For 4,072 reviews, this publication has graded:
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67% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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30% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 76
| Highest review score: | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [50th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Version] | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Songs From Black Mountain |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 3,636 out of 4072
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Mixed: 400 out of 4072
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Negative: 36 out of 4072
4072
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Simplicity is king, as a relentlessly jaunty onslaught of jangle-pop hurtles ever onwards. [May 2007, p.96]- Paste Magazine
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Here, most gestures remain a bit too consciously panoramic—elegant enough for comfort but often not chancy enough to be breathtaking.- Paste Magazine
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At times convoluted, Solarized can be a bit of a puzzle, but there are precious few pieces missing from this set. [#14, p.115]- Paste Magazine
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Benson doesn't win any points for innovation, but his deft musicianship and confident vocal presence are sure to please those who never tire of a good tune. [Apr/May 2005, p.137]- Paste Magazine
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Another nice-enough album of sweetly sighing chamber pop that marks yet another incremental step forward. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.109]- Paste Magazine
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While all members sound terrific behind the microphone, particularly when the harmonies are at their thickest, Love's lead turns on the god-awful "Daybreak Over the Ocean" and "Beaches in Mind" are excruciatingly over-played in their winky retro-ness and, quite frankly, an embarrassment.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Jun 5, 2012
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The great thing about Weller at this point is that he'll shuffle the deck every other song and often (if not always) come up with a face card. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.103]- Paste Magazine
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All in all, Farmer's Daughter is better than you might expect, which isn't to say it's great. Too many tracks aim straight for the middle.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Dec 20, 2010
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There's clarity visible beneath the waterline, sharp lyrics and even some hummable choruses. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.141]- Paste Magazine
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A lot of the miffed disappointment could come from the fact that Butler pulled the rug out from under his solidified, circa-2008 sound, but if nothing else the new incarnation is a lot harder to fall in love wit- Paste Magazine
- Posted Aug 17, 2011
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Some of Brad Albetta's production veers toward generic pop and threatens to bury both Wainwright's distinctive voice and her lyrics. [Apr/May 2005, p.131]- Paste Magazine
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Give Adem his props for chancing a foray into the cover album field, a move which always carries its risks. But Takes simply doesn’t warrant much attention, no matter how much its material means to its creator.- Paste Magazine
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This diverse album's eerie ambience and astute songwriting more than compensate for its periodic uneventfulness. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.145]- Paste Magazine
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The album relies on a stark, tribal minimalism that sounds as if it was recorded several decades ago. [Dec 2006, p.93]- Paste Magazine
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The band presently possesses more 'tude than tunes. [Nov 2006, p.81]- Paste Magazine
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Visitations is a return to Internal Wrangler's more straightforward form. It's not as revelatory the second time around, but it plays to Clinic's main strength. [Feb 2007, p.57]- Paste Magazine
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Now mature pop songwriters, the Omaha quintet sounds more like a conventional band on O, favoring rousing sing-along choruses, richly layered pianos and trumpets, and even standard drum kits.- Paste Magazine
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Unfortunately songs that aren't immediately danceable... tend to dull the excitement. [Dec 2006, p.94]- Paste Magazine
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- Paste Magazine
- Posted Apr 23, 2013
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This should go down in Mountain Goats lore as "The Quiet Album." [Sep 2006, p.82]- Paste Magazine
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On The Haunted Man, Khan continues to pursue a similar approach to combining ambition and concision, but, unfortunately, the result is a disappointingly tepid album.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Oct 23, 2012
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Andorra belongs on a hip continuum but something about it still feels slightly cold--it's a druggy album that's too precise to be made with drugs, a lush album that’s too filigreed to be emotional.- Paste Magazine
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All of Tin Can's shifting tempos make you feel like you're getting a new song each time, but really, you've heard it all before.- Paste Magazine
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Konk is a bit too glossy for its own good, with neatly distorted guitars, swooning multi-tracked harmonies and perfectly manicured choruses working against the energy inherent in the performances.- Paste Magazine
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Campbell's particular sense of catchy pop melody is a nightlight in the darkness. [#14, p.111]- Paste Magazine
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Hitchcock returns to his trademark: arpeggiated guitars swirling around hyperactive basslines with whimsical lyrics cloaked in harmony that turn dark without warning. [Oct 2006, p.76]- Paste Magazine
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In [some] songs, Mellencamp comes across as Toby Keith's benevolent doppelganger: a good ol' boy who'd rather forgive someone's sorry ass than put a boot in it. [Mar 2007, p.68]- Paste Magazine
