Slant Magazine's Scores

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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
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    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Loneliest Time
    With The Loneliest Time, Jepsen strikes a delicate balance.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Love Is Free [EP]
    Love Is Free feels comparatively tossed off, merely a bridge between Robyn 2.0 and an incarnation of the dance-pop icon we--and she--haven't yet imagined.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sex And Gasoline
    Still, even at its most strident, Sex and Gasoline is topical and fiercely intelligent in a way that few modern country albums are.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Painted Ruins
    Painted Ruins stops short of fearlessly exploring new musical terrain, instead content to approach the familiar from new angles.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Life Under the Gun
    While their emotional palette may feel rooted in anger, unlike Regional Justice Center, the band’s more melodic passages strive to express it without becoming trapped by it.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Little Honey
    'Real Love' is the first of a number of raucous tracks on the very good, though a tad uneven, Little Honey.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dove
    Belly might take a more conventional approach to their music now, but Dove proves it can still take flight.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Faith: Special Edition
    Though the new booklet of liner notes includes an interview in which Michael admits that he was fully aware of and exploring his own identity as a gay man, the album itself now clearly hides more than it reveals.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pleasure
    Unafraid in her songwriting to lay bare her faults and flat-out embracing flaws in the album's jagged production. Pleasure isn't a perfect album, and that's the point.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Notes on a Conditional Form
    It might not live up to its lofty goals, but the sheer amount of daring on Notes on a Conditional Form solidifies the four guitar-wielding dudes of the 1975 as the biggest, boldest, and brashest purveyors of something resembling what we used to call rock n’ roll, which, as Healy knows well, was always at least as much a pose as a sound. He wears it well.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Vagabon
    Vagabon finds the singer retreating to the comfort of her computer’s Logic program to fashion a world almost entirely around her honeyed vocals. Although you won’t find many ‘90s-infused indie jams like “Minneapolis” or “The Embers” here, Tamko’s voice never sounds strained in ways it once did either.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Love Me Back
    It's disappointing that she doesn't raise the bar on her sophomore effort, Love Me Back--but she doesn't crumble under the weight of expectations either.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Abandoned City
    By allowing himself to trust his instrument and push himself to make bolder, more resonant statements, Hauschka has created the finest work of his career.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sewn Together
    Meat Puppets 2.0 is a more polished, less accidental venture than the original, which isn't necessarily a drawback.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Thrashing thru the Passion
    Even if the band’s guitar work isn’t what it used to be, Finn’s storytelling prowess certainly is, and along with his usual barrage of smartest-guy-at-the-dive-bar one-liners, an appropriate shift in his perspective as a lyricist is evident.
    • 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
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Meaning of Life
    Meaning of Life doesn't reinvent the genre, nor does it try to, but it portrays an artist continuing to redefine herself—in the process, solidifying her position as one of her generation's greatest singers.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Avatar
    The one knock against Avatar is that it includes just seven songs, six of which amble well past the six-minute mark, making the album seem bloated.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sol-Angel And The Hadley St. Dreams
    Venturing off into the unknown plays well for Solange--the mix of organic, old-school instrumentation and more electronic elements makes for a loose, fun and reverent record.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ultraviolence
    Repeated listens reveal nuances, like the acoustic guitar bristling beneath the blues-rock verses of "Sad Girl" and the male backing vocals layering the final chorus of "Brooklyn Baby," but the album's steadfast narcotic tempo and Del Rey's languid delivery, doused in shoegaze-style reverb throughout, conjure a hazy picture of the singer swaying wearily in some sweltering sweat-lodge of a dive in the deep South.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ghost on the Canvas
    It's not a perfect album, but it's honest and ambitious, and it allows Campbell to end his career both on his own terms and on a real high note.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Stronger
    With the exception of the obvious electronic manipulation used on "Mr. Know It All," Clarkson's performances on Stronger are more consistently lived-in and evocative than on any of her previous efforts.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    FutureSex / LoveSounds
    It's a lot like Justified in that it's a solid collection of expertly produced pop songs whose flaws will be devoured by its almost guaranteed string of hits.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Anak Ko
    While it might lack a rave-up pop number like Everybody Works’s infectious “1 Billion Dogs,” Anak Ko offers plenty of reasons to follow Duterte down whatever road may lay ahead.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bad Witch
    While 2016's Not the Actual Events explores dissociative identities and 2017's Add Violence brims with paranoia about our increasingly simulated reality, Bad Witch moves past such insular anxieties and more directly acknowledges that society's chaos is the result of our collective hubris. ... Reznor conveys a bleaker and more visceral sense of desperation on the album's two instrumental tracks.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Adventures Of Bobby Ray
    The album's middle sags futilely, with bigwig producers like Dr. Luke and Jim Jonsin turning in weak beats. But even then, B.o.B. carries the weight with burning charisma.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Just Like The Fambly Cat
    It's a likeable little niche that Lyttle has carved out for himself in the indie-pop landscape, and, as he bids adieu to Grandaddy, one hopes that he continues to explore this style in ways that are more challenging than parts of Cat.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
    After 18 years, the revered nonconformists have compiled an album that feels like a career-spanning retrospective.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    ...Featuring Norah Jones
    ...Featuring Norah Jones may attempt to cast her in something of a supporting role, but it's still definitively a Norah Jones record, and a solid one at that.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Classics
    Considering the fact that classics on Classics have already been rendered hundreds of times by some of the most legendary musicians and singers of the last century, Deschanel and Ward's versions are surprisingly engaging.
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