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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    • 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
    • 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
    • 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
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
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