Paste Magazine's Scores

Select another publication »
For 4,081 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 67% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 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: 100 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [50th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Version]
Lowest review score: 10 Songs From Black Mountain
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,645 out of 4081
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4081
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4081
4081 music reviews
view
per page
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Songs of Patience
    Their reach so far exceeds their grasp that all we can hear is the rift between their ambitions and their abilities.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
    This album rocks harder than 2003's The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, and it's more sinister, too. [Mar 2007, p.67]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    El Rey
    El is the kind of album you listen to once--and appreciate--but never really groove through with any regularity.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wilderness
    Prewitt's songs take their time unfolding, giving the album a meditative quality that's pretty admirable. [#14, p.105]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    New Moon
    For diehard Elliott Smith fans, New Moon is an absolute must... For remaining listeners, it's merely instructive, sublime in parts but not solid enough or surprising enough or interesting enough, musically, to merit multiple listens. [May 2007, p.58]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Colin Meloy Sings Live!
    Now the kid’s a toddler and his pop is widely known as Stephen Colbert’s hyper-literate, prog-rocking green-screen nemesis, but Sings Live! calls to mind a simpler time.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Age Of The Understatement
    This record is not for everybody--including, I suspect, the majority of Arctic Monkeys fans. Nonetheless, Turner deserves props for unleashing his inner Bowie and embracing artifice with such nerve and verve.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mess
    Its coda features a lone, breathy synth that unfurls like a tattered flag planted high atop a snow-covered peak, and, like the band’s best work, the song is comparable to little else in the pop/indie landscape—a far cry from the tepid feel that permeates too much of this Mess.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Watershed
    The lack of sticky material that has beset each of her albums since 1992’s "Ingénue" continues with the self-written, self-produced Watershed, preventing it from rising above the level of tasteful mood music.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Demolished Thoughts
    Whereas that album [Several Shades of Why] revealed the Dinosaur Jr frontman's surprising musical and lyrical range, Demolished Thoughts only reveals Moore's particular limitations.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pixel Revolt
    An uneven album that encapsulates much of what's gone flat in the scene he helped ferment, along with the few flourishes that make him a vital creative force.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Atom Bomb
    The Blind Boys of Alabama are probably the world’s hippest septuagenarians.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Make Believe
    Neither the best nor the worst album this band has recorded.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wildflower
    A collection of introspective songs that's heavy on the flower and hardly wild. [Dec 2005, p.107]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Let Them Drink
    It's not that terribly accomplished, it's not terribly coherent, it's not very linear, mature, or even sober-sounding. But that's rock 'n' roll, innit? [#16, p.145]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Happiness In Magazines
    Sounds more ambitious than Coxon's effortless riffs let on. [Apr/May 2005, p.131]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Supermodel
    The crux is the album’s smothering, reverb-heavy, more-is-more production style, which smooths over some of the off-kilter quirks that made Torches’ sprawl so alluring.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mr. A-Z
    What makes this glossy album more charming than cloying overall is the totally unselfconscious way he throws himself into these showy and technically stunning performances. [Aug/Sep 2005, p.111]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    IV Play
    Even Dream’s production, which was voluptuously orchestrated, has turned static; there’s an ashen militarism to be heard in these slow, sad songs.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Under The Iron Sea
    Keane knows its niche and plays it well. [Aug 2006, p.97]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    If I Am Only My Thoughts
    An album that needs a bit more of its own personality, but it’s sung with the confidence of someone who thinks they’ve got it all figured out.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bem-Vinda Vontade
    Pierce could still use lessons from Stereolab or Aloha on how to shape textures into songs. [Aug/Sep 2005, p.133]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In Our Bedroom After The War
    In Our Bedroom After the War isn’t Stars’ best effort, but it ultimately satisfies: in wartime, one takes solace wherever one can.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
    The two discs offered here brim with ideas, some more navel-gazing than others. [#16, p.143]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Getting Somewhere
    Moorer's most muscularly produced and pointedly written release. [Aug 2006, p.87]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Primitives
    Electronic music edges ever so slowly toward nausea, a tendency to turn music into math. The best artists fight this with loving restraint. Bayonne is close to the mark, but there might be a few times when you reach for the volume and just say “enough” with the looping. Then there are times when it does work, as on the song “Spectrolite” with a heavier emphasis on analog instruments.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Summer In The Southeast
    Oldham lacks the commanding vocal presence needed to convert delicate songs like "Master And Everyone" into shambling rock epics. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.110]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Gang Of Losers
    It's the band's fussiest, most elaborately conceived work to date. [Nov 2006, p.83]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fate
    So instantly pleasing, the trickery is transparent, a hook to keep listening until the content of Toby Leaman and Scott McMicken’s songs makes itself known.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Show Your Bones
    Everything I loved about Fever... is minimized on this follow-up, replaced by a more temperate jangle. [Jun/Jul 2006, p.129]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In Our Nature
    In Our Nature’s fingerpicked reveries, sonic gentility and lugubrious vibe might tug at your eyelids, but be warned: Its heavy-hearted sentiments are hardly the stuff of dreams.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fijacion Oral Vol. 1
    Strikes a nice balance between Shakira's more straightforward earlier sound and the bluster of her big crossover hits. [Aug/Sep 2005, p.122]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Happiness Ltd.
