Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,704 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 53% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score: 100 Sign O' the Times [Deluxe Edition]
Lowest review score: 0 nyc ghosts & flowers
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10,441 out of 12704
  2. Mixed: 1,949 out of 12704
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12704
12704 music reviews
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    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Vampire Weekend
    Bring any baggage you want to this record, and it still returns nothing but warm, airy, low-gimmick pop, peppy, clever, and yes, unpretentious--four guys who listened to some Afro-pop records, picked up a few nice ideas, and then set about making one of the most refreshing and replayable indie records in recent years.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Women As Lovers
    Xiu Xiu's music is all about discomfort, but Stewart and co. have become quite comfortable in this conceptual space, and are able to inhabit it like painters making wild, broad smears that intuitively cohere into a look that is distinctly theirs.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Field Manual
    Obviously, a host of issues--from downtime to headlines--compelled Walla to make this record, and his effort shows. What's missing is a compelling reason to listen.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Keep Your Eyes Ahead
    Even when it fails, Keep Your Eyes Ahead has a refreshing maturity and presence, old enough to admit that folk jamboree and synth-rock can coexist, hopeful enough to think "Joshua Tree," or at least "Ocean Rain," was a really good idea.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Slick Dogs And Ponies
    The slightly more dynamic Louis XIV only give you testosterone-fueled rock at its least appealing extremes: heedless lust or, arguably even more repulsive, cheesy balladry.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 53 Critic Score
    Just A Little Lovin'
    By stripping them down to their bones, Lynne gets the skeleton of these songs right, but in the end you can't help but miss the meat that made Springfield who she was.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Another Sound Is Dying
    Dub Trio are on to something, but they've yet to fully grasp it.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 22 Critic Score
    Charmed & Strange
    Yoav goes about his expecting some sort of kneejerk praise for rolling dolo, but thanks to a total lack of depth, sonic or otherwise, all I see is the gimmicks, the wack lyrics.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Human Bell
    It feels neither like redemption nor realization; rather, it's just a reminder that--for the past 45 minutes--you've been sitting alone in a room with stable gases. Nothing has changed.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Hey Venus!
    It's fair to say the songs lack the epic sweep of the last couple of albums, but there's still little about Hey Venus! to fault beyond the faint whiff of musical conservatism.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Venus On Earth
    Even when their songs pass muster, the performances feel ineffectual, which makes long stretches of Venus on Earth drag semi-miserably.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    In The Future
    Future raises the stakes considerably, leaving the band's musical talents to play catchup with their new material's epic-sized dimensions.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    Jukebox
    A covers album like Jukebox should reveal new facets of a performer in its selection and interpretation of favorite songs. That's how (and why) "The Covers Record" worked. But eight years later, only 'Song for Bobby' tells us anything new about Chan Marshall. The rest of Jukebox doesn't even say much about Cat Power.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Brighter Than Creation's Dark
    What at first blush might sound like unhealthy entrenchment turns out to be a brilliant study in duality, as Cooley and Hood--seemingly in conversation with one another--weigh the respective pulls of decadence and dependability.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    P.D.A.
    Neither here nor there, the funklesss would-be dancefloor fodder of P.D.A. frankly comes off D.O.A.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Oracular Spectacular
    On 'Electric Feel,' MGMT pull off lithe, falsetto electro-funk surprisingly well. There's not much to the song aside from a Barry Gibb vocal and limber bassline, but within the context of the rest of Spectacular, it makes perfect sense.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 54 Critic Score
    Unfamiliar Faces
    Certainly there's more to Costa than a one-man acoustical jam, even if his pleasure zone isn't far from the AM Gold dial.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    The Evening Descends
    What really makes this album special is the ways in which the Evangelicals pull off big-stage spectacle on what still sounds like a public-access cable-show budget.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 49 Critic Score
    Matinee
    Listening to Matinée straight through is exhausting, like being trapped in the kitchen at a college party while someone with curiously wide eyes Explains It All to you.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    The Portrait Is Finished & I Have Failed To Capture Your Beauty...
    Fuzztone guitar and the occasional woodwinds dress up the many slow-paced songs, but repetitive, fragmentary compositions such as 'Paquita Reads by Candlelight,' Vancouver-repping 'Skeleton Aim,' and the typically moribund 'Come Darkness' sound more concerned with melisma than memorable melodies or vibrant production.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    I'll Be Lightning
    Odd instrumental touches crop up throughout the album, and there's a welcome layer of grit and murk to even the prettiest songs here.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Distortion
    Distortion isn't a return to form so much as a return to content.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Made of Bricks
    Made of Bricks too often tries to smooth over the emotional cracks, breaks and fissures that happen to be Kate Nash's distinguishing hallmark. Without them, she may as well be any other London newcomer in a bright dress and matching trainers.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 48 Critic Score
    Some People Have Real Problems
    If Sia spent more time at the piano, and/or hired Robyn to write her a couple of tracks, the results could be marvelous.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Angels Of Destruction
    Angels is a Marah album, which sort of sucks, but that 'Blue But Cool' and 'Santos De Madera' and the title track might still make you a little misty eyed and/or end up on a mixtape.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    The Cool
    Whether he delivered on the full extent of what he wanted to achieve is up for debate; luckily, he's good enough that even when he comes up short, he's still better than most.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
    If nothing else, Alone reminds us that a lot of those over-ambitious, silly-on-paper ideas often blossomed in Cuomo's hands, and there was more to Weezer in their early days than just crisp power-pop and cute videos.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    8 Diagrams
    Of course, in due time--maybe it'll take years--8 Diagrams will sink in as a compelling, well-regarded album.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    The Solution
    The Solution is a deeply schizophrenic record, one that completely divorces Beanie's cocksure swagger from his introspective depth.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Alive 2007
    The results were massive--the myriad "best show ever" kudos deserved.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Big Doe Rehab
    Ghost's new album may not uncover many of the verteran MC's still-hidden darts but, even 11 years after his solo debut, there's no denying that one of hip-hop's most vibrant voices in its comfort zone.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    M.A.D.E.
    MADE might be a small album, one that never musically ventures outside Scarface's comfort zone, but it's a heavily personal work from someone with a whole lot to say.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 49 Critic Score
    Frank
    None of her songs here are as indelible as 'Rehab' or as cutting as 'You Know I'm No Good'--and the best are co-written with Nas and Fugees collaborator Salaam Remi.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 49 Critic Score
    Shelter From The Ash
    Given the exploratory transience of Six Organs' catalogue, Shelter from the Ash feels too much like work, too much like what had to happen.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    D-Sides
    The first disc of this double album set is evenly split between sketches and absolute gems.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Free At Last
    Throughout Free at Last, Freeway displays a deft ability to play the foil to less exuberant MCs, with the exception of a firebreathing Busta Rhymes cameo on 'Walk With Me.'
    • 72 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    The Black And White Album
    The Black and White Album can feel, at times, thematically spastic, spinning more like a mixtape than a proper LP.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Parades
    Parades' recipe--soft verse, big chant, heavenly "aaaaaaaaa", elliptical, Nordic orchestrations, stir--is clever to avoid repetition but extremely taxing.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Red Carpet Massacre
    The problem isn't that Red Carpet Massacre pushes Duran Duran out of their comfort zone. The problem is that they sound just a little too comfortable there to make the most of bad situation.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Sawdust
    Overall, there's a strong sense of exploration on Sawdust; if the Killers don't seem to have much intuitive understanding of balance and songcraft, the overproduction at least suggests a strong musical curiosity underlying their obvious career ambitions.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ire Works
    More than ever, DEP have songs. They're also the band's most colorful to date.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    45:33
    I can attest that the music really does move forward similarly to my own metabolism, gradually building, holding a modest climax in the middle, and ending on a long, fluffy comedown. [Review of UK release]
    • 83 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    American Gangster
    Musically, American Gangster is lush and spacious.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Hvarf/Heim
    [[Hafsol' is] ten minutes of bliss that should keep the faithful satisfied until the group reconvenes and produces something new, resuming the road to parts unknown instead of dusting off the path that leads back to where they came from.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Smoke
    Williams' ostensible depthlessness, like that of his forebears, is itself only a façade, and Smoke offers plenty to discover across repeated listens--particularly the way in which he tweaks his own voice, melting and reshaping it like the models' Technicolor "tears" on the album cover.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Untrue
    Top-heavy with sad string passages and mournful vocal loops, Untrue is an album meant to be heard at home, in the car, on headphones-- his songs feel almost like beautiful secrets being whispered to a listener.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation
    And though their passable guitar parts-- all choppy downstrokes and wiry, insistent clangs-- lose their exuberance as the record stretches on, for at least the album’s first six tracks, they are played with such adolescent gusto that it's hard not to be won over.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Situation
    Favoring the easy gravity of images and ideas over well-crafted sounds and stories, Situation finally drowns in its nostalgia.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Teenager
    Teenager is gloomy without feeling fatalistic; melodic without feeling facile. For the Thrills, a quick locale change has managed to yield impressive results.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Shotter's Nation
    Nation is saved from being a total failure at its close, with 'Deft Left Hand.'
    • 76 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    Chrome Dreams II
    Though having one good trick in the bag keeps him from becoming a mere oldies jukebox like so many other 40-year rock vets, the sampler platter of Chrome Dreams II suggests his renowned versatility, by comparison to its cult-classic ancestor, ain't what it used to be.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Load Blown
    It's fun to hear Black Dice go straight for the jugular throughout the aptly-titled Load Blown, and hit the mark every time.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    La Cucaracha
    On La Cucaracha, possibly out of a debt to realism, the duo has mostly chosen material founded on notions of placidity (or, in the case of "Friends", erased much of the original color), purposefully disallowing their own music its previous vitality.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    Hourglass
    The problem is that while Hourglass has Gahan sounding a lot more assured and competent as a songwriter, it's also too much what you'd expect of him.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    In The Vines
    This is an album's album, magnetic over the long haul, as Raposa's careful, nuanced tension between placidity and chaos accrues force.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 53 Critic Score
    Preparations
    Even at 46 minutes, Preparations is wearying; it's the same Prefuse tricks once more, with less feeling.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Elegies to Lessons Learnt
    Elegies to Lessons Learnt is an undeniably effective 50-minute ride, but it's also rather coldly mapped out.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Oblivion With Bells
    Unfortunately, though, while they sound brighter and more alive than they have in a while, their default mode still leans a little too heavily on Hyde's increasingly silly beat poetry and the kind of unashamedly booming drums that haven't sounded exciting since, well, 1997.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Make Sure They See My Face
    Make Sure They See My Face is overdressed to impress when easing up may have been the best way to ease back into the public consciousness.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    R.E.M Live
    What makes Live so disappointing isn't that it offers too few shots of the band they were, but so many glimpses of the band they could be, if they were more adventurous in hi-fi.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 34 Critic Score
    Pull The Pin
    Pull the Pin might be going for the uncluttered "production" of older Rick Rubin, but instead it cops the sterility of newer Rick Rubin, each song lumbering on a chassis of waterlogged tempo and Jones' wooden melodies, begging for just about anything to grab you.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Overpowered
    In a year of low-stakes disappointment for European pop, Overpowered is a triumph.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    In Rainbows
    The brilliant In Rainbows represents no such thing [downshift]. Nonetheless, it's a very different kind of Radiohead record. Liberated from their self-imposed pressure to innovate, they sound--for the first time in ages--user-friendly.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Necessary Evil
    It's not until the last few tracks that Harry finds her best collaborator--naturally, it's former Blondie bandmate and paramour Chris Stein.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Flying Club Cup
    Flying Club Cup would be a triumph even with those layers stripped away; that's not to say that the cultural patina obscures the "real" songs underneath, but its removal allows us to sidestep mind-numbing questions about authenticity and intention.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Widow City
    It all sounds cleaner and more accessible than anything they've done in the past, but that might actually be part of the problem.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Random Spirit Lover
    But while Random Spirit Lover is dense and thorny-- even opaque, at times--it's never haphazard.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Cease To Begin
    Even if Cease to Begin is a little creaky and uneven and even if it never finds the resting spot the album title promises, Band of Horses do guitar-based indie very well--well enough, at least, that the next generation of American indie bands may bear comparisons to them.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Night Falls Over Kortedala
    Along with wry, sometimes melancholic observations worthy of Richman or the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt, these elements make for Lekman's best record, one likely to captivate even those who were skeptical of his previous releases.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Hera Ma Nono
    Unlike "Ok-Oyot System," Hera Ma Nono credits all songs to the band, as opposed to individual band members, and no doubt the results sound more cohesive as well.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Comicopera
    Delineated acts aside, the disc maintains a certain sonic consistency, carefully balancing discord with grace; the structure does pay off, however--particularly the first two-thirds.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds
    Leaner and more direct than its predecessor, "Hocus Pocus," few fans will be disappointed with Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    We Are The Pipettes
    While We Are the Pipettes often swells and soars... it doesn't come near the symphonic grandeur of the best of 60s girl pop. At its best, however, these pocket-sized songs still burst with verve and vitality, mixing heart-pumping melodies with carefree, almost conversational vocals.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Mantaray
    It's a success, without doubt.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Magic
    If Magic revisits the subject matter of previous career crests, it unfortunately recalls "The Rising" in its sound: Brendan O'Brien returns to the producer's seat, once again shuffling most of the E Street Band to the music's margins and focusing his attention squarely on the Boss.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    100 Days, 100 Nights
    They may not be doing anything especially new, but Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are the very best at what they do, and they've made another excellent album.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Good Arrows
    Although Good Arrows is aimed in the direction of a synthesis between the band's two predominant elements, the result misses the target by just a bit.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    White Chalk
    On the right day, at the right time, the album's powerfully claustrophobic intimacy is more palatable; on the wrong day, at the wrong time, in the wrong frame of mind, White Chalk may be the longest half-hour in the world.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
    They're sounding less and less relatable, leaving us pining not just for the days of a little grunge trio from Seattle, but for the relentlessly catchy and charismatic Dave Grohl of the Foos' still-fantastic self-titled debut and the better half of "The Colour and the Shape."
