Paste Magazine's Scores

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For 4,070 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: 3,634 out of 4070
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4070
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4070
4070 music reviews
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    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    LP5
    It’s true that pain has informed some of Moreland’s most wringing tracks, but he shows on LP5 that he’s capable of writing potent songs without the anguish that fueled his earlier work. That’s not to say these new songs are all gumdrops and sunshine, but it’s gratifying to hear an artist growing out of the framework that held up him at the start and drawing inspiration from new and different directions.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The End of That
    The End of That finds them sounding more mature and comfortable than ever before, signaling perhaps not an end at all, but rather a new beginning.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    For My Crimes
    Her wit is as dry as it as subtle on her eighth album, a collection of songs that are also disconsolate and foreboding.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Dancing at the Blue Lagoon
    There may not be as many earworms on this release, but they’ve approached it with patience and a finesse that allowed the songs to flourish into deep sonic explorations that leave the listener eager for more.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Cyrk
    As it progresses, CYRK loses some of its musical and descriptive vitality, but Le Bon lingers over these physical depictions, lending her songs a beguiling tactility as well as a strong gravity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Born Like This
    Even with a new pseudonym--his AKA sheet includes Zev Love X, Viktor Vaughn, King Geedorah and half of Madvillain--the perpetually hoarse rhymesayer born Daniel Dumile is still dishing out confounding couplets that have become his trademark.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    No Devolucion
    Instead of just beating around the prog-rock bush, Thursday now embrace their artsier unknown.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    True Love Cast Out All Evil
    Okkervil River--with frontman Will Sheff as producer--defers to the chief, allowing Erickson's gruff voice to reign over woozy background vocals ("John Lawman"), punchy brass sections ("Think of as One") and Ebow lullabies ("Birds'd Crash").
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
    There aren't many surprises on Hardcore, but with jams this solid, surprises are unnecessary.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Burst Apart
    As it stands Burst Apart is a record of big songs from a band that's good at generating big songs, and we should be relieved that The Antlers can be impressive without an overarching concept behind them.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Max Jury
    While it might not be for those looking for something ultra modern or cutting edge, these songs ultimately feel immediate and engaging and worth multiple listens.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    In Spades
    In Spades carries a few more of the maniacal stretches that have marked the band’s most interesting moments, especially in the use of Dulli’s voice.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Greatest Gift
    The bottom line with The Greatest Gift is predictable. Big Sufjan fans need it, others probably don’t.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Foreverly
    Armstrong holds down the melodies with heart and authority, while Jones does Phil Everly right with her smoky and elegant harmonies.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Superorganism
    Superorganism loses momentum in its final third, but not before offering its two best tracks: “Reflections on the Screen” and “SPRORGNSM.”
    • 74 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Leave Me Alone
    Leave Me Alone manages to be a nostalgic album that nevertheless lives in the moment.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Long Time Coming
    Long Time Coming feels refreshingly forward. Ferrell doesn’t tie herself in knots worrying about how her music coheres into a whole, and she doesn’t waste effort trying to make either the record’s pieces or her pieces fit together like a puzzle picture. Bluntly, she tells her listeners what she’s all about by embracing her own untidiness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Post Pop Depression
    The album recalls so many of his best old tricks while altering the presentation just enough to give it a necessary freshness.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Close It Quietly
    Close It Quietly sees the band take a few steps forward, sideways and back—an aural square dance that’s well worth your time.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Becoming A Jackal
    Every word on the album rings honest and true without any indulgent dips in over-sentimentality.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Blood Karaoke
    Where his first record, You’re Useless, I Love You (Reading Group, 2016), was a gorgeous rush of intoxicating pop mutations, Blood Karaoke is a nervous, epic downward spiral of the weird, wonderful and forgotten poetry of social media.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Asphalt Meadows
    Death Cab for Cutie underscore their range and numerous eras on Asphalt Meadows. Uniting the past and the present, it’s the perfect mnemonic for this band’s legacy.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
    What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World is just another chapter in the already punctuated saga of one of rock’s best modern lyricists and his talented band.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Parallax
    Parallax is Cox's third proper album under the Atlas Sound moniker, possibly his best so far, and certainly the one that contains the band's most straight-laced pop to date.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Sing in My Meadow: The Nomad Sessions, Vol. 3
    It's clear that they have been able to hone their sound and perfect not only what listeners have come to love and expect, but also music the band itself wants to hear.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Of the Sun
    The songs do not proceed through conventional structures—they lock into deceptively simplistic refrains and then mutate and warp like carcasses exposed to sun. ... When the band strays from post-punk aggression, results are mixed.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele
    What The Good Feeling lacks in variation it makes up for with clever turns of phrase and simple, contagious melodies.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Sorry for the Late Reply
    For all the barbed commentary on Sorry for the Late Reply, Sløtface never come off as strident or preachy. On the contrary, they sound like they’re having the time of their lives barreling through songs together, and their brio is contagious. If Try Not to Freak Out was the work of a band with great promise, Sorry for the Late Reply suggests they’re fully ready to live up to it.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Talk a Good Game
    Instead of focusing on escape through pleasure, Talk A Good Game concentrates on conversation, and when necessary, confrontation.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Lamp Lit Prose
    Daring, interesting, and never simple, kudos must be given for thinking outside of the box. Though not always successful, Lamp Lit Prose is rarely dull, turning corners and switching gears when you least expect it--even within the same song.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Big Freeze
    The Big Freeze trades the raucous guitars and bold hooks of her earlier work for subtler musical textures on songs that open into more expansive interior worlds. She relies more on her voice, which has both warmth and clarity in proportions that vary with the volume of she utilizes.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Androgynous Mary
    Androgynous Mary is as morbid of a record as you’d expect from a bunch of L.A. punks. They’re disturbed, but entertained; they’re young, but disillusioned. If Androgynous Mary were a place, it would probably be a strange corner in the dark web controlled by Zoomers with good intentions and confused brains.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Stray
    Bateh’s sequencing is masterful, but take some of these songs out of the album’s broader context and many lose their steam. It’s not particularly kind to the casual listener either—this is an album for those fully committed to being a fly on the wall of this jet-black joyride.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Woodstock
    As the album of record, it does aptly chronicle Portugal. The Man’s unabashed musical evolution/experimentation from album to album. Despite its bucolic, peaceful namesake, it’s a decidedly grimey vivisection of millennial pop expressly positioned to act as revolutionary mouthpiece for a generation of the disillusioned.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Okie
    With a dozen new tunes, Gill’s 15th studio LP is a gentle, reflective collection that shows off his skill as a singer, and especially a songwriter. (He’s also an ace guitar player, though that side of him is more subdued here.)
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Present Tense
    Yumi Zouma play with a wider musical palette on these songs, which reach beyond the synth-pop sensibility that often characterized their earlier work. These songs are lusher, but in a low-key way
    • 83 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Fantasize Your Ghost
    If Parts wasn’t enough proof, Fantasize Your Ghost makes it clear that Ohmme can run circles around most rock bands. Their use of fascinating texture and consideration for every layer of their songs—whether subtle or overt—is a gift.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook
    She occasionally indulges in vocal gymnastics just because she can, but LaVette’s voice revitalizes transcendent lyrics that many of today’s top female singers wouldn’t be able to handle.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Beautiful Dreamers
    Although the stagnant electric guitar thrumming on "All We Can Do" and "Who Was That Girl?" threatens to slow the album to a halt, the mutability of Eyvind Kang's viola on "Winslow Homer" and "Better Than a Machine" make up for lost excitement.
    • 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.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Slowdive
    Slowdive, the band’s first album in 22 years, is here, and it’s good in that pleasingly familiar way.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    New Last Name
    Courting condenses themselves on New Last Name into smaller, more straightforward indie rock. But the moments when they escape those confines exude with personality and color. They match O’Neill’s post-post-modernist irony more closely.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Then Came the Morning
    Most of Then Came the Morning shows a confident band stepping more fully into a compelling sound.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Party Ain't Over
    Most artists her age would be content to release a greatest-hits compilation and wait for the checks to roll in, but Jackson's willing to let White guide her through new territory. After all, they're trying to say the same thing. They just say it a little different.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Cool Dry Place
    Cool Dry Place is unexpectedly groovy, with hooks and rhythms worming their way into hearts and minds in more ways than one.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Bury Me in My Rings
    Its over-the-top nature proves one thing-Bury Me in My Rings is at its best when Sennett and company stick to their specialty: breezy, sturdy, meticulously crafted pop. More often than not, they do just that.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    ...Ya Know?
    For the most part Ya Know? comes across exactly as one would hope--like a collection of songs Joey Ramone would have been proud to share with the world.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Grown Unknown
    Like Vernon's For Emma, Forever Ago, this is Ices' breakthrough album-the first notable release from an artist who will no doubt record more of them in the coming years.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    OFF!
    Fortunately, they're still pushing energy and concision: OFF! is 16 songs in 16 white-knuckle minutes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Far Enough
    Far Enough would have likely benefited from shifting toward shorter, more undeniably riotous songs like these and away from the several more complex, seven-minute-or-so songs present, but when you’re fighting the good fight, is there really time to fret about the little things?
    • 88 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Persona
    There are stretches when a more detailed approach would have helped center some of the more free-flowing material. Personal points to a great direction in West’s run as Rival Consoles. He’s not quite to the final destination, but he’s well on his way.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    A Song for Leon: A Tribute to Leon Russell
    While the tribute’s best moments reveal new and rewarding dimensions to his immortal songs nearly seven years after his death at age 74, the collection doesn’t move the needle when it comes to building more awareness around the visionary’s innumerable contributions to pop music.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Seer
    The key to The Seer's delicate noise-beauty contrast is its sense of direction. It's what keeps the album's three crazy-long epics (particularly the half-hour-long title-track) from fading into wallpaper or bleeding out from excess.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Pushin' Against a Stone
    Most of the album was recorded at The Black Keys’ studio in Nashville and favors bluesy twangs, folksy fiddles and country slide guitars.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    We're All Alright!
    Having been an active band for more than four decades, Cheap Trick continues to be a model of freakish consistency with We’re All Alright!.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Voyager
    Most of these songs are anchored on a foundation of smart, solid pop.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Tomorrow Forever
    Once again, Matthew Sweet’s influences come through clearly--a little Big Star here, a lot of T. Rex there, a dash of Fleetwood Mac everywhere--while the music remains distinctively and charmingly his own.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Court Yard Hounds
    Though neither boasts Maines’ forcefulness, they invest these tales of severed connections with an emotional intensity that elevates even weaker tracks like “Fairytale” and “Then Again.”
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Fool
    You have to make a dedicated effort to give it a couple of listens; no song immediately jumps out. But like a delicious meal, it’s worth chewing over slowly, savoring what each song brings to the palate, and each listen brings out something new. By the third spin, it will be like an old friend has joined you at dinner.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Nocturne
    Tatum doesn't offer anything game-changing, but he does serve up a platter of breathless, sometimes mindless synth-pop fun.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Natural Brown Prom Queen
    Sometimes, the album switches styles so quickly, you can practically hear Parks tiring of one toy, dropping it and moving on to the next one that catches her eye. This is not necessarily a bad thing; NBPQ is as thrilling as it is, at times, jarring.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Dolphine
    First and foremost, the sound quality of these 11 tracks are a major improvement, with Birgy’s vocals mixed above ground, not buried. The performances sound sharper, too: Guitar strings are crisp, keys dance with verve and horns occasionally streak across the sky. Even the experimental touches—a weird echo here, an abrasive noise there—sound like you can reach out and touch them.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Spoils
    Despite the cool harpsichords, glockenspiels, flutes and dulcimers, it’s Roberts’ mournful voice that leads the songs to their rightful resting places.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Our Brand Could Be Yr Life
    Whether they are looking backwards or forwards, you can rest assured that BODEGA will remain wholly themselves—but Our Brand Could Be Yr Life shows just how flexible all of that can be.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Twin Fantasy
    The results of Toledo’s re-imagination add up to enough to make this feel like more than just a perfectionist’s pursuit.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    FIDLAR
    The album is filled with two-minute romps that systematically tout both their influences and their contemporaries.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Star Eaters Delight
    Neale has placed her trust in life’s meanders—and in its source—and the result is her best work yet: a golden mean between experimentation and pop, lo-fi and hi-fi, vitality and rest.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    In Mind
    In Mind, then, is an album caught in a moment of transition, perched halfway between reinvention and diminishing returns. Album number five will prove which side holds sway.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Chronicles of Marnia
    More than its predecessors, Marnia exists as a kind of safe place, a forum where Stern can confront her deepest anxieties and most crippling self-doubts and always come out on top.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Hunter
    Her’s is a sound that’s daunting and distinctive, brash yet beguiling.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    I Used To Be Pretty
    Though the versions of the songs on I Used to Be Pretty sound fantastic, it can be tricky messing around with the alchemy of previously recorded music. There was a certain charm to the ramshackle, handmade feel of these tunes as they appeared on the original albums. That said, these gussied-up, more professional arrangements show Chris D.’s songs in the best possible light.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Paradise
    Slow Club dials into emotions without having to be overbearing. There is plenty of substance to latch onto on this album that leaves you wanting more.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Dynamite Steps
    I'd call Dynamite Steps a solid listen – but not an imminent classic.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Fall
    On The Fall, Jones is clearly comfortable with where she’s arrived, and is ready to throw open the doors for a party.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    After Hours
    Truly great pop is escapist, a chance to transform the otherwise mundane into something divine for a three-minute time span. Tesfaye doesn’t always get it right, but on After Hours, he offers up at least a few moments of communion during a time of isolation.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Something's Changing
    Something’s Changing is a culmination of much-welcomed growth for Rose.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Perils from the Sea
    It’s not a matter of this being where one person’s influence ends and the other’s begins. Instead, it’s pure amalgamation, synthesis and alchemy.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Magpie and the Dandelion
    It’s a solid record that showcases all of The Avett Brothers’ talents and captures them, as well as their songwriting, in an interesting emotional place on their journey further down the road.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Lighght
    Lighght is easy to ingest and digest. Its flow is logical but flowery, gently cupping the listener for the mild drops and rises.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Black Moon Spell
    This time instead of competing for the throne, if feels more like a party with open guest list.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Mythomania
    While the band remains true to its less-is-more instincts, Mythomania’s songs stand as fully developed structures that take advantage of their limited instrumentation.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Era Extrana
    Part of what makes Era Extrana a great follow-up to Psychic Chasms is that it features the same lazy summer feel that made Neon Indian's debut so popular.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bought to Rot
    Grace doesn’t graduate from punk on Bought To Rot--she expands and elevates it with explicit revelations, fervent melodies, head-banging chord progressions and unruffled tenacity.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Wilderness: The Nomad Series, Vol. 4
    The series is all that they are-accomplished, graceful, thoughtful and poignant. And The Wilderness is its fitting conclusion.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Wig Out at Jagbags
    Like most of Malkmus’ releases, Wig Out At Jagbags won’t likely endear him to many newer listeners. But for those who are of the same disposition, this ain’t a bad place to be.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Former Lives
    Former Lives is a true solo album, with Gibbard showcasing a memorable and rewarding set of odds and ends from the last eight years of his songwriting career.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Favorite Waitress
    Favorite Waitress excels in its extremes--its hardest foot-stompers like “Lion” and its softest piano ballads like “Silver in the Shadow;” it’s that passion and focused emotion that made the band so beloved in the first place. What’s left in between, however, risks sounding too mainstream.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Power Chords
    Power Chords is much more lyrically mature and musically adept than your average garage rock record, and its teenage sheen might urge you to fanatically scroll the lyrics on your notebook or bedroom wall of choice.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Shadow of the Sun
    Don’t expend too much mental energy on it, and you’ll dance through it all with a huge grin on your face.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    When No Birds Sang
    All three of these songs [the title track, Forever Well, and Spend the Grace] find Full of Hell and Nothing at their most integrated, where the lines between them disappear and a new form starts to take shape. They also provide a glimpse of what’s possible when two bands truly push beyond collaboration into an entirely unexplored new space.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Supernova
    Although Supernova represents the idealistic (and exospheric) possibilities for LaMontagne after 10 years in the industry, what gets lost in the experimentation is the emotional connection previously forged though clear playing and exposed lyricism.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bare Bones
    Predictably, the results are mixed compared to previous efforts--the quality of her performance remains extraordinarily high, but the material is spottier than usual, particularly when Peyroux stretches beyond her comfort zone and into newfound emotional real estate.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Days Are Gone
    The LP is frontloaded with could be Top 10 hits, leaving the back half of the album awash in afterthoughts.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Beat the Champ
    It’s resulted in a record that’s not as universal as Darnielle’s best work, but also not as personal. It’s an artistic success as a literary exercise.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bad Self Portraits
    The band’s multiple harmonies and call-and-response on “Seventeen” and ”Stop Your Crying” remind listeners that Lake Street Dive is a group effort and that its core is powerfully impressive, even if this collection of songs is wrapped up in an unnecessarily over-produced package.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Too True
    For now, the best way to sum it up would be “one small step for music, one giant leap for Dum Dum Girls.”
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Koi No Yokan
    So odd how Koi No Yokan could be both their most traditionally metal and their most melodic record to date.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Paradise [EP]
    That contrast of vicious agit-prop and palatable pop [on ["Jesus Will Kill You"] isn’t quite as pronounced on the other songs, which take on a more nuanced, often more personal feel.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    For the First Time
    Black Country, New Road showcases immense disregard for standard musical structures and an affinity for shrieking, discordant noise. Unlike their peers, they rely less frequently on jolting stops and starts, instead relying on gradual jazz and post-rock buildups.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Best Day
    What makes The Best Day work is that the songs play to the band’s strengths, especially the interplay between Moore and Sedwards.
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