Slant Magazine's Scores

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For 3,117 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: 1,687 out of 3117
  2. Mixed: 1,319 out of 3117
  3. Negative: 111 out of 3117
3117 music reviews
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The North
    The North's ultimate undoing isn't that it exudes so much schmaltziness, but that it sounds awkwardly and almost unconsciously dated, similar to the most recent offerings from indie-pop rockers Minus the Bear and Cold War.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mature Themes
    It's another tiring exercise from an artist who may never tire of releasing such proudly hideous messes.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Based on a T.R.U. Story
    Overall, there's little to recommend about T.R.U. Story, with the album perhaps best serving as a warning that not everyone can make the transition from pinch hitter to bona-fide star.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Soul Sessions, Vol. 2
    Stone's strict adherence to formula plays against her here, as Vol. 2 feels overly familiar.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Four
    Though Four does contain some sweet spots, it's largely an exercise in throwing projectiles at the proverbial wall with the hopes that something, anything, will stick. Four is a vacant display of miscellany.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Seer
    A raucous, thrilling beast, a hectic palimpsest of brutal noise and gentle ambience, with dueling sounds caught in an ongoing battle for control.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Thing Called Divine Fits
    The album is an assemblage of smart, new wave-tinged garage-rock tunes, less a labor of love than a near-effortless studio session between two post-punk revival veterans that might have been recorded in the space of a few afternoons.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Havoc and Bright Lights
    Unfortunately, too many of the songs on Havoc lack that specificity and Morissette's inimitable POV. Her best material has always traded in forces of tension and change, but she spends most of the album sounding like she's leading a meditation.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fragrant World
    The band's tendency to overreach may be muted on Fragrant World, but Yeasayer is still as earnestly silly as ever.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Devotion
    Despite the myriad references [Sade, Aaliyah]... it's clear Ware has found a voice of her own on Devotion.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tracer
    One of the most consistent EDM albums of the year, Tracer refuses to simply alternate between disco and electronica; it blends the two, and should prompt enough repeat listens to confirm Weiss and Takahashi's place alongside the pioneers they've collaborated with.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Election Special
    Though Cooder's clearly singing and playing from his bleeding heart on Election Special, the results make one wish that he'd pass both his mic and his guitar back to his brain.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Instinct
    Flourishes like the instrumental outro on "Last Night" and the shifting tempos of "The Fox" speak to the duo's willingness to experiment with tone and rhythm in ways that are forward-thinking without being labored or self-indulgent.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dance Again...The Hits
    The quality of the material on Dance Again varies ... but it's clear much of the blame for Lopez's disappearance from the pop charts prior to "On the Floor" was a precipitous decline in quality that began with 2005's irritating "Get Right."
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    God Forgives, I Don't
    The beats are huge, varied enough that they don't become tedious, and the guest talent is deep and broadly selected.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Cherry
    Goldfrapp know how to draw you in and, more importantly, hook you.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gossamer
    Gossamer is true to its name: colorless and precariously thin, with precious few bright spots.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shrines
    Purity Ring is trying to do too much, and true to the less-is-more adage, the busier Shrines gets, the emptier it feels.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    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.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Carry Me Back
    What's most impressive about the songs on Carry Me Back is that, in composing their original material, OCMS manages to apply their old-timey frame of reference to contemporary issues with subtlety and control.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    MTMTMK
    Decidedly un-fun... Stuffed with manufactured Euro-pop, stale preset beats, Auto-Tuned vocals, and other assorted fallbacks, the album lacks both the harmonic precision and jubilant, vista-inspired mood that defined Mwamwaya's modern rendition of Malawi music on Warm Heart of Africa.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Swing Lo Magellan
    Wild, wooly, and willfully chaotic.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Uncaged
    There's something to be said for an album that's such a refreshing and clean break from what has become country music's rather depressing norm.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Positive Force
    When Marion makes more creative use of his varied, globe-spanning influences, however, Positive Force is every bit as compelling as its predecessor.... [yet] far too many of the melodic hooks are merely adequate, and he doesn't pull any surprises.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Confess
    While both of Lewis's albums are brimming with nostalgia, Confess jettisons Forget's sense of caution for adventure and a greater spectrum of genres, making it an altogether superior effort, and one of the few modern indie releases that handles its '80s reverence with dexterity.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Celebration Rock
    Celebration Rock is a tipsy toast to the very best moments in life.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ashes and Roses
    She's been treading water artistically for years now, recording and re-recording slight variations on the same polite, coffeehouse-folk album, and Ashes and Roses is just as lifeless as its predecessor.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Write Me Back
    This-porridge-is-just-right uptempo mush.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Tarnished Gold
    The Tarnished Gold is a consistently lovely, unassuming set. But that same lackadaisical tone plays against Beachwood Sparks: There's nothing on the album that the band hadn't already done a decade ago.
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