Paste Magazine's Scores

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For 4,080 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: 3,644 out of 4080
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4080
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4080
4080 music reviews
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    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
    Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action is a fiendish and fun record.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Carrier
    The Dodos’ tried-and-true approach and execution is far too strong and compelling to abandon, but by amending it ever so slightly on Carrier, they’ve realized something worth documenting. And it’s certainly worth listening to.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Versions
    There’s nothing for Danilova to hide behind here, and having her so present throughout this album is breathtaking.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    An Object
    The only thing that could make An Object better is a guarantee these determined minimalists won’t leave us with zero next time out.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Flourish // Perish
    The length of time it takes to unfold challenges waning attention spans, but by revealing Standell-Preston’s drawn fangs early, it turns the listeners into willing victims.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Warp & Weft
    Displaying more of her raucous side, Warp and Weft is filled with tracks that easily find themselves among the best of her impressive catalog and manage to exceed expectations.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Permanent Signal
    It wants to be The Antlers as a singer/songwriter, but even The Antlers walk dangerously close to the edge of good taste. Remiddi’s voice is no help, either, often times too delicate and dainty to extract much emotion from, and only convincing when it flaunts imperfections.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Sleeper
    Sleeper is an album worthy of adorning your shelf until the shelf itself crumbles.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
    It’s a great album with depth and intelligence, and possibly the best punk album released in a year of many great punk albums, outshining the band’s contemporaries by not seeing the genre as limiting, and changing the boundaries to suit their own abilities.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    I Hate Music
    Their jagged power pop has been refreshingly consistent, but never lax. And I Hate Music--the band’s second post-hiatus release since 2010’s Majesty Shredding--is no different.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Adiós I'm a Ghost
    Adiós I’m a Ghost manages to retain its humanity and emotional center even in the most blistering of numbers.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    The Argument
    The very best tracks grapple with eternal themes of love, fear, suffering and the transmigration of the soul, with the overarching narrative largely irrelevant; the low points, however, take the dramatic framework and hit you upside the holy head.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Paracosm
    Greene isn’t reinventing the wheel here, but he doesn’t need to; all he needs to do is create another solid LP. And Paracosm—as a stellar feel-good summer record that measures Greene’s growth as songwriter and musician--has done exactly that.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Bach: Sonatas & Partitas, Vol. 1
    Bach: Sonatas and Partitas Volume 1 is beautifully played and uplifting to listen to from beginning to end.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Prince Avalanche [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    Scattered moments show the band capturing a spark of creativity to make this exercise in using different instruments for very specific purposes mean something similar to their LPs. The results are some of the more exciting moments of the band’s recent output.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Civil Wars
    Working with producer Charlie Peacock, in spite of discord, the pair refine and expand the sound they architected into a more intense take on their tortured (implied) sexual tension.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Body Music
    Body Music shows R&B continuing to expand its scope, stealing the cues of hip-hop and electronic music, which draw strength from their omnivorous appetites.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    Blurred Lines
    Thicke does his best with these tracks, hitting all the right sultry vocal notes, but really the beats and production aren’t doing him any favors.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    BE
    [The] familiarity brings you to the cereal, the soap and the market, and some people will be drawn to Be, okay with seeing the imitation. The rest are better holding off for Oasis’ inevitable reformation.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    All Hail West Texas [Reissued]
    The gems on All Hail West Texas capture the pain and beauty of humans’ entanglements with each other.... These days it’s the loneliness of the album, and just the idea of the space that is West Texas, a vast and largely unpopulated sprawl, that hits home.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Pokey Lafarge
    Consistent and authentic throughout, Pokey LaFarge is an essential new record for anyone who appreciates old sounds.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Jinx
    Jinx may not be as immediately jarring and respectable as their debut, but it certainly keeps the ball rolling.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Songs Cycled
    He brings it all home with the final track of the album--and this work, accompanied by artwork and liner notes from some of the world’s best contemporary artists, is intended to be taken as a whole.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Ruby Red
    Ruby Red is free to sprawl and amble, joyous in its own sense of creative possibility.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My Favorite Picture of You
    As a master wordsmith who believes in simplicity over all, he’s excavated the human heart, calloused pride and faltering dignity with a scalpel. On Picture, it’s all there.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
    Ringleader Alex Ebert produced the album and sonically, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros feels slick and compressed.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    Slow Focus
    They sound like anonymous technoids coming to grips with what it means to want the world in musical terms that will most certainly put their faces on the map. Better invest in some robot helmets.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Street Punk
    You’ll hear more of the 924 Gilman Street punk raucous of bands like Op Ivy, Blatz and Black Fork on these dozen cuts. And that’s a great thing. This is punk rock for 2013, and it’s still fabulous.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Pura Vida Conspiracy
    This reeled-in style seems like an extension of their exhaustion and desire to create something laid-back that would give them a chance to breathe and really examine what they’re doing and why, rather than trying to hustle and do everything at breakneck speed all the time.
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