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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    • 64 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    Ye
    Not the outright disaster that some might have feared, but far from the return to form that might have helped heal his battered reputation, Ye sees the onetime innovator stuck in a holding pattern, too far gone to notice just how much the landscape has shifted beneath him.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    God's Favorite Customer
    With material this timeless, it’s no wonder Tillman has wide enough appeal to co-headline the Hollywood Bowl: Classic-rock oldsters and the Pitchfork generation can both hold him up as a gold standard. An album this good is its own happy ending.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Shawn Mendes
    Shawn Mendes is a remarkably well-crafted pop album that finds the singer trying on different styles, prominently showcasing his collaborators and making some flagrant references--yet his persona has become strong enough that he’s never overpowered by any of it.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Love is Dead
    Chvrches have made their most fully-realized effort to date (musically, anyway).
    • 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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Voicenotes
    Voicenotes may be pretty effective in chronicling the sexual paranoia of beautiful twentysomethings who just can’t trust each other not to trade up, but it’s also a pretty good time, just like the one you imagine Puth has been having, the occasional betrayal notwithstanding.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Wide Awake!
    By enlisting pop wunderkind Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton as their first-ever outside producer, Parquet Courts has opened up its musical palette even more than most recent effort, 2016’s ballad-laden “Human Performance.” In fact, “Wide Awake!” may be the most woke punk-rock record since the heyday of the Clash, and it starts off with a very appropriate soccer-style chant.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Electric Light
    For all the gloss and floss that accompanies the release of Electric Light, Bay is still very much at home in the earnest ruminations and folk-rocky tones of his debut, only now with higher production values and more bounce to the ounce. With that, “Electric Light” has the feel of a transitional effort; one that safely dips its toe in the cool Ocean front of soul synth-phonica, while maintaining Bay’s clay feel and rootsy emotionalism.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    7
    Listening to 7 is almost like spending time with a normally cheerful and sunny friend who’s angry at someone or something else: It’s a bit startling but not unpleasant or unwelcome, because it opens up another side to the person--and proves that they can still surprise you.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
    While a change of pace, none of these songs will sound unfamiliar to fans, or really could have been created by anyone else except a very talented parodist. Ultimately, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is just a snappy new outfit for a group that knows experimentation and diversity are keys to longevity.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Good Thing
    The new album is not that drastically less of a classicist affair than Coming Home, when all is said and done, but this time it’s a whole variety pack of retro.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dirty Computer
    None of this would matter much if the songs didn’t deliver, and at its best, “Dirty Computer” entwines racial and gender politics into a double-helix of liberated lyrics and skillfully askew musicianship.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)
    If you have a soft spot for hard rock shredding but can’t appreciate its pompous contexts unironically, this is the album for you, with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Steve Lukather present and taking their eruptive tasks very seriously. A more eclectic guitar hero, Richard Thompson, even pops up to do the metal solo we always suspected he could.
    • 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.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Revamp: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin
    This feels like an album designed more to move tickets for his farewell tour, even if the first 60 shows did sell out on day one. You do get some selections on Revamp where the guests assert their personalities in interesting enough ways.
    • 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.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Camila
    “Never Be the Same” proves that Cabello doesn’t need a mammoth voice. The love-is-a-drug lyric she’s singing is dumb, but she sells it so joyfully that you don’t even notice, and its wonderfully breathy, high-register hook ensures “Havana” won’t be her last solo hit.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Lo Moon
    It possesses a rare balance of pop-inflected songwriting and dense atmospherics that hold each other in check rather than clashing (props to producers Chris Walla and Francois Tetaz).
    • 70 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Felt
    The group’s artful combination of beauty and ugliness, familiarity and not-always-pleasant surprises has reached a new peak with Felt.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Rare Birds
    Rare Birds is a must for fans of The War on Drugs, and for any rock fans who believe the album is a lost art.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    There's a Riot Going On
    There’s a Riot Going On probably won’t jump-start any riots and reveals its beauty gradually, but it’s a welcome addition to the group’s vast oeuvre that finds them evolving into yet another new shape.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    My Dear Melancholy, [EP]
    There are no blockbuster hit singles like “I Can’t Feel My Face” or “Starboy,” but the melodic directness and Michael Jackson vocalisms of those songs is here, just buried under clouds of sad synthesizers and downcast beats. ... It’s a credit to this prolific and ever-evolving artist that he manages to be creatively restless and never stay in the same place for long while always sounding unmistakably like himself.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Girl Going Nowhere
    Girl Going Nowhere, her unprophetically titled debut, is rife with autobiographical detail, rowdiness and sensitivity.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    American Utopia
    At times, particularly during the more meditative middle stretch, the album can be easier to admire than to love. ... But when Byrne’s themes and his compositions cohere, the results are wonderful to behold.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    By the Way I Forgive You
    It’s rare that a performer who’s inherently this capable of registering so much heart and soul can be such a cool cucumber when she wants to. Her lyrical and vocal reserve on so many of the tracks gives the moments of pure emotion that much more impact when they come.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Man of the Woods
    Although he’s not really mixing musical genres as originally promised, he’s mixing up some music and lyrics that shouldn’t really go together, which makes this one crazy peanut butter cup of an album.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mania
    Any mania in MANIA is limited to the lyrics, while the band’s music is even-tempered and hardly given to extremes.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Boarding House Reach
    On Boarding House Reach, he goes well out of his way to re-scatter the puzzle, but it’s a divine enough mess.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Golden Hour
    On first listen, Golden Hour might be disappointing for a Musgraves fan who assumed that certain wry or retro traits were immutable. ... But on second or third review, it feels like she’s making exactly the right move by painting herself out of a corner, as lovable as that corner was. ... Maybe she’ll get back someday to her vintage Loretta Lynn fetish, but damn if she isn’t just as appealing as a folky Sade.
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