Slant Magazine's Scores

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For 3,119 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: 1,689 out of 3119
  2. Mixed: 1,319 out of 3119
  3. Negative: 111 out of 3119
3119 music reviews
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss
    I'm Not Bossy is sonically diverse, but rarely do the songs give O'Connor the opportunity to flaunt her impressive vocal range or, aside from closer "Streetcars," explore the more intimate side of her still-striking voice.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Preliminaires
    As always, Pop's lyrics are not something you want to spend too much time focusing on, but separated from the dumb strut of rehashed cock rock, they settle nicely into an eerie landscape of dread and malaise.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Love You, It's Cool
    With its bright spots marred by detachment, despondency, and meandering, I Love You, It's Cool fails to deliver on the promise of Beast Rest Forth Mouth, knocking Bear in Heaven back a tier or two in the race for indie electro-pop supremacy.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Long Trip Alone
    It's a pleasant surprise that Long Trip Alone, if not quite up to the level of the best recordings in mainstream country's recent artistic resurgence, succeeds in establishing Bentley as an artist worthy of more than just passing attention.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Napalm
    Napalm comes on in old-school fashion, with beats as mere vehicles for lyrics, and lyrics that work on a reassuring number of levels.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It's Only Me
    For the most part, though, the writing on It’s Only Me is rife with rich details.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Best Damn Thing
    The Best Damn Thing is a big step back for an artist who was just starting to grow up.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Leisure Seizure
    Like We Have Sound, Leisure Seizure feels inimitable not because of any great innovation or genius, but for the way it seemingly exists in its own perfectly contained universe.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    La Sera
    If the album format is really dying, then Goodman's got a good shot at cornering the market of 21st-century Shangri-La candy pop, but she should do it two minutes at a time.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    V
    V is almost cinematic, conjuring up rich, kaleidoscopic vistas as the band transforms from stoned-out beach bums to wide-eyed globetrotters.
    • Slant Magazine
      • Posted Aug 13, 2014
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Traveler
    The result isn't exactly Phishy, but it's a merry mishmash, a frothy frolic best appreciated as a sort of senior-spring record.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
    For a collection of lo-fi home demos, Rivers Cuomo's Alone, in its better moments, sure does sound at times like a return to form.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wreckorder
    Clocking in at a brisk 34 minutes, there isn't enough time for Wreckorder to falter. But on the other hand, Healy can't seem to find the time to amply spread his wings either.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Cost
    Epic in both sound and content, The Cost is both The Frames' most accomplished album and deeper and more rewarding than U2's recent work.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin
    It's the rare, grin-inducing Wilson indulgence that doesn't involve some drug-inspired nonsense about enchanted transistor radios. The entirety of Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin reeks of a newfound arrogance that lifts this Beach Boys aficionado's spirits.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Loyalty To Loyalty
    Cold War Kids have exploded rather than refined their style here, which too often turns what were formerly strengths into liabilities and turns what were formerly liabilities into, well, even greater liabilities.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    While(1<2)
    Repeating very simple, barely there melodies over spare arrangements and ghostly keys is fine when you're soundtracking a Michael Mann film, but it isn't enough to fill the long gaps between your club-crashers.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hanna
    None of the tracks on Hanna do more than they have to, but at least they do that much.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Tourniquet
    Unfortunately, tracks like "The Pacemaker" amount to a lot of electronic pitter-patter and not a whole lot of substance, revealing a collection of songs that's less ambitious and tightly woven than 2004's exquisite On Your Side.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lioness: Hidden Treasures
    "Lioness" adds nothing of substance to the Winehouse narrative, nor do its individual tracks showcase the best of her writing or singing.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Talk a Good Game
    Talk a Good Game's standout tracks prove that she's closer to carving a niche for herself than she has been on prior efforts that suppressed rather than addressed that difficulty.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Gifted
    With The Gifted, his second album for Maybach Music Group, Wale continues to struggle to define himself, which proves even more difficult on a label dominated by broad caricatures.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Delta Machine
    Another reasonably strong effort for a band that's managed to get wise without growing too old.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You & I
    Fortunately, while You & I loses some of the distinctive details of its predecessor, the duo pulls off "conventional" just as well as they do twisted.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unplugged
    An abbreviated "You Don't Know My Name," truly a producer's creation, falls flat here, and she treats covers of Gladys Knight's "If I Was Your Woman" and "Every Little Bit Hurts" like vocal auditions and not the blank canvases of an interpretive artist.
    • 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.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Return of Mr. Zone 6
    The Return of Mr. Zone 6 proves to be not just a return to making music, but to the same damning patterns that have left him content with his own mediocrity.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nina
    The album's energy grows out of a band taking chances, and while not every reimagining works, there's something satisfying about listening to a group of artists crash head-on into an experiment and find clarity among the fragments.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Little Wild One
    It isn't as robust--musically or vocally--as their first collaboration.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Twelve
    These songs are rendered so faithfully they may as well be karaoke.
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