Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
For 422 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 94% higher than the average critic
  • 0% same as the average critic
  • 6% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 12.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 85
Highest review score: 100 The Beatles [White Album] [50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition]
Lowest review score: 40 Jesus Is King
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 409 out of 422
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 422
  3. Negative: 0 out of 422
422 music reviews
view
per page
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Egypt Station
    McCartney is very much interested in keeping things lively, if not always lusty, while making room for the kind of quieter reflections heard back on 2005’s “Chaos.”
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Passwords
    If you have just enough residual idealism that you think you might enjoy even a temporary respite from our collective growl in 2018, Passwords feels a bit like one of those Records We Could Use Right Now. .. It turns out, he makes about as good a re-enfranchised romantic as he did a disappointed one.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Rare Birds
    Rare Birds is a must for fans of The War on Drugs, and for any rock fans who believe the album is a lost art.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    WE
    Superb ... The emphasis this time around is not on bells and whistles or external bombast but simply on the music itself.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Iconology [EP]
    Excellent but tantalizingly brief. ... Although the four new songs on “Iconology” feel more like a hearty appetizer than a full meal, they also find Elliott covering more stylistic ground in 12 minutes than most artists can in exponentially longer time.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Lo Moon
    It possesses a rare balance of pop-inflected songwriting and dense atmospherics that hold each other in check rather than clashing (props to producers Chris Walla and Francois Tetaz).
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    - Ugh, those feels again
    “Ugh” is a “real album,” with a unified yet ever-changing sound and vibe — and one that initially feels familiar but shifts shapes on closer inspection, and is harder to pin down than it first might seem.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Radical Optimism
    “Optimism” is pummeling, concerted and arranged exactly how it should be, a pop record meant to wash over you like a breeze rolling off of the surf.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    High Road
    If “Rainbow,” then, was the tremulous tone of Kesha in a funky fugue state, her newly released “High Road” is the sound of reclamation and abandon, of finding her form and shedding old skin, of locating exactly where the party’s at in 2020, then tearing apart the dance floor with a pick axe and a tough, glam-pop-hop roar. With that, Kesha not only claims independence and free-forward motion, but shows, again, that she sounds like no other female on the pop charts.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    HONESTLY, NEVERMIND
    As a standalone Drake album, it’s deeply refreshing, and a dose of vibrant pop likely to reverberate through the remainder of the summer.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Dancing with the Devil... The Art of Starting Over
    Amid the overtly autobiographical numbers, there are pretty good and not-so-hot numbers; the same unevenness goes of the more escapist turns the album makes. This might not be such a problem if “Art of Starting Over” had one undeniable smash on it to help steamroll over the unevenness. But there’s no doubt that she’s alive, well, singing more than just well, and stepping around smallish problems like how to make an album that feels coherent instead of dancing with Mr. D.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1
    The overall results of the “Greenfields” experiment are pretty magnificent, actually. And organically.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Everyday Life
    Coldplay is at their best when they’re making no attempt to justify their bombast. ... The result is an album that fulfills the requisite Coldplay requirements — be it plumes of falsetto, odes to brooding despair or decadent displays of jubilation — but ultimately fails to justify its own necessity.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Be Right Back [EP]
    As Smith says, “Be Right Back” is a stopgap — but if “Addicted” and “Weekend” are any indication of what’s coming next, we’ll be here waiting.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Shawn Mendes
    Shawn Mendes is a remarkably well-crafted pop album that finds the singer trying on different styles, prominently showcasing his collaborators and making some flagrant references--yet his persona has become strong enough that he’s never overpowered by any of it.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Fighting Demons
    As far as posthumously released albums go, though, the dreary-dreamy “Fighting Demons” aptly shows off Juice’s penchant for disconsolate lyrics and dimly lit but infectious hooks.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Love is Dead
    Chvrches have made their most fully-realized effort to date (musically, anyway).
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    American Utopia
    At times, particularly during the more meditative middle stretch, the album can be easier to admire than to love. ... But when Byrne’s themes and his compositions cohere, the results are wonderful to behold.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    DISCO
    You can’t say it doesn’t deliver exactly what it promises. While Minogue has rarely ventured too far from her dance-pop comfort zone, “Disco” displays a particularly glorious single-mindedness, exploring the genre’s past, present and future with nary a ballad or a twangy guitar lick in sight. Minogue’s most consistent and cohesive album since her oughts-era heyday.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tha Carter V
    The good news: Musically, despite the age of some of the songs, V is fresh, flush and even frenetic at times, with the crunch of the Southern trap and ropey rap-rock sounds that Wayne pretty much started in the first place.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Voyage
    The essence remains: delectable melodies, soaring arrangements, sweeping crescendos, dramatic pauses, regal countermelodies, Andersson’s gorgeous piano playing and most significantly, Agnetha and Frida’s singing — the stunning sweet-sour blend that is the single most defining trait of ABBA’s sound. ... Four decades on, ABBA are more ABBA-esque than ever.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Christmas Party
    Big Star’s “Jesus Christ” and Roy Wood’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” are good picks that come of a bit wan compared to the originals; although we can’t resist the novelty of the Monkees covering a Beatle, “Wonderful Christmastime” is exactly as wan as the original.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Positions
    When it comes to music these days, Grande is all about the quickies. And “Positions” benefits from that economy and repeatability. It’s full of expertly conceived songs you wish would at least try to overstay their welcome, though there’s never any real regret when she hits the “Thank u, next” button to move on to a successor.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Threads
    It’s got some of the best writing she’s done. And in the lighter moments or the ones where you can’t escape thinking about the sheer amount of talent-wrangling that went into it… well, what’s the musical equivalent of people-watching? “Threads” is never less than a great excuse to people-listen as she runs through her A-list of Facebook friends.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Front Porch
    This may be the best, most natural and inevitable music she’s made.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Exodus 1:7
    “Exodus” may not have been intended as a swan song, but it’s a moving final chapter that is equally street, spiritual and sophisticated.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Liberation
    The general rule for Liberation is that the less hard Aguilera sounds like she’s trying, the more enjoyable the album is.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Detroit 2
    Big Sean makes “Detroit 2” a real and righteous place, even if he has to use a handful of holy clichés to prove it.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heard It in a Past Life
    The Kurstin tracks are as irresistible as you’d expect if you know his track record, but the assortment of other co-producers who drift in for a track or two also serve her well and know enough to place the beauty of her voice starkly in the forefront.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Unlimited Love
    It is this balance of experimentalism and familiarity, of the tentative and the trusted, that makes “Unlimited Love” utterly unstoppable and unlike anything you’re likely to hear this year.
Page: