Slant Magazine's Scores

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For 3,122 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: 1,692 out of 3122
  2. Mixed: 1,319 out of 3122
  3. Negative: 111 out of 3122
3122 music reviews
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stars Of CCTV
    Cribbing from Franz Ferdinand's sonic playbook (with a healthy dose of fellow revivalists Dead 60s, Kasabian, and--why not?--Kaiser Chiefs thrown in), Hard-Fi builds roiling, angsty anthems built upon Richard Archer's stark evocations of life in suburban London.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Showtunes
    There can be too much of a good thing, and making your way through all 26 tracks of Showtunes will definitely leave you with a tummy ache.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fear Is On Our Side
    Fear Is On Our Side is slickly produced... and resplendent in its studied somber nature, which makes mining the by-now exhausted vein of viscerally dark '80s rock an all the more unfortunate choice.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fab Four Suture
    Simultaneously a structural free-for-all and a glossy collection of diverse material.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Under A Billion Suns
    Under A Billion Suns is, by a wide margin, the tightest Mudhoney has ever sounded on record. It's all the more unfortunate, then, that the album's lyrics bait the comparison to... Green Day.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mr. Beast
    Simplicity doesn't make Mr. Beast unpleasant, just dumb.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pay The Devil
    Competent but unremarkable.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Push The Heart
    The Devics' music is chamber pop at its most lush and dreamy.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    If Only You Were Lonely
    Guitarist Casey Calvert reprises his role as the group's designated screamer, but his vocal thrashings are featured less prominently here, relegated mainly to solos near the end of songs. Surprisingly, this ends up being a bad thing, because while the screaming is grating at times, it provides one of the principal elements of the band's sound.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    In My Own Words
    In My Own Words might pale next to Legend's stellar debut, but, even at its Robert Kelly worst, it's not hateable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Leaders Of The Free World
    The album is a reverb-laced dirge, a slow-motion version of "you're prettier after three beers." Unfortunately, Elbow's lyrics--while plenty fatigued, especially coming from the disinterested vocal cords of lead singer Guy Garvey--are pretty sober.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hello Waveforms
    The album is distilled down to Orbit's basic, knob-twirling ambience but stripped of any and all personality.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Secret Life Of The Veronicas
    The Secret Life Of The Veronicas won't ever be considered anything more than what it is: utterly disposable, shamefully enjoyable, and transparently unoriginal music that, in a just world, will spend its brief moment in the sun entertaining the 11 year olds who wouldn't dare miss an episode of That's So Raven.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Tourniquet
    Unfortunately, tracks like "The Pacemaker" amount to a lot of electronic pitter-patter and not a whole lot of substance, revealing a collection of songs that's less ambitious and tightly woven than 2004's exquisite On Your Side.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Eye To The Telescope
    If she doesn't quite justify her place in the company of Antony & The Johnsons' I Am A Bird Now or M.I.A.'s Arular on the short-list for the Mercury Prize, Tunstall certainly holds her own against the likes of [Kelly] Clarkson and [Sheryl] Crow.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Destroy Rock & Roll
    Simple beats and waves of synthesized strings don't, in themselves, make for neo-disco euphoria.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Generation
    Audio Bullys don't waste energy giving any of their half-baked whims time to develop into songs.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sun, Sun, Sun
    Sun, Sun, Sun is a likeable enough album, sure, but it leaves only the most faint of impressions.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Brave And The Bold
    The more adventurous picks on The Brave And The Bold sink more often than they soar.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Firewater
    Much of Firewater has a blast-from-the-past feel.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Morningwood
    Sure, Morningwood is trashy, enjoyable, and utterly insignificant entertainment, but so is shotgunning a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    With Love And Squalor
    Despite losing some steam towards the finish, With Love And Squalor marks this threesome as a band worth watching.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    First Impressions Of Earth
    First Impressions introduces some subtle new colors to the band's musical palette... but the pervasive sense of inert boredom, which has been noted as a strength in the past, is difficult to shake.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Breakthrough
    Whether or not her risks work, it's taking chances that pays dividends, not placing safe bets.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Little More Personal (Raw)
    RAW is considerably more consistent than its predecessor, and it's not a bad listen by any means, but for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Oral Fixation Vol. 2
    Vol. 2 finds the singer straddling the line more than ever, one part Natalie Merchant and one part Jewel.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Feels
    Feels fails to come together as a coherent whole.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I Am Me
    I Am Me isn't half bad--but it's only half good.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Time To Love
    It sounds better than any album that begins with background vocalists crooning "Moooo…moo-moo-moooo" probably has any right to, and contains at least a couple lo-fi AC ballad keepers.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unplugged
    An abbreviated "You Don't Know My Name," truly a producer's creation, falls flat here, and she treats covers of Gladys Knight's "If I Was Your Woman" and "Every Little Bit Hurts" like vocal auditions and not the blank canvases of an interpretive artist.
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