Consequence's Scores

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For 4,040 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 44% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 69
Highest review score: 100 Channel Orange
Lowest review score: 0 Revival
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,754 out of 4040
  2. Mixed: 1,215 out of 4040
  3. Negative: 71 out of 4040
4040 music reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Next Thing
    In under 30 minutes, Next Thing proves that honesty can go a long way, and vulnerability, contrary to its temporariness, goes even longer.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bang, Zoom, Crazy... Hello
    The songwriting is boring and inoffensive, but the lyrics really sterilize the record.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    A Mineral Love
    A Mineral Love fails when Bibio overcrowds the music or gives over the reins. For those moments when he stands confidently at the helm, however, the record becomes his best in years.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Amen & Goodbye
    Unfortunately, Amen & Goodbye largely works in the realms of humongous. There could well be a clear, concise thesis buried somewhere in all that business, but it’s very difficult to pick out amidst all the signifiers.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Everything You've Come to Expect
    Everything You’ve Come To Expect feels necessary within the context of all their careers, and the project is worthy of a return visit in another decade or so.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Weezer (White Album)
    The album is strongest when drawing on cues that aren’t exactly new or original, but spitting them out through the filter that is very much Weezer.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Welcome the Worms
    Though the album loses some momentum as it winds down, it never feels aimless. Whether it was their exodus from the city, pent-up frustrations, or a combination, they have come back renewed, with a sense of energy that suits them well as they step in a forceful direction.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Pussy's Dead
    Taken as a whole, the record doesn’t match the highs of its best material as often as it could, but there should be enough new ideas at play to hold fans over for the next six years.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Slime Season 3 [Mixtape]
    This record feels a little too brief, especially trailing off at the end. But if the chief complaint about a Young Thug record is that he’s too focused, it shows he’s honing in on that perfect blend that will launch him into the stratosphere.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Wilderness
    The Wilderness proves that Explosions in the Sky aren’t stuck in any creative rut.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Super
    While Super is not indicative of the next big thing, and a few of the more club-oriented numbers sound more like remixes than actual songs, it’s an enjoyable way of catching up with the Pet Shop Boys while being served something fresh.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache
    This is not an easy album to listen to, and it takes a certain state of mind to casually consume it. The Body wear their darkness proudly, curmudgeony noisemakers to the core, and Full of Hell define brutal. It was inevitable that their album would come out as a disasterpiece in the best way.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Are You Serious
    Though the album has its moments of treaded water, the majority welcomes back the musician whose depth, curiosity, and high-brow intellect won us over in the ‘90s.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    IV
    The songs on IV are massive, cosmic things, beautiful in their own right, even if the synths can occasionally sound a little cheesy.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Anvil Is Anvil
    Instead of worshipping the past, Anvil updated their vintage sound and made a thrash metal album that’s of its time rather than stubbornly anachronistic. It manages to entertain and educate, a rare combo in metal.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Jomsviking
    Of Amon Amarth’s 10 studio albums, this is the most enjoyable front-to-back listen and the truest celebration of the band’s Nordic obsessions.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mind of Mine
    His aim to dive fully into a nuanced direction is a good look, and even though it can be too much at times, his earnestness is a natural antidote to the sleazy misanthropic attitudes of Bieber or The Weeknd. There’s just not enough focus, and promise can only take one so far without differentiation from the artists you’re emulating.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Potential
    Potential not only makes a shockingly strong case for the top tier of contemporary sample-indebted achievements (alongside pillars including Burial’s Rival Dealer EP and Jamie xx’s In Colour), but does so while insisting that the universe, much like ourselves, will never be explored in its entirety.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Dame Fortune
    The entirety of the record, in fact, feels like it’s trailing a few years behind. It frequently doesn’t quite grasp the soulful, jazz-adjacent vibes of the Brainfeeder crew and similar coastal cool.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Glitterbust
    Though it too often lingers when a punch is needed, Glitterbust carries plenty of weight.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    We Disappear
    The Thermals stay surface level both with their lyricism and their songwriting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Hitch
    Hitch finds them not just following their best and worst tendencies, but beating the listener over the head with them. It’s not the worst way to spend an hour; you just might want to carve out some time for a nap afterwards.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Stiff
