Variety's Scores

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For 420 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 12.3 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: 407 out of 420
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 420
  3. Negative: 0 out of 420
420 music reviews
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    • 87 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    i/o
    Are the songs treasures? By and large, yes — although I’m not nearly enough of an inveterate audiophile or compulsive A/B tester to really want to compare two or three versions of each of them.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dirty Computer
    None of this would matter much if the songs didn’t deliver, and at its best, “Dirty Computer” entwines racial and gender politics into a double-helix of liberated lyrics and skillfully askew musicianship.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    In These Silent Days
    Carlile effortlessly glides between octaves while, somehow, still sounding completely conversational — the everyday diva we didn’t know we needed until she showed up at the door. Fans of the singer-songwriter sensibilities of the 1970s will especially find a lot to love in the rich variety of material in “In These Silent Days,” which, under the expert co-production of Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings, certainly sounds analog-era, however it was recorded.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
    Her writing registers with crisp clarity, cutting to the bone of the themes she is excavating. What might be cheap and exhausting in the hands of a lesser artist feels frequently cathartic, an exorcism that is honest about its central challenges but hopeful about our ability to transcend them.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Wet Leg
    Above all, “Wet Leg” delivers on the infectious pleasure of music that was made by friends trying to make each other laugh — and we’re all in on it.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Norman Fucking Rockwell!
    While “Norman F—ing Rockwell” may not win over too many of the unconverted, also like a Tarantino film, it finds Del Rey placing new sounds, ideas and scenery into her fairly monochromatic framework, while still remaining completely on-message.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Now and Then [Single]
    The song’s beginning will be breathtaking for fans: It opens with a familiar Beatles count-in, following by classic Lennonesque piano chords and a strummed acoustic guitar, and then — that voice, pristine, singing “I know it’s true, it’s all because of you,” and following an unmistakably Lennon melody. .... In the end, “Now and Then” is not a lost Beatles classic. But to paraphrase McCartney’s famous quote regarding criticism of the “White Album,” “It’s a bloody new Beatles song, shut up!”
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Oil Of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
    Sophie combines sweet pop melodies and sounds with absolutely hideous noise--grinding, clanking, blaring, burbling, blurting, unpleasant and jarring sounds, wildly autotuned voices--to create a form of pop music that, if not entirely new, may never before have been presented in such extreme fashion.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 94 Critic Score
    Live at the El Mocambo
    All of this is captured in pristine sound quality — that’s Richards’ guitar in the right channel and Wood in the left — even the weak, historic-interest-only songs from night one that are tacked onto the end. ... The concert captured here was the first day of the rest of the Stones’ lives — and 45 years later, you’re in that sweaty club with them.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Remind Me Tomorrow
    While it sounds different from anything Van Etten has ever done, it also never sounds like anyone but her: Her big, sweeping choruses and singer-songwritery melodies adapt surprisingly well to their new context, with heavy, synthetic basslines and sparkling electronic embellishments accenting her echo-laden, multi-tracked vocals.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    thank u, next
    Thank U, Next stands as what promises to be one of the best pop releases this year.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Tension
    After delivering a record of such unrestrained joy and fun, my only quibble is with “Tension’s” title, though maybe what she’s referring to is not just that great second single but the challenge she issues for the rest of the industry keep up with what continues to be an impeccable run.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    Outside Child
    With 2021 not yet at the halfway point, it’s hard to imagine many other albums coming along that could match the combination of emotional potency, melodic fluency, social significance and heartrending beauty in Russell’s retelling of a lifetime’s worth of debasement and self-reclamation.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 16, 1980-1985
    Valuable as it is to be getting near-soundalike versions of so many of these tracks that strip away the ‘80s gloss, that’s only the smaller part of why “Springtime in New York” is a treasure trove.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 96 Critic Score
    We Will Always Love You
