Slant Magazine's Scores

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For 3,114 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: 1,684 out of 3114
  2. Mixed: 1,319 out of 3114
  3. Negative: 111 out of 3114
3114 music reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing
    As a country album, a pop album, or something in between, Love, Pain, & The Whole Thing is simply bad.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Raven in the Grave
    The Raveonettes have always made use of heavy reverb on their albums, but the overall impact is that Raven in the Grave just sounds sloppy.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Born Free
    It's not so much the shift in style that hampers Born Free, but rather the trite subject matter and gormless storytelling that Rock so keenly adopts.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Born to Sing: No Plan B
    Fans of the old stuff who long ago wrote Morrison off will find their gripes sadly confirmed on Born to Sing: No Plan B, a recession album that's four years too late.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    So Amazin'
    The only personality displayed on So Amazin' is that of her contemporaries and predecessors.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Bitter Tea
    Less a rebound from the indulgent for-friends-and-family-only nightmare of Rehearsing My Choir than a lateral side-step, Bitter Tea sounds like a desperate plea to be labeled as "clever."
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    #willpower
    Undoubtedly crafted to be an easy listen, the overstuffed, lumbering, and joyless #willpower is quite the opposite.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Shall Noise Upon
    Their new album, Shall Noise Upon, is intellectually thinner, more musically pedantic, and not quite as tongue-in-cheek.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Vices & Virtues
    If you were expecting some kind of creative transformation from the shakeup, this new album may be something of a disappointment, as Urie and drummer Spencer Smith return to the skittish, bombastic pop-rock of their debut.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    It'll Be Better
    It's short, boring, and occasionally aggravating, recalling the flatness of acts like Maroon 5 and John Mayer while never coming close to their likeability, and when you're being rocked off the stage by Adam Levine, it's not a good sign.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Boy Who Knew Too Much
    Too much of Boy is the bad kind of theatrical, less an album than an aural assault.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Shine On
    You can practically hear the energy draining away as the album progresses and one song slides into another, indistinguishable by either melody or lyric.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    God Did
    God Did lacks an organized artistic vision, or at least a sense of purpose beyond engaging in purely attention-grabbing theatrics.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Heart Blanche
    Bloated, brainless, and completely lacking in self-awareness, it's a groaning monstrosity of an album, one that can't even put its overwhelming excess to any suitable use.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Teenage Dream
    The remainder of Teenage Dream is a raunchy pop nightmare, with A-list producers lining up to churn out some of the worst work of their careers.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    How Do You Sleep at Night?
    The few tolerable moments across How Do You Sleep at Night? come from either outside voices, including a minute-long verse from Fousheé on “Sweet” that outclasses the bulk of Tezzo’s trite observations, or whenever Teezo is shamelessly copying from others, as he does on “Mood Swings” and the Steve Lacey-lite “Familiarity.”
    • 66 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Ready to Die
    While Iggy's feral mischievousness may still be intact, the Stooges no longer feel like a band capable of anything but embarrassing themselves.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    In Stormy Nights
    Maybe pastiche is inevitable, even in the Japanese avant garde scene, but can't it at least be a little more fun?
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Avril Lavigne
    Avril Lavigne is filled with similar empty life-affirming mantras and boasts of rebelliousness. Lavigne has mined these themes with success in the past, but here the exploration feels forced, as if she's trying to capture an attitude, and craft a persona, that she no longer lives.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Twelve
    These songs are rendered so faithfully they may as well be karaoke.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Queen of Me
    Ignoring how incohesive Queen of Me’s track list proves to be—the schmaltzy “Last Day of Summer,” for example, is a pedestrian reflection of young love that feels entirely out of place on an album filled with tracks related to embracing one’s present image—the songs themselves are frivolous and lack both sonic character and catchy hooks.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Graffiti
    Sadly, the only compelling thing about the incoherent Graffiti is the material (both external and internal) that makes it even less palatable than a simply below-average collection of paint-by-numbers R&B beats.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Imperial Blaze
    Some singles may work their way loose, but as a whole the album will is too long and monotonous; the affected style of Paul's voice, fine for the occasional single, becomes a grating trial over 21 songs.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars
    So off-putting as to alienate the band's fanbase.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    In Your Dreams
    In Your Dreams indulges in some of Nicks's worst tendencies as a songwriter and is slathered in chintzy, dated production values.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Rebirth
    The result is not a rock record as much as a total misperception of what makes a rock record. The base elements are all here (the sex and sleaze and guitar solos), but they're delivered in such a flat, awkward way that they feel interpreted by an alien.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
    Tacked on to this mediocre rap album is a ghastly and desperate bid for a hit single that sees Minaj and producer RedOne snatching items from a veritable sale rack of tired Top 40 tricks and tossing them hastily over the most basic synth and drum-machine presets.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Curtis
    50 doesn't fare any better on the softer side: 'Amusement Park' proves he's one of the worst lyricists alive.... It's not just the metaphors, though, it's the execution.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Rebirth Of Venus
    Were the central conceit not so half-assed and Lee's lyrics not so shallow, Venus might qualify as actively misogynist in a way that could be interesting to engage and dissect. As is, the album is simple to an annoying, tiresome degree.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Skins
    Many of the album’s nine songs feel unfinished, with only half managing to crack the two-minute mark.
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