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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    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sour
    Like Eilish and Lorde before her, Rodrigo possesses both a knack for stealthy pop hooks and a vocal control beyond her years. And even if Sour doesn’t quite transcend its myriad influences, it might at least inspire her fans to Google the Piano Man.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Visions
    Visions is a flawed but intimate glimpse into the fantasies of its creator, and while it might not act as a springboard to greater fame for Grimes, it's just as satisfying to hear her take her bedroom music into a darkened basement, away from the prying world.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sing: Chapter One
    Sing is such an interesting project, though, because there's a real honesty to the whole of it, including the parts that are kind of insufferable.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Quiet the Room
    Despite its often-startling beauty, Ballentine’s songwriting can’t help but feel derivative at times. ... Still, Quiet the Room isn’t without its unique charms—the ominous drones of “Lullaby in February” cast indie folk into the gloomy depths of dark ambient—and Ballentine offers copious moments of hushed self-reflection and aching sadness.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Phrazes For The Young
    Phrazes represents a creative departure for Casablancas and another milestone for his band--marking a point where they've produced more quality albums by themselves than as a group.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Juice B Crypts
    Juice B Crypts occasionally threatens to collapse beneath the weight of its overstuffed songs. But even when it’s too maximalist for its own good, Battles’s music is still compelling. That’s thanks in large part to Stainer’s mind-meltingly good drum work.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sick!
    Despite its scattered tone and occasionally underwhelming performances, though, Sick! is an important reminder of Earl’s skills as a poet of despair who’s unafraid to mine his own struggles in order to make sense of what’s happening around him.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Static
    Whereas Cults' debut was more carefree in its breezy melodies, Static has a heavier heart, presenting a band with not only a better understanding of their music, but of each other as human beings.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    ARTPOP
    It's Artpop's most naked, straightforward pop moments that are the album's most redemptive.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rhett Miller
    He sounds like a pro here too, turning in uniformly high quality performances, but without much thrill or excitement.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Something More Than Free
    Isbell's follow-up, Something More Than Free, retains Southeastern's intimate acoustic-based feel and heavyhearted lyrical matter, but it's even more smooth-edged and lacks the emotional gut-punches of its predecessor.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shape Shift with Me
    Against Me! has returned with something truly personal, an album that has the nerve to be small.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Long Trip Alone
    It's a pleasant surprise that Long Trip Alone, if not quite up to the level of the best recordings in mainstream country's recent artistic resurgence, succeeds in establishing Bentley as an artist worthy of more than just passing attention.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    My Woman
    While My Woman may not be as powerful as Burn Your Fire for No Witness, it draws its strength from its creator’s sheer temerity to so drastically change course.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Look Now
    With its mix of rock and balladry, Look Now strikes a fine balance between the lively and the pensive, nodding to previous eras of Costello’s career.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Trying To Never Catch Up
    Power-pop with brains that doesn't try too hard.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    EYEYE
    The lack of momentum caused by the absence of a consistent beat serves, almost paradoxically, to envelop us in Eyeye’s often mesmerizing cinematic textures. ... But while most of Eyeye’s trappings as a chronicle of a breakup are successful, sometimes Li’s writing can too blatantly underline her concepts.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tha Carter III
    One could easily pick and choose from the songs here to make a more coherent 12-track album; such a record would likely have more immediate impact. But it'd also be kind of painful to cut anything.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Crosseyed Heart
    The relatively low ratio of octane riffage means many of these songs hinge on Richards's worn, oaky voice. His low, craggly growl suits the rock songs well, and he manages perhaps the tenderest vocal performance of his career on the reggae-infused “Love Overdue.”
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mirage Rock
    While Mirage Rock may want for a certain degree of ambition and creativity, Band of Horses have, at the very least, figured out how to bring Americana music to a mainstream rock audience without succumbing to the genre's most dire, comatose conventions.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Wack Album
    Despite its occasional lapses into overly familiar territory, The Wack Album proves there simply isn't anyone out there who executes this strain of musical comedy with as much satirical precision as the Lonely Island.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rabbit Fur Coat
    A left-of-center delight that will tide over the Rilo Kiley faithful until their next album.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Silver Landings
    By drawing on the sounds of ‘70s singer-songwriters, Moore has successfully completed the transition from her teen-pop origins to adult troubadour.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Alternate/Endings
    Alternate/Endings succeeds in leaving you both exhausted and anxious for more.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Keys to the Kuffs
    Decades deep into his career, Dumile hasn't lost a step lyrically. His raspy-voiced rhymes even appear to be gaining depth and complexity without sacrificing anything in flow or entertainment value. His delivery remains as fluid as ever.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Little Red
    Little Red allows Katy the chance to be afraid of her feelings, or at least afraid of being guided by them. And that happens a lot more often and is reflected by the contradictions between the message and the music.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Annie Up
    If Annie Up doesn't quite break the country genre's familiar format, it's a hell of a lot of fun, and one could do worse than spend 40 minutes with these sassy almost-outlaws.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Loveliest Time
    Albums like The Loveliest Time are deliberately fragmentary, meant to fill in the pieces of her discography, and in that sense, this one is a wild success.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Do You Like Rock Music?
    For all the strength of the variously loud and soft moments throughout Do You Like Rock Music?, the record is at its best when the band attempts to holistically integrate the two.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You & I
    Fortunately, while You & I loses some of the distinctive details of its predecessor, the duo pulls off "conventional" just as well as they do twisted.
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