Variety's Scores

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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
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    • 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.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Marfa Tapes
    It is certainly her purest and least sonically complicated, which is great when considering her warmly warbling voice. And like her bigger, broader sounding albums, she gives as good as she gets, quietly, while sounding as grand as if she had a studio band’s excess at work. This time, however, it only took a couple of fellow Texans and an empty room down in Marfa to bring the best out of Lambert.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Something to Give Each Other
    He’s at his most realized and forthcoming: a pop singer with something to say, one who does so frankly with a self-assurance that only comes with age.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    Once Twice Melody
    The kind of album you can put on and leave on: vividly atmospheric, melodically beguiling, and seductive enough to keep you coming back over and over.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    No Holiday
    While we’ll never know where Kim Shattuck and the Muffs could’ve gone from here, “No Holiday” is a lovely, fresh and progressive look at where she stood.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Hex
    Despite its subject matter and context, The Hex is by no means a grim listen. It’s very much a continuation and, inevitably, a conclusion of the fine solo work Richard Swift did in the past, and a fitting and self-aware cap on a career that ended far too early.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    TYLA
    Tyla never abandons her sound in her debut. Instead, she makes her boldest stylistic choices as subtle as possible, cementing her growing status as a pop star.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 94 Critic Score
    Red Moon in Venus
    It’s a lush, lavish, luscious hot tub of an album, conjuring visions of plush feather beds, fluffy pillows and bubble baths, although the lyrics will occasionally jolt the listener out of their chill.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Western Stars
    Casual fans may even enjoy it more than his other so-called solo records, like “Devils & Dust” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” The writing here isn’t as consistently strong as on those projects, but the overall feel is less dour. ... His genius for filling in particulars returns the more he gets to characters who know they’re stuck.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    The Window
    It’ll clearly be her fourth consecutive record to be nominated for a Grammy for best jazz vocal album… and maybe her third in a row to win. If there were such a thing as a Grammy for best jazz piano album, The Window should rightfully be up for that, too, because keyboardist Sullivan Fortner is an equal--and equally spectacular--partner through all 17 tracks, regardless of whether he gets cover billing.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 94 Critic Score
    Invasion of Privacy
    Funny, fierce, foul-mouthed and in-your-face, Invasion of Privacy is one of the most powerful debuts of this millennium.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Watkins Family Hour, Vol. 2
    The biggest stars here are indisputably Sara and Sean, winsome singers and master musicians on guitar and violin, respectively, and curators to beat the band. After 20 years bringing folks into their extended family, maybe these former kid prodigies have earned the right to be called mom and dad.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    ANIMA
    Yorke has wrested control of his restlessness and made his messed-up dream state both richly provocative and proactive while maintaining its desolation.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Sparkle Hard
    With nary a weak track, Sparkle Hard finds Malkmus hitting a new peak nearly 30 years into his career.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    WORLD WIDE WHACK
    The topical shifts can be as jarring as the sonic variance, but through her conviction, adaptability, and deft vibes control, Whack makes it all cohesive while sustaining the energy of her best releases. .... With the release of the stellar “World Wide Whack,” all theoretical outcomes can recede into the glory of the real thing.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Thanks for the Dance
    “Thanks for the Dance” isn’t really so much a last will and testament, then, as a hell of a heaven-bound balance sheet.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Seven Psalms
    “Seven Psalms” is unlike any other Simon album in almost too many ways to list.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Velvet
    Adam Lambert has made “Velvet” a testament to finding his way, personally and professionally, in what is his most accomplished solo work to date.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    For Free
    It’s not trying to be anything but a portrait of an angelic singer, an anthemic songwriter and an impressive interpreter now, and in the moment, without a shred of pretense.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Goats Head Soup [Deluxe Edition]
    This fancy reissue presents a nicely remastered version of the original album, along with an album’s worth of rather forgettable outtakes, the requisite giant book and poster reproductions, and — best of all — an absolutely spectacular 1973 concert that has long been available on bootleg but here is remastered and re-whatever’ed so beautifully that it’s practically worth the price of the package on its own.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15: Travelin' Thru
    Even titans like Cash and Scruggs found themselves thrown a little off balance by the proposition of recording with the unpredictable and ever-gnomic Dylan, and “Travelin’ Thru” may be the best proof of the challenge.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Dawn
    She brings a different style and approach to nearly every song, veering from brassy wail to folky prim (“October Sky”), from Adele-sized power (“Love Came Down”) to breathy sultriness (“Distance”). ... Anyone with functioning ears can hear this album and know what an exceptional talent is at work.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Sling
    Musical advancement makes “Sling” the breakthrough that it is. ... “Sling” finds this young artist taking an unexpected but welcome turn into a new style, one that leaves the possibilities of her next chapter wide open.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 96 Critic Score
    Eternal Sunshine
    There’s no question whose album this is, and like so many female superstars, Grande is tragically underrated as a musician. She’s not only a virtuoso singer but a skilled vocal arranger and producer whose multitracked backing voices are like songs on their own, embellishing and responding to her lead like a troupe of attuned dancers.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin
    The Nashville-based disc is not just more focused on a style and a subset of artists but leans toward the more expressly singer-songwriter-type material John was recording in the early ’70s, under the influence of his roots-loving collaborator.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Alpha Zulu
    A quarter century after the French quartet Phoenix formed, it hardly seems likely that they’d make the most fresh-sounding album since the one that lit up the alt-rock charts in 2009, “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart” — but they’ve done it with “Alpha Zulu.” ... They’ve optimized and maximized their template in a way that seems effortless.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Athena
    While some of the diversity obviously comes from her tasteful selection of collaborators, including Wilma Archer (Jessie Ware, Nilufer Yanya), Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Sampha) and Paul White (Danny Brown, Charli XCX), there’s never any questions whose unique vision is behind this innovative, unusual and inviting album.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Circles
    What this tight team does is turn “Circles” into an intimate daytime affair — a micro-boogie wonderland — as opposed to the midnight pool party of “Swimming.”
    • 83 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Your Life Is a Record
    Her producer, Joyce, who’s famous for working with Eric Church, knows something about country music outsiders, and together they’ve made a collection that never tries to squeeze into any radio-friendly box, all the better to be a fit and a find for life’s own jukebox, as cultivated listeners happen across it. Here’s a quarter: Brandy Clark definitely cares.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cruel Country
    “Cruel Country” captures a band wholly secure in its status; it does a handful of things very well, and does those things repeatedly, with few deviations.
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