Slant Magazine's Scores

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For 3,121 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: 1,691 out of 3121
  2. Mixed: 1,319 out of 3121
  3. Negative: 111 out of 3121
3121 music reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    King Krule [EP]
    He's made a few patient, deliberate expansions of his sonic world and rewarded fans for their interest by letting them flip through his sketchbook.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Attack Decay Sustain Release
    The new tracks seem either rushed or cobbled together, Frankenstein monster-style, with elements culled from the successful pre-release singles, which comprise half the album. Many are just plain boring ('Sleep Deprivation,' 'Wooden'), often meandering too long, as if somehow being nuzzled within a sequence of far more satisfying productions would elevate them as well.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    My Best Friend Is You
    Nash is at her best when she brings that vicious bite into what might otherwise sound like a pop trifle....When she rebels a bit too aggressively against pop conventions, though, Nash gets herself into trouble.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Almost Healed
    Considering that he does seem willing to experiment—primarily on the cerebral “B12,” whose beat is composed of shuttering snares, rapid bass distortions, and what sounds like a squeaky bed spring—it only amplifies the overall humdrum nature of Almost Healed.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mother
    However welcome it may be to hear her voice again, it's ultimately her decision to play things so safe that keeps Mother from being a wholly satisfying return.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Singing Mailman Delivers
    With a stable of effective songs and a healthy dose of good humor, The Singing Mailman Delivers remains a likable, if not terribly compelling, effort.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Timbaland Presents Shock Value
    Shock Value recycles many of the same beats, melodies, and other sonic ideas that were used (better and most recently, with help from co-producer Danja) on Timberlake's album.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Midnight Memories
    The tracks may recall "Pour Some Sugar on Me," but their lyrics are still all "I'm not scared of love/'Cause when I'm not with you I'm weaker," so essentially the album's potentially nastiest tracks come off as a glorified Halloween costume act. More believable are the moments when they lay off the hard sell.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Earth To The Dandy Warhols
    Their smug posturing makes the Dandy Warhols a difficult act to like, but the sheer quality of their songcraft on Earth goes a long way toward earning them a measure of goodwill.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This Is War
    This Is War is made serviceable by its polished showmanship.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Heligoland
    Fans who have spent the better part of a decade jonesing for exactly this kind of fix will surely appreciate the effort, but for the less dependent, the songs here offer little that the band hasn't already done better.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Depression Cherry
    Depression Cherry's flabby midsection finds Beach House similarly situated: treading repeatedly over the same ground, yielding diminishing returns.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Welcome To The Drama Club
    Most the tracks don't linger long after an initial spin or two.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I'm with You
    The arrangements have a tendency to rely on Flea's basslines to compensate for Frusciante's absence, but there's still enough zip and zeal in the stronger tracks to affirm the Chili Peppers' relevance in the modern musical climate.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Selling My Soul
    Well-executed, fresh music from a member of Wu-Tang is always welcome, but perfunctory projects stuffed with filler are never a good look.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Silver Eye
    Despite collaborations with ambient-drone producer the Haxan Cloak and John Congleton (best known for his work with St. Vincent), musicians Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory have failed to materially push their sound in new direction.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nouns
    The band's live performances, politics, and loyalty to their fanbase are to be admired, but Nouns will leave you wanting more.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Human
    What prevents Human from being a sort of Afro Pt. 2, then, is a minor onslaught of adult-contemporary schmaltz, something Afrodisiac's producers wisely eschewed.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Fine Print (A Collection Of Oddities And Rarities 2003-2008)
    Their ability to edit their material into thematically powerful statements is one of the band's strengths, which makes the scattershot, uneven approach of Fine Print all the more out-of-character.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Silver Wilkinson
    Among the more production-heavy tracks, nothing comes close in terms of technical or intuitive savvy. Still, Wilkinson delivers solidly on the album's more organic offerings.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ghost Stories
    Although incumbent on its source material, Ghost Stories avoids wholly rote repetition by porting a modicum of the strangeness and innovation of other artists into its own body, despite Martin's clunky writing.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Planta
    Throughout, CSS evinces a half-step remove from their transplanted environment.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In Times New Roman...
    The best moments on In Times New Roman… prove that Queens of the Stone Age can still reliably deliver left-of-center alt-rock thrills, and Homme’s take-it-or-leave-it charisma is as tangible as it ever was. But after almost three decades of taking on every strand of rock music and embracing both the analog and the digital, it’s disheartening, if perhaps understandable, that the band seems unsure of where to go next.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Big TV
    It's a pleasant enough listen, and the hooks are plentiful, but White Lies don't appear to want to completely engage their audience in the album's prevalent, genuinely important message that contemporary success can be deceptively shallow when sought under duress.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Seen It All: The Autobiography
    Seen It All doesn't show Jeezy evolving into anything he hasn't already been, but it does crystallize his place in the pop-rap pecking order.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Broke With Expensive Taste
    "212" along with an upgraded version of Fantasea's "Luxury" are among the best songs here, but their inclusion is distracting, representing more unpursued directions for an artist who needs to be looking toward the future, not cramming in old material on an already overstuffed album, one which feels more like a drastically updated portfolio than a proper debut.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Circus
    Wildly if transitorily enjoyable at turns, vacuous and ignorable at others, Circus doesn't quite feel like a comeback, but I'm sure Brit's not above merely bringing pre-comeback.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    He Was King
    He Was King is tasty candy, to be sure. But it's the sort of candy that only makes you want something more substantial. Like cake.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    IRM
    As a pairing between two artists, the album works, though not nearly as much as it could have if both were at the top of their game.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All American Made
    These songs are littered with allusions to Price's difficult past as a broke, troubled magnet of misfortune with a late-blooming career, but they're by and large so vague that they don't have much of an emotional impact.
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