    There’s only so much traction that can be extracted from adhering too closely to styles this familiar, and White Denim don’t provide quite enough edge to differentiate themselves.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Patch the Sky
    In this latest chapter of his career, Mould has turned his music into a personal reflecting pool, a watery blank canvas into which he expertly casts the stones of his regrets and longings. Just don’t plan on booking your birthday party there.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hella Personal Film Festival
    Even when he covers familiar territory, Eagle rarely repeats himself. He’s constantly finding new ways to say something better, and it’s part of what makes Hella Personal Film Festival feel so necessary.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    New Misery
    Most of the songs on New Misery sound exactly like Smith Westerns without Kakacek. But here’s the rub: Omori’s voice is so airy that it works best when punctuated by meat-and-potatoes moments straight out of the classic rock cookbook.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gensho
    Gensho doesn’t allow for much variation, character development, key changes, note changes, or even much respite at all from the nonstop noise.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Full Circle
    For these 11 tracks, trip-hop’s habit for overcooked sad bastard balladry is traded for such succinct fluidity in songwriting that the moments where the album betrays its “debut” description are few and far between.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Chaosmosis
    Will it be your favorite Primal Scream record? Probably not, but it’s a good record with a couple of killer jams--so roll a little face for old time’s sake.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    This Is What the Truth Feels Like
    This Is What the Truth Feels Like lacks a cohesive style, instead focusing on narrative.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Aa
    Already with a massive following, this expansion of Baauer’s palette sets a new pace for bass.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Compassion
    For a prolific set of musicians, Compassion feels like the work of a group taking time to flesh out their ideas. With this headier approach comes a loss of some of the engaging, energetic moments of International, but also a renewed confidence.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future
    Those looking to understand the evolution of electronica across the pond will find that Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future will welcome them in nearly as much as Underworld’s debut LP.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    3001: A Laced Odyssey
    Their immaturity and brusqueness is flavored with a new level of social consciousness and introspection.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    No One Deserves Happiness
    Despite the misery that inspires and thrives within their suffocating work, the band shows a remarkable sense of vitality, inspiring to longtime and new fans alike.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Visions of Us on the Land
    We’ve been graced with a look into his personal refuge, and it’s been beautiful.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Post Pop Depression
    While Post Pop Depression is full of life, it’s also checkered with countless allusions to Iggy’s musical mortality.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Us and the Night
    Us and the Night offers some bland, platitude-driven positivity, but only once shadowed by equally vague problems. There’s a thin line between building out themes for an album and getting stuck in a rut, and this one unfortunately sounds like it falls towards the latter.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Brute
    Cleverly sampling the incapacitating Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), the Kuwaiti-born producer offers a sonic account of the power utilized to deter political uprisings. Al Qadiri, though, uses the fragility of her signature minor chord progressions to rebut that aggression.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Painkillers
    Like its namesake, this album feels more like a temporary solution than a permanent way forward.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Standards
    Standards is by far the most bombastic album of Into It. Over It.’s career.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Good Grief
    Voices this vast require production just as epic and Shawn Everett (Weezer, Alabama Shakes, Julian Casablancas) brings the wattage of a Celine Dion Las Vegas spectacle without it feeling shallow or cheesy.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Second Love
    She’s more confident, done explaining herself. Moss’ dense paragraphs have been stripped down to just a few words, and the results are more poetry than prose.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Eraser Stargazer
    To some ears--many, really--this is, in fact, as unlistenable as seriously well-crafted, thrilling music gets.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hiperasia
    It’s not a shift that feels like a cheap grab to keep up with changing times, but rather a confident statement from an artist who had utilized the chance to grow on his own terms and craft his strongest work to date.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Before A Million Universes
    Big Ups aren’t always this lyrically profound, but they can make a little go a long way.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Xtreme Now
    The Larsons have style and passion for days. They just need to nail down a poignant message to pair with all the flash.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Star Wars Headspace
    Likely under tight deadline, each track tends to live squarely within the individual producer’s standard production palette.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    You and I
    It’s upon closer inspection that You And I starts to lose some of its luster. To start with, some of these songs have appeared in various forms across his live catalog.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    untitled unmastered.
    Lamar delivered untitled unmastered. as if it were a whim, and yet it works as such a powerful statement of the duality of his existence--driven yet humble, fed up yet excited, frustrated yet joyful, casual yet serious.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    We Can Do Anything
    The band’s ninth studio effort ebbs and flows, but in the end, it has enough going for it to merit its existence, which is more than a lot of bands can say about their second-stands.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Long Way Home
    Låpsley’s technical abilities are not to be questioned; her stamp is all over this album’s production, and her sonic impulses rarely stray far from “on point.” But when her heart starts to catch up with her head, as it does intermittently on Long Way Home, whoo boy: Watch out.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    United Crushers
    For once, the darkness of Poliça’s shadows are too muddled to make the climb through them worthwhile.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Rot Forever
    The massive Rot Forever gives Sioux Falls the capacity to be both: both sensitive and aggressive, messy and precise, cloyingly retro and fiercely modern. They can, for the most part, be everything all at once.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Full Circle
    Unvarnished emotion and simple language rolling off her imperfect voice like poetry cemented Lynn’s legacy; Full Circle tries to preserve it for posterity, but with an addendum. Mortality squiggles blatantly through on two new songs.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Man Alive
    Even with quiet moments that forget to entertain, Nguyen sounds like she’s having more fun than ever before on A Man Alive.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    You Know Who You Are
    You Know Who You Are, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of thing we’ve come to expect from Nada Surf. Unfortunately, sometimes being reliable just isn’t enough.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    iii
    Aside from “For U” (which features Charli XCX) and its Bloc Party aping intro, almost all of the fist-pumping energy of the debut has receded into a more mature, yet less thrilling persona.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    More Rain
    The wheels on the record don’t just tremble and squeak--they completely detach. Eight solo albums in, M. Ward’s indie folk wagon finds itself stuck in the mud.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Music For Listening To Music To
    Music for Listening to Music To is also subject to some of La Sera’s usual pitfalls, and ultimately is a bit lacking in variety. Yet as the band digs deeper into the foundation of their sound, this album points to them finding more gold in the future. In every sense, this is a smart, confident step forward for La Sera.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    This Unruly Mess I've Made
    TUMIM shows a regression to the mean, further establishing him as an above-average emcee whose runaway hype train simply ran off the tracks.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hills End
    Sure, Hills End peaks fairly early, but the album plateaus in a way that’s inviting, comfortable, and better yet, quite addicting.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Ridge
    It’d be thrilling to hear Neufeld compose a score that emulated this new fusion, yet paced in more easily traceable narrative arcs. In the meantime, this intriguing album more than suffices.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It
    There’s plenty of filler here, but at least it all works toward trying to inject some humanity back into the world of buzz-worthy pop music.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    George Fest: A Night to Celebrate the Music of George Harrison [Live]
    The results are never bad, exactly, but they do fall somewhere between tribute and karaoke--call it Now That’s What I Call George.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Dig in Deep
    More often than not, she digs in deep sonically with her fellow players, but she digs in deep lyrically, too, making the words her own even when they’re someone else’s.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    99 Cents
    The fickle genres of 99¢ not only see Santigold challenging the rules of pop, but bettering herself. In writing for others, Santigold grows a backbone that defines her unapologetically bold sound, even if she doesn’t push her lyrics as far as she does the music.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired
    When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired elevates its words with sharp, aware, and plush instrumentation.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Stranger Things
    Adequacy is a trait that fits Stranger Things well. It’s not a disappointment like Glow & Behold, but then it only occasionally manages to reach the heights of Yuck’s debut.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    For All Kings
    For All Kings--like Repentless and Dystopia and Death Magnetic--is a safe and agreeable slice of thrash, but it’s also robotic, formulaic, and dated.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    In My Mind
    The two halves feel out of balance here. Had they been more equally matched, In My Mind could’ve reached another stratosphere.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    Taking One For The Team
    When their punches land, you want to bless these guys for sticking to their guns and not growing up. But the misses are real and painful, and they make Taking One For the Team a far more embarrassing listen than it needed to be.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Yes, I'm a Witch Too
    Though it might not sound like a revelation, embracing the reality of Yoko Ono is the key to the success of Yes, I’m a Witch Too. Unfortunately, that’s only done here to varying degrees.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Painting With
    All of the themes of Painting With converge to form a portrait of togetherness and encourage a shift of perspective. Panda and Avey preach on “Lying in the Grass” to “Try and approach/ The hidden picture.” Do so, and you’ll find that even in the album’s minimalism, there is plenty to enjoy and find worthwhile.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Banshee
    The Cave Singers belong to the same family tree as dynamic Seattle rock bands Murder City Devils and Pretty Girls Make Graves, which makes it even more frustrating that they keep resorting to the same old stomps and claps.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Void Beats/Invocation Trex