    Happiness ultimately falls victim to a faintly generic feel. There’s nothing we haven’t heard before, so reserve the album for background music rather than close listening, and it shouldn’t disappoint.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Josephine
    With the title character appearing in several songs amid frequent descriptions of desert landscape, Josephine sounds like a concept album, at times tedious or academic....The Co. redeem these songs by creating beautiful scenery for Molina’s long, hard drive.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Free To Stay
    Display[s] a combination of openness and hookiness reminiscent of indie-minded chanteuses from Juliana Hatfield to Nelly Furtado. [Sep 2006, p.76]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Without Feathers
    While stocked with skillful guitars, tuneful vocals and the occasional hook, Without Feathers feels oddly unassuming, a plain-vanilla modern-rock record. [Jun/Jul 2006, p.122]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Calling
    Though much of the blandness can be attributed to Matt Rollings' MOR production, one is left wishing an artist of Carpenter's considerable talents would eschew the aural dreck and truly shine. [May 2007, p.68]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Richard Butler
    It's refreshingly under-eager. [Aug 2006, p.94]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    White Chalk
    Put in context, White Chalk serves her purposes, much as Bruce Springsteen’s "Nebraska" served his. On initial listen, the album is not a step forward, nor is it a step back, but rather a lateral move intended to leave breathing room for her next attack.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wonderful, Glorious
    These are lifeless non-revelations married to engrossing tunes.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Black Swan
    It's on solo turns like "High Days"... that the elder statesman resounds much like... Bob Dylan recently did, stymieing a new generation with his continued craftsmanship. [Dec 2006, p.93]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Attack & Release
    Wonderful as they are, imagining the 76-year-old “Rocket 88” creator singing the weary gospel of “Remember When (Side A)” or the reflective “Things Ain’t Like They Used To Be” makes Dan Auerbach’s vocals sound tragically demo-like.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    From the Corner to the Block
    A bevy of worthy underground rappers (Mr. Lif, The Coup's Boots Riley, Lyrics Born, and Lateef The Truthspeaker among them) struggle to distinguish themselves over the mid-tempo bootyshake churning around them.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shine
    It's actually a good radio-rock disc, just not the crossover hit Anastasio's been after. [Dec 2005, p.115]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
    While any given song on the album contains a memorable melodic passage or a compelling idea, some of them are more mixed in their results.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    You Could Have It So Much Better
    Aside from better production values, little has changed about the Scotsmen’s formula.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Living With War
    The album has the instantaneous feel of a blog. [Aug 2006, p.93]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Fine Mess [EP]
    What’s disappointing about A Fine Mess is not just that the songs are unremarkable but also that they don’t deviate from the band’s usual approach in any notable way. There are no oddball experiments here, no genre strays, no real risks to speak of. There are just five more songs that sound a lot like Interpol, for fans for whom that is always enough.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    One
    When so much music is so bleak, a little unlikely optimism might be a crucial palliative measure, rather than Pollyanna-ish head-burying, and it’s sanguinity that Dirty Vegas delivers in spades.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Feathers
    An elongated, spacey drone of acidic riffage and flickering psych-rock ambience. [Apr/May 2005, p.135]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    45:33
    45:33 is as much gallery-crawl as beach-run; purpose-built in gliding tempos and warm-down synth shimmers for iPod-strapped runners, yet appropriate for a cruise through the Whitney, too. [Review of UK release]
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ultraviolet
    The album is undeniably solid, so why does it feel faintly underwhelming? Context is key.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Backspacer
    Outside of a filmic context and stamped with the name Pearl Jam, several of the songs fall flat, dragging down an otherwise upbeat and enjoyable release.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lasers
    So the political nails are hidden deeply enough in the candy that sometimes it's hard to tell whether the juxtaposition is truly bracingly subversive or oddly self-defeating. Depending on your mood or disposition, maybe it's neither, either or both. A musical Rorschach test if there ever was one.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tyranny
