Allmusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine noticed that the song is " a tongue-in-cheek, neo-house cover " and picked it as one of the best tracks on the album, alongside the title track and " Have You Ever Been in Love ".

In a retrospective review of the album, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for Allmusic, gave " Dare " a 5-star rating.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for Allmusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop / rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, " By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era ".

Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine attributes The Beatles ' shift toward introspective songwriting in the mid-1960s to Bob Dylan's influence at the time.

According to Allmusic editor Steve Huey, the success of his 1994 debut album Ready to Die " reinvented East Coast rap for the gangsta age " and " turned the Notorious B. I. G.

" Allmusic editor Mark Deming dubbed the album " superb material brilliantly executed " and cited it as Newman's " first great album, and ... still one of his finest moments on record.

In a retrospective review, Allmusic editor John Bush gave the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and complimented its songs ' " freewheeling arrangements ".

" Allmusic editor Jason Ankeny viewed the album as the band's artistic breakthrough and " ticket to the big leagues ", calling it " an incendiary and insidious set which bridges the gap between the noisy aggression of the band's early releases and the soulful swagger of their later work.

In a retrospective review, Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album five out of five stars and stated, " remains the pinnacle of the Allmans and Southern rock at its most elastic, bluesy, and jazzy ".

Allmusic editor Leo Stanley wrote that by the release of Tony!

A few popular music artists have used elements of the Merry England story as recurring themes ; The Kinks and their leader Ray Davies crafted The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society as a homage to English country life and culture: it was described by Allmusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine as an album " lamenting the passing of old-fashioned English traditions "; Arthur ( Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire ) also contains similar elements.

Allmusic editor Ned Raggett noted that the album " showed the band in fierce and fine fettle once more ", describing Cave's lyrics as " a series of striking, compelling lyrics again exploring love, lust and death " and said the songs " showcase the Seeds ' peerless abilities at fusing older styles with noisy aggression and tension.

In a retrospective review of the album, Allmusic editor Steve Huey gave the album five out of five stars and viewed it as an improvement over Paid in Full, commending Rakim's " agile, up-tempo lyrical showcases ".

Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the song as " unabashed catchy " due to its " skittish, rhythmic guitar riff, looped beats ", backing vocals, and " funny " rhymes.

Allmusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Village Green as a " concept album lamenting the passing of old-fashioned English traditions.

Allmusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine concurred, citing it as " possibly the most beautiful song of the rock and roll era ".

In a retrospective review, Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine cited the album as " the beginning of David Bowie's classic period " and complimented its " tight, twisted heavy guitar rock that appears simple on the surface but sounds more gnarled upon each listen ".

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor of Allmusic, called the album a " highly crafted piece of dance-pop " and a " relative comeback " for Carey, despite its not being as smooth as it should be.

It featured three songs by the Wu-Tang Clan and nine songs by old school hip hop artists, including The Cold Crush Brothers, Whodini, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five .< ref name =" Witt "> Allmusic editor Chris Witt gave the soundtrack album four-and-a-half out of five stars and noted its old school tracks as the highlights, writing that " The contrast between the life and color of the old school tracks and the unrelenting gloom of the Wu-Tang cuts, produced over ten years later, suggests that hip-hop may have lost something in the intervening years.

Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that " I Want You " is the most notable among the three new tracks on Something to Remember.

Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album five out of five stars and praised the quintet's compositions as " memorable, yet open-ended and nervy, setting ( and creating ) standards for modern bop that were emulated well into the new century ".

In a retrospective review of the album, Allmusic editor Thom Jurek complimented its " funky, dirty rock & roll jazz " and " chilling, overall high-energy rockist stance ", stating " Jack Johnson is the purest electric jazz record ever made because of the feeling of spontaneity and freedom it evokes in the listener, for the stellar and inspiring solos by McLaughlin and Davis that blur all edges between the two musics, and for the tireless perfection of the studio assemblage by Miles and producer Macero ".

In a retrospective review, Allmusic editor Steve Huey viewed the album as OutKast's " most focused work " and commented that " In addition to the striking musical leap forward, Dre and Big Boi continue to grow as rappers ; their flows are getting more tongue-twistingly complex, and their lyrics more free-associative ".

Although he found " occasional dull and mediocre spots ", Allmusic editor Stanton Swihart called the album " an extremely strong showing " and praised the duo's " inventive sense of rhyme flow " and " mixture of lyrical acuity, goofball humor, Southern drawl, funky timing, and legitimate offbeat personalities.

