Paste Magazine's Scores

Select another publication »
For 4,081 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: 3,645 out of 4081
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4081
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4081
4081 music reviews
view
per page
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Islands
    It wouldn’t hurt Bear’s Den to frolic among the monsters and get a little wild.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Ruffian's Misfortune
    Whatever is dealt him, he scrapes the roots, boils the marrow and gives up songs that rabbit punch with delicious truth.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We're All Gonna Die
    Frontman Taylor Goldsmith experiments with R&B-style falsetto on songs like the title track, and the plaintive piano songs of yore now lean more heavily on keyboard synths and textural effects.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    50:50@50
    Ultimately, while some might complain about the lack of original material offered in deference to so many concert inclusions, Fairport fans can cheer the fact that 50:50@50 is the band’s best effort in at least two decades.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Automat
    Listening to Automat from start to finish, you could make a case that Edkins and Menzies were wrong. And as the track sequence arrives at more recent material (skipping-over the band’s 2012 cover of Sparklehorse’s “Pig,” for some reason), you can’t help but wonder what would have been had the band continued to explore freer song structures.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Cardinology
    If this album is a misstep, it’s a minor one with more than a few ?moments of redemption--the latest missive from a talented group of musicians likely to find their way back to the path before long.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    New Fragility
    This batch is as tuneful and accessible as anything Ounsworth has written so far.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Xenoula
    Throughout much of the album, Xeno and Dust sound stuck between pop and avant garde. Here, the commit to the latter, with promising results. That’s Xenoula in a nutshell: Often weird. Oddly pretty. Always full of promise.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Lousy with Sylvianbriar
    Whether exposing light or dark, or some blank hue in the middle, Barnes has all but bulls-eyed his status as a brilliantly daring artist on Lousy.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen
    What's left then is a large number of effective, tightly constructed tracks that are sure to please a wide range of indie/synth pop fans, regardless of the language they speak.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Turn Blue
    As good as they are stepping into that spotlight, it’s hard not to wish they’d plumb the darkness even further.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Enter the Slasher House
    Ultimately Enter The Slasher House excellently parallels the campy horror flicks and haunted houses that inspired the band’s name.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    And Those Who Were Seen Dancing
    And Those Who Were Seen Dancing certainly isn’t the first album to put a fresh spin on the psych aesthetic, but by shrugging off its constraints, Parks has left her own definitive mark on it.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Realism
    The Magnetic Fields’ eighth album, provides yet another example of why Merritt belongs on the shortlist of America’s greatest songsmiths.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Brightest Darkest Day
    Mid-album burners aside, Brightest Darkest Day is a strong debut, especially coming from artists with established musical pasts.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Tears, Lies, And Alibis
    Lynne has always been a commanding vocalist, and age has only sharpened her delivery and given her more to sing about.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Concrete and Gold
    Grohl and company could have continued to make mundane arena rock. That they’ve managed to hunker down and create a collection that proves that they aren’t ready crawl fade away just yet.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    New Reality Mind
    She makes daring moves on A New Reality Mind, but with a stronger push, the whole album could be a daring statement, too.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Congratulations
    Cowbells and organ chords set the frenetic pace for this crazed and eerie take on surf music that namechecks the godfather of ambient in its punkest track.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Jessica Rabbit
    At only 43 minutes, the album can take a few listens for adjustment. Like no other rock in 2016, Jessica Rabbit is rife with worthwhile whiplash, with some of Derek Miller’s best riffs no longer taking center stage in front the songwriting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Sea of Brass
    Granted, Brass doesn’t exactly qualify as real rock, indie or otherwise. Still, there’s passion that’s gleaned from British Sea Power’s attempt at something bolder, a sweeping sound that literally echoes from the rafters.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie
    Lyrically, Buckingham-McVie isn’t nearly as caustic or wistful as the band’s ’70s material, but the songcraft is still there all these years later.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    No Line On The Horizon
    On balance, No Line on the Horizon represents what "October" did all those years ago: a decent step forward that nevertheless recalls the past more clearly than it spells out the future.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now
    Nothing's Gonna Change... is ultimately the kind of album you can curl up into, let the warm tones surround you and rest easy.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Recession
    The Recession's singles are exceptional, but the filler suffers from a detached and dispirited sound.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Forgiveness
    It’s apparent even now, though, that the group is still growing and refusing to choose any one path. An inventive, varied record made in this way can succeed, but there needs to be something holding it all together, and Forgiveness is void of any such spine
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Home Again
    On Home Again, the young Kiwanuka proves that youth and wisdom are not mutually exclusive and his insights and talents, albeit still a bit raw, suggest great things to come.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Feathers
    An elongated, spacey drone of acidic riffage and flickering psych-rock ambience. [Apr/May 2005, p.135]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Chemical Chords
    On Chemical Chords, there’s nothing in the 14 pleasant-sounding tracks that we haven’t heard them sing about--in breathy, jazz-cat-inflected French--several dozen times before.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pixel Revolt
    An uneven album that encapsulates much of what's gone flat in the scene he helped ferment, along with the few flourishes that make him a vital creative force.
Page: