Paste Magazine's Scores

Select another publication »
For 4,077 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 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [50th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Version]
Lowest review score: 10 Songs From Black Mountain
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,641 out of 4077
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4077
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4077
4077 music reviews
view
per page
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
    By channeling her anxiety into wonderful, shaggy, relatable and supremely catchy songs, she’s made Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit one of the most compulsively listenable albums to come out so far this year.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eclipse
    The resulting album comes across as a natural progression, with Lewis and his Twin Shadow project reaching big and not disappointing in their grasp.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Goon
    What Jesso has delivered is a record that needs no context, that can exist outside of time and place. Jesso, in short, has crafted a masterpiece, with the only connection of real significance being between him and his audience.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strangers to Ourselves
    For an album that, like every other Modest Mouse album, rattles on at an extended length, Strangers to Ourselves can desperately afford to trim the fat.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Cosmetics
    Songs like these [“Killin’ Time” and closer “Motel Room”] showcase the best of Diamond Rugs’ penchant for big riffs and bawdy entertainment, but the rest of Cosmetics ends up sounding strikingly derivative.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rose Mountain
    Rose Mountain is less adventurous than 2012’s sprawling Ugly, but it excels in its compactness.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Melbourne, Florida
    These are solidly constructed pop jams, sometimes introspective but never insular, occasionally caustic in a way that’s more resigned than snotty, and always smart but with an appreciation for the simple pleasures of a good rock song.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Rebel Heart
    Rebel Heart is not a perfect record--it meanders at lengthy 19 tracks--but it does boast some of the most introspective and lyrics Madonna has ever penned.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dungeon Golds
    The sound is very much mid-’60s Beach Boys/Byrds pop stuff.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Policy
    When Butler isn’t taking cues from the music he grew up with, he’s more prone to wander around in just-nice-enough piano balladry. But when he is, he ends up with something which seems to bear his own identity more than it could otherwise.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Fresh Blood
    Musically and lyrically, each track on Fresh Blood feels like a micro-journey in itself; White never lets the listener stay sonically or emotionally in one place. And that sense of perpetual motion will likely sustain Fresh Blood’s longevity, too.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Expect Delays
    Tough but sugary, Expect Delays is an unhindered blast.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Aureate Gloom
    The result is an audacious delight, delivering aural odysseys that slither in and out of the territory of heavy-lidded dance-club bangers, junkie-punk ragers, symphonic Baroque-pop gems, plaintive guitar-rockers and myriad lessons from the Marc Bolan school of glam-rock depravity.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    You're Better Than This
    They may rock harder than Neutral Milk ever did, but there’s something about their sound putting them in the same category of earnest playfulness.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Another Eternity
    Another Eternity represents the confluence of hard trap beats with the formula for electro that gave rise to prevailing styles in indie music. It’s enough of a creative leap to perhaps usher in more copycats, but Purity Ring again checks in first.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    After
    While most tracks are easy enough to hum along to, laced with warm banjo and pretty keys, it’s the unexpected explosions of warped guitar solos that make Lady Lamb’s softer moments standout--and the album as a whole succeed.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Shadow of the Sun
    Don’t expend too much mental energy on it, and you’ll dance through it all with a huge grin on your face.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Vestiges & Claws
    Although Vestiges & Claws may wander close to guitar-based, folk-rock homogeny, González’s musings offer a cerebral reminder to enjoy figuring out what it all means.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Physical Graffiti [Remastered]
    No amount of reissue padding will ever tarnish the mesmerizing mess of Physical Graffiti. It’s funny--only now, 40 years later, has the true filler finally emerged.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Complicated Game
    Complicated Game is brilliant album, dense and thoughtful as McMurtry swirls around inside the heads of another set of fascinating characters.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    What Happens Next
    This version of Gang of Four is clearly Gill’s vision, and if the group doesn’t sound as tightly wound as they did in their first incarnation, the angular guitar attack and the relentless pounding of the drums is a clear indication that the fire still burns within.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sour Soul
    Sour Soul is an evening album, like all good jazz albums should be. The kind you turn on over lamplight or bump on your headphones.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Let the Good Times Roll
    Rock ’n’ roll has a knack for brute force, but these songs are never less than nimble, always full of electricity and a steady barometer of unfailing good taste.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Live At A Flamingo Hotel
    Live at a Flamingo Hotel is a pristine concert documentary, brimming with the energy, charm and consummately great sound of all those Dr. Dog shows that have hooked so many new fans over the years.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Mono
    Never quite forsaking what brought them, they’ve created a new world for post-country country--as musically satisfying as it is hormone-peaking.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Volume Two: 1987-1989 [Box Set]
    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.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Full Bleed: Caught on Tape
    This is a massive slab of American skronk.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Transfixiation
    Transfixiation is at its best, however, when a little restraint casts its own spooky shadows.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Terraplane
    Earle plumbs the carnal underpinnings of the blues: feasting on what can be, never mourning what’s done. It is frisky, with musicians thumping and plucking in what feels almost like a jam.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Talent Night at the Ashram
    It’s an album that understands the value of both journey and destination and when the going gets weird, amazingly everything is right where it needs to be.
Page: