For 4,071 reviews, this publication has graded:
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67% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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30% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 76
| Highest review score: | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [50th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Version] | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Songs From Black Mountain |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 3,635 out of 4071
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Mixed: 400 out of 4071
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Negative: 36 out of 4071
4071
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
This is either one of 2007’s most refreshing or most grating albums, and there’s a hair’s breadth in between. Swerving but creative, Rise Above may wear on repeated listens but still it connects more than it should.- Paste Magazine
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Andorra belongs on a hip continuum but something about it still feels slightly cold--it's a druggy album that's too precise to be made with drugs, a lush album that’s too filigreed to be emotional.- Paste Magazine
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A bevy of worthy underground rappers (Mr. Lif, The Coup's Boots Riley, Lyrics Born, and Lateef The Truthspeaker among them) struggle to distinguish themselves over the mid-tempo bootyshake churning around them.- Paste Magazine
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These 10 songs repeatedly strike the same dynamic and evoke the same vague drama, each sounding more perfunctory--and more soulless--than the previous.- Paste Magazine
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Things get slightly clunky when the tempo slows and they stretch for drama, but there’s a growing self-awareness here that keeps Rooney within its comfort zone, which, refreshingly, is comforting more often than not.- Paste Magazine
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The years, however, have worn on the Meat Puppets. Their unrestrained gusto has been replaced with a slower, methodical purging.- Paste Magazine
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While any given song on the album contains a memorable melodic passage or a compelling idea, some of them are more mixed in their results.- Paste Magazine
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Unfortunately, “almost as good as Steve Miller” is about as good as things get.- Paste Magazine
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Here, most gestures remain a bit too consciously panoramic—elegant enough for comfort but often not chancy enough to be breathtaking.- Paste Magazine
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Simplicity is king, as a relentlessly jaunty onslaught of jangle-pop hurtles ever onwards. [May 2007, p.96]- Paste Magazine
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For diehard Elliott Smith fans, New Moon is an absolute must... For remaining listeners, it's merely instructive, sublime in parts but not solid enough or surprising enough or interesting enough, musically, to merit multiple listens. [May 2007, p.58]- Paste Magazine
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It's the sound of a band trying to play it both ways, and succeeding at neither. [May 2007, p.61]- Paste Magazine
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More Pete Seeger than Cat Power, her interpretations sometimes feel too internalized to startle. [May 2007, p.61]- Paste Magazine
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The album suffers from a lack of focus. [May 2007, p.67]- Paste Magazine
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The band simply reiterates earlier ideas less interestingly. [Apr 2007, p.54]- Paste Magazine
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Wilson's fake tales of Middle England lack the sharp observational focus of the Arctic Monkeys, the bratty cleverness of Blur circa Parklife or even the sexy swagger of Franz Ferdinand. [May 2007, p.61]- Paste Magazine
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The playbook is obvious and efficiently executed. [Mar 2007, p.63]- Paste Magazine
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On The Search... Farrar discovers some genuinely exciting new haunts, and frontloads them conveniently. [Mar 2007, p.62]- Paste Magazine
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What she has done so compellingly throughout her career--evanescent moments of self-doubt given voice through melancholic bursts of catharsis--yields here to '70s singer/songwriter cliches once peddled by Carole King and later adopted by the Lilith Fair crowd. [May 2007, p.68]- Paste Magazine
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Though much of the blandness can be attributed to Matt Rollings' MOR production, one is left wishing an artist of Carpenter's considerable talents would eschew the aural dreck and truly shine. [May 2007, p.68]- Paste Magazine
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This album rocks harder than 2003's The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, and it's more sinister, too. [Mar 2007, p.67]- Paste Magazine
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At root, the gritty, back-to-the-garage drive of these pop tunes adds a layer of grease that makes them stick. [Apr 2007, p.58]- Paste Magazine
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It's hardly perfect, but it's bolder, more complex, and ultimately a more fulfilling release for this band. [May 2007, p.65]- Paste Magazine
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Visitations is a return to Internal Wrangler's more straightforward form. It's not as revelatory the second time around, but it plays to Clinic's main strength. [Feb 2007, p.57]- Paste Magazine
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Learn to Sing Like a Star threads together Hersh's myriad musical guises while striving for some of the immediacy and distinctive yelp of her Throwing Muses heyday. It mostly works. [Mar 2007, p.69]- Paste Magazine
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In [some] songs, Mellencamp comes across as Toby Keith's benevolent doppelganger: a good ol' boy who'd rather forgive someone's sorry ass than put a boot in it. [Mar 2007, p.68]- Paste Magazine
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While not as panoramic or varied as its predecessor, 9 is marked by a similar mix of poised control and impulsive gestures backed by dramatically arranged, lyrical instrumentation. [Dec 2006, p.92]- Paste Magazine
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The album relies on a stark, tribal minimalism that sounds as if it was recorded several decades ago. [Dec 2006, p.93]- Paste Magazine