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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    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Distant Populations
    Distant Populations is actually heavier in spots than its predecessor, with more driving grooves, more riffs, and mushroom-cloud explosions. Still, after being set up by Interiors, it’s hard not to feel like something’s missing—namely, Capone.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Late Night Feelings
    One could get away with lazily DJ-ing a late-night party by hitting play and letting Late Night Feelings run all the way through, a possibility that attests to the record’s consistency and the comfort it offers despite its darker themes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Electric Slave
    lectric Slave explores old forms with vigor, charting links in minutes that took years to develop.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Lanterns
    It’s an exhausting listen, alternately frustrating and overwhelming. But it’s never boring.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life Death Love and Freedom
    Blunt and stubbornly engaging, it may be Mellencamp’s most candid effort in years.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Waiting on a Song
    These songs--are inspired by seemingly little more than pure unencumbered joy. Which is a hard quality to come by these days. It’s nice to have something that’s so contagious it can rub off on us all.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    The New Abnormal
    Every time The Strokes tap into their old power, they get distracted by a shiny but fruitless new direction. But not every risk here is a wash. ... Despite The New Abnormal’s surprises, it tends to resonate most when The Strokes don’t try to be something they’re not.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hour of the Dawn
    Hour of the Dawn takes advantage of this laid-back vibe, challenging listeners to simultaneously breathe easy and rock out.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Thrashing thru the Passion
    Overall, Thrashing Thru The Passion is musically looser than previous offerings—fewer ballads, the big rock numbers less lush and more compact—but it also makes it accessible to new listeners, who can then work their way back through albums like Heaven is Whenever or Separation Sunday.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    OK Human
    Weezer has always had heart, and OK Human shows the value of taking time to record instead of filling the silence with countless tours and albums. Weezer is finally taking risks outside of the formula that has worked so well, and they still have a lot of mileage left in them.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    808s & Heartbreak
    A hot mess of an album that’s simultaneously the most indulgent and most disciplined record he’s ever made.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Hotspot
    There’s nothing to suggest in Hotspot that Pet Shop Boys are running low on inspiration. The album’s highs are high enough to further prove that the duo has had the most consistent career of any of their synth-pop peers.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Partie Traumatic
    Moving basslines and driving, bouncy drumming run under brass backing, bright keys and group-sung vocal harmonies throughout Partie Traumatic's joyous entirety.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Lovesick Blues
    Lovesick Blues is more a collection of great moments than great songs, although there are a few of those as well.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Rock or Bust
    Rock or Bust is the best LP that AC/DC has produced in over 20 years.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Daydream
    Daydream is a lot of fun, and even though it does what it does really at a high level, it ultimately can’t distance itself from the source style and succumbs to playing the part too well.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Back to Moon Beach
    You can cook a hard-boiled egg quicker than it takes to get through a Kurt Vile song, and we love him for that. The stretched-out jams on Back to Moon Beach are consistent with the last 15 years of his sound, yet it holds some of the greatest work Vile’s done in nearly a decade.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heza
    To call Heza, the third LP from the New Orleans-based duo, more opaque would be an understatement.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    State Hospital [EP]
    Even if four of these five songs on State Hospital are just castaways not included on the next year's record, this EP still manages to flow just fine on its own.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police
    Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police is an experiment, and maybe as such it’ll be deemed less worthy, less interesting, than Weird. But where Weird is good, Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police is engrossing, an act of pop cultural interrogation for its own sake.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    No Coast
    Yes, Braid is still a guitar-forward post-punk powerhouse, and No Coast is a great addition to its catalog, even possibly containing some of the best material the band has ever written.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pay The Devil
    A rough, intriguing fit. [Apr/May 2006, p.101]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 75 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Brand New Abyss
    Even the more listenable songs on Brand New Abyss, such as “So There” and “The Woman You Want,” sound more like a successful regurgitation of past sounds and ideas than anything new. And while that’s not a bad thing, it’s not enough of a reason to spend time listening to the new album.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Please Don't Be Dead
    It’s a passionate and pointed collection of songs with a sly sense of humor and a certain lived-in wisdom.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Social Cues
    If Social Cues isn’t a bad album by any stretch; it’s nonetheless, in the band’s discography, surprisingly generic.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Magnetic Bodies/Maps of Bones
    In the end, some echoes of The Promise Ring remain in Maritime’s toolkit, but as part of a musical identity that’s been evolving on its own for a dozen years, centered on a passionate and skillful songcraft.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Each Other
    Somber and yet stirring, Each Other is an album that encourages shoe gazing, day dreaming and simply settling into quiet contemplation.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Ruler of the Night
    With the solidified lineup comes a more realized sound, trading the previous record's dry, jangly pop with a lusher, more fluid presentation.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    End
    End should be the playbook for any artist who wants to balance giving fans what they want while growing their creative craft almost three decades in.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Milk Famous
    In lieu of memorable choruses, indie nerds will enjoy this disc of earthy space-pop as a complete experience without any aesthetic hiccups.
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