Slant Magazine's Scores

Select another publication »
For 3,122 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: 1,692 out of 3122
  2. Mixed: 1,319 out of 3122
  3. Negative: 111 out of 3122
3122 music reviews
view
per page
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Minnesota
    It's the handful of tracks on which Jennings stretches beyond familiar troubadour conventions that are Minnesota's best.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Portamento
    The Drums are far too clever a band to suffer a sophomore slump, but Portamento does one better, dispelling any notion that they're merely the flavor of the month.
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dross Glop
    Unfortunately, the majority of Dross Glop's remixers fail to find any new inspiration in reworking the original material. The results are scattershot, meandering, awkward, and often boring.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Saga Continues
    Enjoying this album will depend on your tolerance for Wu-Tang at its most generic.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Thunderheist
    It's erotic and in your face without being campy.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Love After War
    Though his feathery coos and whispers have long been his calling card, Thicke spends most of Love After War singing in full voice, with mixed results.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    9th Ward Pickin' Parlor
    A surprising delight.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Brain Thrust Mastery
    Brain Thrust Mastery eschews the scenester party-and-sex themes of the band's sorta-breakthrough "With Love and Squalor" for more grown-up subject matter.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Permalight
    Permalight is a startling contrast in subdued grace and awkward severity, alternately rewarding and punishing as the band seeks to craft a new voice without entirely abandoning the old.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Big Dream
    Lynch may be devoting much of his time and passion to his new career as a musician, but The Big Dream still has a thin, larky feel, briefly amusing, consistently strange, but rarely resonant.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Graffiti on the Train
    The whole album seems content to be half-awake, so much so that even the comparably adventurous tracks sound like they can't be bothered to get off the couch.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    On The Outside
    Nothing on On The Outside is truly awful--it's just, well, good, which these days, isn't quite enough to get the attention of a well and truly fickle nation.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Seeing Sounds
    To be fair, there aren't any real clunkers to be found on Seeing Sounds and lead single 'Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in Line for the Bathroom)' and album closer 'Laugh About It' are perfectly serviceable Neptunes tracks, but only two tunes, 'Spaz' and 'You Know What' are very visionary.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Head Carrier
    When not vainly trying to live up to their legacy and instead embracing middle-age, the Pixies end up doing a much better job of not tainting said legacy. Head Carrier's best moments are straightforward, midtempo, guitar-based alt-rock.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Cheek to Cheek
    Gaga comes off more as a dilettante than an aficionado on Cheek to Cheek.... Bennett doesn't fare a whole lot better, his otherwise charming performances strained throughout. The pair's solo efforts, particularly Gaga's clumsy interpretation of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" and Bennett's surprisingly pitchy rendition of Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady," only serve to spotlight their shortcomings.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Working Girl
    A more sonically focused effort.
    • 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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Weezer (Red Album)
    Weezer seems to have driven their old shtick into the ground so perfectly, it almost seems like they've purposely become tired and boring.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fire Away
    While their verses might be disappointingly lightweight this time out, Ozomatli provides more than enough substance where it counts.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Some People Have Real Problems
    Some People is stuffed to the rafters with love songs but they're never precious or cloying, even when the arrangements soar to rousing string/brass/choir-laden climaxes, or when the lyrics are comprised of little more than a string of clichés .
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sam's Town
    The Killers may have grown a heart for Sam's Town, but they also grew even bigger egos, and it's unlikely that the album's bombast and self-importance will convert any new fans.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Swoon
    The Silversun Pickups show here that they've got a competent grasp of the amp-frying guitar soundscape, but someone needs to teach them how to write a decent rock song.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pacific Daydream
    His oddball pop-culture references and fondness for clichés can be charming amid wailing electric guitars, but taking center stage, they too often fall flat.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Colonia
    Colonia is what pop music might have sounded like in the era of gaslights and guillotines.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fluorescence
    The musical bliss is short-lived, and the rest of Fluorescence is pretty much the musical equivalent of throwing darts at a wall full of sticky notes while blindfolded and drunk: Some happy accidents, but mostly a forgettable, sloppy mess.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Paradise [EP]
    Paradise is longer [than Born To Die], but less essential, more a summary of her persona than an attempt at developing it.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Talk That Talk
    Talk That Talk is pretty easily the worst Rihanna album yet.
    • 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.
Page: