Rolling Stone's Scores

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For 5,918 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 34% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 62% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Magic
Lowest review score: 0 Know Your Enemy
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,633 out of 5918
  2. Mixed: 2,245 out of 5918
  3. Negative: 40 out of 5918
5918 music reviews
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    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Based on a T.R.U. Story
    2 Chainz commands the spotlight--rapping about success and sex with the irrepressible enthusiasm of the upstart he isn't.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Silver Lining
    For tuneful, middle-of-the-road rock, The Silver Lining ain't bad.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Gettin' In Over My Head
    Perhaps it's best to think of Gettin' In Over My Head as Wilson's celebrity children's record.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mine Is Yours
    On their third album, the Cali quartet swing for the fences - it's as if CWK, once a sharp band with retro leanings, have been gorging on Springsteen and Kings of Leon.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kylie Christmas
    Her last album, 2014's Kiss Me Once, felt unfortunately cheesy at times, so it's a pleasant surprise to find Minogue playing to her strengths here.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blood Money
    The cash influx hasn't reformed these B-boys. [4 May 2006, p.57]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jekyll + Hyde
    On their fourth LP, they bang out styles with such preposterous ease--Seventies Philly soul, old-timey gospel, Celtic folk, metal, reggae, jazz--they could incorporate as a single-band music-placement agency. If only they reached a little further.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Havoc and Bright Lights
    Her seventh LP brings the mama drama.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Immortal
    With Jackson's world-remaking grooves as a guide, even the gaudiest setting can be a party.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    In The Flesh
    There's admirable sonic purity to these live recordings, but that only underscores the astonishing lack of verve in the performances.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Great Escape Artist
    Perry Farrell strives for a Radiohead vibe that leaves guitarist Dave Navarro confused (though he gets his on "Words Right Out of Mouth").
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Life In Cartoon Motion
    On the couple of cuts when Mika's campy steez isn't all up in your grill, he's boring.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Weight of Your Love
    No matter what mode they’re in, they manage to turn four-minute songs into small eternities.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Heathen Chemistry
    As on the last few Oasis outings, particularly the arrogant Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, from 2000, Noel's nerdy-architect tendencies are counterbalanced by the bratty and hedonistic snarl of his brother Liam.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Excuse My French
    When these mantras connect, they’re indelible. When they don’t, it’s like being smacked in the face repeatedly with an iced-out chain.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Harmonium
    Though Carlton's a better lyricist than faded contemporaries such as Michelle Branch, that fussy piano tends to muscle her out of her own songs.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Déjà-Vu
    Although a handful of dated, unimaginative instrumentals drag down Déjà Vu's momentum, Moroder has always been more of a singles artist.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Daniel Powter
    Lacking the star personality of a Robbie Williams or the wit of a Ben Folds, Powter doesn't rise above his instantly familiar keyboard riffs, yet neither does he drown in them.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Welcome To The Drama Club
    Seemingly every track... contains nothing but raw bile toward those who have wronged Alexakis. [21 Sep 2006, p.88]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Remix
    On this Lady Gaga remix album, 10 producers and DJs sink their teeth into her meaty catalog--with predictably uneven results.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Who I Am
    In this side project, he's not trying to be too different from the Bros, just going for a more retro-soul vibe with a band of old Prince alumni.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I-Empire
    The results so far: mixed. I-Empire is full of big, faintly Eighties-sounding chiming choruses and arms-outstretched melodies, and DeLonge deploys the signposts of significance all over.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    White Lilies Island
    Imbruglia's delicate, sweet and well-behaved singing isn't the ideal vehicle for expressing angst, even if most of these minor-chord, gray-skies anthems seem to be yearning to do just that.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    No Boys Allowed
