Slant Magazine's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wrangled
    A brave album from a country singer who's still finding herself, suggests that it's never too late to lift yourself up.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Real Animal
    The production choices are well-matched to the individual songs on both structural and thematic levels--Real Animal works as a testament to the diversity of Escovedo's career and the breadth of his talents--but those individual choices don't necessarily make for a cohesive album.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wander/Wonder
    Wander/Wonder's progression is satisfying and absorbing without ever exuding cloying self-awareness, and the same goes for its creator: Koone is clever and inventive, but far too engrossed in his vision to break momentum and pat himself on the back.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Always Ascending
    Always Ascending may only serve as an incremental progression for Franz Ferdinand, but in departing from their upbeat romps in favor of a more nuanced, philosophical approach, Kapranos and company have reinvigorated their music by reaching for higher ground.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kill
    While the album lacks a certain degree of accessibility and thematic coherence, Electric Six's wiseass humor and, moreover, their superior technical skill make Kill an energetic, frenzied party of a record.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Brutalist Bricks
    Despite its obvious ingredients and well-worn criterion, Brutalist Bricks comes off peculiarly fresh. There are simply not a lot of people making the same sort of music Leo is these days; his audacious conviction is so easily appreciable (and hard to recreate) that he's almost immune to diminishing returns.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Storm & Grace
    Storm & Grace is an effortless, natural-sounding collaboration.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Highs
    The album serves as a continued refinement of the talents that he displayed on 2006’s immense Harmony in Ultraviolet and 2016’s confrontational Love Streams, even if it’s ultimately not as consistent. Its atmosphere is so suffocating that “Anxiety” may accurately sum up most listeners’ emotional states after listening to the album in full—and considering No Highs’s ambitions, that’s perhaps the highest possible praise one could bestow upon it.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Prey//IV
    While the choice to end Prey//IV with its most downcast song might feel like a relinquishing of the power that Glass has claimed, it grounds the album’s brutality in reality, poignantly reminding us that this is a document of Glass’s lived experiences.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Romanian Names
    Something of a letdown by his own lofty standards, but still awfully good by anyone else's, John Vanderslice's Romanian Names is perhaps the singer-songwriter's most obtuse album.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Perfectly Clear
    Even if it doesn't sound more like a country album than any of her previous work, the best songs on Perfectly Clear do show an awareness of genre form that gives Jewel a more distinctive presence than many of her contemporaries on country radio.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    UGLY
    Despite its allusions to seeking therapy, listening to the album feels like accompanying a friend on a disastrous Saturday night bender.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Another Country
    Another Country is never less than an effortless, inviting listen by an artist who fully deserves to be a major star within her genre.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Does You Inspire You
    'Bruises,' the latest in a long line of bouncy pop ditties to ingratiate themselves into our collective pop consciousness via an iPod commercial, proves that the band is capable of being poignant without taking themselves too seriously, but much of Does You Inspire You, like the ode to pencils 'Evident Utensil,' veers a little too far into silly territory to elevate the album above a well-made and well-performed oddity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Forgiveness Rock Record
    the bulk of the tracks are the work of a septet consisting of frontman Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Sam Goldberg, Lisa Lobsinger, Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin, and Andrew Whiteman. That makes for a more streamlined, accessible album than many of BSS's devotees might expect, but it also makes for a more mature recording.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Electric
    The Pet Shop Boys have once again given themselves a lease on another era, and Price was obviously the right choice to help them do so.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Yes, Virginia...
    Yes, Virginia is hit-or-miss.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Love & Hate
    Love & Hate shows lateral growth in its procession of art-rock odysseys and more standard fare, and proof that Kiwanuka can wield power over a number of arrangements, even dense ones.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Collapse [EP]
    For a once-hermetic artist, James's recent output has trended toward greater accessibility, but even by that measure, Collapse's biggest surprise lies in how warm and inviting it all is.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bleed Like Me
    If Version 2.0 was techno-pop perfection posing as rock, Bleed Like Me is its noisy, long-haired cousin playing metal riffs in the garage.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The True False Identity
    As he routinely does with other artists' material, Burnett has outdone himself on the album's production; it's the material itself that's a bit underwhelming.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wait For Me
    Wait for Me is persistent in humility and dismissive of grandeur, often preferring sedate exposition to the usual club-conquering anthems. It's not the most daring choice of experimentation, but for an artist as commercially minded as Moby, it remains refreshing nonetheless.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Love Invention
    Lyrically, Goldfrapp occasionally leans too far into pop simplicity. ... Later in the album, though, when Goldfrapp gets more experimental—or at least dispenses with conventional pop structures—things begin to feel more immersive.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Velociraptor!
    Even if Velociraptor! isn't quite the album the band promised it would be (it's practically impossible for Kasabian to live up to their own self-conjured hype), it should be enough to prolong their tenure as British rock royalty.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    One Second of Love
    Gonzalez is more fun when she's trying to be challenging than when she's trying to be fun.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Garden Ruin
    It's the band's die-hards who will have to put in a good deal more work with Garden Ruin, an album that seems destined to be regarded as a "transitional" record a few years out.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Be Myself
    Be Myself might lack the quirks that made Sheryl Crow so distinctive (it opened with a song about aliens, after all), but the album proves that some alliances can outlast even the latest planet-shrinking technology.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Don't Stop
    Annie deserves credit for attempting to stretch, both vocally and lyrically, but she's better off when quietly lamenting lost love or championing the power of the dance floor to bring people together, as she effectively does on the opening track 'Hey Annie.'
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Crane Wife
    Certain listeners will declare The Crane Wife the best record yet from the Decemberists, but it’s still too inconsistent to be declared the masterpiece of which Meloy and company are capable.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mansion Songs
    If Howlin Rain likes to draw from rock tradition, they also like to push that tradition to its limit, often creating momentary points of chaos, a sense that the songs could fall apart at any moment.
Page: