Rolling Stone's Scores

For 5,894 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 6.2 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:
5894 music reviews
    • 92 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The mood stays ominous, even as sonic details thrill headphone-equipped headbangers.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Each of these albums is as noteworthy for what's missing as for what's there.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Whether the ace metal is speedy or onerous (or both, as in the case of "Six Shooter," with its shrieking insanity), it is always deployed in the service of the eccentric song structures, and every track becomes a splendid, mysterious thing.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Merritt's compositions have a tossed-off, barely produced quality and are held together by sturdily constructed melodies that hark back to Eighties synth poppers like Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    With Kill the moonlight, Spoon complete their transformation from ragtag rockers into beat-driven post-punks.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Musically, it's as superb as anything she's ever done.... But underneath the sublime sounds, something crucial is missing.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Always an underrated guitarist, Harvey makes use of the jaunty rhythms of British folk music, but takes no comfort in the past. And you don't have to care about English history--or England in general--to fall under Harvey's spell.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A sprawling, eclectic set that ranges from the slightly tepid to the truly transcendent.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There's some info overload, but Ellison is an ace with pacing, and a distracted soulfulness guides the frantic laptop science.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Despite the thematic monotony, Tucker and her band mates think louder and rock smarter than anyone in their class; a modest effort like All Hands would be another band's masterpiece.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As usual with T.W.O.D., these songs are only as good as their grooves.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    OST
    It works well as a very basic introduction to Factory's better-known groups: Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    From her luscious, aching croon, and her ensemble's solemn high-mesa twang and groove..., you'd never guess she wasn't covering Patsy Cline standards.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The music isn't always as dynamic as his thoughts, opting for a mostly mellow mood that matches the LP's carefree samples of surfing documentaries, but doesn't always capture their freewheeling individuality.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's at once attention-deficient and micromanaged, exhilarating and aggravating.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Another baffling, winning, neopsychedelic recording.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ys
    Hard to stomach. [19 Oct 2006, p.134]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    New Bermuda's few epiphanies are surrounded by waters too rough for most listeners.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As an introduction to Buck's weird world of lovable losers, hugely endowed centaurs and insomniacs, Right Here is right on.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    They make tremendously consoling music, in an autumnal sort of way.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Geogaddi is marvelously vague, as unconcerned with the real world as gangsta rap is obsessed with it. It's also a lovely, strangely comforting collection of electronic introspection, mood and shadow.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Like Death in Vegas, Holmes is a techno boffin whose work builds upon that of the Velvet Underground rather than Kraftwerk; too bad his grooves, like the bass-line chug of "Living Room," often go nowhere fast.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Though nowhere near as incisive, infectious or rewarding as their best work, Kids See Ghosts is still an important step forward into an era of big moods and short attention spans.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Though her deep voice is mixed down a little, most of Meshell Ndegeocello's seventh album--five of its tracks reprised from last year's "Article 3 EP" recalls 2002's "Cookie."
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    At their best, Animal Collective combine shapely pop hooks with mind-broadening sonic freakery. At their worst, the sonic freakery is mind-numbing. Like most of their work, this five-song EP contains all of the above.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bush of Ghosts seems half-baked, putatively cerebral yet underthought, interesting only because somebody famous did it.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's a balanced album by a spirit who seems anything but.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Both messy and marvelous.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Most of Spiritualized's ninth LP comes off intricate, elastic, and soulful. [Mar 2022, p.71]
    • Rolling Stone
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Badu seems so taken by hazy texture--and so determined to play the weirdo--that she's neglected to write many actual songs.