NOW Magazine's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
For 2,812 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 The Life Of Pablo
Lowest review score: 20 Testify
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,287 out of 2812
  2. Mixed: 1,452 out of 2812
  3. Negative: 73 out of 2812
2812 music reviews
view
per page
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mala
    It isn’t his most groundbreaking work, but he’s earned the right to relax, and there are far worse albums you could spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Spring Breakers
    The contrast between the adrenaline rushes and nihilistic machismo and the score’s cold serenity is strangely intoxicating.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ride Your Heart
    Hard-hitting drum rolls, reverb and hooky guitar refrains are all over the album, so it’s a shame that it still grows stale by the end.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    I Am Not a Human Being II
    Temperance might dull his inspiration, but it can’t shake his confidence. Unfortunately, that smugness is also his undoing: there’s no quality control here.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Comedown Machine
    The band can still come up with strong hooks, and some of the 80s guitar rock references hit their mark, but the results are sabotaged by singer Julian Casablancas, who sounds like he’s conserving all his energy and passion for his next solo record.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Delta Machine
    Depeche Mode have dropped the best album of their career.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Oak Island
    The album is rich in texture but light on memorable melodies.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Afraid of Heights
    Surprisingly, the least punk moments are the most adventurous.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The 20/20 Experience
    It sounds like FutureSex, so you’ll desperately listen over and over hoping to replicate how that album made you feel and end up surrendering to its pleasant, sanitized soundscape. But you’ll feel nothing.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bloodsports
    Bloodsports is exactly what a Suede fan wants, and it also sounds remarkably less dated than anything their old rivals Oasis are up to these days.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Invisible Way
    [Drummer Mimi Parker's] songs, like the uncharacteristically jaunty, slowly swelling Just Make It Stop, are the highlights.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cerulean Salt
    These songs, short and sparsely arranged, are more fragile. Crutchfield’s hardly beautiful, unadorned singing helps this idea along, and the ways she uses her voice introduce a complicating factor: confidence.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Deserters
    The album is laden with a nostalgic longing that’s never as compelling as the cinematic leanings.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Next Day
    Pop music is never a purely cerebral exercise, and despite its intriguing concept, The Next Day is woefully short on anything to sing along to.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Electric
    A vigorous 11-song collection that keeps the lyrics and melodies straightforward, allowing the complexity and uniqueness of his guitar-playing to burst through.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Somewhere Else
    While the songwriting is more varied here than on previous LPs (Shapiro sometimes causes rather than experiences heartbreak), the pop hooks don’t always ascend to the maximal sound they aim for.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Messenger
    His vocals do the job, even as his lyrics will probably keep the majority of ears fixed on the instrumentation.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wondrous Bughouse
    A few tracks ease into each other too easily and are forgettable, but there’s still an overall sense of growth and fruition.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    New Moon
    While the album could’ve benefited from the trim of a song or two, it successfully avoids the dreaded career stagnation.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Stand-In
    Most of the tracks could be singles, successfully marrying a pop sensibility to country twang without sacrificing the best aspects of either approach.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Welcome Oblivion
    It’s a nice, low-key respite from NIN’s angry catharsis, but 65 mid-tempo minutes with little variation (the sparse acoustics of How Long? aside) make it a slog.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Archer Trilogy, Pt. 3
    There are moments when the sweeping melodies verge on the grandiose, but they successfully walk that difficult line between obnoxiously extroverted and too restrained.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Woman
    It’s a beautifully crafted album that heralds the arrival of what’s sure to be one of the most subtly affecting voices in pop.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Images du Futur
    Pop hooks aside, Images Du Futur is not a feel-good record. But if you can deal with some dark, creepy, bummer vibes, it reveals new layers with each listen.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Foolish Blood
    Some might say it lacks bite, but it works nicely with Liam Corcoran’s good-guy vocals, the hum-along choruses and the band’s stunning pop chops.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Amok
    There’s no mistaking the album for anyone but Yorke’s, but despite his rep as a singular genius, he does play well with others.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Exai
    This much material is exhausting to make your way through, the stretches between moments of genius way too long.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Chelsea Light Moving
    Sonic Youth fans should find plenty to love, but we’re more intrigued by the instances where Moore leaves his established comfort zone.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Come Cry with Me
    Daniel Romano’s third solo album is steeped in the storytelling traditions of old-school country musicians like Hank Snow and Stompin’ Tom, featuring beautifully arranged travelling songs about lost mothers, lost lovers and lost hope.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Thumbtacks and Glue
    Embracing a wide palette of sounds helps, but beyond the occasional crunchy guitar or unexpected synth, it’s the arrangements that make this album work.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We the Common
    Even when duetting with harp sprite Joanna Newson, she avoids the trappings of twee.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Out of View
    The album has its super-twee moments but is never insufferable.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Honeys
    It’s distancing stuff, though also hookier than earlier LPs. But it’s the humanity and levity of the lyrics that’ll really get you on board.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No World
    The overall effect is pleasantly daydreamy, though the album quickly settles into one gear.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    You're Nothing
    Yes, the angsty lyrics are occasionally comprehensible and the songs, which sometimes push past the three-minute mark, have slightly more breathing room, but the chilly, irritated scrape is just as potent.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Oddfellows
    Led by Patton’s smarmy vocals and the band’s intricately heavy instrumentation, Oddfellows cuts a swath between infectious bangers (Stone Letter, South Paw) and quirky atmospherics.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Untogether
    Their name may reference a 52-year-old Elvis Presley musical, but Blue Hawaii are poised to have a lot of people talking about them right now.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Waiting for Something to Happen
    Originality isn’t always the most important criterion in music like this. Familiar, nostalgic sounds can please just as much, as they do here.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Reasons To Live
    It’s when the pace slows that the record drags slightly, though Klein’s lyrics elevate even the mid-tempo songs.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jamie Lidell
    This newest electronic funk vision feels like the album we’ve been waiting for.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Marriage of True Minds
    Wacky pseudoscience aside, the results here are relatively accessible, at least by Matmos standards.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Push the Sky Away
    Sky’s post-post-punk mellowing proves a welcome development, revealing maturity instead of postured snarling.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Oh, Mayhem!
    Her strong voice (think Kim Deal or Liz Phair) remains the focal point, though wild guitars and thunderous drumming give it the foundation it needs to soar.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Us Alone
    He still sounds like Hayden, but he’s stripped down the production to better approximate the sound of a band in a room. That bare-bones intimacy works perfectly with his delicate voice and melancholic songs.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head
    A record that finely straddles his gruff past and glitzier present. DJ Toomp buoys T.I. on Trap Back Jumpin. An incandescent collaboration with André 3000 balances out an unfortunate Pink cameo.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    True North
    The 16 tracks sound similar after repeat listens, but if you think time has mellowed the band, guess again.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Expecting Company? [EP]
    Henry Wagons’s debut solo album is a slim but interesting collection of duets that are--like his work with his band Wagons--rootsy, genre-jumping and occasionally psychedelic and hard-rocking.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    M B V
    While there’s nothing quite as disorienting and alien as Loveless’s dramatic opening song, Only Shallow, there’s notable evolution in both the songwriting and sound, and the overall flow of the album actually seems tighter.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Forever Endeavour
    Not a single note feels unplanned, yet every lick also comes across as completely natural.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Flower Lane
    New wave, soul and house beats make this his most genre-bending album yet.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wolf's Law
    Subtlety isn't the band's forte, but they sure know how to make an ostensibly stripped-down rock song enormous.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Heartthrob
    The eerie voice blend still sends the occasional chill up the spine, and their songwriting continues to capture the painful earnestness of youth, but it all feels a bit staged.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Christopher
    Light, breezy and somewhat snoozy, Christopher has some pleasant moments, but it's not the strongest work in McPhun's discography.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Finally Rich
    A hardened, firsthand account of the preordained dire straits of the American underclass, and Waka Flocka Flame-indebted boast talk minus the charisma.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Light Up Gold
    Most songs clock in under two and a half minutes but manage to say plenty.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    My God Is Blue
    There's nothing musically redeemable about My God Is Blue.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    La Costa Perdida
    The bigger problem is an overall lack of energy; there are only so many mid-tempo middle-of-the-road psych-pop songs you can listen to before starting to watch the clock.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Anything In Return
    His latest album is full of sexy slow jams, hip-hop samples and an overall tone better suited to a club than a lazy house party.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    FIDLAR
    It's certainly not revelatory, but it makes no such claims.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Beta Love
    Unfortunately, too many songs have that thin, cheap quality that so many indie dance bands were into a decade ago. Good thing they're so ridiculously catchy.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Goldenheart
    While some of her melodies could be a bit more defined, she's a nuanced enough performer to captivate at the most self-indulgent of times.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Berberian Sound Studio
    The best songs are the few featuring Keenan's lovely voice, like Teresa, Lark Of Ascension, which serves as a sad reminder of the talent we lost.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Django Unchained [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    Not Tarantino's most essential soundtrack, but maybe his most original.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fade
    Fade isn't a drastic departure, but when you've polished your eclectic sound as well as Yo La Tengo has, that's not always necessary.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Elements of Light
    The melodies' stoicism seems to reflect much of the empty, brutal beauty of modern life.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lysandre
    The results are sometimes sharp, as on mischievous New York City and Here We Go Again, with their mirrored melodies reinterpreted on flute and sax. Other times, his lyrical directness relies on clichés--reminding us that love sometimes sounds quite ordinary.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Long.Live.A$AP
    A macabre mood keeps it cohesive and lends a cinematic quality, kind of like the A$AP Rocky Horror Picture Show.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Loyal
    The Polish-born, Brooklyn-based DJ, born Jakub Alexander, makes music that's as likely to induce sleep as a mild panic attack.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unorthodox Jukebox
    Too many of the tracks seem more like very good imitations of song types than like actual songs.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pale Fire
    While the rhythms may seem like invitations to dance--or at least sway--the lyrics are almost uniformly bleak, making Pale Fire a late contender for saddest album of the year.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tinsel And Lights
    Thorn succeeds through low-key, simple arrangements and her empathetic, sensible voice, which has the all-seeing authority of a storybook narrator.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tre!
