XLR8r's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
For 387 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 64% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 33% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 76
Highest review score: 100 Awake
Lowest review score: 20 Audio, Video, Disco
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 354 out of 387
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 387
  3. Negative: 2 out of 387
387 music reviews
view
per page
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In Situ
    You can definitely hear her thinking her way through each track, treating each as packets of sound, to be observed and experienced in a loop.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Loud Silence
    While it's engaging, tantalizing and consistently interesting, it tests the listener by wading through a foliage of field recordings and mouth harps to get to its core, requiring an effort which can potentially get wearying at times.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    µ20
    µ20 is a summary, a quick history lesson, and a celebration building upon itself. It might bypass some of Planet Mu’s finest moments—instead, the compilation aims to highlight the history of artists most likely to be around for Planet Mu’s future.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Total 15
    One of the best editions of Total to come along in a while.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Abyss
    In lesser hands, Abyss may have collapsed under the weight of its self-seriousness. Instead, Wolfe steps into the cavernous space of her ambition and fills it with an assured collection of songs that are unsettling in their commitment to sorrow.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Magnifique
    What makes Magnifique work best as album experience, rather than a collection of individual songs; any shapeless moments are grafted onto the studier elements in the listener’s memory, leading to a rewarding overall experience in spite of the lulls in the action.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Morning/Evening
    It's not an album about any particular time; instead, it's an album about the passage of time And time always marches on.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Adrian Younge Presents: Twelve Reasons to Die II
    The knotty lyricism and psychedelic rumble of 12 Reasons to Die II should be more than enough to keep Ghostface fans satisfied.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    DJ-Kicks
    The decision to reject seamless beatmatching has only enhanced the mix, and lets us look into the Actress's process in a different context.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fading Love
    Dance to it if you must, but enjoy Fading Love for what it is--a lovely, heartfelt set of tunes from a still-evolving composer and producer.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Digital Solutions
    Digital Solutions is worthy of its place in the Model 500 discography. The fact that the LP even exists--and that people are excited to hear it--reinforces the music's enduring power, even if the record largely sets aside aspirations to be innovative.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dance Mania: Ghetto Madness
    Ghetto Madness is an expertly constructed effort showcasing one of the most energetic and recognizable outputs in dance music.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lost Themes
    The album is relentlessly cinematic, almost oppressively so, which makes listening to Lost Themes from start to finish a bizarrely visual experience; whereas a great deal of electronic music is remarkably open to interpretation.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Power of Anonymity
    This brand of techno may be high browed, but in this case, it certainly isn't pretentious. Power of Anonymity is one for the dancers.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Magazine 13
    Magazine 13's emotional register may be rife with contradictions, but sinking into the album is never anything less than a joy.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Faith in Strangers
    It remains as disquieting and spectral as anything Stott has done, but its newfound guile is such that it no longer needs to bludgeon listeners into submission to strike a killer blow.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Vapor City Archives
    It takes a few notable risks in composition and rhythmic style, but as is evident from the title, this isn't the new Machinedrum album.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Let's Cry and Do Pushups at the Same Time
    There's no question that Torn Hawk is carving his own, art-damaged lane, but unfortunately, Let's Cry is not the defining statement of his aesthetic.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Xen
    What he's given listeners may be imperfect, but it's also freakishly musical, completely synthetic, and utterly human.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Clark
    The LP's white-hot bursts of energy are all the more thrilling for their scarcity, and as such, these moments linger in the memory as a sort of post-euphoric haze.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blurred
    On the whole, Blurred is an uneven release. Huxley's ambition is laudable, but it's only his decision to hedge his bets a little that saves the album from being a completely subpar outing.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wait 'Til Night
    Cooly G is still present here, but maybe she's a bit too present to fully elicit the kind of seduction she's singing about.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Our Love
    With Our Love, Snaith largely succeeds in bridging the two worlds, crafting radio-friendly cuts that can't be mistaken for the work anyone but Caribou.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    You're Dead!
    For an LP about the infinite unknown, it isn't that meditative or self-aware. Where Cosmogramma and Los Angeles made plot secondary, You're Dead! forces its cast to bend to an unwieldy storyline that ultimately only makes complete sense inside Ellison's head.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Abaporu
    Taken as a whole, Abaporu isn't a bad LP, and for fans of classic Kompakt records by the Modernist, SCSI-9, or even The Field, the album might be exactly what they're looking for. More adventurous listeners, however, are advised to look elsewhere.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Syro
    Admittedly, Syro will probably not win over a new generation of fans like the Richard D. James album once did, but as a continuation of everything that has made Aphex Twin compelling, it's a triumph.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Endgame
    An album whose tastefulness and craft never compromise its intrigue.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Punish, Honey
    On Punish, Honey, Gainsborough has stepped up his sound design, but he's done so with a newly brutal approach. One hopes that he hasn't entirely abandoned his earlier, more atmospheric sound, but as career turning points and transformations go, this album is an accomplished one.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Drop the Vowels
    From its massively hedonistic club tunes to its handful of cavernous dancefloor abstractions, Drop the Vowels is an unsurprisingly quality affair.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    It's Album Time
    Adventurous but not selfish, intelligent but not difficult, a victory lap of sorts but hardly congratulatory, Terje's first album is astoundingly balanced and astonishingly broad, a wider serving of the man's artistic vision that ultimately proves just as satisfying as his single servings have in the past.
Page: