The New York Times' Scores

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For 2,075 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Live in Europe 1967: Best of the Bootleg, Vol. 1
Lowest review score: 0 Shatner Claus: The Christmas Album
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,597 out of 2075
  2. Mixed: 443 out of 2075
  3. Negative: 35 out of 2075
2075 music reviews
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    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Getting Away With Murder
    The new songs are thrashing hard rock that always pays attention to melody.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Medulla
    While the album might seem to be a conceptual stunt, it finds gorgeous and startling new ways to extend Bjork's longtime mission: merging the earthy and the ethereal. [29 Aug 2004]
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Straight Outta Ca$hville
    This album isn't revelatory, but it is convincing, and although Young Buck's subject matter never surprises, the tracks sometimes do. [30 Aug 2004]
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Revolution Starts Now
    Merges twang, orneriness and compassion. [6 Sep 2004]
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    More Adventurous
    Each song on "More Adventurous" sounds rich and well plotted. [16 Aug 2004]
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Homesongs
    He uses a roomful of instruments and toys to turn the album into a homemade pop symphony.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blueberry Boat
    It's deeply ambitious, but to listen to it you'd think making music like this was as easy for them as falling off a log. [18 Jul 2004]
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Uh Huh Her
    It is a short disc (41 minutes), and not an entirely satisfying one: instead of stories and characters, we get a series of gestures, a few false starts, pockets full of poses. This is an album of shards, then. But they're sharp. [7 June 2004]
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Faded Seaside Glamour
    You can't tell a word Greg Gilbert is saying... and you won't care; his soaring falsetto is that beautiful.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Now Here Is Nowhere
    There are moments when the Secret Machines imitate their influences a little too closely, and at times the brothers' voices aren't as imposing as the arrangements. But for most of "Now Here Is Nowhere," the Secret Machines make music that matches the scale of their ambitions.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Split The Difference
    If only all stupid rock music could be this intelligent.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Grand Don't Come For Free
    The problem with "A Grand Don't Come for Free" is that the pieces often work better as stories than as songs.... But it is still a thrill to hear Mr. Skinner toy with the form that he invented.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    ONoffON
    Tense, febrile and messy, but tuneful and cohesive at the same time. [2 May 2004]
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heroes To Zeros
    "Heroes to Zeros" is clearly the product of long hours of multitracking, with just enough song in each track to hang all the instrumental ideas on.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    trampin'
    At 57 Ms. Smith has made the most diverse music of her career.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Boot And A Shoe
    There are hints of blues and gospel, but most of the songs could come from a rustic cabaret that is worried about waking the neighbors.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Pretty Toney Album
    "Pretty Toney" doesn't match the high standard of Ghostface's first two, "Ironman" and "Supreme Clientele," but it's a strong album nonetheless, packed with dense narratives and weird conceits.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Good News For People Who Love Bad News
    The best Modest Mouse album yet.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Retriever
    Chiming 1960's folk-rock and Beatles-tinged melodies can't quite pull Ron Sexsmith out of the moderate despair that suffuses his songs.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Damita Jo
    The album is even sleeker and sexier than its predecessor, "All for You," and in saner times, that would be enough to ensure its success. [28 Mar 2004]
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Confessions
    Like lots of recent R & B albums, this one is heavily front-loaded. Usher's voice never fails him (there are a few falsetto runs that seem intended to put Mr. Timberlake in his place), but near the end, the songwriting does. [28 Mar 2004]
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fly Or Die
    While Mr. Williams isn't much of a singer, "Fly or Die" has goofy charms to spare.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
    The first time through, the album is as much an endurance test as an entertainment, reaching back to New York rock's most raucous no-wave experiments of the late 1970's and also echoing vanguardists like Merzbow and This Heat.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    College Dropout
    2004's first great hip-hop album. [9 Feb 2004]
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Me First
    "Me First" may not be greater than the sum of its parts, but it certainly is equal to them, which is a lot. [1 Mar 2004]
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Talkie Walkie
    The arrangements are light and immaculate, the vocals coo and cajole, and the melodies are addictive.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Educated Guess
    It's worth putting up with a few overbearing moments to hear someone so willing to take chances.
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