Exclaim's Scores

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For 4,922 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 58% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: 100 The Ascension
Lowest review score: 10 Excuse My French
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,172 out of 4922
  2. Mixed: 723 out of 4922
  3. Negative: 27 out of 4922
4922 music reviews
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    • 95 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fountain Baby
    It's far more experimental than her last effort, but in a thoughtful way that makes for a refreshing listen.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
    Throughout Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?, Dixon continues to show off his acrobatic way with words and parades his affecting precision of imagery.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Girl With Fish
    Intensely frantic and intimately vulnerable, Girl with Fish proves that sometimes letting things run off the rails pays off, so long as you have hands to grasp onto.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Purge
    On Purge, it feels like the band has finally found a sense of catharsis. In the end, this record does exactly what it says it will; it offers listeners a chance to dwell and stew on the darkness in their lives before inviting them to release those feelings; while the relief might be temporary, sometimes that's all you need.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Roach
    Rays of light shine through on the glitzy, sparkling "So Clear," where she realizes after "ten thousand days" — as in, the late-twenties — fucking up is necessary to incite change. At this point, Folick looks back at the first half of the album with a fresh, wisened perspective. In doing so, it feels euphoric to see the extent of her growth.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Formal Growth in the Desert
    The group's musical evolution is clear, but they clearly can (and should) push even further into this heavier direction.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lucky for You
    The result is a catchy, cathartic experience that feels fun, even while wading through themes of loss, shame and eventually acceptance.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shadow Kingdom
    As an album, Shadow Kingdom is an alternate universe that reflects another side of Bob Dylan's craft and creative muses. It's not a funhouse mirror reflection per se, but it's definitely really fun the more you look at it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Walk Around the Moon
    There are a few new sounds here — prominent vocal harmonies in the chorus of the opening title track, electronic snare hits and a soft synth hum on the saccharine "Looking for a Vein" — but for the most part, this is familiar DMB.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?
    Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? is an album of great substance, one that both rewards and demands close listening.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Calm Ya Farm
    The Murlocs have shown their skill at evolving naturally with little effort, and Calm Ya Farm sees the band putting it all together, upping the honky-tonk and honing their unique-yet-timeless sound more than ever.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    But Here We Are
    While highlight "The Glass" is an undisputedly heartbreaking acoustic-tinged ditty about living the rest of your life in someone's absence, the mid-LP tracks unfortunately do little more than fill obligatory spots on the Foo Fighters spectrum.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    My Soft Machine
    Despite a few moments spent in the doldrums, Park's heartfelt lyricism and serene instrumentals navigate the complexities of love and healing, reminding listeners of the ongoing process of finding wholeness.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everyone's Crushed
    Despite the often abrasive experimental flourishes, the album retains a joyous sense of melody and pulse that makes it undeniably fun at its core.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Amatssou
    On Amatssou, Tinariwen adds to their amazing range and melodic flexibilities through collaboration, allowing some of their biggest admirers into their majestic, fully realized world.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Answer Is Always Yes
    The whole album is chock full of songs that scream road trips and beach days, pulling from a grungier vision of Sheryl Crow and latter-day Liz Phair's fun-loving pop rock, shot through with a synthesised yet vulnerable twinge that was already apparent on Lahey's first two albums.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Never Enough
    NEVER ENOUGH is a cohesive display of genre experimentation that cements Caesar's place as one of the smartest and most talented artists in today's constantly mutating R&B pantheon.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Love Invention
    On The Love Invention, Alison Goldfrapp shows that she's more than just the face of Goldfrapp. In fact, she might still be the face of modern UK sophisti-pop.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An Inbuilt Fault
    Bigger, bolder, and even more exploratory than his 2020 debut Your Hero Is Not Dead, An Inbuilt Fault.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Raving Ghost
    Granted, tracks like "I Need You" and "Too Late" give off a Cars-meets-mid-career Tegan & Sara vibe that's a little too on the nose. ... This album is full of pleasant surprises, though.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    That! Feels Good!
    That! Feels Good! is unapologetic in its pop sensibilities, full of hooks that lightly tease and lyrics that keep themselves around. Ware's airy yet soulful delivery of these words, coos and moans is part of what makes her so captivating, and acts as a direct line to how much fun she's having.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Creatures of the Late Afternoon
    All things considered, this may not be the best album ever made by Kid Koala, but it might be one of his most rewarding experiences.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lightning Dreamers
    Lightning Dreamers is refreshing for how it demonstrates the veteran cornetist's clear and realized vision. At 58 years old, Mazurek has helped usher jazz into the new millennium by surrounding himself with genre-defying musicians, transporting the arithmetic sound of Chicago through a warped space-time continuum.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Big Picture
    Lily's clean and refined songwriting on Big Picture has her following in the footsteps of the similarly polished and venerable Laura Marling while sharing an emotionally intuitive sharpness and tongue-in-cheek propensity with fellow contemporaries like Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Love Still Held Me Near
    The track list moves like grief itself, with a glimmer of hope before plunging back into darkness and hurt. But, as Green does so well, each track is buoyed by his smooth voice, full of emotion, and poetic lyrics that can somehow perfectly capture every sentiment.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With a Hammer
    This debut album stands on its own as an artistically daring personal statement.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rat Saw God
    Rat Saw God is wildly ambitious and easily lives up to the industry hype — Wednesday have succeeded once again in twisting nostalgia and existential dread into a braid of bruising, life-affirming rock music.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blondshell
    Taken as a whole, this is the kind of record that will infect your life, to paraphrase "Sepsis," one of the record's standouts. I, for one, am down to let it kill me.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Continue as a Guest
    Continue as a Guest picks up on the beats-and-synths sound that drove 2017's snappy Whiteout Conditions. Yet where that album saw Newman and Co. dabbling with syncopation, here the band is moving as one unit, deepening the music's groove.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Scaring the Hoes
    For 36 minutes, the listener is submerged in the LP's chaos, but when the album finishes and you come up for air, there's a feeling of obligation to go back and listen through again. It's a celebration of the singular stylings of these two hip-hop heretics, one that rejects any semblance of conformity, leaving it free to be exactly what they want it to be, whatever that is.
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