    • 84 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    The Shepherd's Dog
    The Shepherd's Dog is Iron & Wine's most diverse and progressive album yet, a deft transition to a very different sound that explores new territory while preserving the best aspects of Beam's earlier recordings.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
    It's not so much that the quality varies, but that a bloated, lethargic feel permeates the record.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 28 Critic Score
    Beyond The Neighbourhood
    Beyond the Neighbourhood is the sonic equivalent of a beautiful coffin.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Washington Square Serenade
    The rest of Washington Square Serenade ranges from good ('Days Aren't Long Enough,'a duet with wife Allison Moorer) to merely serviceable ('Red Is the Color').
    • 70 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    In Our Bedroom After The War
    Growing more staged, warier, and a little less playful with age, Stars don't quite match the wily rush of "Set Yourself on Fire" here.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    In Our Nature
    Like its predecessor, In Our Nature is a collection of sparse acoustic recordings. But it's a more thoughtful and atmospheric work than either "Veneer" or last year's "Stay in the Shade" EP.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy
    While this is certainly not a great record, it probably has broader appeal.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Two Gallants
    It's tempting to write Stephens off as self-obsessed (which, in all fairness, places him in a long line of beloved singer-songwriters, from Bob Dylan on), but nonetheless, there are some compelling melodies here and more than enough commitment.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Reunion Tour
    It's to the Weakerthans' credit that their lyric-driven songs can be, in a way, useful, at least by helping reassure the sentimental souls with whom Samson's deftly told stories resonate. Still, they're rarely as striking here as on the groups' previous albums.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Last Light
    Yet another standardized LP of glorified Dave Matthews tunes.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Boss
    There's definitely something new going on, and most of it comes from the seductive voice and lyrics of Ambrogio.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    The Scene Of The Crime
    LaVette is a proud interpreter, and even back in her earlier days she was covering David Bowie and Neil Young, but on Scene of the Crime her choices are a little less NPR-friendly than they were on the all-female critics darling roster of "Hell to Raise."
    • 70 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Invitation Songs
    If these songs constitute the Cave Singers' most pronounced attempts at transcending standard folk tropes, it's the gentle, percussion-free lullaby 'Helen' that ultimately proves most successful.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Shocking Pinks
    Shocking Pinks' DFA debut is an auspicious one by a young artist who knows as much about loneliness as he does noisy pop classics.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The World is Yours
    It sounds good--Brown's detached, wispy/gritty voice is pleasing as ever, and I like a pop string arrangement as much as the next guy--but it doesn't add up to much in the end.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Once Upon A Time In The West
    Once Upon a Time in the West is pretty dull itself.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Trees Outside The Academy
    Trees Outside the Academy is, in fact, a song-based album--and they're good songs, too.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Spirit If...
    Spirit If… offers jams that don't really jam, acoustic ballads about fights and lies, and lushly orchestrated songs that come together effortlessly while cracking up hopelessly.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Asleep At Heaven's Gate
    The problem with Asleep at Heaven's Gate is that the second half isn't nearly as strong as the first.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bitchin'
    The entire album sounds like a half-hearted compromise between what the group was and what the group wants to become.
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