Paste Magazine's Scores

For 4,043 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 67% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 30% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 76
Highest review score: 100 Pacific Ocean Blue [Reissue]
Lowest review score: 10 Songs From Black Mountain
Score distribution:
4043 music reviews
    • 79 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The lyrics here are heavy with religious, dream-like symbolism as he details the journey of his character while allowing everyone to have their own interpretation of what the man finds and encounters in the wilderness. If there’s one word to describe Brothers and Sisters, it’s “energetic.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Ghosts skirts its predecessor's instrumental self-indulgence, allowing its tracks to swim in grandeur--but not drown.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    In short, arguably for the first time, Oberst gives us an album rife with liveliness--and it sounds like he had a damn good time making it.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The Competition heralds Hunter’s arrival as an artist who is able to communicate implicitly every bit as much as much as explicitly.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The 13 songs on the record are diverse, with a musical and emotional arc worthy of a sci-fi anime saga, but the record also feels personal and welcoming.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Staunch admirers of the traditional Pretenders sound might not like this record, but I say, “Yee-haw!”
    • 77 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Comfortably merging politics and humanity, odd genre hybrids and supple playing, Binary finds DiFranco’s 19th solo studio album provocative and thought-provoking.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    More than one or two standout tracks, Hive Mind goes down easy as a whole; an even-keeled, laid-back drift in and out of The Internet’s signature and sophisticated soundscape. Sprinkled with codas and half-songs, the effect is natural, not jarring, like turning down an alley, or rounding a city street and stumbling into another story.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Isbell’s increasing skill as a storyteller, and the natural affinity he has for melody, combine to make Something More Than Free a masterful piece of work.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Given the fact that every other entry on the album was worked up in the studio, the various early takes offer added intrigue. The order of the set list remains the same (a snippet of the discarded song “Harry” being the only additive added to the running order) but given these early unheard versions and the additional takes that take up much of disc two, the genesis of these performances clearly is clearly illuminated.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Like it did in 1999, American Football proves its ability to stand out in a sea of contemporaries and imitators, post-aughts emo revival or no.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Each track is visceral and transportive, which is no small feat.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    If Kelly Lee Owens gently opened the door between dream pop and techno, Inner Song rushes through it and builds a world where ecstatic, curative, untethered electronic sounds abound. Owens’ strides are most evident in Inner Song’s club cuts.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Bridwell has never sounded more assured as a songwriter, exploring bold new ideas and penning some of his most poignant lyrics.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Crushing is the brave story of a woman--and an artist--coming into her own. Securing that agency, however, was no walk in the park. Jacklin clearly had to sort through mountains of wreckage to arrive here, but the album’s autobiographical nature is what makes it so affecting.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Though it mostly lacks the direct punchiness and instant gratification of an album like Schlagenheim, it provides a unique musical escapade that dashes deftly between genres and the depths of the human experience like a charging bull. Black midi isn’t here to charm you or to prove anything—they just want to take you to hell and back.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Each song feels like its own powerful, strange dream—the worlds described are vague yet familiar, tugging at something in your gut that instinctively pulls towards the characters and loves described.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Frahm’s first major solo work since Spaces, and it finds its maker exploring new sounds and new spaces with often stunning results.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    It's no mean feat for him to drop a solo album that's both a trove of pop jams and a profound piece of artistic experimentation, and he's done just that--a remarkable achievement by any measurement.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Her songwriting chops prove better with each new release, making Ivy Tripp her most accomplished outing yet.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    On Hallelujah Anyhow, he sounds more comfortable than ever before, and that’s saying something. Taylor’s songs are warm and well-worn. His band moves as a single organism. ... Musically, Hallelujah Anyhow is a beautiful patchwork of styles.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    I Keep My Feet On The Fragile Plane is a wildly successful catalog of the trials of early adulthood, providing a comfortable space to explore painful points of unrealized promise and acceptance. Krieger seems at home within the structures of her languid, smoldering ballads–though the fire burns hot when she picks up speed just a little bit.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Even in their nascent form though, the songs provide ample evidence of Phillipps’ growing strength as a songwriter.