Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,715 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: 10,452 out of 12715
  2. Mixed: 1,949 out of 12715
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12715
12715 music reviews
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    • 82 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Echoes of Silence
    A strong finish to Tesfaye's first trilogy, providing just enough closure to satisfy, and just enough mystery left to entice us back for the next round.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heavy is the Head
    The versatility on show gives a sheen of adventurousness that isn’t quite backed up by the beat selections—the majority of which feel like safe choices for an artist otherwise known for his accelerated ambitions.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Light Verse
    Light Verse is a lively, relatively breezy album, despite its somber subject matter. He worked with a new crew of musicians, including bassist Sebastian Steinberg and multi-instrumentalist Davíd Garza, who make sure their flourishes never distract from the pith of his songs.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Mas Amable
    By stripping away everything extraneous, Piñeyro has further refined the sound of his invented genre. Deep reggaeton has never sounded deeper.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Car
    With regularity on The Car, Turner will begin an idea that he does not finish, or he’ll introduce something totally different just when you start following along. He has become a master of turns of phrases that don’t necessarily cohere but still feel right.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Lay Low
    More than his previous records, Lay Low focuses on the clarity that arrives with age and time. You can hear the proof in Chacon’s songwriting, which has sharpened to an impressively minimalist degree.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Confession
    Though its songs are simple and occasionally repetitive, the incisive lyrics cut through the clear country air, enough to turn heads a few times.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    4:44
    He surveys ideas on wealth and success with a confidence that makes even his most clumsy boasts about not going ham on the ’Gram seem sophisticated. Rap’s biggest winner coolly sustains his biggest losses.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    NOTU_URONLINEU
    The result is a vision of a prospective future both strange and alluring, a journey through virtual spaces and experimental technologies that, at heart, feels human after all.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Rooty
    A few fatal flaws eclipse all of Rooty's abundant qualities. Basement Jaxx have taken kitsch a few steps too far.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Frozen Orange
    Anyone looking for [an] unpretentious, laidback and solid full-length is hereby invited to check out what's made Kilgour one our most consistent performers for 25 years.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    OOOH! (Out Of Our Heads)
    A return to textbook Mekons-- from gracefully shambling country to deep-beating tribal rhythms, by way of good, clean rock 'n roll.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Panda Park
    The band have finally mastered the monstrous proportions of their diffuse talents and arranged them in ways that are wholly satisfying and distinctly unique.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    I Am The Fun Blame Monster
    Suffice to say, Menomena are a hugely creative band, and with I Am the Fun Blame Monster, they've managed to make an album that's extremely accessible yet entirely unconventional.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Confield
    Confield promises elegant production, accessibility in moderation, and one of the most enveloping, thought-provoking listening experiences to come forth from leftfield this year.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Lost Wisdom
    The result is a collection of songs so taut and concisely resonant as to be psalms.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Exmilitary
    It's still a potentially alienating album: unnerving when you're not on its aggro wavelength, inviting when you are, and transfixing either way, thanks to the aggregate work of Death Grips' core.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Ripely Pine
    The best songs here are all nearly seven minutes long, but their erratic structures make compelling stages to watch dueling tirades of emotion swarm around one another.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ears
    For a technically sophisticated record that doesn’t have a great deal of dynamic range, EARS has a surprisingly strong emotional tug.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Live Drugs
    Granduciel is a much different vocalist in the live setting than he is on record: more punctuated, less delicate, and even a little less melodic. His soloing, meanwhile, consistently sounds more articulated as he rips into these songs on a tailwind of spontaneous inspiration.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Noughty by Nature [Mixtape]
    Digga’s self-belief and willingness to raise a middle finger were never in doubt. As he continues to test and flex his talents, his path forward will only become clearer—no matter who’s looking over his shoulder.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Versions of Modern Performance
    For now, Horsegirl aren’t so much carrying the torch as they are keeping the pilot light lit, low and steady.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Sons Of
    Even as the music expands in length, it feels more immediately emotionally satisfying than any of Prekop’s previous electronic music.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    WeirdOs
    While hooks abound, WeirdOs also plays as one big, roiling piece. Like the live jams from which it emerged, the album has peaks and valleys, passages of unrelenting intensity followed by space-out cooldowns that offer the slightest moment to breathe.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Totality
    Bitchin Bajas remain flame-keepers of the sphere where Teutonic poise meets new-age fuzzies, but here they act as patient collaborators instead of scene-stealing spacemen. Still, this seven-headed hydra of head music remains a great ambassador of vibes.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    American Football (LP4)
    So even if the songwriting guides the band toward the most impressive, experimental reaches of their sound, it also becomes their record most tethered to the lyric sheet and Kinsella’s role as a frontman. It’s a dizzying effect, as the polish of his surroundings never distracts from the rawness at its core.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Infinite Granite
    If Infinite Granite was a debut by a band with no backstory, it’d be impressive as hell. But knowing Deafheaven’s singular ability to pull off thrilling highwire acts, their latest subversion of expectations feel less like a bold statement and more like a predictable move to gentler pastures.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Everything Is Alive
    Even the love songs feel lonelier, the landscape more unforgiving. A good Slowdive song has always felt like two lovers huddling together for warmth. But on everything is alive, the forces conspiring against the star-crossed lovers feel more menacing and specific.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Doris
    With Doris, Odd Future’s Odysseus is finally back and chasing the ghosts out of his head.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Fearless Movement
    Fearless Movement’s first half is filled with guest vocalists delivering songs that attempt awkwardly to be soundtracks for both revelry and deep contemplation. The album gets better when it dispenses with its noncommittal relationship to party music, freeing Washington to pursue the heroic high drama that’s still his strong suit.
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