Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,726 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: 10,462 out of 12726
  2. Mixed: 1,950 out of 12726
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12726
12726 music reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Life Of A DON
    As expected, Don Toliver’s latest album Life of a DON is hollow. ... But miraculously, the emptiness of it all is an afterthought—it sounds so damn good that who even cares if Don Toliver is an emotionless robot or not (he is). The hooks are catchy and slick. The beats are lush and radiant. And he has this distinctly piercing voice, with a wide range of melodies that could make an extremely basic line jotted down on a dinner napkin sound heartfelt.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Mother
    If it’s a bid for dance-pop stardom, then the big singles—finely crafted though they are—are too few, too timid. If it’s meant as a deep-house long-player, it’s paddling in the shallow end.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Luminous Night
    Luminous Night doesn't challenge "School of the Flower" or "The Sun Awakens" for Six Organs' best albums, but it is a solid addition to a big catalog that gets more interesting all the time.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    I'm Having Fun Now
    The album is also a much more modern-sounding pop project, though it similarly owes its success to the chemistry of its creators.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    We Know About The Need
    A slippery, engrossingly genreless take on the old theme of desolation in the city.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    Bigger. Messier.
    Adding more voices to the mix turns the monolithic Big Mess inside out. What was once a foreboding haunted mansion is now a carnivalesque fun house; not a place to linger or live but rather a wild ride that’s worth one spin—but maybe not a second.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Yours To Keep
    Hammond's solo outing is a spry if unexceptional pop charmer, less supercilious than Is This It or Room on Fire but almost as cool.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Heligoland
    The undercurrent of menace and sadness that defined Massive Attack's best music is largely absent, replaced with a drowsy, half-formed gloom that, if anything, suggests resignation instead of dread.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    The Carpenter
    Too many of the other songs feel starved of that love, though.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Belly Of The Lion
    Wingo recorded Belly of the Lion in his apartment, playing all the instruments himself (although he did hire a drummer for four songs), so the range of sounds is limited. Their range of use, however, is not.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Swimming
    Trading layers of mood and melody and meaning for layers of Pro Tooled artifice, French Kicks have razored off the bullshit, leaving a core of beguilingly honest tunes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Sport
    Throughout, Sport is crude, queasy, sometimes shockingly ugly, and often quite funny, in a madcap, slightly threatening way. It thrills and it mystifies in equal measure.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade
    The Libertines may be running low on originality, but they can still produce a strong tune when the muse strikes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 47 Critic Score
    Burn The Maps
    Burn the Maps often sounds like simplicity transformed into bloat in an attempt to sound interesting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Backlash
    Lewis gives the briefest glimpse of a supremely raucous affair, then shunts you out of a side door, all dressed up with nowhere to go.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Thalassa
    Because she never fully commits to one mood or genre, it is difficult to feel fully immersed. Gika’s songwriting is sometimes too vague to resonate emotionally, and her delivery, though gorgeous, never feels fully unencumbered.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Normal Happiness
    Normal Happiness is a slightly-above-mediocre release from an artist who never dared to be mediocre; just inconsistent.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    All That Must Be
    All That Must Be doesn’t quite live up to its own heartstring-tugging goals; too often, it’s just kind of comfortably glum.
    • 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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    Duskland
    Squint into the haze, however, and you'll discern moving parts in these simple and rootsy songs that help them resonate.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Spells
    Their inability to come up with truly novel material leaves them stuck at indie's Triple AAA level both artistically and commercially.
    • 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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    James Pants
    James Pants is his third album, less goofy and party-focused than 2008's Welcome, and a little less brooding and funky than 2009's Seven Seals.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Inventions
    There are times when you know exactly where you want to go and this is the music to take you there.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Colors
    Beck has been working on Colors since 2013, and by the sounds of a recent interview, spent a lot of time trying to get the balance of “not retro and not modern” just so. He more or less nailed that bit, but what’s lacking from his Big Happy Pop Record is some kind of strong emotion that could elevate these songs above the “well crafted but innocuous” camp--something more than an idea.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Valley Tangents
    An album that gleans from prog, noise, baroque, hip-hop and more at will.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This Is Eggland
    It’s as good an introduction as you’ll get to the group and its charmingly skewed perspective on the world.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Island Intervals
    This is passionate music, delivered with searing honesty by a man who didn’t mind disappearing from the conversation if that’s what it took to articulate what he was trying to say.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
    Consistently excellent and deserves to be heard by fans of 70's glam and shoegazer alike.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    My Dark Places
    My Dark Places doesn't just uncover shadowy corners in its subject matter-- it's also musically unkempt, stumbling along and veering off in directions most bands wouldn't even be comfortable using as B-sides or jokes.
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