    Her second album is hit-or-miss, with failed attempts at pop crossover (the Timbaland collabo "Breaking Point") and sub-Rihanna reggae moves. Still, the high points are worth digging out.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Timbaland Presents Shock Value
    Shock Value doesn't feel as random and indistinct as many albums by producers using all-star lineups do. [19 Apr 2007, p.62]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Somebody's Miracle
    On Somebody's Miracle, she goes for a folksy, acoustic style, but she still oversings, holding notes too long and tackling pop choruses she doesn't have half the voice for.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Animal
    It's repulsive, obnoxious and ridiculously catchy--thanks to songwriter-producers Dr. Luke and Max Martin, who envelop Ke$ha's bratty raps in percolating beats and buzzing bass lines.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Payable On Death
    Ultimately, the inspirational message... gets lost in uninspired rhymes.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Wild Ones
    Here he largely defers to producers (including Dr. Luke) and guest stars (Sia, J. Lo), and watches the cash roll in.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Overexposed
    It's top-shelf radio sucrose.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lonely Road
    Much of the time the Jumpsuits end up sounding like a lesser version of Hawthorne Heights.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Unleashed
    Most of the time he sounds like a pipsqueak trying to play grown-up--a Lothario whose pickup lines land, time after time, with a thud.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Michael
    This is not a Michael Jackson album. Jackson was one of pop's biggest fussbudgets: Even when his songs were half-baked, the production was pristine. He would not have released anything like this compilation, a grab bag of outtakes and outlines assembled by Jackson's label.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mail On Sunday
    For much of his debut album, Flo Rida seems like he's trying to match the broad appeal of "Low," but he has only limited success.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Are You Passionate?
    What makes this Mr. Young-goes-to-Memphis excursion resonate is the trouble that lurks just outside its boundaries.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Godfather Buried Alive
    Godfather doesn't sound dated; it sounds dateless, in a bad sense--boilerplate raps and beats that could have been recorded whenever and wherever. [16 Sep 2004, p.78]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wilder Mind
    The sentiment is Springsteen, the guitars are straight-up Strokes, and even if it's not going to work out for the relationship in this song, the music itself bristles with self-assurance.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Music For Cougars
    On their sixth album they're still turning out pop rock so good-natured it practically gives you a big smile and a fist-bump.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Old Boots, New Dirt
    Even his big, guitar-driven songs owe as much to Nickelback as to Nashville – if the pedal steel on ''Two Night Town'' sounds forlorn, maybe that's because it’s competing for attention with gravelly alt-rock distortion.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blacc Hollywood
    Blacc Hollywood makes you want to come along for the ride.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Prophets of Rage
    12 hardrocking lefty diatribes against government conspiracies ("Drones – they got ya tapped, they got ya phone," Chuck D raps in "Take Me Higher"), civil injustice ("We fuckin' matter," he declares on "Who Owns Who") and, in the case of B-Real's rhymes, restrictive weed laws ("Legalize Me").
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    EP2
    As with EP 1, released last fall, this four-song set feels like a faint echo of the band's later albums, 1990's Bossanova and 1991's Trompe le Monde, lacking those records' frizzy menace, zany propulsion and memorable tunes.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bitchin'
    Bitchin' offers little you haven't heard before--even if you haven't heard a Donnas record--but it should go well with a beer or six.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Earth vs. the Pipettes
    The voices can't equal, say, Bananarama's depth of feeling. But in tracks like "Captain Rhythm"--which partly suggests "Da Doo Ron Ron" on Jupiter--the Pipettes still ride the dance beat like a rocket ship.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    No Fixed Address
    They're masters of generality, packaging all the bland blue-collar fantasies and unrequited nostalgia of an According to Jim rerun into formulaic head-nodders. The Canadian rockers' latest set is no exception, though they've cast a wider net this time.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Saints Of Los Angeles
    The trip down memory lane helps the Crüe connect to their old sound: Much of Saints rocks with the same raucous fun as their Eighties albums, delivering glam guitars and arena-size choruses on cuts like the wickedly catchy 'Down at the Whisky.'
