The A.V. Club's Scores

Select another publication »
For 4,544 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 64% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 The Life Of Pablo
Lowest review score: 0 Graffiti
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,663 out of 4544
  2. Mixed: 771 out of 4544
  3. Negative: 110 out of 4544
4544 music reviews
view
per page
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    M B V
    Regardless of whether it’s an echo of the past or a bridge to the future, MBV stands as something potentially timeless--and immediately breathtaking.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    My Woman
    My Woman is one of the realest albums of the year.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Microshift
    Overall, Microshift is the sound of a band pulling itself out of the abyss on the back of its most buoyant music yet.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Argument
    Where each successive album seemed like a new page, The Argument feels like a brilliant new chapter.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Decoration Day
    Not since Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On The Edge Of Town has a group of rock 'n' roll musicians been so in tune with the trappings and traps of small-town life.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Showtime
    A fattened-up answer to 2003's Boy In Da Corner, Showtime finds Rascal brooding over matters great and small without sounding overly ponderous or somber.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Blonde
    As Blonde gets closer to the finish line, the same themes get explored again and again with a more collagelike musicality.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
    Yes, Dig bears little concept or nuance, but it more than makes up for it in raw, oozing passion.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Choose Your Weapon
    The complex, angular song structures beckon only to evade, bolting in unexpected directions just as they seem to settle into a groove.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Southeastern
    For the most part Southeastern is pretty serious business. Then again, so is life and the one that Isbell has lived thus far is certainly worth documenting, especially when the songs supporting it are this stunning.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Painted Shut
    Unfortunately for some, Painted Shut signals the end of Hop Along’s tenure as a little-known buzz band. For everyone else, it’s the sound of being welcomed to the party.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Workbook 25 [Deluxe Edition]
    Although the mix sounds from another era, it also doesn’t sound compressed to within an inch of its life.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Too Bright
    What results is at times noisy, at times beautiful, and always captivating.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Guppy
    Charly Bliss has made a record as alive and irrepressible as anything I’ve heard in years.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    World Without Tears
    It's an album filled with appetites and their consequences.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Things We Lost In The Fire
    Low proves enormously versatile here, exploring musically and maturing lyrically.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Seer
    Swans has never traveled a straightforward, clean, or uninterrupted path. But with The Seer, one thing is certain: Even during its quietest lulls, Gira has never sounded louder.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Puberty 2
    Puberty 2 exposes new dimensions to Mitski’s voice, revealing its true richness and range. Mitski is an exceptionally keen observer of the human condition, and Puberty 2 marks a triumphant new step in her evolution.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Arca
    If the skittering fluctuation of Ghersi’s past releases gained him a cult following, then the open-hearted ballads sprinkled throughout Arca should earn him his well-deserved breakthrough.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    You Will Never Be One of Us
    Nails constructs towers of noise tall enough to blot out the sun.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Summertime '06
    It’s a major triumph disguised as a minor one--60 minutes of lean, inventive, important rap music that never pats itself on the back for being any of those things.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Now, More Than Ever
    It's a lush, gorgeous record, but it's also small and still, full of unassuming first-person monologues.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Raising Sand
    At just under an hour, Raising Sand borders on indulgent sometimes.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Let's Stay Friends
    Let's Stay Friends is LSF's comeback--and frontman Tim Harrington and crew have picked up precisely where they left off.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Vulnicura
    The musical moments that capture Björk’s heartbreak are frequently stunning on Vulnicura, but the whole thing is a little shy on hooks and reasons to take the grueling journey with her often. And that’s what keeps it from being her Yeezus: The heartbreak makes it powerful, but also difficult to enjoy.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Franz Ferdinand
    The album is largely content to hover around the one note it plays so well. [24 Mar 2004]
    • The A.V. Club
    • 87 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Airtight's Revenge
    Airtight's Revenge boasts a present-tense immediacy; there's no psychological distance between Bilal and the psychological torment he sings about, which gives the album a brooding, airless intensity.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    CTRL
    Ctrl is as tough as Damn is tender, and it knocks as hard as The Sun’s Tirade swoons.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    I Love You, Honeybear
    With a welcoming tenor and a likeably schmaltzy delivery that finds him displaying loads of range and emotions, he’s able to give his subject matter the unforgiving and ultimately warm treatment it deserves.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Virgins
    Although never quite retreating from Hecker’s signature techniques, Virgins still finds angular ways to stun.
Page: