Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,729 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: 10,465 out of 12729
  2. Mixed: 1,950 out of 12729
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12729
12729 music reviews
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Words to the Blind
    Over the course of the next 10 minutes, the recording stirs to life in a slowly mounting atmospheric swirl of eerie guitar squeals, rain-on-tin drum patter, random bass blurts, and frosty-breathed coos, before the two groups find a common ground on a stalking rhythm that eventually yields to a series of seismic, Boredoms-worthy psych-metal eruptions at the halfway point.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Optometry
    After the initial bustle of a few extremely strong tracks, Optometry wanders blindly for far too long.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Electric Sweat
    An infectious collection of grooves that proudly utilizes the traditional vocabulary of rock and roll.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Blind Date Party
    Functions less like a singles collection and more like an overstuffed double album: discursive, playful, and full of imagination.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Black Love & War
    Muldrow and Perkins root their work in the present by paying homage to the sound and radical spirit of their West Coast home.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Weight's on the Wheels
    Wheels starts to lose a bit of steam toward its end, but as with previous Russian Futurists albums, it's over well before Hart's shtick turns monotonous.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Live at Troxy
    On Live at Troxy, we get the chance to hear Fever Ray—a band, now—exalt all of that good human love as a collective, a chosen family thrilled to share their music and their play.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Secret Walls EP
    On their latest EP, Secret Walls, the Fresh & Onlys further mine that sock-hopping sound, albeit with fewer alterations and a looser, more jammy approach.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ascent
    The group's obvious enthusiasm for the project is contagious, and together they add another memorable benchmark to Chasny's formidable body of work, clearly having a fantastic time while doing so.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Attack & Release
    Maneuvering between the King of Rhythm's joie de vivre and their crestfallen, crossroads-blues heritage, Attack and Release subtly expands the Black Keys sound.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Silk Rhodes
    On each of his many releases to date, Collins is always trying to reinvent one wheel or another, and even though that's traditionally seen as a fruitless exercise, what he and Desree have ended up with on Silk Rhodes is an invention worth marveling at in its own right.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Not Music
    Stereolab's last effort was among the most concise and tightly focused of the band's career, distilling their baroque, buzzing aesthetic into breathless, three-minute pop songs. Not Music mostly echoes that change, but also sprawls like vintage Stereolab when it needs to.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Makthaverskan II
    There isn’t much romantic love, just the romanticization of young lust and teen angst. Those are part of the same continuum, though and when II taps into its eternal power, the cries from Milner’s bedroom nothing short of universal.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Alphabutt
    Alphabutt is honest and funny, and manages to sidestep all tired, kid-song tropes.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bedouine
    Her skepticism reflects a self-awareness that pairs nicely with the wide-eyed wonderment in her music. Korkejian strikes this balance with such delicacy that it’s sometimes hard to believe this is her first album.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Anywhere But Here
    Where 925 was thrillingly inventive, but often kept the listener at a cautious remove, Anywhere But Here uses deeply felt storytelling and intimate vocals to usher us much closer.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Honeymoon
    Honeymoon just synthesizes ideas she's been vamping on from the beginning into a unified work. She figured where she was going long before she got there; with Honeymoon she has finally arrived.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Object 47
    Even when the vocals are being run through processors and the guitars are distorted, it still feels managed, and a lack of high-range makes it inviting and easy to listen to even at its noisiest.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The OF Tape, Vol. 2
    The tape incorporates all of Odd Future's members with surprising ease (not an easy task considering all the stylistic differences at play) and pieces together the first release in over a year that'll remind people why they liked the group so much in the first place.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Album of the Year
    While there was an unspectacular battle-rap anonymity to his past lyrics, they were at least spit in the service of a strong overall style. Now he's grown a bit, upping the emotional dimension subtly and letting some more specific humanistic details come through, even in the lines that read like average boasts on paper.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Hangin' at the Beach
    You get the sense that he can go pretty much anywhere sonically, and the brevity of each track combined with all the driving rhythms makes the record feel like a roller-coaster tour of his firing neurons.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bunny
    At Bunny’s best, Dear is as slippery as ever. Following in his purple wake and soaking in his twisted tragicomedy is a chase to be savored.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    K Bay
    The sound of K Bay is so good—so plump, so crisp, so tapered and whooshed—that White can seem like a studio hermit whose talent keeps thwarting his solitude.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Milano
    Like the city in its ’80s golden age, MILANO is superficial, vibrant, and full of possibility.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Thank You Very Quickly
    The music on Thank You Very Quickly is a triumph of a different sort. Extra Golden have conquered whatever divide there once was between rock and benga to create a distinct sound of their own that respects both traditions.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Truly She Is None Other
    The downside to this is that she sounds like she’s on her best behavior; the songs stay awfully polite and sprightly for someone who’s so good at sounding sinister. The upside is that underneath that dress, ready to impress strangers, Holly’s still pretty near top form.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bloom
    Bloom isn’t as consistent or engaging a musical experience as Sweetener, but it still feels meaningful. If Sivan is the product of baby steps, then maybe this is one of his.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Havasu
    For the most part, Havasu strives to build on Phoenix, a continuity that enriches itself and its predecessor and deepens Pedro the Lion’s backstory.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    And I Have Been
    Still impossible to pigeonhole, his hybrid of classical, chamber pop, baroque, and jazz is as thrilling as ever, while the newly stripped-back arrangements heighten the intimacy of a songwriter seeing himself clearly.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Bit of Previous
    They’ve still got it: Murdoch’s droll reflections on youthful bliss are heightened by a flitting violin and a heavenly little bridge that flies high with a trumpet and Sarah Martin’s topline vocals.
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