Slant Magazine's Scores

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For 3,122 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 7.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Who Kill
Lowest review score: 0 Fireflies
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,692 out of 3122
  2. Mixed: 1,319 out of 3122
  3. Negative: 111 out of 3122
3122 music reviews
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sugaring Season
    The album slows to a crawl in its latter half, and that sense of lethargy ultimately detracts from the things Orton gets really right throughout.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Twins
    Segall throws a lot of stuff against the wall to see what sticks, and not all of it does, but it's still impressive that he's capable of pumping out so much music in so many closely related veins without repeating himself.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    St. Peter & 57th St. [Live]
    St. Peter & 57th St. shows the current Preservation Hall lineup in a flattering light--that is, as exponents of a musical sensibility not so much trapped in amber as preserved via community.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mumps, Etc.
    Mumps, Etc. is an assured, thematically united set.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Transcendental Youth
    Transcendental Youth, Darnielle's strident delivery and all, can be an exercise in sadomasochism, but at times a very rich one. Still, Darnielle seems willing to walk over coals that most of us would rather experience secondhand.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Traveling Alone
    With her extraordinary voice having gone AWOL, and with her producer having evidently fallen asleep at the mixing board, Merritt can't overcome Traveling Alone's fundamental dreariness.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Moms
    As memorable as the lyrics are on Moms, its biggest strength is the way Harris and Seim's already quite similar vocals and contrasting worldviews effectively intertwine.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Gold Dust
    Unfortunately, the remainder of the tracks on Gold Dust simply aren't significantly better or worse than they were in their original forms.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Cruel Summer
    Cruel Summer isn't a Kanye album per se, but even as a high-pedigree compilation, it still falls flat.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Uno!
    For all of the expansion in the band's aural palette, it's difficult to escape a sense of déjà vu on some tracks, which sound like only slightly altered versions of previous entries in the Green Day catalogue.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    End of Daze [EP]
    A five-song EP that summarizes the band's strengths better than any of their work so far, while also highlighting how little this material gains from linear sequencing.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Babel
    While the quartet may be perfectly competent musicians, though, their fundamental conservatism plays against them on Babel, making for an album that's entirely too familiar and safe.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Push and Shove
    By and large, the more interesting tracks are stacked on the front end of Push and Shove, and the songs on the second half of the album are comparably safer, blurring together upon first listen.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Sound of the Life of the Mind
    There's a pall of maturity over The Sound of the Life of the Mind that both unifies and wrecks it. It rejects, if only halfheartedly, the nerdy, masculine piss that once made the band such guilty fun.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Runner
    This striving for variety, and the fact the Sea and Cake run with every idea regardless of how soon it tires, is also one of their charms.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sebenza
    The expertly produced Sebenza creates a flowing, carnival atmosphere packed with ideas and stripped of the pomposity often associated with world music.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kill My Blues
    The arrangements are organic and lived in, and the distinct influences of each member of the band figure prominently in the album's overall style, making it far more than just a showcase for Tucker.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Total Loss
    By focusing both on overt dynamics and dozens of quiet, underlying ripples, Krell has lent his work a subtle weightiness that becomes clear only after repeat listens.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kiss
    Carly Rae Jespen's strengths, which have been roundly declared adequate by the immense popularity of her single "Call Me Maybe," are her simplicity and directness.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Putrifiers II
    The music here never has too clear of an antecedent, and the directions the album takes are generally unexpected-unsurprising for a band with such fondness for the unusual.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Spirit Indestructible
    Whether her strategy is to sing-song her way beyond the abrasive edges or to conversely turn her voice into an even more abrasive element, Furtado makes it all work.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Battle Born
    With their simultaneous emphasis on the pedal-to-the-metal triumphalism of rock's yesteryear and their ultimate submission to tomorrow's grinding machinery, the Killers' new album may as well be called Battle Born This Way.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mirage Rock
    While Mirage Rock may want for a certain degree of ambition and creativity, Band of Horses have, at the very least, figured out how to bring Americana music to a mainstream rock audience without succumbing to the genre's most dire, comatose conventions.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shields
    Pretty but formless, Shields plays like a calculated retreat into something altogether indistinct and inconsequential.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Truth About Love
    Pink thankfully hasn't gone soft, and there are no real clunkers here, but the truth about The Truth About Love is that it's competently, often frustratingly more of the same from an artist who still seems capable of much more.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tornado
    That they're singing material that's worthy of their vocal skills further elevates Tornado above their previous efforts.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Observator
    While the album may improve on its predecessor, Observator still finds the Raveonettes engaging in far too many self-indulgent habits: They've left Hot Topic, but they don't seem to know where they're headed next.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Love This Giant
    A May-November partnership that results in a spate of interesting moments, but largely dies on the vine.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tempest
    This crustily hammy, crowd-pleasing side of Dylan is one of his most satisfying.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Keys to the Kuffs
    Decades deep into his career, Dumile hasn't lost a step lyrically. His raspy-voiced rhymes even appear to be gaining depth and complexity without sacrificing anything in flow or entertainment value. His delivery remains as fluid as ever.
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