Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,720 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: 10,456 out of 12720
  2. Mixed: 1,950 out of 12720
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12720
12720 music reviews
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    • 66 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    I Said I Love You First
    I Said I Love You First is quite scattershot, an odd collection of songs that sound like other songs, incongruous spoken interludes, and one random reggaeton track (“I Can’t Get Enough”) first released in 2019.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    In A Cave
    While Cave represents a return to form, the band hasn't recaptured the beauty of early highlights like 'When the Red King Comes' or 'A Dream in Sound.'
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Bitter Rivals
    Bitter Rivals too often feels like a cheap thrill ride, firing on all cylinders but without any grand design.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Marble Son
    Instead of exploring their sound and growing more dexterous over time, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter have backed themselves into a creative corner on Marble Son--with a sound so austere it becomes tedious instead of heady, tentative instead of revelatory.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Magnetic Man
    Magnetic Man's arrangements may proudly flaunt dance-pop's most universal qualities, but their efforts remain mere gestures so long as their beats continue to stare so resentfully in the opposite direction.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Uh-Oh!
    Slipping dissonant, screeching bleeps into a placid, space-age bachelor pad schema seems oddly passive-aggressive, though not enough of either to pass as legitimately interesting.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon
    As it is, the album feels slightly cluttered by a surfeit of dry minutiae that calls for a cutting room floor of its own.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Who Killed Harry Houdini?
    Houdini sounds like an attempt to escape from the predicament of the sophomore album, making more nuanced use of orchestration and sticking with a comfortingly sweet and naïve tone while also expanding its perspective.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Primal Heart
    Primal Heart is a collision of hard electronics with light sprinkles of au courant R&B making for Kimbra’s most mainstream statement yet. ... However, her most ambitious efforts don’t quite reach their apex, causing her somewhat cocky assertions to land flat.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    My Best Human Face
    When Krug sticks to his strengths—off-the-beaten-path keyboard-driven rock n’ roll, with taut, wiry tunes that match his voice and wry wit--he generally succeeds. But his tendency to slow it down and draw it out leads him to take risks that often don’t pay off.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Heard It in a Past Life
    While often precious, it’s never bad or incompetent, but there’s a frustrating sense of bets being hedged, particularly once the more ambitious production gives way to mildly anguished stadium boom towards the end.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Walk It Off
    Walk It Off attempts "The Loon's" indie patchwork using fewer and larger pieces, causing less-than-stellar ideas and riffs to suddenly become load-bearing pillars for painfully linear three-minute pop songs.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Era
    For enthusiasts of the goth/post-punk nexus, it absolutely has its moments.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Iris [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
    This agreeable sameness infects much of the score, turning the voices of two inimitable musicians into hack work for hire, churning out glossy tones for images of cheap thrill and intrigue.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Hobo Rocket
    Hobo Rocket draws out the indulgence, more than happy to engage in dumb fun without bringing much to the party.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Laughing Gas [EP]
    Laughing Gas suffers from the same issues as its predecessor without introducing any new ideas. Even Tatum’s usually enjoyable melodies feel bloodless.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Bass Drum of Death
    Every song on this album could stand to be tightened. Most could lose a verse or two, and a lot of them would sound much better if they were played faster.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Sam's Town
    Not fully realizing where their strengths and weaknesses lie makes Sam's Town, despite the drastic makeover, roughly equivalent to Hot Fuss, a mediocre album surrounding a few towering singles.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    %
    I'm sure it's all firecrackers live, and in their defense, Dinowalrus' populist-noise contemporaries (Liars, Oneida) needed periods of woodshedding to find their way. But I suppose it does the title justice when % finds a band that's not quite all there yet.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    The Life Of A Showgirl
    Whatever vision Martin and Shellback set out to realize here is not really serving her strengths and, intentionally or not, appears to signal a disinterest in evolution.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    A Joyful Noise
    [Song "Casualties of War" is] the sole promising moment on an album that ranges from average to disappointing. In the end, Joyful Noise feels like a stopgap.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Angles
    Though this band was routinely slapped with claims of 1970s plagiarism upon their arrival, it's unlikely that many people have ever mistaken a Strokes song for one by Lou Reed or Television. So it's ironic that their mimicry can be uncanny on Angles.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    The Crux
    Derivative as it is, it’s all performed with care and craft, a frictionless blend of styles that feels a bit uncanny, like music you could imagine in a faux Urban Outfitters at Starcourt Mall. But there’s a sense The Crux aspires to something greater.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Skeletal Lamping
    Ultimately Skeletal Lamping registers as a misstep, but not without loads of silver lining.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Trial Of The Century
    Essentially, Trial is just one semi-interesting idea (retro-tinged, Smiths-influenced, synth-friendly rock) repeated 11 times-- and no matter how able or committed the French Kicks may be to that lone notion, their conviction alone can't make their sophomore record feel any less tedious.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    JACKBOYS [EP]
    It’s Toliver who sounds like he’s rallying, his voice less like a piece of software and more an instrument of feeling. His singsong verse is one of the few moments on JACKBOYS that isn’t just product.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    The Rising Tide
    So, essentially, this is the pop record '70s prog bands would make in the '80s-- Big Generator and Power Windows for a new generation. Aside from two major blunders nothing is overtly offensive, but simply lachrymose and lactose.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Actual Life 3 (January 1 - September 9 2022)
    Actual Life 3 has moments of brilliance and will certainly connect with big festival crowds. ... But music that focuses on reality tends to work best when it is doggedly cinematic or highly relatable; Actual Life 3 is neither, instead frequently slipping into mundanity.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    Revelations
    Largely, Revelations leaves us waiting for the subtly brilliant moments its title suggests.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    $ome $exy $ongs 4 U
    His singing voice isn’t nearly as tender and smooth as once it was. .... Sometimes the effect is monotonous and emotionless, which might suit his headspace, but ultimately it’s just boring. When he adds a little spice to his voice he can still sound expressive, like on the album standout “Small Town Fame,” which, if you ignore the shamelessness of the Brat summer bar, features him at his most earnest.
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