    Tyranny plays out like an album-length version of that epic song, stumbling upon moments of success in the way that a drunk dart player hits a bullseye every once in a while.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Making a Door Less Open
    Making a Door Less Open isn’t as memorable as its predecessors on its own: Toledo’s vision as a whole never feels truly fleshed out, representing the first legitimate misfire in the career of one of this generation’s most talented indie-rock songwriters.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hold On Now, Youngster
    In terms of mere diversion, though, the perfectly titled Hold On Now, Youngster… is best administered in small amounts; otherwise, you run the risk of overdose.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Antics
    These songs feel heavy and significant enough--due to dynamic production and hooky choruses--even if we don’t know exactly what they mean.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Forget Tomorrow
    Wander[s] into engagingly curious sonic territory. [#13, p.125]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Blessing And A Curse
    Blessing is merely good, solid rock.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mission Bell
    "Violin," the lone track which seems to bare a hint of Calexico influence, is unsurprisingly the album's clear highlight: a swelling, sweeping slow-burner with wide-screen atmosphere, angelic harmonies and pedal steel aching over modest acoustic strums. More of this ilk and Mission Bell would have been a stunner.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Spell
    The wonderfully overdramatic Spell inspires imagery of the house band in a borderland casino. [Sep 2006, p.81]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    9
    While not as panoramic or varied as its predecessor, 9 is marked by a similar mix of poised control and impulsive gestures backed by dramatically arranged, lyrical instrumentation. [Dec 2006, p.92]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn
    The album suffers from a lack of focus. [May 2007, p.67]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jim
    U.K. upstart Jamie Lidell’s latest is trapped squarely in this box, but the quality of his vocal performance generally keeps things from being stifling.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    On Leaving
    Her voice isn't a particularly versatile instrument, but it radiates a certain dignity and keeps the focus on her well-crafted songs. [Nov 2006, p.85]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Simpatico
    All in all, it's a strange but refreshing and likely unintentional throwback. [Sep 2006, p.81]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fire Songs
    The Twins aren’t so compelling as songwriters, and too many of these fire songs sound merely serviceable, with mellow hooks and humdrum sentiments.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Headphones
    The mood of the disc is no less overcast than his usual material; it just makes more use of the celesta setting.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Release Therapy
    Release Therapy is solid; disappointing only when weighed against Luda's prodigious talent. [Dec 2006, p.89]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    9th Ward Pickin' Parlor
    [A] solid, satisfying effort. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.95]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Real Emotional Trash
    With Real Emotional Trash, he proves he can retain both, leaving behind the controlled one-man-band environment of 2005’s Face the Truth and issuing his most eclectic and unpredictable album yet.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Motion Sickness [Live]
    All the pros and cons of Bright Eyes present themselves here. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.110]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sing-Sing And I
    Call it Trip-Pop. [Apr/May 2006, p.117]
    • Paste Magazine
    • 67 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Heartbeat Radio
    Prodigiously talented but frustratingly inconsistent, Lerche gives Heartbeat Radio an unsteady pulse.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Hang
    The band’s latest is a slight improvement, though the self-indulgence and lack of focus are still in evidence.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Computers & Blues
    Overall, Skinner sounds bored and tired of himself-in short, ready to move on.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Death of a Decade
    It's a fine album that often lapses into anonymity, that never quite rocks as hard and as consistently as it should.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Further
    A few gems, sure, but Further doesn't fly far enough.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Magic Chairs
    The album struggles at times to raise its head from the multi-instrumental pack; textured as it is, there’s a muted quality to this collection that inevitably leaves ears slightly cold. It’s pretty, but not always gripping.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Car Alarm
