Splendid's Scores

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For 793 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 65% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 33% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 75
Highest review score: 100 Humming By The Flowered Vine
Lowest review score: 10 Fire
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 654 out of 793
  2. Mixed: 119 out of 793
  3. Negative: 20 out of 793
793 music reviews
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    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Driving A Million
    The aggressive stance taken on some of the songs brings an unwelcome "Is this Orgy?" feel to the affair.... If Gwenmars can produce more show-stoppers, and perhaps tone-down some of the aggresive stylings that creep in, they might become more than just a throwback.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Stealing Of A Nation
    If you'd never heard Gotham!, you might very well find much to like about Stealing of a Nation.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Can You See The Music
    The technical skill and creativity at work here are enough reason to give DJ Me DJ You more than a passing listen, even if the songs don't make your head bob up and down and your feet tap.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Get Ready
    From a new band, Get Ready would seem like an accomplished if uneven effort.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Alphabetical
    There are some bands who were just meant to be great pop acts -- pop in the George Michael sense, pop in the Fleetwood Mac sense. Phoenix make music that your mom would like, and it's not a bad thing.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Face The Truth
    While Face The Truth rarely presents a side of its creator that has not already been seen, loved, and cried over, it's a passable, even better-than-average album.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Keep It Together
    Harmless and happy, with an underbelly of serious sadness, Keep it Together dares to be average, and comes out sounding and feeling pretty decent.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    C'Mon Lets Pretend
    People who listened to Sahara Hotnights' albums in their proper sequence will appreciate their improvement, but those who heard Jennie Bomb first may well end up preferring it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    OST
    A watered-down mix of big-budget tricks and studio sheen.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hot Shots II
    It's good stuff, to be sure -- but if Hot Shots II excites you at all, it's probably time to lay off the pot.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Terrorbird
    Unless you're fifteen and were raised with a mouse constantly in hand, the Mae Shi can get overwhelming... but their saving graces (lots of genuine energy, naming their songs things like "Hieronymus Bosch is a Dead Man") charm you into liking them.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Machine [EP]
    The brittle treble-heavy assault is replaced with clarity, greater exploration of texture and more "professional" recording.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shadows Collide With People
    Mercifully, Frusciante has toned down the screechy howl that made his earlier work almost unbearable, and while his songs aren't quite diamond-sharp, they have evolved into soft-focus pop tunes that display a keen melodic intuition and gift for beautiful torment.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    God Bless The Blake Babies
    The band sounds richer, fuller and more confident. Sometimes they also sound a little too slick for their own good -- a nagging concern with "Disappear", among others -- but the studio glitz is matched by artistic maturity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Celebration Castle
    The Ponys have achieved a certain level of competence, and if you're willing to accept that in place of originality or innovation, Celebration Castle is worth checking out.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Loose Fur
    While there's undoubtedly a wealth of ideas to be found here, listenability is the real wildcard.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Story Of My Life
    There's enough strong material on The Story of My Life to score Carter time on CMT and get her in good with the Borders crowd, cementing her cross-genre appeal.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Liberation
    As a political album, Liberation may only be half-successful, but I'd still take angry Trans Am over the schlocky Trans Am of TA any day.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Red Letter Days
    There's definitely nothing earth-shattering here... but there's nothing that's going to alienate the fanbase, either.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Waves Are Universal
    There are too many ambitious singer/songwriter albums out there to easily justify any water-treading.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Long Knives Drawn
    It's not a bad album -- it's just not particularly notable.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Listener
    Opener "Glisten" is anybody's masterpiece.... This instrumental brings so much anticipation to the rest of this record, it's no wonder I'm partly disappointed with The Listener: Gelb can't and doesn't deliver a dozen more songs like "Glisten".
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Monsoon
    There's far too much nondescript strumming and far too few meaningful hooks.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Burn Piano Island, Burn
    Less cohesively engaging than March on Electric Children, Burn, Piano Island, Burn is, by turns, spasmodically inviting and gratingly repulsive to all but the most patient of noisemongers.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This Island
    A mostly "hit" but occasionally "miss" effort that showcases both the band's maturation and its residual shortcomings.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    We Are A & C
    If "We Are A&C" was the album's low point, the album would be in great shape -- but there are a few half-hearted tracks that stake a more legitimate claim to that dubious honor.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Datsuns
    Their rehashed rawk riffage is relentlessly enthralling, but their beat-you-over-the-head scream-tactics lend themselves to a sludgy sameness that, by album's end, has worn its welcome pencil-thin.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Life In Slow Motion
    Gray is wise to continue experimenting and testing the boundaries of his art, but his changes don't need to be this bold. In this case, he comes up short: his minimalist mastery does not translate to resounding baroque success.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dear Catastrophe Waitress
    Murdoch, finally free to take charge of his band, has done so in spades, and the result is a confident, assured affair...that, to many listeners, will seem utterly out of character.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Burned Mind
    If you peel away the pretense, there's actually a fascinating album at work here.
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