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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    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Path of Wellness
    The album’s early singles “High in the Grass” and “Worry with You” both play off of Sleater-Kinney’s strengths, the former showing off the ever-expanding reach of Tucker’s voice and the latter sporting one of the band’s sneakily catchy hooks. On the other hand, songs like the dour “Tomorrow’s Grave” sound a little too familiar and fail to push the group beyond their previously established template.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Ecstatic
    With leftfield collaborations with Slick Rick on one side and the reedy-feely Georgia Anne Muldrow on the other, The Ecstatic isn't the concentrated wonder that is "Black on Both Sides," but it's a refreshing bounce back from the precipice of the Land of Sellout.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Demon Days
    Demon Days is decidedly bleaker than its predecessor.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Coming Back To You
    That her backup occasionally lets her down, though, ultimately speaks to how confident Doolittle sounds here. Coming Back to You is an impressive opening salvo--even without the "for an American Idol" qualifier.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Soldier Of Love
    Apart from the futuristic sound of the title track and a mini-tribute to Michael Jackson on "Skin," Soldier possesses the same timeless quality as any of the band's previous albums.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You In Reverse
    Without Ek's second opinion, the results of You In Reverse are mixed; some tracks rule and some tracks drool.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Limits of Desire
    Small Black successfully avoids a sophomore slump by harnessing their various sonic inclinations.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Working Girl
    A more sonically focused effort.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Thrill of It All
    He's deepened his craft without exactly broadening it, which makes The Thrill of It All feel more like a fine-tuning than a bold new adventure.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
    Med Sud is less polished than the band's previous outings; it's still lush and finely tuned, but creaky acoustic guitars lend tracks like "Góðan Daginn" and "Illgresi" an intimate quality previously unheard.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power
    If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is ultimately rather straightforward, reprising many of the themes—self-doubt, self-sabotage, self-empowerment—that have been central to Halsey’s past work.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wildflower
    Crow typically does "melancholy" with panache, so more's the pity that Wildflower often sounds outright dull.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Under The Iron Sea
    What they have done, to their credit, is take the best elements from those bands--Radiohead's soaring melodies, U2's scope and volume, Coldplay's dogged earnestness--and combine them into something that, for much of Under The Iron Sea's running time, is a perfectly respectable alternative to, say, the likes of Train or The Goo Goo Dolls or to Coldplay's comparatively bland X&Y.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Stand Ins
    It's a straight line from Pet Sounds to Pulp's Different Class, and while Stand Ins and its predecessor share R&B riffs affected with a country twang, connecting this latest dip in the Okkervil to a '90s Pulp-y-ness is a refreshing move.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Chronicles of Marnia
    The Chronicles of Marnia is her most accessible effort to date.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    EP
    She is near pitch-perfect with every turn, and seems to relish the opportunity to flex her vocal cords in this electronic environment.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Woman, A Man, Walked By
    While not all of the songs work, the project is effective in crafting a series of distinct, compelling vignettes. Moreover, A Woman illustrates how deeply these two long-time collaborators understand each other's creative restlessness and their flair for the dramatic.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Deaner Album
    His technical skill and workmanlike approach to grimy, delightfully vulgar subject matter is on full display here.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    DJ-Kicks
    Despite its strict adherence to traditional and relatively straightforward dance aesthetics, the album is often showy, flaunting both its nods to authenticity and an impressive showcase of the genre's low-tech production style.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Intuit
    Intuit contains four or five tracks that are absolutely as ambitious and, ultimately, as good as anything the indie scene has produced this year, and it's unfortunate that they may well be heard less because they share album space with a few too many failed experiments.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I'm Gay (I'm Happy)
    I'm Gay (I'm Happy) isn't sly and intertextual, it's an alternate universe beholden only to its own laws.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Weight of Your Love
    Although The Weight of Your Love doesn't succeed to the same extent as other, older European rock albums drenched in American influences, it makes for a nicely retooled, if occasionally misguided, formula.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tales From Turnpike House
    A modest triumph.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Midnight Organ Fight
    Hutchison and his bandmates reward patience as well as repeated listens, and they deserve credit for unearthing a unique chunk of the Scottish heart, raised on equal parts American punk and traditional folk and bleeding beautifully.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    S&M2 [Live]
    Burton was a classical music aficionado, and was said to have introduced elements like harmony and sophistication into Metallica’s early no-frills thrash. S&M2 puts that influence on full display.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
    The album's adventurous musical scope serves to further expand the mythos behind Ebert's ego-fueled, drug-addled, socio-religious musical experiment.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Out Among the Stars
    Out Among the Stars is a reminder of how easy Cash made it all look even when he was slumping.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wild Flag
    Beyond comparisons to Sleater-Kinney's past work, the album functions as an intriguing first effort, jagged but routinely promising.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Progress
    At its best, with the apocalyptic stomp of "SOS" and the dreamy tones of "Pretty Things," it's clear Progress is by far the smartest record that Barlow and company have put their name to.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    All Things Will Unwind
    She inevitably succeeds by walking this fine line, a quality that gives her music its own stamp, saving it from the trap of uninspired pastiche.
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