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The Brooklyn band’s innate charm and accessibility allows forgiveness of its near-abandonment of bass-driven new wave.- Paste Magazine
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Evokes Juliana Hatfield more than Shania Twain. [Apr/May 2005, p.127]- Paste Magazine
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More Pete Seeger than Cat Power, her interpretations sometimes feel too internalized to startle. [May 2007, p.61]- Paste Magazine
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Unfortunately, What We Saw is heavy on overlong ballads, and when she adds that trademark whimsy to the mix, it's nearly unbearable.- Paste Magazine
- Posted May 31, 2012
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Gone is the orchestral saturation that sometimes bogged down Crooked Fingers, replaced by gnomic acoustic folk that's stark to the point of nudity. [Oct 2006, p.84]- Paste Magazine
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It could have been--and should have been--a much better listen with the talent these three ladies possess. Unfortunately, it never quite jells.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Jul 16, 2014
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Invisible melodies--sometimes too invisible--give shape to songs like wind billowing through curtains. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.143]- Paste Magazine
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Préliminaires applies an interesting--if not wholly successful--Aznavour twist to Iggy’s latter-day repertoire.- Paste Magazine
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The well-established indie-pop tricks get results, but are too unerringly calculated to have much distinct personality. Some big, billowy production would have helped.- Paste Magazine
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DiFranco always throws her heart into her songs, and Knuckledown gives her a chance to reflect on it.- Paste Magazine
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The record feels akin to 40 minutes of stoned stargazing in a college dorm room. And the kid down the hall has yet to add substance to the conversation.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Jan 29, 2013
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The Strokes don't have much of their own to say here. [Dec 2005, p.106]- Paste Magazine
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Citrus is the crossroads where My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth mingle. [Aug 2006, p.88]- Paste Magazine
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Learn to Sing Like a Star threads together Hersh's myriad musical guises while striving for some of the immediacy and distinctive yelp of her Throwing Muses heyday. It mostly works. [Mar 2007, p.69]- Paste Magazine
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Eloquently combines elements of pop, spaced-out electronic rock and even dirty garage. [Aug/Sep 2005, p.121]- Paste Magazine
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It's hardly perfect, but it's bolder, more complex, and ultimately a more fulfilling release for this band. [May 2007, p.65]- Paste Magazine
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Egon Schiele aficionados and jaded cabaret junkies: this is your music. [Apr/May 2005, p.146]- Paste Magazine
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Unlike previous MagCo. releases, it finally feels like the band has achieved a unifying cohesiveness. [Nov 2006, p.79]- Paste Magazine
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Most of Songs balances caustic lyrics with beautiful power-pop interludes. [Jun/Jul 2006, p.119]- Paste Magazine
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English Little League, like most of Pollard’s crop from the past decade, holds a few really great tracks, but is mostly missable.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Apr 30, 2013
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Only a tender take on Tom Waits' "(Looking For) The Heart of a Saturday Night" gives Peyroux the glimmer of modernity Perfect World so desperately craves. [Oct 2006, p.80]- Paste Magazine
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Finds them doing pretty much what they've always done (hardly bad news). [#16, p.149]- Paste Magazine
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Alongside its distracting flaws, True Sadness contains some truly beautiful music--and a good measure of the joyous energy that The Avett Brothers employ to transcendent effect live--but there’s no guiding principle here, resulting in a dizzy mess of an album that doesn’t live up to the band’s talents.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Jun 29, 2016
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On Beal’s first album, he moved between child-like ambience, songs suitable for weird film scores and stomping blues.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Sep 10, 2013
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Even if the whole thing isn’t world-upheaving. Those standalone tracks make it worth a whirl.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Sep 24, 2013
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At root, the gritty, back-to-the-garage drive of these pop tunes adds a layer of grease that makes them stick. [Apr 2007, p.58]- Paste Magazine
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Tough Age’s self-titled debut has its moments, most of them falling in the album’s front third.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Jan 8, 2014
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Entrenched fans will be pleased to have another wing to explore in his ever-expanding mansion of song. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.110]- Paste Magazine
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Things get slightly clunky when the tempo slows and they stretch for drama, but there’s a growing self-awareness here that keeps Rooney within its comfort zone, which, refreshingly, is comforting more often than not.- Paste Magazine
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The songwriting meanders sometimes, but some engaging moments... surface throughout. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.135]- Paste Magazine
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The band gets bogged down far too often with a slow-verse-then-guitar-solo model, making Shots a nice overall listen but not much more.- Paste Magazine
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Thematically, it's stale and preachy, but few capture mechanized emotion like Daft Punk. [Apr/May 2005, p.142]- Paste Magazine
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That’s the case overall for Blazing Gentlemen, which too often comes off like a rote exercise instead of an inspired undertaking.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Dec 17, 2013
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Swings from rapid-fire rockers to acoustic-inspired melodic pieces. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.97]- Paste Magazine
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All but a few tracks could be touted as a single, though in the same breath, it is hard to pick a standout from them, their defining moments tied to a choice on their pedal board.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Jan 23, 2013
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Curve of the Earth isn’t a complete rebound--there are too many fumbles, too many eye-rolls. But in its fits of brilliance, Mystery Jets reclaim their throne as rock’s savviest copycats.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Jan 26, 2016
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Taiga is an attempt at putting what it is that’s personal--vocals and lyrics--in the forefront, which is important, but it’s banished a mood and kind of mystery from everything.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Oct 7, 2014
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Occasionally, their ambitions get the better of them. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.135]- Paste Magazine
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There isn't much to distinguish him from a million other talented but interchangeable coffe-shop-circuit troubadours. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.95]- Paste Magazine
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The playbook is obvious and efficiently executed. [Mar 2007, p.63]- Paste Magazine
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Hello Everything is short on revelations but not quality. [Dec 2006, p.97]- Paste Magazine
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Case... still approximates a Northwestern Patsy Cline with a graduate degree, and while the stories she tells are mournful, her delivery remains buoyant. [Apr/May 2006, p.101]- Paste Magazine
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A record enveloping enough to be therapeutic but vital enough to be inspiring. [Dec 2006, p.89]- Paste Magazine
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Unfortunately, disc two’s cache of amorphous, New Age-y, re-recorded Pixies standards falls flat.- Paste Magazine
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Centipede Hz is not their worst album as some will believe--or as its dense ugliness will first sound--and it may continue to reveal itself over time like TV on the Radio's Nine Types of Light or Spoon's Transference.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Sep 4, 2012
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The album carries a slight-but-distinct theatrical odor. [Apr 2007, p.56]- Paste Magazine
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On The Search... Farrar discovers some genuinely exciting new haunts, and frontloads them conveniently. [Mar 2007, p.62]- Paste Magazine
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Something is a generally enjoyable, but nonetheless generally unremarkable next step for the band.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Jan 24, 2012
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Young uncorks his storied one-two punch, mounting a pair of sweeping, detailed social narratives while ripping away at the guitar strings, laying his psyche bare. Long may he rave.- Paste Magazine
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The band is now displaying an elevated gift for arrangement. [Aug 2006, p.87]- Paste Magazine
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Like much of Thievery Corporation's work, it's enveloping if not terribly galvanizing. [#16, p.138]- Paste Magazine
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This nostalgic psych appeal proves ideal for impulsive summertime road trips. [Aug/Sep 2005, p.128]- Paste Magazine
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Unfortunately, its during these rather naked moments where the album falters, mostly because Duffy’s robust voice often overmatches the music that surrounds it.- Paste Magazine
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A lusher, synthier and all-around grandiose slab of shoegazer emoting and New Age cinematics. [#14, p.120]- Paste Magazine
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It's a moment of stirring calm amid a sea of blaring showiness, and this well-intended mixed bag, despite its lovely surfaces, could have used more of that variety.- Paste Magazine
- Posted Oct 25, 2011
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It might as well be Harcourt’s thesis: marrying the histrionic truths of the deeply aggrieved with the formal mastery of great pop. More often, Harcourt’s failed attempts at mimicking Jeff Buckley throw whatever genre he tries off balance.- Paste Magazine
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Cold Roses comes as a bit of relief, bereft of the posturing that so often attends Adams’ work.... That said, there’s also a sense of retreat that permeates the record, a willingness to offer the comforts of familiar tones instead of ambitiously taking chances.- Paste Magazine
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So by all means pick up With the Lights Out, but go ahead and trash the curiously un-Nirvana-like packaging, discard the heat-sensitive (!) box, pitch the liner notes, maybe even throw away the DVD.- Paste Magazine
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In a year that has also brought the envelope-pushing production work of Edan’s album Beauty and the Beast, the rehashed soul sometimes comes off limp, too content with itself and its well-worn form to challenge the genre’s status quo.- Paste Magazine
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The smiling-through-tears undercurrent of ’60s pop is lost in Deschanel’s taffy-like vocals, and though the album evokes memories of a more pleasant time, they seem far too sweet to be real.- Paste Magazine
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For fans who’ve followed the singer/songwriter since the demise of Soul Coughing, there’s a lot to recommend on Golden Delicious.- Paste Magazine
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- Posted May 11, 2012
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