    Their melodic sensibilities have translated remarkably well to more traditional songwriting. ... Most importantly, despite the complexity of the production, like its predecessors this album flows with a remarkable sense of fluidity and fun — it doesn’t sound labored-over, even though it obviously was. ... Twenty-plus years and three albums into their career, “We Will Always Love You” opens up a whole new chapter for the Avalanches.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Happier than Ever
    It’s an album that feels more intimate than the first one, and the first one was pretty intimate. ... It’s a fabulous headphones record.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
    It’s the sound of one of America’s foremost poets offering an all-access visit to the darker corners of his mind, unconcerned with whether anyone would choose to take that trip again. “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” may not be a masterpiece, and it may not always be pleasant, but it’s clearly the work of a genius, accountable to no one but himself, intent on showing you all the scars that he acquired on his way to becoming the defining rapper of his generation, and plenty that came after that, too.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Daddy's Home
    Maybe more on this album than others, because she’s turned down the volume — as much as you might miss something as thrilling as the “Pills”-popping of the previous album — it’s easier to hear the heart that’s long been there at the center of the slightly chilly guises.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Midnights
    “Midnights” doesn’t venture as far into other fields as some of her more openly ambitious albums have. This seems like a feature, not a flaw, even if “Folklore” and “Evermore” still feel like her masterpieces to date. The new album benefits from its relative modesty, length-wise and streamlining-wise. ... She’s able to maintain a tighter focus on alternately dark and light nights of the soul, in matters of love, redemption and minor vengeance.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Girl Going Nowhere
    Girl Going Nowhere, her unprophetically titled debut, is rife with autobiographical detail, rowdiness and sensitivity.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bird Songs of a Killjoy
    While the album vaults Bedouine’s songwriting and singing into a whole new realm, credit is especially due to Seyfert, who’s done a beautiful job of creating an unobtrusively lush musical frame for her gentle, almost deadpan vocals and melodies (props are also due to string arranger Trey Pollard, and Thom Monahan for a pristine mix).
    • 85 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Good News
    On “Outside” and other uncluttered tracks, Megan pulls off something tart, true and real, while maintaining all that is best about her hard exterior. One wishes there was more of that sound on her debut album, but overall, “Good News” finds Megan moving confidently to the next level.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Home Video
    Powerful. ... Each song is filled with vividly observed memories and vignettes.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Interstate Gospel
    It shouldn’t come as any huge surprise that in a year when Ashley McBryde and Kacey Musgraves have been responsible for the genre’s finest records, a strength-in-female-numbers Pistol Annies collection would turn out to be 2018’s best country album. As an alternately droll and affecting wallow in and cure for the blues, it beats the hell out of a recreational Percocet.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 94 Critic Score
    This Stupid World
    Nearly 40 years into their career as a band, with “This Stupid World,” Yo La Tengo have reached another peak. Without overstating the case, that’s something not many artists who aren’t named Neil or Bob can say.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    This Is Why
    You get the feeling that Hayley Williams and the rest of Paramore are still looking more outwardly than inwardly — that the wisdom of age has left them wanting for more, and questioning all. And that’s a great look for Paramore.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Astroworld
    At 17 tracks, Astroworld is not without filler--the 21 Savage feature “NC-17” is tiresomely sophomoric, while “Can’t Say” and “Houstonfornication” never really take shape--but rarely does the album feel lazy or uninspired.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Montero
    At its best when he gives us a glimpse of the man behind the memes. ... For an artist that has conquered the rap world, Nas proves to be surprisingly adept at pop.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    evermore
    What “Evermore” is full of is narratives that, like the music that accompanies them, really come into focus on second or third listen, usually because of a detail or two that turns her sometimes impressionistic modes completely vivid. ... It’s an embarrassment of stunning albums-ending-in-“ore” that she’s mined out of a locked-down muse.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    On the Line
    The final result on display in On the Line--from the somber waltz of “Do Si Do” to the swell of strings at the climax of “Taffy”--is a new high watermark for a musician who’s never been willing to let a little rain get the best of her.
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