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hood Billionaire
    The Miami MC's seventh LP explodes with none of the ambition or scope of March's Mastermind--playing it safe, like a knockoff version of Jay Z's back-to-basics speed bump American Gangster, from 2007.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Raven
    Reed has once again stretched the boundaries of popular music and, in doing so, has honored Edgar Allan Poe's illustrious legacy, along with his own.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Boomkatalog One
    Despite their fakeness, Boomkat fill the smarter-than-your-average-pop void left by fellow film-music switch-hitter Vitamin C.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Planta
    Their music is punky, clubby, intensely annoying and other qualities their fans will describe as "fun," but therein lies the band's integrity: They tend to stay out of the middle of the road.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Full Circle
    Rhyme schemes are frequently sophomoric, the production is already slightly dated, and the monotony of down-tempo songs is barely broken by cliched floor-stompers about Escalades and playa haters.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Everyday Demons
    Everyday Demons will satisfy metal fans who are in between favorite albums, but if your tastes don't run along the lines of The Simpsons' Otto the bus driver, you can take a pass.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Music From Another Dimension!
    The usual forehead-slapping decisions are here: goopy Eighties production, tired synth horns, a Diane Warren ballad.... The best thing about Music From Another Dimension! is the chance to hear Joe Perry and Brad Whitford play guitar.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Baptized
    The sound on Baptized somehow links U2 to Rascal Flatts, adding Springsteen stances in "Wild Heart." More unexpectedly, there's also a banjo shuffle.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Forever
    Aside from a couple of ponderous, buzz-killing instrumentals, Forever is one long rave.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Jesus Is King
    The plaintive, direct singing mode is West’s best delivery vehicle across the album. The rapping is uniformly lackluster when not delivered by one of the brothers Thornton in their return as legendary rap duo Clipse.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    In The City
    The rest of Rudolf's self-produced debut is a middling rock record dressed up in sleek digital clothes.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Damita Jo
    Smacks of trying too hard.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Chronicles Of Life And Death
    They falter by attempting to stray from the formula they've mastered. [28 Oct 2004, p.100]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    HitNRun: Phase One
    If only he'd really relax and let it flow a little more.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Wiped Out!
    The warmth of "Sweater Weather" and the rest of the Neighbourhood's debut album is gone on Wiped Out!, replaced by a ponderous kind of cool.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dangerous Dreams
    The album's flat production values eventually dull the rhythm section's choppy bite.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ocean Eyes
    Love songs like "On the Wing"--a ballad with a plush, twinkling electro beat where the singer lies awake dreaming of his beloved-- are serious mush, like an amorous e-mail you'll regret in the morning.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Weezer [Black Album]
    Even if he primarily composed on pan flute, it’d still be what it is--another edition of their signature precise, poker-faced California pop-rock. ... Though this time out the sense of irony is somewhat less blanched and the music a great deal more fun.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Illusion Of Progress
    Most of the time, though, the band sticks to its comfort zone, with songs that proceed through a sequence of genre clichés as Lewis howls out woe-is-me's and lists of grievances.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Anthem of the Peaceful Army
    There’s an element of the ridiculous in this. But there’s also a charm to their guileless, retro-fetishist conviction. And dudes have chops.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Witness
    Throughout, Perry is less like the so-unusual, candy-coated Cyndi Lauper of "Teenage Dream," and is more an anonymous disco crooner, a breathy moderator leading us through passionate but muted songs of longing and empowerment.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship
    The sentiments are so genuine and earnest, it's hard to fault Arie for this gauzy blend of New Age-y self-help babble and sunny, plucky folk. [10 Aug 2006, p.98]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Light
    On bright pleasures like the New Wave-y 'We Will Walk,' Light comes close to becoming an attention-holding pop album. But it's dragged into earnest tedium by good-natured platitudes hippie-soul moments like 'Thunder,' on which Matisyeezy sounds like a self-serious indie rapper with a major vegan bent.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Silence Is Easy
    Sounds like Coldplay covering Barry Manilow.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Reincarnated
    There's a winning sincerity to his sunny jams extolling peace, love and gun control; even the weed anthems feel less phoned-in than usual.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Acoustic Sessions
