For 566 reviews, this publication has graded:
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51% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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46% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.3 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: | I Like to Keep Myself in Pain | |
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Lowest review score: | Graffiti |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 456 out of 566
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Mixed: 97 out of 566
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Negative: 13 out of 566
566
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
It's impossible to assess an album this thick with twists and turns in a few hours. But at this early stage, it feels rich enough to reward more listens.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jul 17, 2015
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- Critic Score
Though still dense and detailed in a way that lives up to Parker's reputation as an obsessive studio hermit, Currents also feels more spacious and danceable in its finest moments.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jul 13, 2015
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- Critic Score
He's a master of weaving his overdubbed vocals into rapturous gospel heights, as on "Flesh," and his cry of "Should've known better" amid the heartbreak of "Leaves" resonates long after the track is finished.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jul 1, 2015
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- Critic Score
Thompson's new album arrives as another example of how a mature artist can continue to innovate.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jun 18, 2015
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- Critic Score
Surf integrates a mish-mash of sounds, genres and guests into a relatively coherent whole, textured and nuanced in ways that demand repeat listens.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jun 5, 2015
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- Critic Score
It's a voice built for drama, and on this album its emotional range has never been wider.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jun 1, 2015
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- Critic Score
Ratchet refines the rawness of the EP only slightly, its punky minimalism echoing some of the outsider edginess evinced by early '90s house innovators such as Green Velvet.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 19, 2015
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- Critic Score
The songs marinate in sexual imagery, but it's more sensual than explicit.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 18, 2015
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- Critic Score
There are few surprises, but these two enduring artists have a sure grasp of their strengths, and they sound rejuvenated in each other's presence.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted May 11, 2015
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- Critic Score
It's actually quite good; not exactly a return to the band's mid-'90s Brit-pop peak, but a welcome progression beyond. Blur delivers a stranger, more atmospheric but still melodic brand of electro-folk salted with rock guitar and orchestral sweep.- Chicago Tribune
Posted Apr 27, 2015 -
- Critic Score
The drama is all in the way she uses her voice; the key instrument on an album brimming with new Shakes sounds and colors.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Apr 17, 2015
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- Critic Score
At times, the singer-producer's one-man band approach can be wearying.... Yet the singer's blend of tones from his stacked vocals and keyboards is more often strange and surprising.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Apr 14, 2015
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- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Apr 6, 2015
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- Critic Score
Though the potential for melodrama is strong, Gibbard and his bandmates play with restraint.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 30, 2015
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- Critic Score
Somehow, the Australian singer-guitarist has made something fresh out of everyday vignettes performed on everyday instruments (guitar-bass-drums). She sounds like she's day-dreaming out loud instead of singing, but she's deceptively incisive as a lyricist. Her guitar-playing, while never particularly showy, can be subtle or scalding.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 27, 2015
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- Critic Score
Though not quite as instantly catchy as its predecessor, it expands on its widescreen musical reach and introspective intensity, and sharpens the political perspective until it draws blood.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 17, 2015
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- Critic Score
Its records can be exhausting listens, buried in mulch, but Fantasy Empire cleans things up a bit without reining in the intensity.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 13, 2015
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Her best album in the last two decades, "Ray of Light" (1998), was also her most atmospheric and inward-looking. And Rebel Heart is in many ways a distant cousin, an unusually personal album that seems less about keeping up and more about taking stock.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 6, 2015
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- Critic Score
It's likely that guitar-rock fans who have never heard Screaming Females before will find this a solid introduction to a great band. Here's hoping they are intrigued enough to discover the richer rewards to be found in the trio's back catalog.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Mar 2, 2015
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- Critic Score
Torche perfects its volatile mix, a work that at least matches the potent Meanderthal (2008) as a career peak.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Feb 23, 2015
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- Critic Score
The album doesn't lift off until it's nearly over.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Feb 17, 2015
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- Critic Score
Misty's music cushions some of his most outrageous observations in plush wordless harmonies, strings and orchestral-pop melodies, sometimes to a point where he melts into background music.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Feb 6, 2015
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- Critic Score
As the songwriter and coproducer (primarily working with Venezuelan-U.K. DJ Arca, who has teamed with FKA Twigs and Kanye West), Bjork is in peak form, creating a thematic and sonically linked work that flows seamlessly from track to track.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jan 22, 2015
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- Critic Score
The melodies flow in relatively concise arrangements, which makes the album feel less weighty than earlier Decemberists' releases. At a minimum it could stand a little pruning. But several songs show a new, equally engaging side to Meloy's songwriting.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jan 20, 2015
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No Cities to Love& is not a complete triumph, the totally devastating statement of revived purpose that they might have intended, but it's not for lack of trying.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Jan 12, 2015
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- Critic Score
Black Messiah miraculously doesn't sound overcooked. It's as if D'Angelo spent all that time building tracks up and then editing them down to their raw, spontaneous-sounding essence.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 17, 2014
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- Critic Score
A more concise Pumpkins isn't what anyone was expecting at this point in the band's career, but on its own limited terms, Monuments to an Elegy affirms that Corgan remains defiantly in his own lane.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 8, 2014
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- Critic Score
The result is her most vital album in years, one that not only carves out a niche for her in contemporary dance music but also digs deeply into her gospel and soul-ballad roots.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Dec 1, 2014
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- Critic Score
Yes, TV on the Radio is trying to write pop tunes. Some of them aren't bad, and some are so single-minded that it becomes wearying.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 18, 2014
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- Critic Score
Twenty years deep into its career, Foo Fighters could've used a bit of a shake-up, if not a makeover, to re-energize its music. But Sonic Highways provides little more than window-dressing on business as usual.- Chicago Tribune
- Posted Nov 7, 2014
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