Paste Magazine's Scores

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For 4,091 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 3.1 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: 3,655 out of 4091
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4091
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4091
4091 music reviews
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    • 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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Viva La Vida
    Given Eno’s quarter-century of Bono-fides, this isn’t surprising. Martin’s interests are frequently vague--on 'Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love' he sings about soldiers who must soldier on and runners who must run until the race is won. Seriously?
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For Those Who Stay
    The riffs still explode with the same epic weight, and Saulnier’s cracked tenor still recalls a jittery Tom Verlaine.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Dormarion
    Dormarion should leave returning fans satisfied and new listeners hooked as Lerner continues to refine his skills and churn out strong albums.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Born to Sing: No Plan B
    Born To Sing is absolutely not all bad, but by the end of the album and rolling tally of excuses, the slack stack measures tall.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Devotion
    Building on a well-received debut, and taking a bold step in a new direction. It’s an impressive feat that Glaspy manages to do both at once.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Say What You Like
    Say What You Like delivers more of the same qualities that made Paisley your Riding A Bike Friend.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Hurricane
    The new versions amp up the bass and echo, often sounding like the original album when heard from a particularly foreboding shower stall.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    Brutalism
    Not everything has to be pure pop, but nothing else on Brutalism even comes close to sounding like a complete song the way [“Body Chemistry”] does.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Rise Ye Sunken Ships
    Throughout the record, the songs' emotional undercurrent hinges on the subject and content.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    The Psychedelic Swamp
    Ultimately, this new take on The Psychedelic Swamp mainly serves as a means of sharing Dr. Dog’s backstory and really nothing more.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Our Ill Wills
    Between them, Stenborg and Yttling ensure that Our Ill Wills doesn’t sink under the weight of Olenius’ unremitting melancholy or monochromatic tonalities.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Celebrants
    Each song feels like its own powerful, strange dream—the worlds described are vague yet familiar, tugging at something in your gut that instinctively pulls towards the characters and loves described.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Family Crimes
    If Skygreen Leopards still sounds like its surrounding environs--and it does, kinda--the group works to summon a Bay from times past, rather than portraying its current digitized state.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The Lights from the Chemical Plant
    Ellis broadens his musical reach beyond deadly accurate classic country to often austere arrangements that reflect his small etchings of real life without aggressive genre-coding.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fate
    So instantly pleasing, the trickery is transparent, a hook to keep listening until the content of Toby Leaman and Scott McMicken’s songs makes itself known.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    How To Walk Away
    The album has its moments but suffers from fussy production.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Can't Love
    Moving forward, Turn to Crime will probably find more success with continuity and more complete assimilation of its influences.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Information Retrieved
    From start to finish, Information Retrieved sounds confident and deliberate, a consummate release from two deft musicians who've made every note count.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Artificial Fire
    The basic ingredients here--a sexy, intelligent singer and songwriter, a guy who wants to be a guitar god and a drummer who socks the hell out of his kit--come fairly close to defining my notion of perfect music. Together they make a triple-layer torch-song/New Wave/power-pop confection.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Showroom of Compassion
    Retaking the reins and returning to their indie roots, Cake delivers after the lengthy hiatus. New, old, different or not, Cake fans will have plenty to appreciate.
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