Paste Magazine's Scores

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For 4,079 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: 3,643 out of 4079
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4079
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4079
4079 music reviews
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 43 Critic Score
    Mechanical Bull
    Unfortunately, they miss and it lands in the five-day-old dregs of a keg in an Anytown, USA backyard.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    Seasons of Your Day
    Mazzy Star’s M.O. is a barely present, ghostly ambiance, better sometimes in the background, but after nearly 20 years, a return demands more than essentially being the musical equivalent of late-night Sportscenter, something best enjoyed while drifting in and out of sleep.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Nothing Was the Same
    Nothing Was the Same is ugly, yes, but cathartic.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Hell Bent
    The baton has been passed to these fine young women, and they are running far and away beyond their forebears.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    Boardwalk Empire, Vol. 2 [Music from the Original HBO Series]
    While it’s a novelty to hear 21st-century artists stretch so far out of their comfort zones, several sound out of their depth.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    On Oni Pond
    Man Man have crafted an album here that, without betraying their old fans, makes their music accessible to a wider audience.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Defend Yourself
    Paired with familiar sounds and a reliable DIY aesthetic, Sebadoh manages to focus the emotion, which leaves Defend Yourself feeling like a reenergized, natural evolution for the band.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dream River
    There’s plenty to chew on with his latest, Dream River. And that’s just the lyrics, whose weightiness is given more heft by his controlled baritone.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ski Mask
    Here, harmonies, bouncy synths and cheeky metaphors abound, and, besides a few clunky miscalculations, the record is an undeniably fun listen.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    MGMT
    MGMT chokes on its own forced sense of whimsy.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    Wise Up Ghost and Other Songs
    That this collaboration would end up working so well should really be of little surprise to longtime fans of Costello. His ‘70s and ’80s work often bore the influence of the same R&B, soul and funk records that the Roots clearly adore.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    Another Self Portrait 1969-1971: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10
    Another Self Portrait is absolutely essential listening for Bob Dylan fans. It may contain the best music you’ll hear all year.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Surrounded
    It is a beautiful sleeplessness captured in Surrounded; in those channels and eddies, fans of his musical landscapes can drift for hours.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Electric Lady
    What could be unwieldy becomes a vast patchwork of influences buoying empowerment.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nobody Knows
    On Beal’s first album, he moved between child-like ambience, songs suitable for weird film scores and stomping blues.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    Bed & Bugs
    Bed & Bugs is uneven, bewildering and about four songs too long--but I don’t think these dudes would have it any other way.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    The 1975
    If lyrics like, “If you wanna find love / then you know where the city is,” still satisfy some unrequited teenage dreams, then The 1975 should fulfill that naïveté.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    AM
    Arctic Monkeys arrive at the end of AM a lot wiser than they may have appeared from the slow opening stomp of the LP.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Law and Order
    Law is the perfect Indian-summer morning garage sale soundtrack album. It follows the mood flow to a T.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Pushin' Against a Stone
    Most of the album was recorded at The Black Keys’ studio in Nashville and favors bluesy twangs, folksy fiddles and country slide guitars.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Stitches
    The combination of loose fun and pinpoint accuracy here is bracing, and Califone’s sheer originality is a great counterpoint to the many acts trying desperately to live up to the legacy of their formers.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    The Silver Gymnasium
    The Silver Gymnasium grows on you, and sooner or later its nostalgia becomes your own--only the names and places are different.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Idle No More
    It’s far from terrible, but it’s equidistant from that and “worth a dozen more spins.”
    • 74 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Age Against the Machine
    Age Against the Machine isn’t a seamless reunion--it’s too messy, too bloated (18 tracks, not a single necessary interlude), too Green-centric to feel like a pure collaboration. But in a way, those Perfect Imperfections come with the territory. Even at its worst, it’s a Machine built with fascinating craftsmanship.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You
    It’s a record that often elevates the listener through its integrity and intensity, and sometimes grates through its failure to find the right music to express its complex lyrical sentiments.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Hesitation Marks
    No other Nine Inch Nails record has been so mindful of dance and electronic trends from outside its own bubble, or the resurgence of many of these sounds recently. It’s a nice surprise from a radio-rock band returning to the majors without a guilty conscience for wanting to sell his art for $10.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Ages
    These days it’s no easy feat for a band to differentiate itself from the slough of other guitar-pop bands. You need songs, and Ghost Wave has plenty.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Warm Blanket
    At its core, Warm Blanket is a tremendously revealing album.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Electric Slave
    lectric Slave explores old forms with vigor, charting links in minutes that took years to develop.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Gone Away Backward
    At a time when modern country feels like bloated spandex-and-Aquanetted pop-metal, Fulks defiantly embraces an unflinching traditionalism.
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