PopMatters' Scores
- TV
- Music
For 11,090 reviews, this publication has graded:
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43% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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53% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.9 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 69
Highest review score: | Funeral for Justice | |
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Lowest review score: | Travistan |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 7,433 out of 11090
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Mixed: 3,399 out of 11090
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Negative: 258 out of 11090
11090
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Lynks’ personality and lyrical prowess carry the record, but the hooks make the album so relistenable.- PopMatters
- Posted May 16, 2024
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Their sunny melodies and sincerity go a long way to making their music compelling, and that is the case whether they are playing in their comfort zone or expanding their craft incrementally. Poetry is another stellar effort in Dehd’s development; one can envision greater things for them yet to come.- PopMatters
- Posted May 16, 2024
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This album is both demanding and supplementary, able to conform to different social contexts and scenes of social life. There are moments of introspection, uncertainty, and anxiety but also emotional release on this new LP.- PopMatters
- Posted May 15, 2024
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Listeners following Hana Vu’s career will find that Romanticism consolidates Vu’s work so far while hinting at new directions her future work might take. At the same time, Romanticism feels like a fitting introduction to potential new fans, who will more than likely be enticed to explore Vu’s back pages.- PopMatters
- Posted May 15, 2024
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Dominic Maker, Kai Campos, and company stir their influences into this album so well that The Sunset Violent is distinctly a Mount Kimbie record and an enjoyable one at that.- PopMatters
- Posted May 14, 2024
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An album that feels like such an eruption of creative energy from a band on a renewed jag of pure inspiration.- PopMatters
- Posted May 14, 2024
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While OUI, LSF’s experiments may take a little time to appreciate, it does feature plenty of instant gratification for those on their singular wavelength. Hopefully, it won’t take another decade to get the next one.- PopMatters
- Posted May 13, 2024
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An album with plenty of lightness but lacking the whimsy or puerility we might associate with that poetic phrase.- PopMatters
- Posted May 13, 2024
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There’s a joyful element to Rhumba Country that may be found in the Lord’s spirit, the pleasure of bouncy rhythms, or the magic of making music. Pokey LaFarge presents us with the evidence. We are left to decide what it means. He keeps the preaching to a minimum and implores us to dance.- PopMatters
- Posted May 9, 2024
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Their twee tone and lighthearted energy, which persist despite the album’s often pensive and wistful lyrical content, mask serious craft and scholarly mastery of the complex techniques the Lemon Twigs’ forbears invented. Riches abound.- PopMatters
- Posted May 9, 2024
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In tandem with Danny L. Harle, known for inventing the new personal genre called harlecore, and collaborations with Caroline Polachek and Charli XCX, Dua Lipa and Parker made Radical Optimism sound extremely lush and slick but raw and fresh.- PopMatters
- Posted May 7, 2024
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With a running time of 86 minutes, Fearless Movement demands commitment from the listener through its stylistic twists and turns. The first half, emphasizing vocals and choral hooks, is likely more accessible to general listeners than the second half. But fans of contemporary jazz will find plenty to enjoy throughout.- PopMatters
- Posted May 6, 2024
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Pull the Rope is a refreshing new chapter for a perpetually vibrant group.- PopMatters
- Posted May 3, 2024
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This album may not replace fans’ favorites at the top of the Vampire Weekend rankings, but it shows this band has much more to offer as it approaches its third decade of existence.- PopMatters
- Posted May 2, 2024
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One’s appreciation of Look to the East, Look to the West depends mostly on their appreciation of Campbell’s voice and artistry. Times have changed, but some things remain the same.- PopMatters
- Posted May 2, 2024
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Tacking back and forth in this way, Time is Glass builds momentum as it advances. There is a subtle Dantesque feel to the album’s sequencing, with the tracks seemingly occupying a space of increasing darkness followed by light.- PopMatters
- Posted May 1, 2024
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Even by Mdou Moctar’s high standards, Funeral for Justice is extraordinary. It is searing in music and lyrics, with messages that are essential in a world on fire and whose sounds can carry those messages far and wide. More than any previous Mdou Moctar album, it feels alive.- PopMatters
- Posted May 1, 2024
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After spending a record ruminating about the past, Old 97’s are back and “better than brand-new”. More than anything else, American Primitive‘s simple gift of new music that confronts the present moment and all its apparent contradictions is what Old 97’s fans should be most grateful for.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 30, 2024
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Hyperdrama, while possibly their best effort since, doesn’t quite capture that same energy, though it does come close. Whereas Cross felt like the essential festival season soundtrack, Hyperdrama is more akin to a messy night out on the tiles with an old friend who’s picked up some new party tricks.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 30, 2024
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This is not the perfect record with a lot of unevenness, but they found the right approach which means that to master it and finally reach a perfect match, they need to do another one with the same settings.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 23, 2024
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The Black Keys, get in, rock you, and get out. If song quality seems to falter toward the end, it is only by the slightest of degrees, making Ohio Players one of those records that can be enjoyed in one satisfying sitting.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 24, 2024
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Despite their garage rock machismo, Neil Young and Crazy Horse are ultimately old-school romantics. They deliver hard-won life lessons amidst their squalling guitars and Molina’s insistent drumbeat.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 24, 2024
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In this most recent work, she continues cultivating an expansive and complex sense of roots and relative self. It’s a joy to witness.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 23, 2024
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There will always be a welcome space for groups who take a signature sound and continue to perfect it, and when it all comes together as effortlessly as it does on Final Summer, it is worth calling attention.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 18, 2024
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Hey Panda is a bold update of the group’s sound—layered, complex, day-glow-colored with decidedly modern R&B and hip-hop influences. Here is a band that’s not done evolving.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 18, 2024
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The record is more acoustic than any of Rogers’ previous work in a way that feels welcome and refreshing rather than an erasure of her first two albums as inauthentic. Rogers’ vocal and performance abilities may recall musicians of decades past, but she is still very much a product of her time.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 18, 2024
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The result is a series of songs that have the expansiveness of improvisational music, disciplined into the taut power of rock.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 17, 2024
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It is clear that Exotic Birds of Prey is in part about transformation through music and eluding the oppressive modern impulse to profile and categorize, racially and otherwise. These themes speak to a broader ethos of Shabazz Palaces across their catalog. Yet, it is also apparent that this tactic of resistance and subversion can equally elude the understanding of listeners.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 16, 2024
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This has been a particularly strong year for heavy, guitar-forward music, and Up on Gravity Hill is sure to turn up again on some end-of-the-year lists.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 15, 2024
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The singer doesn’t stray too far from the soft indie-folk sounds that made her a cult-favorite indie darling in the first place, but her attempts at infusing her lyrics with the sonic properties also heard on a mid-aughts Tegan and Sara ballad remind us that McAlpine is the most darling when she’s just being herself.- PopMatters
- Posted Apr 11, 2024
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