Entertainment Weekly's Scores

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For 3,519 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 81% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 18% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 78
Highest review score: 100 The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do
Lowest review score: 0 Playing With Fire
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,085 out of 3519
  2. Mixed: 407 out of 3519
  3. Negative: 27 out of 3519
3519 music reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    MassEducation [2018]
    MassEducation brings Clark’s acoustic inclinations from YouTube’s annals to wax grooves, and serves as a testament to her versatile songwriting and remarkable vocal strength.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Tha Carter V
    Wayne is, by nature, an exciting rapper. His breathless, consistently accelerating flow is still present here, though not varied enough to work as well as it used to. .... Ultimately, Tha Carter V sounds like someone chasing after their own glory days, with half-hearted energy, barely even believing themselves.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dancing Queen
    Dancing Queen is not a staid history lesson. Instead, it’s a curious experiment that ultimately reveals the endurance of two musical institutions whose artistry has always been rather inimitable.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Cry Pretty
    At its best, she’s never sounded more vulnerable, or more willing to play within the definitions of country music. But it also means that when she pulls back, and falls into the costumes of others, it’s a little harder to accept the veil. ... It’s the second half of Cry Pretty where Underwood starts to truly lay her cards on the table--and where she soars the most.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sweetener
    A fascinating and sneakily complex pop album that adds new creative wrinkles to Grande’s already estimable repertoire.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Thank You for Today
    For a band once accustomed to emotional turbulence, Death Cab seems to have gone numb. They do occasionally attempt to surpass that newfound rut.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Queen
    Even when Minaj has no featured artist to outwit, it is still braggadocious tracks like “Hard White,” “Good Form,” and “Barbie Dreams” that display her innate lyrical skill. Minaj thrives when she has an adversary. ... Unfortunately, when there isn’t one, her larger-than-life persona can lose some of its dimension.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Jake Shears
    If the album sometimes feels more like a broadcast from some long-lost AOR radio frequency than its own fresh story, it's also just fun: a joyride reminder that newer dogs can pull off old tricks, too. [17/24 Aug 2018, p.97]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Aug 13, 2018
    • 71 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Stay Dangerous
    YG’s objectives across Stay Dangerous are more narrow and (for him) natural. Reuniting with long-time producer DJ Mustard for around half the album, YG is largely content to low-ride in his lane, swaggering across Bloods-allegiant bangers (electrifying “Suu Whoop”) and incisive tell-alls from the hood (“Too Brazy” “Deeper Than Rap”).
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Astroworld
    Astroworld mostly holds itself together despite its aggressive number of moving parts.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Nova
    His most mainstream album yet. ... NOVA fits the dictionary definition of its title: a bright star packed with vivid, undeniable energy--one that sets the stage for the DJ-producer's consistently evolving sound. [3 Aug 2018, p.57]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Aug 2, 2018
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Hive Mind
    There’s something enjoyably old-school about Syd’s leisurely approach.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lamp Lit Prose
    If Dirty Projectors was the band’s long winter, the sonic equivalent of holding space within which their frontman could probe and process, Lamp Lit Prose is the resultant progress, a gratifying spring bloom bearing the sweeter-than-expected fruits of Longstreth’s labor.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Scorpion
    Although it picks up a little towards the end, Scorpion‘s second half is often a joyless slog, a prioritizing of vibe over structure that results in some of Drake’s most unfocused songwriting to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Kids See Ghosts
    While Kids See Ghosts feels more like a Cudi album than a Kanye one, it is a production showcase for both. ... The seven-song affair leaves you greedy for more when it’s over in a mere 23 minutes.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Ye
    We got a shockingly anodyne, non-political, briefly magnificent, half-finished piece of work.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    God's Favorite Customer
    When Tillman is good, he is very very good: a master of classic melody, even if the source is meta, and something like a true poet when he wants to be.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    7
    7's artful wooziness is hardly new, but for Beach House, it feels like home.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dirty Computer
    As a whole, Dirty Computer strikes the perfect balance between joy and sadness, offering a deeply resonant account of Monáe’s personal experiences as a black woman. Some of these experiences are unquestionably difficult. Yet in relaying them to us, Monáe never deprives herself (or the listener) of pride, joy, or autonomy.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Invasion of Privacy
    Where Cardi B struggles to perfect the timing of her flow, she makes up for it with the heft of her voice. Combining the gruff delivery of Biggie Smalls with the bird-flipping fire of Tupac Shakur and the bubbly aura of a tween star, Cardi deploys a hybridized power vocal that punctuates trap and bounce-heavy pop with a witty presence that makes her narrative universally accessible.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    American Utopia
    His new American Utopia feels very much like the sum of Byrne's essential Heads DNA and everything that's passed since then. [16/23 Mar 2018, p.107]
    • Entertainment Weekly
      • Posted Mar 12, 2018
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Man of the Woods
    It’s a grab bag of styles and sonic mood boards. ... Once an artist who reshaped the contours of the Hot 100, Timberlake now seems content to ride out his own scenic route, as blithe and unknowable as he’s ever been.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Camila
    Cabello’s voice isn’t especially distinctive, but it’s instinctually pretty: effortless and warm, with an edge of morning-after rasp.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Songs of Experience
    In an age of hot takes and cold snark, the band’s grand earnestness feels like the artifact of another time, an art lost to nearly everyone save a few fellow statesmen (Mr. Springsteen comes to mind). And it’s all over the group’s 14th studio album, aptly titled Songs of Experience, a record so defiantly full of hard-earned hope and fortitude it seems to blot out the bleaker realities of 2017 through sheer Irish willpower.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Utopia
    Utopia is almost completely a sensory experience, fantastical soundscapes designed for secret snowflake rituals and Valkyrie picnics. In the midst of so much esoterica, it’s hard sometimes not to miss the more accessible Björk of the ’90s and early 2000s.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    reputation
    Reputation is an oddly bifurcated creation, half obsessed with grim score-settling and celebrity damage, half infatuated with a lover who takes her away from all that.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Red Pill Blues
    The R&B- and funk-laden Blues, their best and most cohesive set of the decade, is actually worth some appointment listening.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Thrill of It All
    Turning heartache into Top 40 magic is Smith’s strength--he famously thanked an ex for his success during a Grammys speech--but only a few moments here truly resonate emotionally. One of those is the staggering standout “HIM.”
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Meaning of Life
    As cohesive and self-assured as this collection feels, Meaning doesn’t seem especially interested in scaling the heights of early smashes like “Since U Been Gone” or “Because of You.” Instead, it swings low and sweet--a refreshingly real dispatch from an artist expressing exactly what she feels in this moment, and nothing less.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Lotta Sea Lice
    What Lotta Sea Lice lacks in flashiness, it makes up for with enduring tunes and performances that, low-stakes as they are, seem destined to resonate and yield fresh surprises for years to come.
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