Entertainment Weekly's Scores

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For 3,519 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 81% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 18% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 78
Highest review score: 100 The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do
Lowest review score: 0 Playing With Fire
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,085 out of 3519
  2. Mixed: 407 out of 3519
  3. Negative: 27 out of 3519
3519 music reviews
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    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    True Sadness
    True Sadness, their ninth studio album and fourth produced by music whiz Rick Rubin, both treads familiar ground and maps out new terrain.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Earth
    In many places, Young squeezed the squawks and yelps into the center of the songs, creating surprisingly fine hooks. Three songs from Monsanto turn up here, in versions far angrier, and sharper than the studio takes. The rest of the set cherry-picks environmental songs from throughout Young’s catalogue.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Getaway
    Decades into their career, the band can’t help but sound like themselves, even when trying not to--and it’s the ultimate sign of their staying power.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Last Year Was Complicated
    His new record, Last Year Was Complicated, grows into the neon pop-R&B sound of 2014’s Nick Jonas while adopting a show-don’t-tell approach to maturity on songs like with the break-up toast “Champagne Problems” and the Max Martin-produced “Under You,” whose similarities to Taylor Swift’s “Style” would be more troubling if the track wasn’t just as much fun.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Why Are You OK?
    The sonic pivots make Ok a compelling listen. Bridwell’s exploration never feels chaotic. Instead, it’s what keeps the record’s momentum going.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Ash & Ice
    On Ash & Ice the melodies finally catch up to that dark vibe. Mosshart remains one of rock’s most dynamic vocalists, and she’s never sounded better than on the broken-hearted piano ballad “That Love.”
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Stranger to Stranger
    Stranger to Stranger is, finally, Simon’s most interconnected work, a self-contained world unto itself full of backing tracks that wind up in multiple songs and recurring characters (“the Street Angel”) who pop up in unexpected places.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    7/27
    The sassy girl-power proclamations and gleefully unsubtle double-entendres that elevated the group’s 2015 debut, Reflection, are largely pushed aside for mid-tempos about romance and intimacy. Deep, vulnerable, personal--these were some of the quintet’s stated goals for 7/27. It’s not a bad look by any means.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    If I'm Honest
    This makes for the most autobiographical album of Shelton’s career. So why does it end up seeming about as weighty and true as a reality show? For one thing, Shelton’s voice lacks the kind of emotional depth that’d bring a listener to tears.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Ripcord
    Urban also does himself no favors by approving so many cynically conforming lyrics. ... Then again, depth isn’t Urban’s calling card. Fun is, and he managed to find a fresh expression for it in “Gone Tomorrow.”
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Dangerous Woman
    While the hooks may not be as irresistible as her 2014 double whammy of “Problem” and “Break Free,” Grande compensates by having something meaningful to say with that jaw-dropping voice.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Fallen Angels
    His voice may be husky and damaged from decades of performing, but there’s beauty to its character. Tellingly, he delivers these songs of love lost and cherished not with a burning passion but with the wistfulness of experience.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Coloring Book [Mixtape]
    Though it doesn’t eclipse the LSD-inspired brilliance of Acid Rap, Coloring Book affirms Chance’s place as one of hip-hop’s most promising--and most uplifting--young stars.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Thank You
    Largely gone are the doo-wop vocals and soulful arrangements of her debut, Title. Instead, with help from producers like Ricky Reed (Fifth Harmony, Jason Derulo), she delivers wide-eyed pre-9/11 pop—and this throwback vibe suits her.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    A Moon Shaped Pool
    By nature, Radiohead albums will always be somewhat epic, but this one is more consistently grandiose than any of the band’s releases since 2000’s masterpiece Kid A.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Colour In Anything
    At 17 songs in 76 minutes, Colour is Blake’s longest album yet and with so much talent aiding the songwriter, it can feel belabored. But then there are stunners like “f.o.r.e.v.e.r.” and the title track.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    VIEWS
    Drake still remains a master at producing low-key mesmerizing rap, but the Views are slightly less breathtaking here.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Lemonade
    Her boldest, most ambitious, best album to date.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    A Sailor's Guide to Earth
    Overall, the album is strikingly intimate.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Human Performance
    Nearly every cut on Human Performance--from the quaking paranoia of the album opener “Dust” to the brooding resignation of the closer “It’s Gonna Happen”--finds Parquet Courts exploring fresh sounds and reaching new heights in the process.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Beautiful Lies
    Even if the Eastern influence isn’t overwhelming there, the rest of Beautiful Lies flows together smoothly, perfectly soothing, never quite reinventing the water wheel, but never quite having to.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cleopatra
    Cheesy at times? Maybe. Still, the Lumineers fill the mainstream roots-rock void left vacant since Mumford & Sons went electric.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Call It What It Is
    It’s a welcome homecoming. Recorded in separate sessions spanning the course of a year, the 11-song set is his most diverse collection in years.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    City Sun Eater in the River of Light
    City Sun Eater in the River of Light is another accomplished album that’s just strong enough to differentiate itself from the pack.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Wilderness
    The result is a record that sounds less like the remaking they billed it as and more like an explorative sidestep.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    We Disappear
    This certainly isn’t the band’s best album, but it might be their most Thermals-iest album.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Patch the Sky
    A lot of these songs address loneliness, despair, and relationships ending, which gives Patch the Sky an extra slug to the gut. It’s not as depressing as it sounds--lyrics take a backseat to the group’s joyful noise, after all--and the good news is Mould has found a silver lining in his music
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mind of Mine
    He tends to keep his lyrical focus exactly where you’d expect any 23-year-old’s to be: on good girls, bad girls, hard-to-get girls, and the partying and videogames that fill the rare downtime in between.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Post Pop Depression
    Underscored by high-octane tunes, Post Pop Depression runs the gamut from quiet introspection to brash rebellion--and stands tall as some of Pop’s most essential work in years.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    This Is What the Truth Feels Like
    She wears her girlishness on her own terms, and here it feels truer--and sounds stronger--­than it has in years.
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