    With the help of a new band and a few unexpected guests, Gane continues his mischievous streak on Void Beats / Invocation Trex, building familiar, pleasing drones to get your head nodding.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Livin' on a High Note
    Staples’ songs have never been short of heart and warmth, nor has she ever been the type to let much drag her down. But never has she been as deliberate about spreading her positive vibrations to the world as she is here.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Need Your Light
    The results are mixed, surely, but not anything other than what they are.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Ultimate Care II
    Ultimate Care II, then, is less an album and more a curio, perhaps better suited as part of an installation art piece at Matmos’ inevitable MoMA retrospective in 20 years than as a proper album.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Life Of Pablo
    West finds control on an album whose first half is uncharacteristically wild. The focus present on these tracks [Waves, FML, Real Friends, Wolves] are what is expected of West.... But the strength in these moments also highlight how rudderless the rest of Pablo often feels.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    Victorious
    The riffs are certainly bigger and ballsier than those on the past few records, but Stockdale seems to have lost his personal line to the gods of the ’70s and is left settling for the lesser players.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Life of Pause
    Like Gemini was to Nocturne, Life of Pause looks to be the rough draft of a new idea to be. Tatum still shows promise that he can combine that adventurous spirit and more fully encapsulating execution.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Synesthetica
    While the album does make impressive strides, it doesn’t come without its shortcomings. Even at 39 minutes, the Synesthetica feels repetitive at times, small modifications made here and there to a tested formula.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Love Yes
    As long as Love Yes relies on these simple yet effective tricks, it goes down like rock candy, the sweetness undercut by a compellingly sour sting. Only when the band tries to match the lyrics’ complexity with the music does the album begin to falter.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    SVIIB
    Deheza and Curtis make nothing droopy or lachrymose here. The energy of the original demos--again, a broadcast from a time before Curtis knew he was sick--save the album from being, strictly speaking, morose.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Cardinal
    Pinegrove builds and burns a lot on Cardinal, and they’re left with the hard-earned knowledge that everything’s probably going to be alright. It’s not the stuff teenage anthems are made of, maybe, but maturity comes with its own small pleasures.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Jesu/Sun Kil Moon
    Kozelek sounds like a man making great strides in self-acceptance. This rosier outlook, coupled with Jesu’s fuzzy, grunge-era melodies, lightens (thankfully) the demands put on the listener. An annotated glossary outlining locations, people, and callbacks would still be helpful, though not necessarily essential.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    EVOL
    It’s an extraordinary triumph of ambitious trap soundscapes and an excellent complement for a driven artist, a man no longer inhibited by loss. With every passing release, Future grows more confident, and more callous.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Neo
    neo bathes in worries, stresses, breakdowns, and doubts. It’s not always pleasant, but necessary for identifying the worst of ourselves before it’s too late and everything implodes.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Majid Jordan
    Lyrically, Al Maskati spends Majid Jordan plainly expressing tense feelings of romantic unease, though his candor when singing about his heartache can result in cliches.... The directness of the lyrics can actually be effective when the rest of the arrangements complement their exactness, and Al Maskati and Ullman find that balance here more often than not.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Pool
    For now, Pool is a pleasant enough record, but one that doesn’t quite hook into the emotions or memory.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    I'm Up [Mixtape]
    The chief complaint with I’m Up is its narrowness. At just nine tracks and 38 minutes (a lot of which is handed over to guests), there’s just not enough of Thug rapping for this to match up to last year’s releases.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Wonderful Crazy Night
    Under the production of John and T-Bone Burnett (back again after The Diving Board), the instrumentation on Wonderful Crazy Night is glossy yet separate, as if each part was recorded in its own high-end echo chamber. As a result, none of it sounds unified--more high-fidelity karaoke mix than a band that’s playing together.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Human Ceremony
    The talent is there in spades, and the well of influences is a deep and bountiful one. There’s nowhere to grow but up for Sunflower Bean.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    Matter
    The world Grobler crafts on Matter isn’t colored with the iridescent shades of blue from his early career; it is now a palate so bright and garish that it hurts the eyes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Psychedelic Swamp
    There are moments where the minimal psych additions actually undermine the band’s sound, as their hodgepodge, twitchy aesthetic has always been part of their charm. Ironically, the more polished, glossy synthesizers at times bog the album down.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Gamble
    The Gamble may be a record nearly a decade in the making, but by not putting pressure on themselves to make a grand statement, nonkeen have made a memorable work and showcased their strengths.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Commontime
    The intangibles are all here in spades, and it’s obvious these guys have an exciting vision. Commontime is just arranged in such a way that the album’s contents are thrown into disarray.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Is the Is Are
    It’s an overstuffed, yet often enthralling record by a band revealing depths that weren’t as apparent before.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Heaven Adores You [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    Smith helps us search for our own emotions, our sadness, and level with it. The unreleased material on Heaven Adores You gives us one more bag of songs to hold close, asking him to save us the same way he asked that of us.
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