    ¡Tré! offers a few ballads, swelling string-laden anthems and even a six-minute medley à la American Idiot--styles that once represented a new aesthetic for the band but now sound forced and exhausted.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nocturne
    Despite solid production, the pop appeal of Nocturne doesn't quite transcend its 80s influences as well as Gemini's joyous, rough-hewn charms did.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cut the World [Live]
    While you might be tempted to skip it, spending some time trying to absorb what he's getting at gives you a much richer context in which to appreciate his songwriting.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Grace/Confusion
    You don't always know what cosmic tunnel Memory Tapes will drag you through, but you can always expect a metamorphosis.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Man with the Iron Fists [OST]
    There are missteps--Talib Kweli going through the motions on Get Your Way (Sex Is A Weapon), Ghostface's unfortunate pairing with Wiz Khalifa--but like the movie, the soundtrack is good, bombastic fun.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    18 Months
    this sounds like the soundtrack to the hell of cheese-ball Las Vegas bottle service clubs.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    True [EP]
    It is a strikingly unique take on soul music in a year when there's a lot of competition from other R&B artists pushing the genre's boundaries.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors
    The disparate guest list means the record lacks some cohesion, but Big Boi--ambitious, effusive and still a remarkably lithe rapper--holds it all together.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Northern Shore
    The band's adventurous use of sampling and beats pays off when supporting Andy Maize's vocal on The Herd, but the alt-folk arrangements tend to get melodramatic on quieter songs like I'll Be There and the tremolo-piano-treated title track.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mars
    A diasporic pop beacon for those of us from neither here nor there.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lovelessness
    It all informs this feel-bad album of the year, which sounds fantastic thanks to Sanford Parker's no-frills yet full production.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Out of the Black
    Most of the tracks sound pretty familiar, though, with just enough new tricks to avoid feeling like a complete rerun.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Celebration Day [Live]
    Plant's voice is noticeably lower than his salad-days falsetto, and Jimmy Page's guitar sounds slicker than before, but for the most part this is the Zeppelin of yore.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Girl on Fire
    Despite Keys's proficiency (she co-wrote Where's The Fun In Forever, one of the best songs on Miguel's new album), she's always seemed a little boring. On that front, she delivers.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Contrast
    If you can't stand top-40 contemporary dance pop, don't bother (and consider not leaving your house for the next couple of years). Listen to Contrast with an open mind, though, and you hear a kid with real talent.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Somethin' 'Bout Kreay
    [An] utterly vacuous, unlistenable album.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Inner Classics
    If you're not paying close attention, it's the kind of music that seems pretty but a little too straightforward. But delve into it and the layers open up, making you realize how rich it actually is.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Warrior
    Although the new direction isn't revolutionary, it's natural enough and distracts from some of the filler.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    12 Bit Blues
    Kid Koala might be known for his light-hearted approach, but nothing here feels inappropriately kooky.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wild Water Kingdom [Mixtape]
    Add in some politicking and dissociative trilling and Wild Water Kingdom is revisionist rap meant for fans who believe in Heems's neurotic, post-post-colonial, lapsed-academic POV.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Reservation [Mixtape]
    Despite all of its references, Reservation is original, cohesive, absorbing and Haze's most polished release to date.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rare Chandeliers [Mixtape]
    Rare Chandeliers is both soft-lensed yacht rap and roughneck hip-hop that's as New York as pastrami and Waldorf salads.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Lux
    Lux sounds a lot like the kinds of slowly evolving patterns you can generate with those apps, but they come across as disappointingly ordinary when divorced from that participatory element.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dos!
    Dos!, the aptly named second part of the trilogy, is relieved of the weight of expectation and, though it was recorded at the same time as the first, sounds less strained.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Unapologetic
    Sonically, the first half of Unapologetic picks up on the syrupy Southern hip-hop minimalism popular last summer, while much of the latter half is a grab bag of unwieldy balladry.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No Love Deep Web
    Nihilism doesn't even begin to describe the mood created by the skittering electronic drums, uneasy atmospheric noises and MC Ride's manic scream-rapping.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ghost [EP]
    It's wildly diverse, but there's a lightness and unobtrusiveness to each song that mirrors her airy delivery while hinting at even more untapped potential.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
    They still show no interest in doing things the easy way, and we couldn't be happier about that.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Matricidal Sons Of Bitches
    On first listen, Matricidal sounds like an hour of Friedberger playing with all the buttons on his keyboards, taking no care to connect sounds or smooth the edits. Yet taken as a whole and with time, it evokes something melancholy, strange and nostalgic--equally beautiful and eerie.
Page: