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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    • 88 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Only God Was Above Us
    Only God Was Above Us is ultimately just another (very good) Vampire Weekend album rather than a radical shift. It essentially sees the band dressing up their patented medium-paced, occasionally frantic, symphonic rock in see-through disguises.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dreamer
    Although Iqbal demonstrates a profound understanding of genre and influences, Dreamer occasionally only dabbles in these styles rather than fully immerses itself in them. ... Nevertheless, Iqbal’s prowess as a singer and songwriter shines through with richness and depth.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Utopia
    The bit of dead weight here [the album's excessive duration] is especially frustrating, since Björk seems to have reconjured the elements that made her music so exceptional, and consistently enough that one can imagine a shorter, more curated iteration of Utopia that could stand with her very best albums.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Drowaton
    [It] finds the Mints becoming incrementally more accessible while continuing to fashion willfully obtuse pop songs that invite you in grudgingly.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Un Verano Sin Ti
    Un Verano Sin Ti is more often than not fueled by the artist’s silky, pleading singing than his kinetic rapping. And rather than play culture vulture and disingenuously embody an ascendant style, Bunny doubles down on his heritage and cultural identity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The New Year
    Fortunately, no surprises are really needed, as the New Year's technique, while somewhat dated and profoundly unadventurous, still holds solid in all its sleepwalking, ponderous glory.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Black And White Album
    The band's ambition on Black and White is admirable and makes for an album that is, even in its less successful moments, never less than an interesting listen.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dangerous Woman
    Though the album immediately shifts gears with the decidedly more contemporary title track, a sultry waltz in which the singer implores her man to “test [her] limits,” assuring him that, underneath, every 21-century woman is a “bad girl,” there are smart, unexpected nods to yesteryear throughout the remainder of Dangerous Woman.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Little Wild One
    It isn't as robust--musically or vocally--as their first collaboration.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Okovi
    Danilova's music is often at its best when her powerful voice complements the gloomy arrangements rather than towers over them.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Uptown Special
    Stax-style guitar figures and bass walks undergird most of the songs, yet Chabon's peculiar imagery and Ronson's use of the occasional drum machine and synthesizer keep Uptown Special from sounding either like an earnestly literary concept album or a kitschy imitation of Ronson's favorite records from the not so distant past.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    ForeverandEverNoMore
    The album is hampered by Eno’s overly didactic messaging. His pensively exhortative lyrics work fine within their specific contexts, where the songs themselves lean into the existential terror that their pessimistic worldviews provide. But on more delicate offerings, like “Icarus or Blériot” and “Sherry,” the songwriting feels counterintuitive to Eno’s elegant musicianship, becoming an obtrusive supplementary element.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fly Yellow Moon
    Perhaps deemed too conventional for release with Guillemots, Fly Yellow Moon benefits greatly from its uncomplicated scope and stripped-down recording style.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This Is Happening
    As good as this record is (and it is often very good), LCD Soundsystem can do, and has done, much better.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Welcome To Sideways
    A contoured album that hits a sweet spot between kinetic and laidback.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
    While not all of those risks pay off, what works about Tonight speaks to the band's greater maturity and vision.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    My Maudlin Career
    Luckily, for both the album and its audience, the band's perseverance results in hits more often than misses.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Endless Arcade
    If Teenage Fanclub’s songs are stylistically derivative, the melodies consistently stand up to those of the band’s progenitors.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    MDNA
    MDNA is surprisingly cohesive despite its seven-plus producers.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    My Old, Familiar Friend
    Even at its stuffiest, Friend is a power-pop record that never skimps on the power.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Alpha Zulu
    Both the title track, with its exclamation of “Woo-ha! Singing hallelujah!,” and “All Eyes on Me,” with its whip cracks and anxious synths, attempt to strike a more dastardly and vaguely dangerous vibe that they don’t really pull off. But for the most part, Alpha Zulu delivers the kind of deceptively simple, fleet pop for which Phoenix is best known.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shut Down The Streets
    For the most part, though, Shut Down the Streets manages to avoid the ennui nipping at its heels, and in its best moments, reinforces Newman as both a skillful wordsmith and a masterful purveyor of Dylan-esque folk rock.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sunshine Lies
    The album works just as well as a collection of terrific standalone singles, though, since Sweet keeps the focus of Sunshine Lies on some of the most compelling pop hooks he's written in years.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Saint Dymphna
    Yet as compared to their previous efforts, the album is surprisingly accessible and at times almost poppy-a valiant attempt at distilling, or translating, the Gang Gang Dance experience into the album format.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Born Like This
    Fortunately DOOM is unable to completely shake off his own best and worst habits, and so Born Like This contains its fair share of the rapper's classic screwball set pieces.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sparkle Hard
    Malkmus has been prone to juxtaposing tasteful pop songs with classic-rock elements and offbeat lyrics since Slanted and Enchanted, and the audible delight he still takes in such musical mischief is apparent throughout Sparkle Hard.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Horehound
    Her voice simply doesn't have the heft to project the necessary menace. Despite these occasional missteps, though, Horehound establishes the Dead Weather as a fully-realized band with a sufficiently distinctive point of view that deserves serious consideration as more than just a one-off side project.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Travelling Like The Light
    Brown brings that same sense of fearlessness to her vocal performances. With her slightly raspy timbre, Brown makes for a terrific, swaggering frontwoman....What gets Brown into some trouble is that she often lands on the wrong side of the line that separates homage from rip-off.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The King of Limbs
    The King of Limbs finds Yorke and company preparing to forge a new path while taking a pensive look at what has gone before.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nick Jonas
    With a mix of urban-leaning tracks and more radio-ready Top 40 fare, the album shrewdly distances Jonas from his former band's straightforward pop-rock.
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