The Boston Phoenix's Scores

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For 1,091 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.2 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Pink
Lowest review score: 0 Last of a Dyin' Breed
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 956 out of 1091
  2. Mixed: 88 out of 1091
  3. Negative: 47 out of 1091
1091 music reviews
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    • 57 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Ten$ion
    For the most part, Ten$ion is a letdown in its utter normalcy.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    A Different Kind of Truth
    The first comeback album in history by an iconic rock act that stands up against anything else on the shelves today.... This is the mighty Van Halen at their best.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Onwards to the Wall [EP]
    Onwards is, at its heart, just one big suicide tease, which is what makes it so fantastic.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Be the Void
    Be the Void might be the band's least accessible offering yet, but it's certainly their bravest--and given some breathing room, it might just prove their most rewarding.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon)
    Live instrumentation and organic jams keep it all from sounding très moderne, and though it touches upon some typical Air tropes (free-floating whispery shimmers, B-movie space sounds gone glitzy) the overall loosey-goosey methodology is refreshing.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Out of Frequency
    Sometimes Out of Frequency wavers into old-school television-theme-song territory, like a ramped-up take on M Squad or some bad dating show at the turn of the '80s.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Visions
    It's a bummer that Visions ended up as a fever dream of a record: unnecessarily oblique, listlessly long (48 minutes!), and painfully shapeless.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Blues Funeral
    The spotlight stays fixed on his darkly soothing intonations throughout, keeping the smoky, low-key aesthetic unvarying despite some stylistic and instrumental adventurousness.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Garden Window
    This barrage of relentless noise and pummeling rhythms, when coupled with Garden Window's amorphous arrangements, can make the album claustrophobic, monotonous, and overwhelming. But the record's redeemed by its range.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Habits & Contradictions
    The key is confidence. Moments that would be cringe-inducing if delivered by the less intrepid come across as triumphant.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hospitality
    Regardless of their ability to stand out in a crowd, they write tunes sharper than a thumbtack, with words that ramble around in fascinating stream-of-consciousness webs.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Seeker Lover Keeper
    The majority of the songs aren't much more than bare bones, with sparse piano and spacious, airy guitars, but it's the way the women work together so naturally that promises more than a one-off experiment.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Feel the Sound
    No bad songs, but any other record they've made is better.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sinners Never Sleep
    Sinners Never Sleep is a transitional album, though such efforts rarely bode as well for the future as this does.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Attack On Memory
    Attack on Memory is simultaneously abrasive and sentimental; it's a self-deprecating soundtrack for a new generation of adolescent loneliness.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Something
    Veteran rock legend Alan Moulder and eclectic electro-guy Dan Carey make sure Something sounds as huge as its aspirations, bringing an impeccably massive sheen to every note.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Hymns
    A triumphant sequel.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Polymers Are Forever
    Their wail-and-bash raison d'etre continues to bring more intense, absurd listening pleasure than any other noise band on the planet.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Bruiser
    Just an okay record.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Voyageur
    The indie-leaning direction of the album suggests that the Canadian singer-songwriter is coming into her own.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Future This
    Future This is ultimately more melodic than its laborious predecessor. But around the "ballads" in the second half, you start longing for a point.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Fallen Empires
    It works, sometimes.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Let's Go Eat the Factory
    Factory doesn't entirely squander the goodwill built up by their recent excellent reunion tour, but it's not significantly better than the standard Pollard solo album of the last decade.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Magic of Youth
    These 11 new songs represent some of the strongest material of their career.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    All Will Prosper
    As precious as your grandma's finest china (and 10 times prettier), All Will Prosper nearly dissolves into shapeless clouds by album's end. But by then you've already dissolved into it.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Strawberry
    They don't make bands like this anymore.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Both Ways Open Jaws
    Unavoidable comparisons to the Icelandic princess and her early years aside, Both Ways Open Jaws sounds familiar while breaking new ground.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Path of Totality
    This is the same ol' Korn you've loved or hated (or felt indifferently toward) since you first saw that slo-mo bullet in the "Freak on a Leash" video, except with de-tuned guitars swapped for garish, beefy synths.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Undun
    Black Thought comes as brutish as ever, and their now-standard cast of collaborators (P.O.R.N. and Dice Raw) sound more at ease over these lanky beats than they did on more combustible previous efforts.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stage Whisper
    Although only adequate run-throughs of the studio-album tracks, Stage Whispers' live performances do underscore a continuity between songs from both 5:55 and IRM that otherwise wasn't apparent. Stage Whispers' new offerings, on the other hand, are consistently interesting.
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