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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    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Slipway Fires
    The rest of the band, a soulless cooperative between Sweden and the U.K., does their best to back him up, issuing rote, lifeless rock tracks that build appropriately to fist-pumping peaks, but it's Borrell's vocals that press this album past mediocrity into embarrassing territory.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All I Ever Wanted
    Taken in isolation and out of the context of the album as a whole--say, on the radio--nearly all of these songs work well enough, despite the production choices that don't always play to Clarkson's strengths and which draw too much attention to themselves.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Face Control
    Fans of off-kilter pop will enjoy at least a few of the stronger cuts, but too much of Face Control sounds like the unfinished blueprint of a much better album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bare Bones
    It is, in other words, a rejection of progression and passage for mood and form. Peyroux mastered such silken aura long ago, and while that may make the album somewhat of a retread, it's a playful one nonetheless.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love vs Money
    Instead of begging to be repeated, the rest of the album's songs are best savored as a whole--a weird assessment of an R&B album, which usually sink or swim on their ability to capture you right away.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mama, I'm Swollen
    Diehard fans will continue to bray for "The Ugly Organ 2," but Swollen features better songs, stronger playing, and Dylan-level lyrics, making it the band's most cohesive work to date.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Grrr...
    It's hard to criticize an album that feels so good-natured, especially when unoriginality is hardly a mark against this kind of pop, but the band misses again with its lyrics, which, while generally clever, often stray into the realm of overstructured precocity.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Invaders Must Die
    You'd think a group that leaned so heavily on their capacity to shock you off wouldn't wear this unabashed regression as well as they do.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Middle Cyclone
    Case is in typically phenomenal voice throughout the record, and her production choices draw from both the dark country of her first few albums and from her work in the New Pornographers.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No Line On The Horizon
    Such is the album as a whole: a compromise between the experimental and the pedestrian that makes for an excursion almost as tricky as walking a tightrope stretched between two distant towers.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Midnight At The Movies
    Midnight teems with a genuine disaffect and melancholy. A few more hooks might serve him well down the road, but Midnight confirms that Earle has far more going for him than just his lineage.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Take My Breath Away
    Take My Breath Away is a heavily populated but still carefully fashioned landscape, never feeling crowded and skipping effortlessly between lush ambience and driving techno.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    200 Million Thousand
    The result is a gleefully presented disaster. One that's consistently captivating if not irresistible.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wrath
    Wrath demonstrates Lamb of God's superior musicianship and creative songwriting, but above all else, the band's desire to innovate without abandoning the formula that serves them well.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hungry Bird
    While having Clem Snide back is cause for excitement, the album that nearly killed the band for good probably wasn't the best choice for a comeback vehicle.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dissolver
    Dissolver is a solidly catchy, guitar-driven jaunt, finding equal time for fuzzy rock progressions and slowly sketched, shimmering landscapes.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hold Time
    Another feather in his crowded cap, Hold Time is further proof that Ward provides a powerful jolt to what might otherwise be a tired genre.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Years Of Refusal
    As the album proceeds, Morrissey simply sounds like a superior version of the singer he's always been.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Common Existence
    In places, the album is tremendously affecting, but it's also the first time a Thursday release is not an unambiguous improvement on its predecessor.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Century Of Self
    Century of Self is at times a stirring, effective rock album, familiar but stable, but the band's general creativity is less vital than they think, and rather than settle down they continue a fussy streak of projects loaded with hollow, stilted ambition.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
    The result is that, in both content and form, The 400 Unit is an unapologetically Southern album, and the lived-in authenticity of its performances, masterful songwriting, and fierce intelligence also make it one of the finest albums of what has already been a strong year for popular music.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hush
    Overall Hush feels like a duller version of its predecessor--its skies clearer, its horizons broader, an expansiveness that makes it feel all the more depleted.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tight Knit
    There is such a thing as too much understatement, and Tight Knit features a veritable abundance of scarcities.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Animals In The Dark
    His voice leads the material along, punching up the momentum of the heavier songs and providing an earthy low end for the simpler ones.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    So Far Gone [Mixtape]
    For a beginner, even one whose big-time endorsements seem to have cemented a promising start, So Far Gone is a pretty brave effort, and Drake's ability to juggle standard bling-and-bluster narratives with intelligent narratives bodes well for his future.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It's Not Me, It's You
    There's a humility to It's Not Me that was sorely lacking on her debut.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Keep It Hid
    Keep It Hid suggests just as strongly that Auerbach is able to stand as a compelling solo act.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Light Of X
    Yet while thousands of tons of this dross are produced on a yearly basis, Richards's work stands safely above most, drawing on offbeat influences such as Mazzy Star and compositions that, despite sounding borderline soulless, are for the most part coldly dazzling.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ruins Of Berlin
    Though his lyrics are underwhelming, his smart choice in collaborators and inventive instrumental cuts like 'Polish Work Song' and 'Grey Skies' more than compensate, making Ruins of Berlin both a testament to Romweber's ongoing influence and a compelling record in its own right.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Coming Back To You
    That her backup occasionally lets her down, though, ultimately speaks to how confident Doolittle sounds here. Coming Back to You is an impressive opening salvo--even without the "for an American Idol" qualifier.
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