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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    • 64 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Vision Valley
    The Vines ultimately come off as nothing more than a proficient Nirvana cover band, lacking a perspective of their own or a voice that really demands attention.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Chinese Democracy
    While the band's label, fans and a handful of rock journalists would like to hail this album as the Second Coming of Rock, the reality is that Chinese Democracy is neither a musical resurrection nor the audio equivalent of Ishtar.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    We Don't Trust You
    On We Don’t Trust You, though, Future seems content to be set dressing for Metro’s elaborate production.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Here I Am
    The inherent blandness of Rowland's persona makes for too much roundly mediocre material.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Songs of Innocence
    From the nails-on-a-chalkboard solo of "Sleep Like a Baby Tonight" to the whining guitar strains of "Every Breaking Wave," the Edge's melodies and atmospheric licks are the real star of the album, which is otherwise marred by the kind of slick MOR pablum that plagued the band's last few efforts.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Battle Born
    With their simultaneous emphasis on the pedal-to-the-metal triumphalism of rock's yesteryear and their ultimate submission to tomorrow's grinding machinery, the Killers' new album may as well be called Battle Born This Way.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dr. Dee
    Dr Dee indicates both Albarn's continuing interest in experimentation and his resolute songwriting skills, but doesn't always make for the easiest listen.
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pink Tape
    There simply isn’t much in the way of staying power to the bleary “Patience” or any of the three throwaway bonus tracks beyond some absurdist lines and a few neat vocal melodies. But taken as a whole—something that’s frequently overlooked in a singles genre such as rap—this unabashedly creative album showcases its creator’s ever-developing abilities.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fellow Travelers
    The album still has an intimate feel to it, like a missive to those other bands trudging the tour circuit, and it's an ambitious one that invites listeners to travel along.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Oblivion With Bells
    It clearly meshes with their previous incarnations and eventually emerges as a listenable album in its own right.
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Crimes of Passion
    While the album is the closest Crocodiles have come to achieving their own unique brand of tuneful clamor, there's still a sense that they can't quite move away from the blueprint of the new-wave artists that inspired them.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Here Lies Love
    The roster's promising and the concept is offbeat enough to be brilliant. The execution? It could have been a lot more inspired. Unless you come to the record already a die-hard fan of each and every one of the guest vocalists, you're going to find yourself skipping around in search of highlights.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Penny Sparkle
    For all its dreaminess, Penny Sparkle is clinical and almost always predictable, despite the exotic murmurs of lead singer Kazu Makino.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Oh No
    While there's nothing at all revolutionary in the band's combination of nihilistic lyrics and sunny pop hooks or in their use of dance rhythms behind their guitar power chords, it's nonetheless rare to encounter a major label pop or rock album as start-to-finish good as is Oh No.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Ride
    The Ride feels a lot like the debut of a new rising star.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Violet Cries
    Named after a grim Danish fairy tale, Esben and the Witch pursues a narrow course on their first album, Violet Cries, a morose, pitch-black update of the '80s dark-wave template.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Come Around Sundown
    Come Around Sundown buys Kings of Leon at least a little more time as the champions of mass-appeal Dixie garage rock.
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    MDNA
    MDNA is surprisingly cohesive despite its seven-plus producers.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Great Misdirect
    As the album stretches on, it's hard not to notice that some of the unbridled enthusiasm that made Alaska and Colors the heavy, heady trips that they were has been sacrificed. That's forgivable. The type of a maturation process that Between the Buried and Me has embarked on is never easy, and the record shows that few bands from rock's progressive edges pull it off.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head
    The one-time King of the South makes himself scarce on this anonymous and occasionally mawkish effort.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    My Everything
    Nothing else, however, on Grande's sophomore effort, My Everything, fulfills the promise of those two singles ["Problem" and "Bang Bang"].
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Funplex
    Funplex neither redefines nor sullies the band's sterling legacy, which is probably close to a best case scenario.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tre!
    On the whole, when not tedious or embarrassing, the remainder of Tre is simply not up to the task of proving why a third album in three months was necessary.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Super Extra Gravity
    Super Extra Gravity... sounds like the product of a young, fresh quintet that's got a whole lot of rock left in 'em.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    System
    Price's remix work has always been more impressive than his original productions and System is no exception.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Reality Killed The Video Star
    By downplaying Williams's formerly irrepressible charm, Reality simply doesn't make for an effective reintroduction to one of the U.S. pop market's biggest missed opportunities.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Three
    Three represents only an incremental progression, not the seismic shift of Voices, but it demonstrates the duo's ability to transform darkness into light, taking personal tragedy and shaping it into professional growth.
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