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Though The Clearing works fine as background music, it offers up many more intricacies and delights if you give it your full concentration.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The basic ingredients here--a sexy, intelligent singer and songwriter, a guy who wants to be a guitar god and a drummer who socks the hell out of his kit--come fairly close to defining my notion of perfect music. Together they make a triple-layer torch-song/New Wave/power-pop confection.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Innumerable intricacies layered into the background make for an encompassing wall of notes that pulls you into a unusual dance.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    That sense of musical evolution makes Around the Well a particularly compelling listening, and Beam’s sensitive readings of songs by Stereolab, the Flaming Lips, the Postal Service, and New Order show how sturdy his sound can be, as he translates them to quieter settings without losing their heraldic sentiments.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Vulnicura marks a bold return for such a storied singer.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Unknown Mortal Orchestra can now sit back and smile at the fact they’ve written an album which could just as easily be this year’s Channel Orange as it could be its Lonerism.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Whether you’re honing in on the brilliant lyricism or simply soaking in the aural wonders of this minimalistic folk album, there’s plenty to fall in love with about Bad Debt.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    It’s powerful in both delivery and in effect, without being heavy-handed or sacrificing form.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    These songs--are inspired by seemingly little more than pure unencumbered joy. Which is a hard quality to come by these days. It’s nice to have something that’s so contagious it can rub off on us all.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Anjimile touts his hard-won strength throughout the record. A debut this scintillating sets the bar quite high for the 27-year-old songwriter, but, as we quickly learned—he is already up for the challenge.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The sweeping brilliance of that standout track ["In Durance Vile"], though, is matched in emotive resonance on nearly every piece on Fleeting.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Given all the heavy ideas and emotions on Any Shape You Take, it’s a minor miracle how bright and immediate it all sounds, without a whiff of self-seriousness or schmaltz.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Her catalog overflows with interesting and unconventional songs that nonetheless feel comforting and familiar. That’s a catalog worth celebrating, and Hell-On is a wonderful new chapter of Case’s career.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Boys & Girls is best enjoyed not as an anachronism but as a fresh take on the sounds from a bygone era.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    She handcrafts everyday situations into something angelic yet relatable and celebratory yet poignant. Her appeal extends well beyond the realms of pop as there’s a distinct, developed lyrical voice and a dynamic, extraordinary literal voice that makes 2018 feel much less scary and isolating and much more pure and magical.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    What’s most impressive about ULTRAPOP is not necessarily the killer riffs, the pummeling rhythms or the plentiful melodies, though all of those are consistently thrilling. What’s most impressive is the way this band brings together different, disparate styles in a way that sounds seamless and natural and new, even if others have done it before.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    It’s far more organic than any of the prefab productions that dominate the airwaves these days. The backing horns and sprightly pacing keep the music sounding effortless and bewitching, a traditional approach that’s been part of LaFarge and his namesake band’s signature sound.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The new songs on this already-strong collection only elevate the ceiling of Ware’s potential.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Wot
    It’s less garage, more cacti forest. Less “borrowing” money from your parents, more working odd jobs to afford your bottom-shelf tequila. It’s heart, and it’s good.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Ellis broadens his musical reach beyond deadly accurate classic country to often austere arrangements that reflect his small etchings of real life without aggressive genre-coding.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Purged of the drug-addled skepticism of Acid Rap and pulsing with the free-wheeling spirit and zeal that bolstered Surf, Coloring Book is a breezy listen: direct and purposeful.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Though not all of the tracks on the album were fashioned into future releases--or have even been heard before--fans of Múm will find the entirety of the Early Birds a fascinating window into the band's origins.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Know Better Learn Faster mostly sounds like a young artist coming into her own--in music and life and love.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Blood Pressures mixes heavy, gainy hard-rocking guitars with a whole lot of making love to the mic.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Like Charlotte Gainsbourg’s entire musical career, Rest is imperfect, but it’s intriguing enough that you can’t help but pay attention. And now that she’s pouring more of herself into her songs, her work feels weightier, more complex, and more compelling.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    In heading Sideways to New Italy, Rolling Blackouts C.F. continue to make a strong case as one of Australia’s most vital rock acts, if not the world’s.