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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    • 58 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Curtis
    50 doesn't fare any better on the softer side: 'Amusement Park' proves he's one of the worst lyricists alive.... It's not just the metaphors, though, it's the execution.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Graduation
    Graduation is worth note in the sense that it offers proof Kanye isn't on the five-year plan (The College Dropout registered in 2004), but I'm sort of looking forward to hearing the next album built around the disillusionment of his first entry-level position.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Proof of Youth
    Every fade-in and chord change on Proof of Youth is perfectly calibrated to make for seamless song-to-song transitions and for an album that seems to end entirely too quickly.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Attack Decay Sustain Release
    The new tracks seem either rushed or cobbled together, Frankenstein monster-style, with elements culled from the successful pre-release singles, which comprise half the album. Many are just plain boring ('Sleep Deprivation,' 'Wooden'), often meandering too long, as if somehow being nuzzled within a sequence of far more satisfying productions would elevate them as well.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Our Ill Wills
    Our Ill Wills is a consistently stronger, more cohesive collection than its predecessor, and it positions Shout Out Louds as a more extroverted and more accessible contemporary to Arcade Fire and another recent example of the compelling pop music coming out of Sweden.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Civilians
    Even in its rare maudlin and melodramatic moments, the album is saved its many precise, stainless sounds: Henry's compassionate, reverb-shaken voice, Bill Frisell's excellent fretwork, a bewitched pump organ, a snare hit that always echoes a bit too long.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    None Shall Pass
    There's actual substance to unpack in the album, but Aesop's indomitable presence on record and his knotty co-production with Blockhead and El-P make what he says incidental to how he says it.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Places Like This
    Architecture's instrumentation is more varied than ever before. Though they could've made another fine record by sticking to the simpler approach of their previous albums, it's refreshing to see a band take a more ambitious route, and do it well.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kala
    M.I.A., undoubtedly the truest "outsider" to emerge on the pop landscape in ages, has crafted an album that, in its best moments, positions her as an impassioned advocate for the disenfranchised.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Challengers
    If not instantly gratifying enough to rank as The New Pornographers' best album, Challengers is still their most diverse collection, one that speaks to the real breadth of its core members' skill with all manners of pop styles and that proves that they're capable of producing more than just guilty pleasures.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Under the Blacklight
    Some of these genre shifts work better than others, of course, but the record is so tightly constructed that nothing ever crashes and burns.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
    In many ways, the album plays out as a far more effective and far less deliberately post-modern survey of the multiple phases of Dylan's career than does Todd Haynes's "I'm Not There" or its accompanying soundtrack.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
    Finally receiving distribution in the U.S., Junior Senior's Hey Hey My My Yo Yo sounds every bit as fresh and exuberant now as it first did in the summer of 2005.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Stage Names
    The band's arrangements are still wonderfully unpolished, so while these tunes should please anyone who buys CDs at Starbucks, they still pack some ragged glory of what makes the Austin collective so intoxicating on stage.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Finding Forever
    Finding Forever is something to be admired, even if it is uneven.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fur & Gold
    Bat for Lashes' music feels like some lost specter that has fortuitously wandered into your home and can't help but haunt you.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Planet Earth
    While all three albums ["Musicology," "3121," and "Planet Earth"], at their best, contain precisely the sort of seasoned professionalism you wouldn't ever cite as an actual compliment, there remains a nostalgic pull that's no less electric for being completely anesthetized and overly rehearsed.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Absolute Garbage
    'Tell Me Where It Hurts' is an undeniable sign that, despite their extended hiatuses and internal turmoil, Garbage is very much alive with ideas and ambition.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Con
    The Con is undoubtedly as sweet as it is short.
    • Slant Magazine
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Emerald City
    Both on a song-for-song basis and as singular cohesive work, Emerald City demonstrates Vanderslice's masterful control of craft at every structural level and his unrivaled ability to make the political personal.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    We Are The Night
    We Are The Night, like most high school reunions, fails to kick-start anything other than nostalgia.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Zeitgeist
    Zeitgeist is the Pumpkins' most aggressively metal album to date. But heaps of guitars, vocal overdubs, and ridiculous effects don't mask a lack of inventiveness or even plain ol' quality songwriting.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Marry Me
    Marry Me isn't quite a religious experience, but it's unequivocally divine.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ms. Kelly
    This time around, both the production and lyrics are stronger.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Easy Tiger
    What Easy Tiger lacks in craft or measure, it makes up for in raw inspiration, which makes it all the more addictive.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Mix-Up
    For an album that truly has nothing to say and risks suggesting nothing more need be said, The Mix-Up sounds merely satisfactory now, but I can't wait until some turntablist uses it to drop the science.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Theology
    Unlike many other Christian rock albums, Theology is for the oppressed, not the oppressors.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    My December
    Though "My December" cuts much of the adult contemporary-style balladry that marred her first two releases (but also displayed more than just her shouting vocal range), the album still finds Clarkson further exploring different facets of her voice.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Translated From Love
    It still has the depth her fans have come to expect, but it's Willis's coolest record yet.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Icky Thump
    Though far from The White Stripes' best work, Icky Thump is still plenty good, brash, and noisy in the way great rock records are supposed to be.
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