    Maybe all of Car Alarm is about conflict, but Prekop glides and sighs over every vowel, making it difficult to hear what he’s saying or to detect a hint of tension beneath the gloss.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Million Dollars To Kill Me
    It’s a recipe for Joyce Manor at their slickest power pop yet, even as it lacks the narrative depth we’re used to.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    I Remember
    AlunaGeorge have always been smooth, but here they sound soft, the glitches debugged, their quirks edited out.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Hippo Lite
    This time, there are a couple of solid songs surrounded on all sides by wandering experiments which never quite form into a whole.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Anxiety
    While Anxiety is not a trainwreck, it's a missed opportunity given the strength of her foundation.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Uneasy Laughter
    Uneasy Laughter is fine. It’d be much better if it was either divorced from ruminations on honesty, or if the band actually managed to define themselves without leaning on ’80s nostalgia.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Gallipoli
    The end result is an incredibly inoffensive album, one that’s perfectly lovely without offering any striking new ideas or features that make it memorable.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Finally Free
    Sometimes Romano manages to pull off an unexpected success: a repeating thinly strummed acoustic guitar chord and quavering vocals at the start of “Empty Husk” eventually build to a catharsis of overdriven electric guitars and a vibrant melody. More often, though, these tunes just idle.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Tucson: A Country Rock Opera
    The record is good as background noise, with a few tracks strong enough to stand alone. As a complete story, though, it doesn't exactly deliver.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Violet Cries
    Violet Cries is broadly, nebulously goth, with very little to distinguish the band from their peers and forebears.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Wolves
    For being one of the first big punk albums in post-Trump America, Wolves doesn’t howl nearly enough and rarely shows its fangs.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Revolution
    On songs like these, she resists the temptation to play the spurned frontierswoman out for revenge. She’s a little wounded, a little scared, a little less of a caricature and a little more human.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Lover
    Even the bright spots in the album’s composition—the off-beat piano cascades in “Death By A Thousand Cuts” and the pulsating synth of “Cruel Summer” (thank you, St. Vincent) are particular standouts—are overshadowed by the musical anticlimax on most tracks, especially on “The Archer.”
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Glad All Over
    All told, Dylan and company don't leave you glad all over--but maybe half-way.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Escape 2 Mars
    Even with Gab’s phonetic prowess and all that time to prepare for launch, Escape 2 Mars doesn’t reach the transcendent heights of its sublime, lushly orchestrated predecessor, ultimately feeling less like an epic interplanetary voyage and more like space camp.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Permanent Signal
    It wants to be The Antlers as a singer/songwriter, but even The Antlers walk dangerously close to the edge of good taste. Remiddi’s voice is no help, either, often times too delicate and dainty to extract much emotion from, and only convincing when it flaunts imperfections.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Everybody Knows
    Unfortunately, Everybody Knows is the sound of two classic artists playing the 18th hole of their intertwined and decorated careers.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Drones
    In spite of its melodic clarity, Drones ultimately succumbs under the weight of its narrative, which strains for political and social commentary but winds up closer to parody.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
    There are hints of the band's previous life here--"Oasis" seems to strikes the roots-pop balance they're going for, and "Goodbye Kiss" is perfectly fine barroom reggae--and Potter rarely misses a chance to show off her killer voice, but The Nocturnals' crucial swagger has sadly been scrubbed clean away.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    American Head
    By track four, a whimsical-by-numbers reverie called “Dinosaurs on the Mountain,” American Head starts to fall off an American cliff. The tempos are slow enough to deflate even Coyne’s considerable charm, and the record’s rootsy, pastoral spin on the Lips’ sound is undermined by the band’s maximalist production ethos. Nearly every song is overstuffed with queasy synth textures and sleek, digitized strings, and Coyne can’t resist warping his vocals in a grab-bag of ugly processors.
Page: