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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    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fearless (Taylor's Version)
    While Swift did an admirable job of re-recording Fearless, tweaking the production in subtle ways that give the album a slightly different texture (note how much more prominently the banjo figures in the mix of “Love Story”), the songs themselves are largely unchanged. ... The album’s bonus tracks—all written during the original Fearless sessions—don’t move the needle much in terms of the project’s overall quality. They all showcase Swift’s preternatural gifts for song structure and melody, but again, the lyrics are a mixed bag
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Songs Of Mass Destruction
    Mass Destruction is Lennox's first album largely recorded in the U.S. (Los Angeles and Miami, as opposed to just London), giving the songs a slightly less chilly quality and a bigger, more expansive sound, but it's still a disappointment in the same way the Eurythmics' rock-leaning "Be Yourself Tonight" likely was to fans of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and "Touch."
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Moonshine in the Trunk
    Moonshine in the Trunk is a mostly upbeat, feel-good summertime album that largely minimizes Paisley's tendency toward hokey power balladry and whatever the hell "Accidental Racist" is.
    • 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.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Future's Void
    What's most disappointing of all about The Future's Void is that, for all its heady ideas and pretty moments, in almost all ways it's a regression from Anderson's earlier work, a mishmash of half-completed thoughts that fails to ever fully connect.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Disconnect from Desire
    It's not that the band sounds exactly like Stereolab, or like anyone else, but listening to Disconnect from Desire feels like shuffling through a '90s alt-rock playlist.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Spirit
    Though the 21-year-old's faithful, capable rendition of 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' proves that the timelessness of the song should remain unquestioned, the album's adult-skewed material sounds even more jarring next to two fresh new tracks, the bouncy and youthful 'Forgive Me' and urban club jam 'Misses Glass,' added for American consumption.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fossils
    The polished sound, when combined with O'Donovan's occasionally wispy vocals and recessed guitar, fails to propel the album. It lacks both weight and momentum, or at least enough mood to set Fossils apart.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ciara
    As a collection of potential singles from an artist who should have more #1's, it's a modest, calculated effort.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Brave And The Bold
    The more adventurous picks on The Brave And The Bold sink more often than they soar.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jordin Sparks
    Jordin Sparks is one of the strongest Idol debuts yet.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ypres
    If the album means more in that context than it does outside it, the same could be said of the geographical significance of the historical tragedy it's memorializing.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Crime Pays
    This material is so intermittently successful because the rapper is as much of a clown as he is an MC, a duality which assures that his albums will always be tinged with the bittersweet fruits of this twisted sensibility.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Eternal
    Married since 1984, the couple has reached a level of easy rapport that makes their collaborations feel warmly alive. Hopefully the band's sound won't continue to settle into the same kind of comfortable informality.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Young & Old
    The problem is, even at their best, Tennis's music seems inconsequential and frankly, neutered.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Soul Sessions, Vol. 2
    Stone's strict adherence to formula plays against her here, as Vol. 2 feels overly familiar.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The River In Reverse
    The River In Reverse is a dark, passionate work that channels its rage toward redemptive joy.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Closure/Continuation
    Its weaker moments suggest a group that’s struggling to find something new to say, both thematically and musically. But when the band stretches out and explores their full dynamic range, capturing the dystopian overtones wafting through Wilson’s lyrics, they’re still capable of reaching cathartic heights.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future
    Perhaps executed a tad more carefully than it was conceived, Ray Guns is ultimately a flawed gem.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Woke Myself Up
    Doiron's sometimes off-kilter vocal arrangements are a perfect match for her lyrics.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fishing for Fishies
    Certainly, the shift from the humanity and warmth of blues-rock to the synthetic robotics of electronic music is intentional, but the album ends too abruptly for one to clearly discern the full extent of its significance.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Love?
    The real problem, then, is that Love? isn't the all-out dance album it could-and should-have been.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Someday World
    Someday World never devolves into Tin Machine-style disaster, but it rarely manages to realize its collaborative potential either.
    • 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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Get Lonely
    Get Lonely is the product of a tunesmith on autopilot.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Young Heart
    While Birdy meets the warmth of the album’s production with vocal skill and sensitivity, the overall effect is a very beautiful album littered with clichés that muddle its emotional impact. Still, there are seeds of great ideas here.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    God's Favorite Customer
    The singer-songwriter is more sympathetic when tackling his struggles with mental health. Indeed, God's Favorite Customer hits its stride with its most emotionally naked pair of songs.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Adventures In The Underground Journey To The Stars
    Adventures is a bright, beautifully wrapped package filled with nothing but styrofoam packing peanuts.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2
    Ultimately, 2 of 2 doesn't so much eclipse its predecessor as it settles into the format more believably.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Music From Another Dimension!
    The album's eight winning cuts would be more than enough for a really good hard-rock disc. Instead we get an album that pays for each of its gems with a nugget of fool's gold.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Once Again
    Like its predecessor, Once Again's midsection bulges with excess MOR fat, but unlike Legend's debut, the album doesn't resurrect itself by the end.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Day
    All Day is blessed with some of the most dazzling mash-ups ever to infringe copyright, but an overwhelming majority of these emerge during the first 15 minutes, and the hour of music that follows rarely reaches the opening salvo's dizzying heights.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Aquarius
    Interludes were employed on Janet's best albums to segue between an array of themes, genres, and tempos; here they're just used as atmosphere, to create the illusion of an album that's larger than the sum of its parts.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Long Way To the Beginning
    A Long Way to the Beginning thus finds the young upstart at a crossroads, between overt legacy mining and striking out on his own, a tentatively successful effort that at least demonstrates Seun's innate skills as a bandleader and a radical.
    • 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.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I Can't Imagine
    Had she toned down some idiosyncrasies and worried a handful of these songs past what sounds like their draft stages, I Can't Imagine could've been a real coup for Lynne.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Upside Down Mountain
    It's a testament to Oberst's enduring versatility that Upside Down Mountain can accommodate the antic creepiness of "Governor's Ball" as well as the transcendent uplift of "Time Forgot," but the album's moments of sentimentality make Oberst sound like just another chart-climbing purveyor of feel-good folky schlock.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Ascension
    While Stevens often reaches great heights on The Ascension, he almost as often seems to get lost in his big ideas.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Our Bright Future
    Chapman's songwriting is as sharp as ever, which makes it all the more unfortunate that the album's production is so lifeless.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    8701
    Acoustic guitar work, live drums by Stokley of Mint Condition (remember them?), and a cameo by the law-brushing P. Diddy ("If making hits is a crime, I plead guilty") also lend a surprising amount of variety to what could have been an otherwise homogenized set.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Two
    The words are flatter, the music is more generically attractive, and maybe we're all getting a little too old for this club.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In the Time of Gods
    What In the Time of Gods lacks, then, is a balance between the headier material and the wit and frivolity that have made Williams such a distinctive voice in contemporary folk.
    • 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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    X
    If the fundamental conflict between his need to meet certain expectations and his apparent desire to record better material keeps the album from being a truly great artistic statement, X nonetheless finds Adkins proving that 12 years and 10 albums into a career is not too late to start taking meaningful, productive risks.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Outer Peace
    The album’s title represents the remarkable possibility of finding freedom from the outside world by letting loose on the dance floor and experiencing liberation in a crowd of strangers. Bear certainly takes the album there at several points, but in the limited scope and cerebral slant of these too-brief songs, he loses that outer peace.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    1,000 Years
    While 1,000 Years isn't a bad album in comparison to other how-the-might-have-fallen spectacles (it's hardly the catastrophe of, say, Liz Phair's Somebody's Miracle), it simply lacks the edge and bite of Tucker's work with Sleater-Kinney.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    With Teeth
    While With Teeth satisfies in all the expected ways, not much has changed in Reznor's world.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Other Side of Zero
    "Worn Out Tune" says it all, with its bluesy but not-quite-bleak atmosphere, and Ziman happily embracing "the ones we just can't get enough of." The band wants all their songs to have this quality, but every track on the album sounds like they were labored over so carefully that spontaneity lost every battle against precision.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    King of Hearts
    When he's on his game, he poses a less rigorously focus-grouped alternative to Bruno Mars's tween-friendly pop-R&B, but every moment of genius on King of Hearts comes saddled with something less palatable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Postcards From a Young Man
    For all the furious posturing, the message is veneered too neatly with streamlined riffs and swamped too deep in nice-as-pie orchestral melodies. Seething rants seem to pack more of a punch when the product is less polished, and tend to get lost when bookended with excessively opulent trappings. This is rock music, after all.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wilco (The Album)
    It doesn't help that Wilco is such a complacent album, so easily redolent of sounds and textures the band has called up in the past.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories the World Is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away
    No More Stories becomes absorbing in its delight at the rehashed spectrum in which it operates. Mew is not as thoughtful or smart as they think they are, but the force of their conviction is inspiring.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Big Echo
    As sources of inspiration go, a band could do far worse. But the album fails to use this already familiar point of view to explore any uncharted paths.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mylo Xyloto
    While the melodies on Mylo Xyloto are some of the strongest and most memorable in the band's catalogue, it's the shortcomings in their lyrics that keep Coldplay from packing the kind of emotional wallop their sound really demands.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sunday At Devil Dirt
    The lyrics are competent, the posturing never feels too artificial, and Lanegan's gruff rasp and Campbell's airy voice blend together like a well-made cup of coffee.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Never Trust a Happy Song
    The Californian quintet returns with a full-length release that quite literally recycles the acmes of their EP: "Colours" and "Naked Kids" return untouched and unchanged, while the remaining 10 tracks suggest the band may be a one-trick pony.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    TFCF
    TFCF lacks the forceful unity of the best Liars albums, particularly the thoughtful avant-garde theatrics of They Were Wrong So We Drowned and Drum's Not Dead. The songs here function more like a series of half-developed sketches, often invigorating but a tad shambolic, the lyrics' cryptic nature failing to connect with any coherent central thesis.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Positions
    Given the dearth of uptempo tracks on Grande’s last album, the microhouse “Motive,” featuring Doja Cat, and the breathless, disco-inflected “Love Language” are a welcome change of pace. Too many of the songs on Positions, however, rely on the same midtempo trap-pop that populated Grande’s previous two efforts, particularly Thank U, Next. What once seemed refreshing in its minimalism is quickly starting to feel insubstantial.
    • 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.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Junior
    While irrepressibly buoyant, this instills a lacking, spectator quality to the album, which for the casual listener often plays like the soundtrack to a movie you haven't seen.
    • 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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hands
    While her first full-length album, Hands, smacks of trying too hard (Hesketh skittishly rotated through several different producers, and the sound is all over the map), most of the songs are imminently playable on their own terms.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This is Me…Now
    To imbue that previous album with a timeless R&B quality, Lopez sought out veteran knob-twirler Bruce Swedien, who engineered and mixed classics like Michael Jackson’s Thriller. This Is Me…Now attempts to replicate that sound—and “Mad In Love” and “Not. Going. Anywhere.” both come close—but most of the album falls short of that lofty bar.
    • 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.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mirrored
    Elaborate time signatures and clever tape manipulations abound, and there's some fun trying to guess which instruments are synthesized and which are authentic, but Mirrored suffers from being too bright and spirited.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Songs From a Zulu Farm
    Its intentions are clearly wholesome, the music is sweet and cordial, and it's impossible to tell whether its ultimate drabness is the group's fault or our own.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Album
    Crammed chockfull of crowd-pleasing EDM pyrotechnics and cheeky one-liners, The Album is undeniably a product of a well-oiled, state-of-the-art pop machine, but it feels stuck looking back to tried and true trends in both K-pop and Western pop music.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Happy to You
    As it turns out, beneath all the shattering percussion, well-timed sound crashes, and plethora of borrowed ideas, Happy to You is rather skeletal.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Hundred Million Suns
    A Hundred Million Suns, aims to recapture the success of 'Chasing Cars' and finds the Scottish quintet continuing to hone the sound they introduced on 2003's "Final Straw."
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blue Songs
    what's missing is that nagging vocal that hovers somewhere between sublime and corrosive, as so many of the great performances in dance music have.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Book Burner
    Book Burner is defiantly hideous and if you love it, you love it for its ugliness or not at all.
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