New York Magazine (Vulture)'s Scores

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For 158 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 0% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 8.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 God's Son
Lowest review score: 10 18
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 96 out of 158
  2. Mixed: 40 out of 158
  3. Negative: 22 out of 158
158 music reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Confessions On A Dance Floor
    The first half, in particular, has irresistible momentum... The second half drags a little, and you wish Madonna would strip the synths back to work a bass line every now and then.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Broken Social Scene
    Broken Social Scene has pulled off the rare feat of making a heavily produced record sound instinctive and spontaneous.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bright Ideas
    The best record of his career, a collision of the idiosyncratic charms of Portastatic with the exuberant rock power of Superchunk.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Made In China
    Her songs still revolve mostly around the adolescent hell of looking right and pleasing jerky guys, a shtick that would be old if Hatfield, well into her thirties, didn’t genuinely sound as if she were still living through it.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Body Of Song
    Marrying his sturdy rock-guitar talents to lively beats, he’s found a comfort zone.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Face The Truth
    The songs, which have the choppy angles and elegant dissonance of Pavement’s, are painstakingly layered with keyboards and all manner of funky blurps and beeps. It all sounds very labor-intensive—and pretty smart, too.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Devils & Dust
    Stands somewhere between Nebraska and Joad in terms of impact and quality.... But this album doesn’t merely find the middle ground between those two earlier releases: Its best songs break new ground for Springsteen.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Guero
    Beck integrates his personae into a fairly seamless whole, and his knack for synthesizing disparate musical elements (hip-hop, robot funk, blues, country, jazz, garage rock, etc.) extends beyond samples and individual tracks. The songs migrate smoothly from one to the next; there aren’t any throwaway numbers to sabotage the album’s momentum; the whole thing coheres.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Aha Shake Heartbreak
    While Aha Shake Heartbreak showcases four feckless stoners speaking in their own shop-class patois, it also captures them playing alarmingly sophisticated pop.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    I Am A Bird Now
    A profoundly emotional, uncynical brand of songwriting that showcases Antony’s obsession with nature.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    With The Lights Out
    Manages, despite an excess of throwaway material, to be an appropriately eccentric testament to Cobain’s talent.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ray Ray
    Despite its faults--and there are many--Ray Ray is a startlingly inventive record.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Antics
    It’s a lot less monotone than its predecessor.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Showtime
    On Showtime, Dizzee doesn’t give up his sonic adventurousness, but he is a lot more disciplined about it.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Medulla
    Especially when heard on headphones, Medulla is an overwhelming sonic bliss-out, Phil Spector’s wall of sound channeled through the voice box.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She Loves You
    Cover albums tend to be self-indulgent stunts, but not for Dulli. She Loves You comes across as the most natural expression of him as an artist.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bubblegum
    Bubblegum is a blues record, a powerfully original reinterpretation of the genre.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blueberry Boat
    The band take their experimental ethos even further without sacrificing the emotional power of their debut.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A Grand Don't Come For Free
    Skinner’s finely honed sense of place still has a nearly hypnotic effect.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Van Lear Rose
    A darkly compelling masterpiece that taps into the pitch-black id of Johnny Cash’s best records.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Musicology
    Musicology is a thrilling, electric statement by an artist who just might be building toward another creative peak.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Body Language
    You can’t help but get lost in Minogue’s music.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    College Dropout
    A sprawling and undisciplined mess... but it’s fully attuned to what made West so compelling in the first place, namely chunks of samples that feel raw and convey an underdog sensibility.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tasty
    While Tasty features predictable envy-inspiring flaunts of sex and cash, the album is good-hearted, too.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This Is Not A Test!
    Like the market-minded collaborations that run rampant on hip-hop records, Elliott’s range here feels like base-covering.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Want One
    Wainwright’s powers of observation recall both Morrissey and Cole Porter.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stumble Into Grace
    Unlike her recent work, Stumble Into Grace is made up solely of Harris’s work--love songs like “Can You Hear Me Now” that perfectly suit her voice, which is sweet and whispery yet never sentimental.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
    Speakerboxxx--by itself the album of the year--makes the failings of The Love Below all the more evident.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Hail To The Thief
    Hail to the Thief is overloaded with miraculous sounds.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    St. Anger
    Utterly raw and rocking.
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