The New York Times' Scores

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For 2,074 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Live in Europe 1967: Best of the Bootleg, Vol. 1
Lowest review score: 0 Shatner Claus: The Christmas Album
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,596 out of 2074
  2. Mixed: 443 out of 2074
  3. Negative: 35 out of 2074
2074 music reviews
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    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    20 Y.O.
    Janet is as crafty and poised as ever. Her flirtations are still a pleasure, but an overly familiar one.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dark Light
    The songs are sturdier than ever, and they possess a sneaky sort of power. [10 Oct 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Vultures 1
    Ultimately, “Vultures 1” is a simulacrum of a strong Ye album — sometimes thinly constructed, but thickened with harsh sound and polished to a high shine. Some of West’s recent albums have been brittle inside and out, but this is music that, for better and worse, matches the moment, with songs that are pugnacious, brooding, lewd and a little exasperated.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    In My Mind
    He seems to be a better thinker than a writer and a better writer than a rapper. [24 Jul 2006]
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Wildfire
    She has a clear, edgeless voice, and she’s versatile, though often here it can sound like she’s blindly experimenting with styles.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    F.A.M.E.
    Mr. Brown sings, with a modicum of angst [on "Up To You"]. But for much of this album--almost the whole second half, actually--Mr. Brown is chasing Usher with a ferocity out onto the dance floor, where no one will pay much mind to his words.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Destiny Fulfilled
    A surprisingly perfunctory disc that never quite justifies its existence. [22 Nov 2004]
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Monochrome
    It’s the sound the band became known with: big guitars playing suspended chords, crisp drums, barked verses and carefully sung choruses. [17 Jul 2006]
    • The New York Times
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Everything I Thought It Was
    Abandoning the folksy aesthetic of “Man of the Woods,” “Everything” returns to Timberlake’s comfort zone: Gleaming, lightly profane disco jams that imagine dance-floor seduction as a kind of interstellar odyssey. The results are mixed.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kellie Pickler
    "If those girls were being honest and have been where you’re at. I bet they tell you they wish they had their innocence back." But this is what passes for wisdom on Ms. Pickler’s tepid and forgettable new record.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Untitled
    In setting aside its trademark sound, Korn hasn’t yet replaced it with something of its own, but at least the band is working on it.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Todd Smith
    This is a serviceable, lighthearted album packed with R&B collaborations. [10 Apr 2006]
    • The New York Times
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Funstyle
    It's a jumble of snarky (and funny) music-business skits and raps, junky computerized samples, tuneful near-pop songs with awkwardly overstuffed production, thudding cliches and, in tantalizing fragments, glimmers of her unsettling insight into character flaws, including her own.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Grown & Sexy
    Like a lot of current pop, he could use a middle ground between thuggishness and sentimentality. [15 Aug 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Beerbongs & Bentleys
    There are occasional intrusions of other ideas, like the agonized rock on “Over Now,” and when far more formalist artists like Nicki Minaj or G-Eazy arrive, they sound like teachers trying to enforce order in detention. But in total, Beerbongs & Bentleys is admirably committed to form, one long song of the decontextualized now.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Clear as Day
    The energy of this album sometimes outpaces the singer, who's best when he's deliberate, and whose voice isn't as robust as it could be on these songs.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Am Not a Human Being II
    It’s less manic, less experimental, less unpredictable and, oddly, less consistent.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Who You Are
    These ambitiously sung songs make for tremendous chaos: the lyrics about uplift are often trite, the furiously modern arrangements are often cliched.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Doll Domination
    Ms. Scherzinger’s small, flexible voice thrives in the programmed, computer-tuned R&B tracks.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ardipithecus
    This is a record that never stops threatening to be dull--in the way that Miley Cyrus’s record of mind-blurt autonomy from this year was dull--but rarely is, except when others try to streamline a lumpy aesthetic.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rotten Apple
    Where “The Hunger for More” was sly and (almost despite itself) infectious, this rather workmanlike CD isn’t so memorable. [9 Oct 2006]
    • The New York Times
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Little More Personal (Raw)
    Ms. Lohan has staked out a patch of musical ground between Kelly Clarkson and the Foo Fighters, and she can snarl a little without laying it on too thick. [5 Dec 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lost And Found
    Somewhat entertaining.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Revival
    Revival is probably the best of his recent albums, but like much of his post-peak output, it is a mix of the entrancing and the mystifying, full of impressive rapping that’s also disorienting.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Britney Jean
    Ms. Spears and Will.i.am have turned to European disc jockeys who have found dance music’s lowest, least funky common denominator: the steady thump of four-on-the-floor. And they’ve settled for too many tepid tracks.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    What About Now
    What About Now suggests a few paths for progress, and an ambivalence about committing to any one of them, all under a comfort-zone haze of undifferentiated, low-ambition, lightly rootsy hard rock.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Shock Value II
    The productions flaunt Timbaland trademarks: vocal sounds imitating turntable scratching, quick keyboard arabesques, grunts as percussion. But now he fills in the spaces that made his old tracks so startling.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Theology
    The acoustic songs are pretty but tend to run together, waltz after waltz. The London versions are more individualized, and they let Ms. O’Connor push toward extremes.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    #willpower
    He is not ashamed to bleat out inane proclamations and this album benefits from his shamelessness. It’s frequently catchy and almost always compellingly energetic.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dark Horse
    For the first time Nickelback is produced by Mutt Lange (AC/DC, Shania Twain), who has nudged from the band a tougher sound more suited to its inner louse....But he couldn’t fully jolt the band out of its comfort zone.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Cocky And Confident
    Among the many declarations on “Cocky & Confident,” the ninth album by the New Orleans rapper Juvenile, one stands out as truly preposterous.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 0 Critic Score
    Shatner Claus: The Christmas Album
    Could we not? Signed, the Grinch.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Elixer
    A palatable but undistinguished batch of slow- to medium-tempo R&B fare.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Guilt
    Often Mims refers to how hated he’s become for his success, but truly it’s hard to loathe someone so underwhelming.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Monkey Business
    Perhaps it was inevitable that a group like this would eventually emerge, peddling an energetic but inoffensive variant of hip-hop. But did we have any way of knowing that the results would be so unpleasant? [6 Jun 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Streets Of Gold
    It is a Frankenstein monster built wholly from borrowed pieces, taking the accumulated lessons of years of hip-hop assimilation, the sophomoric attitude of frat-rock and the dense, dance-friendly electro-pop of the moment and grinding them into an oppressive and convincing wall of sounds.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans
    Applying Auto-Tune to her deadpan rapping, she anticipated the sound that helped make Kesha’s “Tik "Tok" an international hit in 2009. Now her debut album, Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans, has to play catch-up.
    • The New York Times
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Guilty Pleasure
    Ms. Tisdale, an average singer, gasps on 'Hot Mess.' "I’m leaving every piece of my conscience behind." But being bad, it turns out, is sort of boring.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Brooklyn's Don Diva
    The production is bargain bin, and lyrically, she sounds leaden.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Beginning
    It's a much lesser record than "The E.N.D.," and yet it isn't boring, even when the echoes of old songs are more than echoes.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    One Of The Boys
    Ms. Perry is curiously blank on her major-label debut album (in 2001 she released a moody, eclectic collection of Christian contemporary music).
    • 47 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Concrete Rose
    So this album contains Ashanti's best and most adventurous selection of beats so far. Unfortunately, it also contains the sketchiest and most irritating batch of songs. [13 Dec 2004]
    • The New York Times
    • 47 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Life Love & Hope
    The songs come with soaring sentimental choruses, but brittle rhythmic foundations--you will miss Sib Hashian, Boston’s old drummer--as well as deeply grandiose or cornball keyboard parts.... Where Mr. Delp is absent, the singers Tommy DeCarlo or David Victor commit passable imitations, or Kimberley Dahme provides bland contrast.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    One Thing at a Time
    Its 36 songs — yes, 36 — show abundant craftsmanship and barely a hint of new ambition or risk. ... But over the lengthy course of the album, the songs tend to cycle through just a handful of approaches. Eventually, the nasal grain of Wallen’s singing starts to feel like Auto-Tune or another studio effect.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Hotel
    More than ever, the focus here is on Moby as a singer and songwriter, which is strange, because he is not very good at either job.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    True Magic [First Version]
    Mos Def may not be flossy or raw at this stage in his celebrated career, which is fine. But what he offers instead is lukewarm nostalgia and obligatory indignation. [8 Jan 2007]
    • The New York Times
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time
    It's easy to imagine Santana completely revamping some guitar-centered hits. But for most of the album, that was apparently too daring for Mr. Santana and his pop mentor and co-producer, Clive Davis. These oldies tend to stay close to the original arrangements and vocal phrasing, perhaps hoping that familiarity can sneak them onto the radio.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    All That I Am
    Too many of the guest stars and committee-written songs on this album are strictly B-list. [31 Oct 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Live It Up
    Only the album's last track, "A Song About Love," feels true. His voice is serrate, his mood is foul, and the song is sturdy enough to stand up to both. It's the sound of Mr. DeWyze's then and now finally colliding.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Good Morning Revival
    A mystifyingly inept CD that includes some of the worst lyrics you will — or, with any luck, won’t — hear all year. [26 Mar 2007]
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Skins
    Skins barely leaves a mark. The ideas aren’t original. The record is short--clocking it in at just 20 minutes--but feels extremely threadbare. ... The songs on Skins are shards, sketches. Even calling them demos feels generous.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Weirdness
    The spirit is there, even when, in some cases, the songwriting is not. [25 Feb 2007]
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Memories: Do Not Open
    Mr. Taggart is a capable but unexciting singer. And he has shockingly few lyrical ideas, less of a concern for performers more adept with melody. ... Two back-to-back songs, the impressive “Honest” and “Wake Up Alone,” parse the weight that fame exacts on emotional relationships--they’re among the most credible on the album.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    I Am Me
    "I Am Me" has an awful lot of brooding teen-rock songs, none of which flatter Ms. Simpson's rather breathy, mannered voice. [24 Oct 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Baptism
    There are some sturdy tunes and hooks, but not much more: the songwriting is often bland, the singing generally charmless.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Scream
    The new environment rejuvenates Mr. Cornell for good and bad: he sounds shallower than he was before but pithier too.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    What The...
    It’s often only functional, crucially low on thrills; the riffs, over barely changing, stock-punk rhythm patterns, have no breathing space.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    All The Right Reasons
    For hard-rock ridiculousness, Nickelback is tough to beat. [3 Oct 2005]
    • The New York Times
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Graffiti
    A curiously faceless album that largely thumbs its nose at close reading.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    DUMMY BOY
    Energetic but scattered.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fashionably Late
    Throughout the album, there is chaos.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Rebirth
    The songs might have been better as parodies than as imitations, although “Knockout” — a Coldplay homage backing a raunchy lyric — comes close to being both.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Christmas
    Mr. Buble's sparkly sincerity commands the spotlight at every turn, but he plays well with others, too.
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