Slant Magazine's Scores

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For 3,121 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: 1,691 out of 3121
  2. Mixed: 1,319 out of 3121
  3. Negative: 111 out of 3121
3121 music reviews
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Repo
    The only negative here is a lack of structure between songs, which makes Repo feel like something dropped in a pile at your feet.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Caracal
    If Settle was the thunderstorm, Caracal is the unmistakable scent left in the air afterward.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Michael
    Almost every other song on Michael relies on a similar arrangement of choirs, pianos, and organs, which risks becoming tiresome, though its sonic divergence from most mainstream American hip-hop today is refreshing. In that sense, the album is a kindred spirit to the prolific British collective Sault, who incorporate lush R&B and gospel into their eclectic sound.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Stupid Love
    Smith's latest, Stupid Love, goes a long way toward correcting those earlier mistakes, and it easily stands as her most accomplished, most substantial record.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Where The Wild Things Are [OST]
    If there are occasional missteps (even for a soundtrack to a children's film, one song that hinges on spelling is plenty), Where the Wild Things Are stands as the rare soundtrack that's an essential listen.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Secondhand Rapture
    MS MR's knack for durable hooks, in fact, is what keeps the album's gloomy goth-pop anchored.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ode To Joy
    Tthe album is a bit monochromatic, lacking the classic guitar heroism that has, in the past, allowed Wilco to buck the dad-rock label. Twelve years on from Sky Blue Sky, the band would benefit from opening up their sound again—and getting a little bit weird.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Something to Give Each Other
    What Something to Give Each Other lacks in poignancy, though, is made up for by the joy with which it embraces queer pleasure.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    From a Room, Vol. 1
    Traveller proved, more than anything else, that Stapleton has the gravitas to pull off big ballads, and there are a few more of them here. From A Room: Volume 1, however, is most rewarding when he tackles stylistic detours, showing how capable he is of handling songs that are light-hearted, upbeat, or simply more stylistically varied.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shadow Offering
    Demonstrating their versatility throughout the album, Braids locate something of a sweet spot, embracing a restrained plainspokenness without completely veering from the outré flourishes and melancholic, midtempo jams that are their specialty.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Vows
    Kimbra certainly has the voice, and, at least for now, the production to foment both critical praise and mainstream success, provided she can find an audience with enough patience for such carefully plotted music.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    50 Words for Snow
    50 Words for Snow is a success not only because it's so challengingly bold and peculiar, but because it repackages Bush's usual idiosyncrasies in an entirely new form.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Icky Thump
    Though far from The White Stripes' best work, Icky Thump is still plenty good, brash, and noisy in the way great rock records are supposed to be.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    2093
    Repetition is a big one, and not just in the sense of saying the same word over and over again—which Yeat does on “Psychocainë,” whose chorus has him shuffling through several permutations of the phrase “I forgot”—but in songs that, though they’re certainly cutting edge when compared to what else is out there, begin to blur together over time. But while that prevents 2093 from sounding quite as forward-minded as its title suggests, Yeat is finally tapping into a style he can confidently call his own.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Thecontrollersphere
    thecontrollersphere may be an album of toss-offs, but they're proud ones, earning that status by virtue of robust exploration rather than any real deficiency.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Galactic Melt
    As it stands, Galactic Melt is a meticulously crafted offering that, due to the tremendous promise exhibited by Cyanide Sisters, falls short of expectations.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Let It Beard
    What Let It Beard lacks in blockbuster hooks it makes up for in its rambling excess of melody, giving the appearance of effortlessness to what, evidenced by Pollard's lack of competition, is obviously anything but.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wizard Bloody Wizard
    They're not breaking new ground, or trying to: True to their sorcerous name, the band simply performs the right incantations and brings forth old demons from the abyss. Some things don't need reinventing, and fortunately for Electric Wizard, heavy metal is one of them.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Revival
    Song for song, Revival rivals Carly Rae Jepsen's Emotion for breakout pop album of the year, but if it similarly falls short of greatness, it's due in large part to a lack of originality.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ghost Forests
    It’s a perfectly-balanced 36 minutes, and hopefully a foreshadow of more collaborations to come.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Inside the Old Year Dying
    The music throughout I Inside the Old Year Dying rattles and quakes in stark contrast with Harvey’s studiously composed intellectual exercises. Which is to say, this is an album that gives about as much as it asks in return, even if its medieval trappings and intentional obfuscation do risk letting listeners walk away feeling more bewildered than moved.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Destroyed Room: B-Sides And Rarities
    The Destroyed Room is certainly more than a hastily cobbled together stocking stuffer for indie snobs, but it still kind of feels like one.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This Is What the Truth Feels Like
    It’s easy to chastise aging pop stars for chasing trends or trying to recapture past glories, but those efforts here are thrown into sharp relief by the maturity of the album’s first half.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Work
    It’s a shame that his first album in over half a decade doesn’t push his musical ideas a little further, and in some moments, The Work feels almost like an addendum to 2016’s Good Luck and Do Your Best, but the results are still undeniably affecting.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sixth House
    It's a layered, engaging addition to one of indie-rock's most slept-on songbooks.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    B'Day
    Whereas Beyoncé's debut was accomplished in its diversity, albeit a sure sign of a new solo artist trying to find her voice, B'Day sounds like the album "Crazy In Love" initially forecasted.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mercy
    Overall, Mercy doesn’t quite measure up to the band’s stellar triptych of albums released between 2012 and 2014, on which they stretched to expand their repertoire, challenging themselves to explore various sounds from throughout the history of rock while refining their chops and chasing wild hares. Mercy boasts a few moments of exploration but seems more staid in its ambitions.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light
    The first third or so of Recording A Tape lags a bit, mostly because Bell Orchestre seems reluctant to show all its cards right out of the jewel case. However, once you reach "THROW IT ON A FIRE," the horns and percussion begin to drive, and the album grows progressively stronger.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hands of Glory
    While it's still a triumph of moody, Appalachia-drenched indie pop, Hands of Glory exists as merely a portion of a divided project that should have remained whole.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Changephobia
    While Batmanglij has reduced the vast variety of sounds and distortion of his debut, the warmth of his vision remains.
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