Paste Magazine's Scores

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For 4,071 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: 3,635 out of 4071
  2. Mixed: 400 out of 4071
  3. Negative: 36 out of 4071
4071 music reviews
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Something
    Something is a generally enjoyable, but nonetheless generally unremarkable next step for the band.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Crazy Clown Time
    Crazy Clown Time, recorded in Lynch's personal studio with engineer Big Dean Hurley, isn't exactly fart-blank, but this visual master shouldn't quit his day job.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    Ambition
    It's just not very fun. Wale's conversion to Ross' braggy rap-excess didn't seem like a great idea in theory, and stretched out to an hour his updated, devolved craft starts to wear thin very, very quickly.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lulu
    It's not an especially good album, but its failures are noble rather than ignoble-byproducts of ambition rather than hubris.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 52 Critic Score
    Audio, Video, Disco
    While † threatened to alienate with its sheer abrasiveness, its long-awaited follow-up succeeds in boring with its sprawling and unfocused Queen-meets-Skrillex mashups.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mylo Xyloto
    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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 47 Critic Score
    Enough Thunder [EP]
    There are flashes of the brilliance that made the youngster such a trendy buzzname, but it's hard work wading through the awkward muck.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    Mockingbird Time
    Mockingbird Time suffers most in the songwriting, which too often relies on soft hooks and indistinct details that never quite add up to conflicts or characters.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dreams Come True
    Dreams Come True is nothing if not well-produced and lovingly assembled. Problem is: there ain't no soul.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blue Songs
    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
    • 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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Rome
    Rome does sound like the result of five years of Very Serious Effort, except instead of honing a few rough spots, the hubris-driven tinkering ended up chipping away all the soul from what could have been a jaunty and lively homage to some of the best movie music ever made.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    In Your Dreams
    In Your Dreams is an album about exorcising the demons of the past and moving forward toward the beauty lingering in our imaginations.
    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 49 Critic Score
    Outside
    They're so determined to conjure a gothic America and its black-and-white morality that they fail to acknowledge the grace and sophistication of their source material.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    Rockpango
    The bad news: Los Lonely Boys are much better players than they are songwriters.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    Share the Joy
    Combining swelling '60s throwback harmonies and the sweet, swift wit of '50s songwriting, they parlay clichéd notions into winning melodies.
    • 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.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Live on I-5
    It's pretty much a greatest hits album, which conceptually blows an opportunity right off the bat.
    • 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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    The Majestic Silver Strings
    And yet, given the promise of their combined talents, Strings turns out to be seriously frayed, as these guitarists sound like they're going to another job instead of hanging around to jam.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 52 Critic Score
    Different Gear, Still Speeding
    Speaking of The Beatles, Different Gear continues the Gallagher quest for the perfect Lennon impression. It's yet to be found.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 46 Critic Score
    There Are Rules
    Here the Get Up Kids sound a bit confused and rusty, making There Are Rules a late career footnote of limited urgency.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Computers & Blues
    Overall, Skinner sounds bored and tired of himself-in short, ready to move on.
    • 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.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Farmer's Daughter
    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.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    WYWH
    WYWH is all about atmosphere, but it's an atmosphere that doesn't always leave an impression, which makes this album a very tentative step in the right direction.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Phosphene Dream
    Phosphene Dream's real achievement is that it takes the band's earlier murderous attitude and makes it impossibly bland.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 54 Critic Score
    Penny Sparkle
    A nicely composed mix, no doubt, and one that's often gorgeous to boot, but Penny Sparkle mostly sounds like a band getting complacent with age.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tin Can Trust
    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.
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