Metacritic

We were all taught in 6th grade that humans by nature are "hunters and gatherers." Fortunately, at least for me, and to the dismay of some of my hunter friends, advancements in civilization have basically eliminated the need to hunt and gather. That doesn't mean, however, that our natural instincts to hunt and gather will be immediately selected out of our biology. Thus, we all have a little hunter/gatherer in us.

Some go to flea markets or yard sales to fulfill the instinct, some (and this includes my wife) go to the mall and "hunt and gather" clothing and shelter. As for me, I hunt for new music. I love to discover new musical acts that meet my personal definition of good music.

One tool that I use to find new artists is Metacritic. Metacritic compiles the reviews of albums from various critics, distills each review to fit the Metacritic scale, and gives each album a "metascore" on a 1 - 100 scale, with 100 being the best.

Metacritic also has excerpts from each individual review and includes the score attributed to each review. That way if you really trust Rolling Stone's reviews but not Spin's, or vice versa, you can see what each critic had to say individually. Check it out. You never know, it might just fulfill your hunting needs.