    Recorded in the couple's home studio, this set of duets by Lennon and his model girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, recalls other forebears too, such as the damaged beauty of Elliott Smith. But the songs have a sunny, psychedelic side.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nightbird
    One could easily mistake Nightbird for something the duo made in the Eighties -- and if you love Erasure, you won't care.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dangerous And Moving
    Although spunky cuties Julia Volkova and Lena Katina have improved their English-pronunciation skills, the hooks they're handed this second time around are decidedly duller.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    We Don't Need To Whisper
    DeLonge yanks heartstrings with so-so results.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses
    His fifth album balances bumptious party fare (the Pharrell-produced "Tease," the Eighties R&B glide "Baby's in Love") with dark-tinted slow jams.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Business Casual
    [Bemberger's] annoyingly wordy yelp carries only a few memorable lines and fewer melodies. [14 Oct 2004, p.98]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    All The Lost Souls
    Too much of All the Lost Souls is just pleasant ether, with Blunt showing a gift for drabness on forgettable ballads that make Coldplay seem like the Arctic Monkeys.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Escapology
    While 2000's Sing When You're Winning was a trashy masterpiece that the States ignored, Escapology sounds like a more self-conscious effort to craft a pop-rock blockbuster.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    California 37
    It's all catchy enough to keep you listening, slack-jawed.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fly from Here
    Unfortunately, the band gets drowned out by weak vocals and synth goop – Steve Howe takes only a few disappointingly brief guitar solos, beyond his acoustic "Solitaire."
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Faith
    Faith consists of audio files recombined by producers and record executives into something coherent, listenable, and at times even enjoyable, but not quite dazzling. Maybe it’s not an Anthony Bourdain doc constructed with artificial intelligence, but it still feels a bit weird.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Palookaville
    Fatboy hasn't stopped pandering to his core crowd of fun-loving jalapeno-poppers. [14 Oct 2004, p.99]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 53 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    The Papercut Chronicles II
    The Papercut Chronicles II is the year's most charmless album, 11 punishingly dull rock-rap tunes with hooks that would've sounded dated a decade ago.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Donda
    Donda occasionally gestures toward the truly shapeless writing on that LP [Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red] but stops short of sounding as if West is truly articulating his id.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    For All The Dogs
    Drake meanders through yet another collection of superlong streaming bait. For All the Dogs may have its sparks. But too often, he settles for subliminal bars aimed at rivals like Kanye West and Pusha T, keeping it “gangsta” by putting down women and, of course, filling up the piggy bank.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Walls
    It’s fair to say Louis can break free as well. That doesn’t happen enough on Walls.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Horrorscope
    It's an almost perfectly consistent follow-up to the band's successful 1998 debut - perhaps a tad too consistent.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
    The album equivalent of a Civil War reenactment. [30 Sep 2004, p.190]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The DeAndre Way
    A shaky stab at Soulja manhood, the third disc from the Crank That cutie finds him hitting drinking age, torn between pup and pit bull.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bring on the Comets
    Comets sounds best when Craig Pfunder trains his fake English accent on a chorus with a hot melody.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Universal Mind Control
    Huh? A Common album without a soul-jazz opener? Well, rap's deep thinker wanted to make club bangers. So he got the Neptunes to shape this sexed-up set.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Boomslang
    It's got all the atmosphere of a great rock record, but not the guts of one.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Just Whitney
    Lacks any fire whatsoever.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Taking Chances
    Alas, her cat-strangling whine is still a remarkably ugly sound, no matter what she's singing.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wake Up!
    Usually, the music--some of which is quite lovely--veers closer to the New Age neoclassicism of Vangelis or Kitaro, a warm fit for Francis' tender, elegant speaking voice.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Kris Allen
    The likability that helped Allen win last season is so carefully low-key here that it's nearly lost.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Midsummer Station
    His fluency with pop forms only makes things worse; Young spoils everything he touches. The Carly Rae Jepsen duet "Good Time" is grating enough to make you hate Jepsen, "Call Me Maybe" and also good times in general.
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