Steve Huey in Allmusic describes the band as " one of the most unusual cult bands of the 1990s ... driven by frontman Mike Doughty's stream-of-consciousness poetry, Soul Coughing's sound was a willfully idiosyncratic mix of improvisational jazz grooves, oddball samples, hip-hop, electronics, and noisy experimentalism ( described by Doughty as ' deep slacker jazz ').

" Steve Huey of Allmusic asserted that despite being born into a family of entertainers, Janet Jackson has managed to emerge a " superstar " in her own right, rivaling not only several female recording artists including Madonna and Whitney Houston, but also her brother, while " successfully her image from a strong, independent young woman to a sexy, mature adult.

" Steve Huey from Allmusic said that the album is " raw as Megadeth gets, and that can be both good and bad -- Megadeth's later precise, complex riffing and composition aren't completely developed, but the music is performed with a great deal of energy, while Mustaine's vocals ( never his strong point ) are amateurish at best.

Critic Steve Huey of Allmusic writes that the album's influence " was felt more in spirit than in direct copycatting, as a catalyst rather than a literal musical starting point.

* VH1. com, “ Labelle ”, by Steve Huey, Allmusic ( accessed on June 29, 2008 )

Steve Huey of Allmusic noted that " the new Snakepit does kick up a lot of noise as the album rushes by, and the strong chemistry between the members is immediately obvious ".

Reviewing Ain't Life Grand for Allmusic, Steve Huey described second singer Rod Jackson as " a combination of ' 80s pop-metal bluster and Faces-era Rod Stewart " with a " touch of Aerosmith ", a description that he felt also fitted the band as a whole.

Steve Huey of Allmusic said that he was " one of the most controversial figures in gangsta rap.

Steve Huey of Allmusic notes that The Shirelles defined " the so-called girl group sound with their soft, sweet harmonies and yearning innocence ", with their songs predating Motown in their widespread crossing of racial demographics, both in the US and in Britain.

" Steve Huey of Allmusic described his and Jeff Hannemans guitar solos as " wildly chaotic ," and Thom Jurek, also of Allmusic, described his work on 2006's Christ Illusion as " create an intensely harrowing and angular riff that changes from verse to verse, through the refrain and bridge, and comes back again.

Critic Steve Huey of Allmusic later rated the album with four and a half stars out of five, stating that the " record sounds like a bridge between Mother Love Bone's theatrical ' 70s-rock updates and Pearl Jam's hard-rocking seriousness.

Steve Huey of Allmusic said, " Since Dry As a Bone / Rehab Doll is more energetic and less murky than many proto-grunge artifacts, it's arguably the most effective and enduring building block in the music's early evolution.

Iron Maiden's eighth studio release, 1990's No Prayer for the Dying, had a raw sound that, according to Allmusic, did not " hold up well " compared to past efforts, as it was recorded in a barn which Steve Harris owned, with a mobile studio owned by the Rolling Stones.

Steve Huey, for example, wrote for Allmusic that " Sabbath's slowed-down, murky guitar rock bludgeons the listener in an almost hallucinatory fashion, reveling in its own dazed, druggy state of consciousness ", commenting that the album featured " plenty of metal classics ".

Allmusic gave a positive retrospective review of the album, commenting that it achieved a strong balance between Dave Mason's simple and straightforward folk-rock songs and Steve Winwood's complex and often haunting rock jams.

" Steve Huey of Allmusic called it Green River's " strongest individual release ... perfecting their sleazy, raucous fusion of ' 70s hard rock and post-hardcore punk.

Steve Huey of Allmusic stated that " Rakim is near-universally acknowledged as one of the greatest MCs -- perhaps the greatest -- of all time within the hip-hop community.

Steve Huey of Allmusic contrasts Brooks ' and Dunn's voices, saying that Dunn " was the quietly intense singer with the soulful voice, while Kix Brooks played the part of the high-energy showman.

Steve Huey of Allmusic calls them " arguably the most progressive of the leading post-hardcore bands: their lengthy, multisectioned compositions were filled with odd time signatures, orchestrated builds and releases, elliptical melodies, and other twists and turns that built on the innovations of the Dischord label.

Steve Huey of Allmusic said that it " flows logically from one composition to the next, and the mostly long songs have enough variation in texture and mood to hold the listener's interest fairly consistently.

Steve Huey of Allmusic calls Cypress Hill's debut " a sonic blueprint that would become one of the most widely copied in hip-hop.