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Staples makes redemption a matter of small things, tiny actions and incremental leaps of believing. Accessible to the fallen and faltering, on One True Vine grace is a funky thing.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Her dance-pop and funky synth-pop easily parallels the intrigue of her brawny lyrics and though she may feel frustration from the record’s narrative being solely steered towards her pansexuality, new short hairdo or the record’s relevant themes in the wake of #MeToo, let it be known that this is one of the finest pop works of the year.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Where Dying Star offered only glimmers of hope that Kelly’s garden would someday flourish, Shape & Destroy is a modestly verdant landscape as far as the eye can see—maybe not “tall and purposed” quite yet, but healthy, happy and headed that way.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Add it all up and you’ve got not only one of the best albums of early 2020, but one worth remembering when it’s time to make your list at year’s end.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    In a world where prettified and production-enhanced voices are standard, this is a real man bringing every ounce to the table.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Nest is an album of incredible scope and emotional tension, and though there’s hardly a moment to rest, its strident beauty will restore you just the same.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    In KAINA’s sprawling but concise little world, her truths feel universal.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Uzu
    UZU is stunning and melodic, and consistently absorbing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The mixture of gentility and dissonance is somehow more unsettling than if Power was to go full on into harsher, angrier territory. The balance that he maintains throughout is what makes the album work.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Bully’s new album, Lucky For You, is her finest work to date. Never before has Bognanno crafted a record so consistently captivating, able to fire on all cylinders even in its quieter moments.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    This record encapsulates a unit who have perfected their chemistry so much that they are approaching their prime with precision, passion and grace. As the ladies continue to propel forward, it’s important to remember Under My Influence as a bold collection of thoughts and experiences that tap into a generation of women who maybe don’t even know they need it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Oxford Collapse is uncommonly muscular for this type of band, rather like Les Savy Fav by way of R.E.M., and they’re most engaging when flexing this muscle
    • 77 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Throughout Laughing Matter, Hanson and Burrows’ lyrics take everything known about defined forms and senses and turn them on their head—sounds can be swallowed, the future’s neck can be cut and life can eat into life--and the album’s improvisational jams, winding outros and emotionally crushing melodies result in perhaps Wand’s most realized release yet.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Jones and the Dap-Kings make the kind of music that moves them, and their feverish passion is contagious.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Oh My God, the dizzying and fantastic fifth album from the increasingly prolific folk-rocker, is preoccupied with the language of exaltation, from its gospel-choir refrains to its outrageous album cover, which depicts Morby, shirtless, posing beneath a famous painting of Saint Cecilia playing piano for the angels. Somehow, none of this scans as ironic or overtly hokey.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The lion's share of Incredibad is without a doubt one of the funniest albums, music or otherwise, in years.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    These are some of the sweetest and sauciest love songs ever recorded, and no one should have any doubt that he means every word of them. This set should also lay to rest any questions about the importance of Half Japanese.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Déjà vu, ambition, whatever be damned. No help may be coming, but they don't need it in the first place.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Only Bejar knows the logic behind his musical metamorphoses, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy an album as smart and as beguiling as Kaputt.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The restless vibe to this ramshackle collection suggests Rawlings’ greatest trait is his wanderlust. It’s allowed him to work closely with a range of different artists in the past, and it makes A Friend of a Friend a spirited affair.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Gaslighter is the best country album of 2020 because it forces empathy onto the listener while reminding us we don’t have to be superheroes to make a difference.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Sees the Light manages to squeeze a boatload of emotions out of simple verse-chorus-verse pop.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    This bedroom project shakes with a gentle reverb and the snapping beats and upbeat percussion she programs using a drum machine. What connects Murray to her peers in Look Blue Go Purple are the similarly earnest lyrics, psychedelic dreaminess and low key production quality made modern with synths and other electronic touches.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    When Horses Would Run comes as close to that perfect commendation as a debut album can possibly get.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    When taken alongside recent successes like Chaos and Creation and his stunning orchestral piece Ece Cor Meum, Electric Arguments hints that a late period renaissance could be underway.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Originals offers a tantalizing glimpse of Prince as an artist whose creativity extended in so many directions at once that his own discography couldn’t contain it.