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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    • 75 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Limbo
    “Can’t Decide” and “Compensating” (featuring Young Thug) showcase Aminé’s impressive skill of making his vocals—which sway between syrupy cadences and hard-hitting verses—effortlessly melt into quirky melodies.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Silencio
    There's nothing Sadier's fans won't enjoy about this record. But that doesn't mean there's much to love.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Elastic Days
    Elastic Days is Mascis at his most playful and fun, further adding to one of the most accomplished back catalogues in the history of indie rock.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Drifters/Love Is the Devil
    The gloomy and beautiful tracks on Love is the Devil may be pointing a way forward for Dirty Beaches, they may have been conceived as a spiritual complement to Drifters, or they may just be a temporary detour; whatever their intent though, their presence is a welcome addition to the Dirty Beaches catalog.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Future Teenage Cave Artists
    Even if nothing on here rises to the career-best heights of 2003’s Apple O’ or 2005’s The Runners Four, it’s another strong album from a band whose sheer continued existence (and refusal to bend to conventional recording standards) often feels like a triumph of absurdity in the face of encroaching hopelessness.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Actually, You Can
    With Actually, You Can, these four individuals have created a celebration of human possibilities and one of their best records to date.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    Tribute To [EP]
    Tribute To may be minor in James’ catalog, but it proves surprisingly moving in its off-the-cuff run-throughs.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Parallel Play
    Parallel Play ends up being a fan’s record: one whose economy and intelligence will delight the Sloan faithful but probably won’t change the band’s fortunes or alter its trajectory with a generation raised on American Idol.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Dark Bird Is Home
    Dark Bird is a devastatingly personal listen, much more so than his stripped-down efforts.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Death Song
    Death Song, their fifth full-length, is both unlike anything they’ve done before and also the most purely Black Angels album they have released.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Good Arrows
    Too often though, the digitized productions act as ?ller, sounding forced.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Wicked Will
    Unlike many retro-revivalist bands, they've got Hames' sassy vocals front and center, ensuring that the band's both smiling and showing its teeth.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Back Being Blue
    Back Being Blue may reflect a sadder state of mind, but there’s no denying that it still shines all the same.
    • 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.
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