Paste Magazine's Scores

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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
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    All Eternals Deck
    This carefully sculpted juxtaposition of weight and waft has by now become the band's larger calling, and All Eternals Deck manages to be simultaneously esoteric and accessible, faithful and irreverent.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Gimme Some
    The energy level is up; the production is clanky and raw; the guitars ring louder, and the drums hit harder. For the first time, Peter Bjorn and John actually sound like--dare we say--a rock band.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lasers
    So the political nails are hidden deeply enough in the candy that sometimes it's hard to tell whether the juxtaposition is truly bracingly subversive or oddly self-defeating. Depending on your mood or disposition, maybe it's neither, either or both. A musical Rorschach test if there ever was one.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Live on I-5
    It's pretty much a greatest hits album, which conceptually blows an opportunity right off the bat.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Angles
    There aren't many instantly identifiable bands that can mess with the familiar recipe while somehow also honoring it, but that's precisely what the Strokes have achieved on Angles, an album as warm as it is cool.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Several Shades of Why
    With the vocals more out front than ever before, Several Shades showcases a wounded, fragile weariness that I'd never realized until now was such a huge part of Dinosaur Jr's ragged, heart-wrenching appeal.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Scandalous
    Scandalous isn't a throwback, it's a throw forward.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Charlatans At the Garden Gate
    Her music remains light with playful rhythms, but she keeps her songs controlled as if they were on a string, as well. If you're feeling brave it's a good listen for a quiet evening at home, but Tristen's study of the heart may be far too honest for some.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Violet Cries
    Violet Cries is broadly, nebulously goth, with very little to distinguish the band from their peers and forebears.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    He Gets Me High
    Altogether, He Gets Me High is a quick fix, lasting about as long as two games of seven minutes in heaven. Of course, that's plenty of time if you're playing with right girls.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    Um, Uh Oh
    As far as songs are concerned,Um, Uh Oh is pretty much business as usual, which is to say it's full of songs neither revelatory nor skippable. The tracks are raw, stripped-down, and crisp, embracing his newfound production polish with aplomb.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Constant Future
    Constant Future is a solid effort from a talented and original band making unique rock 'n' roll quite unlike anything else out there at the moment.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    The Majestic Silver Strings
    And yet, given the promise of their combined talents, Strings turns out to be seriously frayed, as these guitarists sound like they're going to another job instead of hanging around to jam.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Losing Sleep
    Even within individual songs, there's a genuine sense of struggle with a gamut of emotions: hopes, fears, joys and frustrations.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shapeshifting
    Shapeshifting is an album that grows on you, as repeated listens reveal the nooks and crannies of these charming elecro-pop tunes.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Baseball Project, Vol. 2: High and Inside
    Irreverent, funny, and ruefully sad, High and Inside will not appeal to everyone. But if the intersection of baseball and rock 'n' roll" is meaningful to you, it's a stellar reminder of why the game and the power chords still matter.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Gramahawk
    It's a testament to the quartet's skill in building arrangements around Gulley's compositions that this somehow comes off more endearing than creepy. The eclectic and infectious result is an album that finds the Modern Skirts changed for the better and on their way to more good things.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Collapse into Now
    Collapse shuffles through all of R.E.M.'s past lives; it's a greatest hits without a hit, a career retrospective with all new material.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Silver Pony
    Wilson and her band thrive on musical democracy, where each instrument--even the most famous--gets an equal say in the song.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    21
    On 21, she sounds refreshed and poised to attack.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Dead Reckoning
    Yes, the hellfires still burn, and the hearts are still black, and the end is ever nigh. But this time the songs are infused with a contemporary heartache that sounds far closer to 2011 than to the 1931 Depression-era vibe the band typically evokes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Departing
    The songwriting is another matter. Where debut album Hometowns was saturated with specific references to Alberta, with little cinematic details that helped to flesh out the songs, Departing relies too frequently on stock winter imagery and generic love laments.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Wounded Rhymes
    Tribal sounds loom large, kettle drums popping holes in the mix over deadpan synths and cozy blankets of noise.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Blessed
    If 1998's Car Wheels on as Gravel Road stands as the high point of Williams' self-involved period, Blessed just as masterfully traces the bursting heart and smoldering soul of her humanity. This is as deep and true as the song form gets.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    100 Lovers
    In what very well could be a transitional album for an evolving band, Urata's achingly expressive voice is the unbreakable thread keeping these two somewhat disparate mini albums safely tethered.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    The King of Limbs
    The King of Limbs demands some deep immersion for comprehension, just as a traveler from a foreign land must lose himself in the culture to understand where they are.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 52 Critic Score
    Different Gear, Still Speeding
    Speaking of The Beatles, Different Gear continues the Gallagher quest for the perfect Lennon impression. It's yet to be found.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Dynamite Steps
    I'd call Dynamite Steps a solid listen – but not an imminent classic.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    No Time for Dreaming
    No Time For Dreaming not only prevails as a defining culmination of Bradley's lifelong musicianship to date, but also furthers the argument that Daptone Records can do no wrong.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    Smart Flesh
    It's the lyrics that make Smart Flesh truly shine.
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