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Death Magnetic is more than a paean to all things thrash--it’s the revivification of ambition dormant for nearly two decades.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The album is undoubtedly a jump from their first, with a gentle climb after the second.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Andrew Bird is a highly skilled musician capable of crafting an album full of delightful little moments that make the album worth a fair listen, and more.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    What the world needs now, more than ever, is an album as valiant and compassionate, satirical and sensitive as Pageant.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Though these songs were recorded hastily by some standards, their welding of forlorn lyricism and comforting listenability makes the songwriter admirable not just for his craftsmanship, but for his ability to pull through an arduous time with what could be a benchmark album in his already prolific career.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Automaton is a pop/funk/acid jazz/disco/proto-house opus that succeeds in discounting the band’s growing pains within the confines of both fame and pop music.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Harper is in top form, crafting songs that succeed lyrically and musically, capturing much of the blues-driven energy of White Lies while mixing in a delicate simplicity that adds a layer of depth to the bluesman's latest effort.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Mann has earned her reputation as a master songwriter on the coherence of her artistic choices. As in good short stories, every element in her songs works to support a single theme.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    End
    End should be the playbook for any artist who wants to balance giving fans what they want while growing their creative craft almost three decades in.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    A nice surprise in a year full of unpleasant ones. It’s also one of the best experimental releases of 2020 so far. Continuous Portrait doesn’t depart dramatically from the lively ambient sweet spot of Inventions’ previous work, but it does expand the duo’s sound to make deeper use of one element usually absent from Explosions in the Sky: the human voice.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    This slick new edition furthers the case for Raw Power as The Stooges' greatest work--as if there was any question.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    That seven-year break might have been just what Wolf Parade needed to regroup and come back even stronger than before, and Cry Cry Cry shows that guitar rock is far from dead.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    everything is alive, prioritizes progression and refuses to stay stagnant. Sure, Slowdive glance back at their past every now and again, but it’s clear that their focus is fully set on the future.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    At once atmospheric, industrial and experimental, Ultimate Care II is kind of like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music had the old geezer from Freeport, N.Y. crafted it out of love instead of vitriol.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Both installments of Quazarz attest to Shabazz Palaces’ inventiveness and imagination, and reveal new layers upon each listen. After all, creative thinkers like Butler and Maraire often do feel like aliens stuck on earth.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    It's a linguistic lesson you never asked for, or even wanted, but also one you'll never forget.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Even at their most technically complex, Twerps still maintain a low-key, laidback, indie-rock appeal. They pull off charming pop that sounds tender and thrilling at the same time.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Where 2016’s The Bird & The Rifle teemed with broken people and broken relationships and The Tree was slower and more somber, these 10 new songs feel lighter and brighter, buoyed by personal reflection and the joy of familial connection.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    With the range, depth and lyrical class Metronomy brings to Metronomy Forever, it’s quite a fun listen, one that shows how the group has evolved over their lengthy career. The electronic orchestration will leave you bopping through memory lane as you reminisce on old love.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Both installments of Quazarz attest to Shabazz Palaces’ inventiveness and imagination, and reveal new layers upon each listen. After all, creative thinkers like Butler and Maraire often do feel like aliens stuck on earth.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    On Somewhere Else, Lydia Loveless has harnessed the barnstorming energy of her Bloodshot debut and transformed it into something much more.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    It's not to say it's on the level of Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues, but it's pretty damn close.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    The instrumental work by the session musicians on Pearls To Swine may be rather remarkable, as is the production work by Erik Wofford, but at the end of the day, it’s Torres’ natural soundscapes and elaborate imagery that brilliantly twinkles throughout this piece of art.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    It’s not that To the Sunset finds Shires wandering further--it’s that she’s digging deeper, with the same diligence and abundance of talent she’s been drawing from all along.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Every Acre is a profound listen, one that reveals more wisdom the more you surrender to it. McEntire has discovered painful truths in the process, without ever letting herself or our history off the hook.