Wall of Sound's Scores
- Music
For 232 reviews, this publication has graded:
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68% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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29% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.2 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: | Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia | |
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Lowest review score: | When It All Goes South |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 198 out of 232
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Mixed: 32 out of 232
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Negative: 2 out of 232
232
music
reviews
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- Critic Score
Without a doubt one of the best pop records of the year.- Wall of Sound
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An album of stunning acoustic folk-blues... Hiatt is at his absolute sharpest in terms of songwriting, and the arrangements, most often just guitar, bass, and mandolin or a second guitar, are fully fleshed out and never feel spare or slight.- Wall of Sound
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It's one of the best rock and roll records in years... the disc is a layered, beautiful thing that touches on every influence the band has revealed through its years with a refined production style that sounds at once edgy and glitteringly smooth.- Wall of Sound
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Cuomo tones down his angst and replaces it with a sunny but dirty '70s rock core.- Wall of Sound
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Not only does every song here work beautifully on its own, but the recording listens cohesively front to back, from the frosty chime of "Unsound" to the enchanting blues of the closing "Healer."- Wall of Sound
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Gung Ho feels like it's operating slightly outside the constraints of time, as if it were simultaneously a product of the past four decades and a look back at them from a vantage point far in the future.- Wall of Sound
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There will be few albums released this year that are as exciting, artistic, and, yes, eclectic as this one, and it's scary to think of what Wyclef will be capable of when he gets all of the elements in their perfect proportions.- Wall of Sound
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Harris is making music that stands with -- and perhaps eclipses -- her most well-regarded work.- Wall of Sound
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Bachelor No. 2 makes good on the promise hinted at by Mann's work on the Magnolia soundtrack. In her mastery of sophisticated melodies and sly turns-of-phrase, Mann brings to mind a number of heralded composers.- Wall of Sound
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Bowie at the Beeb isn't just a historic document; it's a fascinating portrait of a man ascending to the height of his musical powers.- Wall of Sound
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Smith has shifted his focus away from crafting the perfect pop epic; though this description fits several of the new tracks ("Son of Sam," "Junk Bond Trader"), there are just as many melodic fragments or simply structured ballads ("Everything Reminds Me of Her," "Somebody That I Used to Know").- Wall of Sound
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Listening to Breach, the meat-and-potatoes rock of Bruce Springsteen and especially Tom Petty comes immediately to mind... Breach is one of the most anticipated rock releases of the year, and it clearly is worthy of all the talk it has generated.- Wall of Sound
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On Reveal, the sounds vary, but the songs cohere well. For a band into its third decade, making a record with no apparent weak link is an accomplishment.- Wall of Sound
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The biggest surprise here is Cave's singing. Forsaking the bluesy moans and wails of older works like The First Born Is Dead and Kicking Against the Pricks, he pushes his voice in new directions...- Wall of Sound
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But fans of the band certainly won't miss the amplification, because they, like the band, have grown up. That's one reason why most of them will conclude that And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out is the band's very best album.- Wall of Sound
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The perfect soundtrack for workers clearing out their cubicles and trudging away after their short-lived high-tech careers abruptly ended. The 11 songs capture a bittersweet tone perfectly -- sadly witnessing cultural wreckage and detritus but finding glimmers of beauty.- Wall of Sound
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Though not much older than Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado is an artist whose music stands head and shoulders above the manufactured pop pap that rules the charts right now.- Wall of Sound
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Unlike his previous efforts, the guitar isn't the focal point here; instead, it's the ambience created by tape loops, scratching, and Burnside's singing and talking that makes the record both edgy and relevant.- Wall of Sound
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The surprise is how extraordinarily well it all fits together, songs and guest vocalists pulled from all over the landscape, all blues and all inescapably Willie.- Wall of Sound
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Miss E is a Top 40 radio breakthrough waiting to happen, while staying solid and true to its hip-hop roots.- Wall of Sound
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At nearly an hour and a quarter, the album does feel a little long, especially when it falls prey to the ponderousness that made Adore drag...- Wall of Sound
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Musically, the group goes way beyond Britpop, a movement largely of its own invention, to survey Burt Bacharach-style suavity on "The Universal" and "To the End," hedonistic dance pop on "Girls and Boys," and Lennon-esque soul-baring on "Tender."- Wall of Sound
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Edited and mixed with Sandman's oversight prior to his death, Bootleg: Detroit was taped by a Morphine fan at the band's March 3, 1994, show at Detroit's St. Andrew's Hall, capturing the band and its hyper-aware fans at the height of pleasure.- Wall of Sound
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Ray offers up a wonderfully realized survey of underground rock.... Stag is the strongest solo debut in recent memory.- Wall of Sound
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Like a rainy day, the music is cinematic and pulses with understated energy. The prominent drums, like dance beats on codeine, tick by metronomically -- and their interplay with Moffat's mumbled, half-spoken, too-human voice is already remarkable.- Wall of Sound
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Outkast's fourth album, Stankonia, is a far more complex effort than the critically acclaimed Aquemini. While Aquemini dealt with Big Boi and Dre's -- the self-described "player and poet," respectively -- contradictory personalities, Stankonia addresses the contradictory impulses of hip-hop itself.- Wall of Sound
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The stripped-down arrangements and meditative flavor of the songs bring to mind such uncluttered efforts as 1983's Hearts and Bones or even Simon's 1972 solo debut.- Wall of Sound
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Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea has to rank as a work more musically accessible than her early material and more emotionally direct than her later stuff. It's an intriguing song cycle that stands up to -- and in fact, demands -- repeated listenings.- Wall of Sound
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These songs don't require repeated listening to foster appreciation; they affect immediately -- and relentlessly.- Wall of Sound
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