Slant Magazine's Scores

Select another publication »
For 1,892 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 35% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 62% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 8.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 63
Highest review score:
Boxer
Critic Score 100
Lowest review score:
We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
Critic Score 0
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 917 out of 1892
  2. Mixed: 888 out of 1892
  3. Negative: 87 out of 1892
1,892 music reviews
view
per page
    • Metascore: 80
    • Critic Score 90
    The Lady Killer
    The Lady Killer doesn't possess the stylistic ADHD or the rough edges of Green's earlier work, sticking to sprightly brass arrangements and cheery string licks as his weapons of choice for the most part.
    • Metascore: 86
    • Critic Score 90
    Let England Shake
    Let England Shake borrows precepts from all over the singer's canon, specifically extrapolating the piano-based concepts of White Chalk into louder, fuller renderings.
    • Metascore: 81
    • Critic Score 90
    Yuck
    Their self-titled debut is a 12-track, 45-minute workout, and it so effectively hits you warm in the gut with distortion and stick-to-your-ribs melodies that you won't just wish you were 20 again; you'll realize there's no subscribed age qualification for that wonderful feeling you get while listening to this record.
    • Metascore: 83
    • Critic Score 90
    Wounded Rhymes
    Wounded Rhymes is filled with gorgeously spiteful moments such as these, adding an obstinate wrinkle to the album's already-rich, shadowy mystique.
    • Metascore: 77
    • Critic Score 90
    W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)
    W.A.R. is Monch's blockbuster, a marathon sci-fi tale set in some grisly faraway cacotopia.
    • Metascore: 85
    • Critic Score 90
    Helplessness Blues
    Helplessness Blues succeeds because Fleet Foxes find a way to consistently balance the added level of nuance with their natural inclinations toward epic songcraft.
    • Metascore: 79
    • Critic Score 90
    I Am Very Far
    Fans who approach I Am Very Far carrying expectations informed by the group's earlier releases will no doubt find this to be Okkervil River's most challenging work to date, but it's also the group's most grandiose, thrilling, and brilliant.
    • Metascore: 83
    • Critic Score 90
    Eye Contact
    That's not to say Gang Gang Dance has watered down its style; rather than some strategic reach toward mass appeal, Eye Contact represents a pruning of the superfluous.
    • Metascore: 72
    • Critic Score 90
    Goblin
    Goblin is just as disturbed and twisted as Tyler's debut. And, moreover, it's every bit as outrageously brilliant.
    • Metascore: 72
    • Critic Score 90
    Lupercalia
    The fact that Wolf stands little chance of displacing Rihanna or Adele shouldn't preempt our appreciation of what he's accomplished with this album, which is to shake off his unseemly solipsism and turn out his most catchy and engaging batch of songs in one concise effort.
    • Metascore: 90
    • Critic Score 90
    An American Trilogy: Looks Like Rain/'Frisco Mabel Joy/Heaven Help The Child
    Looks Like Rain, 'Frisco Mabel Joy, and Heaven Help the Child are still fascinating documents--not quite Nashville, not quite pop, not exactly experimental. Newbury literally created his own artistic place that's simultaneously familiar and unclassifiable.
    • Metascore: 93
    • Critic Score 90
    Life's Rich Pageant
    Life's Rich Pageant serves as both a guidepost for how R.E.M. moved in an arena-sized direction and as another extraordinary album in the band's uninterrupted run of true greatness that spanned between Murmur and Automatic for the People.
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 90
    Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town
    Williams made some pretty great records during his tenure at Curb, but Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town suggests that he's only just begun to showcase his apparently boundless creativity and breadth of his artistic vision.
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 90
    Weather
    She's always been an insightful and empathetic observer of the human condition, but Weather is such a heady album because of how unflinchingly Ndegeocello has turned her keen observational eyes toward herself.
    • Metascore: 78
    • Critic Score 90
    Take Care
    On Take Care, Drake finally shows he's got the talent to match the hype.
    • Metascore: 85
    • Critic Score 90
    The Singles
    As a whole feels like a more complete and satisfying journey than either of Goldfrapp's last two albums, progressing confidently from crushing guitar-driven boogie to weightless space pop.
    • Metascore: 71
    • Critic Score 90
    Beware and Be Grateful
    A singular experience and one of the best albums of the year so far.
    • Metascore: 83
    • Critic Score 90
    Celebration Rock
    Celebration Rock is a tipsy toast to the very best moments in life.
    • Metascore: 80
    • Critic Score 90
    I Like to Keep Myself in Pain
    A deeply rewarding album.
    • Metascore: 80
    • Critic Score 90
    Swing Lo Magellan
    Wild, wooly, and willfully chaotic.
    • Metascore: 81
    • Critic Score 90
    Life is Good
    What makes Life Is Good stand out is what also made his celebrated debut, Illmatic, so compelling. There's a sense of narrative unity here, a wide-angle look of the artist as a grown man.
    • Metascore: 92
    • Critic Score 90
    Channel Orange
    Channel Orange is so textured, complex, and mature that Ocean's recent coming out feels like a footnote, rather than the entire story. It's a revelation that only further colors the tales of longing and disappointment found on this impressive album.
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 90
    Sebenza
    The expertly produced Sebenza creates a flowing, carnival atmosphere packed with ideas and stripped of the pomposity often associated with world music.
    • Metascore: 81
    • Critic Score 90
    Sing the Delta
    Sing the Delta... conveys a one-of-a-kind perspective that, somehow, manages to be as unassuming and humble as it is powerful and authoritative.
    • Metascore: 73
    • Critic Score 90
    Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood
    The world Cale has created here is conflicted and weird, but it's also fascinating.
    • Metascore: 83
    • Critic Score 90
    Centralia
    Centralia is the most sophisticated and cultivated Mountains album to date.
    • Metascore: 87
    • Critic Score 90
    M B V
    A few twists and turns shy of perfection, m b v is the innovation and sonic warmth of My Bloody Valentine rekindled and made anew.
    • Metascore: 81
    • Critic Score 90
    Push the Sky Away
    In Push the Sky Away, an album of thrilling darkness pierced by moments of brilliant light, Cave may have crafted his defining statement.
    • Metascore: 75
    • Critic Score 90
    People, Hell and Angels
    People, Hell and Angels offers the clearest sense yet of how Hendrix was preparing an evolution of his own.
    • Metascore: 84
    • Critic Score 90
    Modern Vampires of the City
    The songs may be dense and literary, but they're also immediately potent on a purely visceral level, striking a perfect balance that makes for what's perhaps the best album in a year already thick with great material.
Page: