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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    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Evolver
    For a change, Legend doesn't constantly sound as though he's trying to impress the VH1 cognoscenti with his impeccable musicality. Sure, that's to say it's occasionally dumb, but oh so approachable.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Cardinology
    He has found ways to marry sentiment with strut before, and when it happens here, as it does in the steady march that propels 'Born Into a Light' and the guitar solo bridge on 'Like Yesterday,' the album has a powerful presence. These moments are rare, however, and too often Cardinology seems content to float along on an oily sea of good feelings and bad attitude.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Fame
    Gaga's lyrics alternate between cheap drivel and nonsensical drivel, and her vocal performances are uneven at best....The songs that work--and there are plenty, including 'Poker Face,' 'Starstruck,' 'Paper Gangsta' and 'Summerboy'--rest almost solely on their snappy production and sing-along hooks and reveal Gaga as the Xtina/Gwen/Fergie hydra monster that she is.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    That Don't Make Me A Bad Guy
    While most of the songs are well written and Keith attacks each vocal performance with his immediately recognizable command and swagger, not all of his production choices work.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Alpinisms
    The dual harmonies and inherently hypnotic cadences render music that is largely exhilarating occasionally monotonous.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Skeletal Lamping
    Taken in isolation, the individual movements in these songs and the different voices of the narrators are never less than engaging.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Car Alarm
    Sam Prekop and company serve up their characteristic concoction of jazzy rhythms, softhearted melodies and crystal-clear production aesthetics on Car Alarm, a record equally appropriate to romantic afternoons and late-night drink-offs.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Saint Dymphna
    Yet as compared to their previous efforts, the album is surprisingly accessible and at times almost poppy-a valiant attempt at distilling, or translating, the Gang Gang Dance experience into the album format.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Call Me Crazy
    Crazy is confused and conflicted. Taken in the context of Womack's career as a whole, however, it's fairly representative of how she has vacillated between sterling, smart traditional cuts like 'The Fool' and 'Does My Ring Burn Your Finger' and vapid Faith Hill knockoffs like 'Something Worth Leaving Behind' and 'Why They Call It Falling.'
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Missiles
    For every interesting and bold move involved in the writing and packaging of Missiles, however, the musical orchestration and production of the record is problematic.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Damn Right Rebel Proud
    Damn Right Rebel Proud seethes with an energy and a perspective that's too often lacking today, and it reaffirms that it's far more than just his name that makes Williams one of the genre's most vital artists.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Perfect Symmetry
    Unfortunately, Perfect Symmetry is an album characterized by its heavy-handedness, so while it sounds as though the band was aiming for Echo & the Bunnymen, they hit Duran Duran or Simple Minds instead, making for a brand new record that often sounds badly dated.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Little Honey
    'Real Love' is the first of a number of raucous tracks on the very good, though a tad uneven, Little Honey.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Gossip In The Grain
    Gossip in the Grain clearly shows he can do more than the typical singer-songwriter navel gazing.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pebble To A Pearl
    Costa was often overshadowed by the slick production on her previous two albums; here, her vocals are foregrounded in the mix, and the depth and range of her performances really shine.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Lucky Old Sun
    The album proves how vapid contemporary country can be: Very. Uh-huh.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Changing Of The Seasons
    Unlike "Treehouse," "Puzzle" or the melancholic "The Fall," which rank among the singer's best to date, there's not a whole lot at stake, making for a somewhat uneven album.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Droppin' Science Fiction
    The album mostly succeeds, though, especially where its ambitions reach beyond standard social-issue theorizing and rap-game bashing.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everything Is Borrowed
    Everything in the entire album is really just catching up to Skinner's words.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dig Out Your Soul
    Those follow-up albums were disappointments because, aside from a catchy song or two, they were tedious. Dig Out Your Soul defies this trend and is their most compelling offering in years.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Offend Maggie
    Offend Maggie isn't a huge breakthrough for Deerhoof, but it's a step toward coherence with which few fans should have a problem.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Appeal To Reason
    Because of the current pop landscape's shift away from melodic rock it's impossible to tell if Rise Against will ever break out, but it's nice to know that, either way, they're still making aggressive, well structured pop-minded hardcore.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Such Fun
    The band's sunny and melodic exuberance ensures that Such Fun is, above all else, a lot of fun.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
    While the album undoubtedly brings more than a few great moments, what is most disappointing is that instead of celebrating the past two decades of Dylan's career, it calls the idea of such a celebration into question.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This Is It & I Am It & You Are It & So Is That & He Is It & She Is It & It Is It & That Is That
    It's taut, aggressive, accomplished and is "it" in every way the title suggests. And that is that.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unexpected
    Unexpected is a fairly decent album and by far the least pretentious, unashamedly pop record to be made by a DC member so far.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Chemistry Of Common Life
    Chemistry is a natural and seamless masterpiece that might never have happened but for the band's own need to thumb its nose at expectations.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Not Animal
    Not Animal is a more modest album that presents a shrewd view of Margot's strengths and weaknesses, indicating that the band is most successful when it doesn't try to be particularly complex.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    In Ear Park
    Songs begin lethargically and the vocals and instruments grope at each other, struggling to agree on how to establish the rhythm. Once they coalesce, each blooms, but the tracks refuse to linger in the thrall of the climax.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Another World [EP]
    I wouldn't put it past Another World to grow on me, as Hegarty is one of those vocalists (like Tom Waits and Daniel Johnston) whose work initially strikes you as the weirdest fucking thing you've ever heard but magically becomes something you can't live without a couple of listens later, but rather than being as starkly demure and affecting as "Bird," Another World just seems underwhelming.
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