, should know better.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    One Time Bells
    It's only on "Close to Modern," a slinky, soul-infused number, that the French Kicks truly distance themselves from their downtown N.Y.C. contemporaries.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Alice
    Waits' voice has always been an acquired taste, but those on the bus will appreciate the way he throws himself into every track as if haunting the characters like some sort of lunatic guardian narrator.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Blood Money
    The effect of the combination of all these elements is stunning and profound, and ranks among Waits' finest albums, albeit his most depressing by a long shot.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Veni Vidi Vicious
    The Hives seem to have approached Vicious with one aim in mind: to rock – hard -- for 27 minutes straight. Even more impressively, they actually pull it off.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    When I Was Cruel
    The songs are brilliantly Costello-esque, fairly varied, and don't sound at all dated.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stereo
    The most honest-sounding collection of songs Westerberg has penned in years.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
    Like so many great fuzzy rock albums, from the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street to R.E.M.'s Murmur, it takes a few listens to seep into your bloodstream.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Handcream For A Generation
    This is blender pop of the finest order, held together by some of the most high-minded funk in this galaxy.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Release
    The Boys unleash some of their most sublime and accessible material in years.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Are You Passionate?
    And even though Young laces plenty of signature guitar riffs throughout, Are You Passionate? is for those who appreciate his songwriting as much as if not more than the histrionic fireworks he creates with Crazy Horse.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gutterflower
    The CD unfurls a ragged blend of infectious melodies, couched in brisk tempos, and shimmering ballads culled from the blueprint of such past hits as "Name" and "Iris."
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Southern Hummingbird
    Provides a refreshing change of pace from the current formulaic R&B chanteuses.
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