Paste Magazine's Scores

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For 4,075 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: 3,639 out of 4075
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4075
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4075
4075 music reviews
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    • 53 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Fly from Here
    Yes have released their best work since the '70s.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Ritual Union
    Ritual Union is an album that has about as many standouts as skip-overs. The standouts are songs that won't get old, but the skip-overs aren't the type to grow on you, more the type that a significant other might use in the morning to fuck with your fragile early stages of consciousness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Last Summer
    Perhaps the biggest hurdle for Friedberger's solo endeavor will rest in separating herself from the past nine LPs she's released with her brother, but Last Summer succeeds on its own, casting a softer light on the singer's chaotic image.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Field Songs
    Through a unified blend of graceful melodies and powerful vocals, William Elliott Whitmore generates a sincere message-to reap a sweet harvest of happiness, listeners must work through the fields of pain.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Within and Without
    More than just a denizen of a passing trend or an artist cloaking lack of melody in reverb and fuzz, Washed Out consistently sounds like actual thought was put behind its music, which can't be said about a lot of its so-called peers.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Collider
    It's an easy listen, a friendly collection of solid journeyman jams and a decent starting place for the uninitiated.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Standing on the Rooftop
    Standing on the Rooftop sounds like a self-consciously boho summer album: pleasant enough for a backyard soiree and a bottle of verde, but too breezy to linger once your guests leave.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    The Grand Theatre, Vol. 2
    Despite its flaws, Vol. 2 is the second-best thing the Olds have done in a decade.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    The Grand Theatre, Vol. 1
    Despite its flaws, Vol. 2 is the second-best thing the Olds have done in a decade.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Rave On Buddy Holly
    Rave On Buddy Holly takes classic tracks and, for the most part, offers instantly memorable covers of them. It's not quite an A, but it's as close as anything I've reviewed in a while.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    4
    This is not your standard-issue radio candy, and the strength of the track is the hypnotic reality of the beats and the way the Houston-born superstar's voice inhabits the track.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Culture of Fear
    In the end, Culture of Fear is a good album, but it doesn't push any boundaries or claim any new ground.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Pint of Blood
    In lesser hands, what makes Holland such a distinctive vocalist might also limit her range, yet she inhabits these songs confidently and dexterously.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Better Day
    Downhome but polished, Parton and producer Kent Wells create an often pop-country gem that empowers as it punches country radio's cliches with a freshness that says "real country is more engaging than warmed over AC and AOR with fiddles on it."
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sound Kapital
    This album doesn't stray far from the formula of their previous work, but it isn't disappointing. It goes down smoothly and will keep your toes tapping until the very last beat.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Candidate Waltz
    At nine tracks in 33 minutes, Candidate Waltz hardly overstays its welcome, and it's hard to fault Johnson for keeping it punchy and direct.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Harrow and the Harvest
    The Harrow & The Harvest is simply one of the richest, most expansive roots albums to be released in some time.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Light of the Sun
    Her dexterity in juxtaposing genres, infusing her swooping jazz-singing with near-gospel fervor, kittenish moans and shameless spoken exhortations is commanding.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Horses and High Heels
    Faithfull knows she has much more past than future, which gives her cover an intense melancholy that seeps naturally into the rest of Horses and High Heels. She is, in other words, a true pop connoisseur, blessed not only with a distinctive voice but with an understanding that songs can change dramatically with age and experience.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Whatever's On Your Mind
    The music in their latest release, Whatever's On Your Mind, stays on a pop path that's decorated with tinges of folk, blues, electronic, and whatever else they feel like throwing in.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Don't Blame the Stars
    It's hard to believe Don't Blame the Stars has been floating around for more than three years. Hard to believe because, a) It's a terrific album that a label should have snatched up earlier, and b) It's eerily prescient.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Sun and Shade
    There's much to be said for any band that can cover so much sonic territory in 12 tracks and 45 minutes. But next time, Woods should aim for enough sound to fill one dusty, neglected '60s LP-not an entire cratefull.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Fomo
    He's really coming into his own, and he'll have his masterpiece yet, probably a few of them. FOMO isn't one, but it sure is a lovely listen, something that completists will likely point to one day as some of the old guy's "good-but-not-great, early stuff."
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bon Iver
    It retains the beautiful melancholy of For Emma, but in nearly every way, it's just more. More layered, more diverse, more interesting.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Goodbye Bread
    This sonic diversity isn't a new thing for Ty Segall, but the way that Goodbye Bread reveals itself shows a marked increase in thoughtfulness when compared to the San Francisco psychedelic songwriter's previous five albums.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Marissa Nadler
    Marissa Nadler hints at larger tragedies and losses, implying an overarching break-up narrative that gives each song added force.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    It's All True
    It's All True still doesn't have the inclusive warmth of similar acts like Hot Chip or Passion Pit. But for those of us who've been rooting for them, it's nice to see the Junior Boys get a little hedonistic within their grayscale world.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Love Notes/Letter Bombs
    If Love Notes is their best album, it's because it's also their most emotionally conflicted.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    In Light
    So while In Light is unmistakably a 2011 indie album (In addition to the Dirty Projectors influence, there are traces of Vampire Weekend's trendy worldly pop bounce scattered throughout), Givers constantly rise above their reference points because the songs are usually excellent.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Castlemania
    For every near-perfect slab of garage-pop, such as 2009's Help, there's a tougher-to-sit-through, psych-folk influenced effort like 2010's Warm Slime. Castlemania splits the difference, but mostly for the good.
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