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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    • 84 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    songs and instrumentals
    Some of these songs are as lovely as any Lenker has ever written: lush and verdant, chords fanning out like ferns, their major-key tonalities at odds with the heartbreak at the album’s core.. ... A collage of these recordings comprises instrumentals’ two songs, “music for indigo” and “mostly chimes,” which together run more than 37 minutes. They are not showy pieces, but the depth of her relationship with her instrument is clear.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Burden of Proof
    He has every right to experiment and try on sounds as he sees fit. Hit-Boy attempts to balance this out by heading in the opposite direction so fully that it occasionally overwhelms Benny’s personality. ... Burden of Proof is undoubtedly the next step in Benny’s evolution, even if the music doesn’t always match the vision.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Letter to You
    The songs are occasionally great—“Ghosts” and “Burnin’ Train,” in particular—and sometimes they feel remarkable just due to their old-school presentation.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Shades
    The result is a kind of precise imprecision, as if the band had captured the abandon of their early recordings and then pored over the detail with manic industriousness—tweaking rather than polishing, the better to accentuate the unevenness. Shades is lightning captured in a meticulously painted bottle, and a hell of a good time, to boot.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Someone New
    Her songs are like islands: self-contained, gorgeous little worlds where nothing is obvious—especially the genesis of love and its unsteady first steps.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Shiver
    The parts of Shiver that strain to be fun and fresh can’t seem to break orbit from the grandiose mass of Sigur Rós, and the album leaves a sense of oppressive profundity in its bulky wake.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Only for Dolphins
    Only For Dolphins may not be vintage Bronsolino, but it’s still a display of why so many entities outside of music want a piece of him.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Stay Alive
    Once the allure of hearing Grace so stripped down wears off, the record begins to sound like what it is: glorified demos for an Against Me! album we'll never get to hear. Even at its most vital, Stay Alive never escapes the sense that the pandemic has one again cheated us out of something better.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Fake It Flowers
    Too often, she jumps to John Hughes-isan climaxes without laying the foundation that would grant them the proper emotional heft. But Kristi shines as a guitarist and a composer; even the sternest skeptics might be forced to headbang once the power chords crash in on a particularly distorted chorus. Beabadoobee needs to punch up her script, but the set is perfectly lit.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Serpentine Prison
    Instead of the modern Stardust, Serpentine Prison is merely a prolific musician’s stopgap.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Mama's Boy
    As bizarre as LANY’s pivot to country pop is, they still manage to infuse it with enough charm where it doesn’t fall flat.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Sundowner
    Sundowner is sharper, more in sync with his previous records. It’s certainly referential, but it’s hardly completely retro.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Wildflowers & All The Rest
    Despite the length (70 songs across 5 hours, in its longest version), it feels designed to be played from front-to-back. For casual fans, all you need is the standard set, which pairs Wildflowers with the 10 outtakes on All the Rest. But there’s no element that feels superfluous, and the very essence of the album is palpable through each part.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Nobody Lives Here Anymore
    It’s a testament to the strength of Clarke’s compositional gifts and his command of mood that even 14 or 15 tracks in, in an album pitched at a consistent campfire glow and midtempo stroll, songs like “The Golden Sky” sound just as fresh as the record’s first notes.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    SIGN
    With SIGN, Autechre have managed to do something that machines can’t do nearly as well as humans: surprise us.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Renaissance
    The album showcases her curatorial skills—honed from years of DJ sets, streaming playlists, and recently virtual shows as Aluna’s Room—and her range. Maybe as a challenge, Renaissance neither starts nor ends with dance music.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Pleased To Meet Me [Deluxe Edition]
    Every Replacements record is extraordinary in its way, but none exemplifies their garbage-to-grandeur alchemy like Pleased To Meet Me, which rocks like early Kinks, swaggers like T. Rex, and pays tribute to their spiritual godfather Alex Chilton.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    Dark Hearts
    Dark Hearts is best at its most artificial. The moments that aim for “realness” seem less so.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Couldn't Wait to Tell You...
    Throughout Couldn’t Wait to Tell You, Liv.e is becoming an unmistakable and singular artist. Even when it feels like we’re merely privy to what’s inside her head, her thoughts resonate outward.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    As Long as You Are
    The record feels like standing water, Herring is so entrenched in the past it’s hard to tell who he really is on so much of this record. There are, however, moments when the light shines in with the vibrancy of stained glass.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Atlas Vending
    There’s no denying METZ’s ability to summon a white-knuckled, visceral disgust where tension and release are indistinguishable. It slaps, but it doesn’t leave much of a mark.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Silver Ladders
    Silver Ladders is energetic yet also deeply calming.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Lament
    For a band spooked by their status as role models, Touché Amoré still can’t help but lead by example.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Body
    Firmly bound to themes of renewal and rebirth, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin is a winning experiment in economy and earthiness from an artist previously known for ornament and excess.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Shamir
    It’s a raw performance and a gleaming example of the album’s ethos: There’s no element Shamir isn’t willing to try on. By collapsing genre boundaries and molding them into his own homespun image, he’s made an unconventional pop album entirely on his own terms.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    May You Be Held
    Sumac are at their most compelling on tracks that occupy an LP’s entire side, where disparate elements can clash at length.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Daughter
    Perhaps grimmer—songwriting, like therapy, has its limits. Loveless understands. With a sober approach to its less-than-sober characters, Daughter takes life one song at a time. She can’t do more but prepare to accept less.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Who Made the Sunshine
    The loops here are less memorable and consistent than his better records. ... It’s these slight inconsistencies that separate the more successful Westside Gunn projects from the forgettable ones. Who Made the Sunshine falls somewhere in the middle, and doesn’t feel like it was devised to be anything more than what it is: Another step toward the expansion of the Griselda Records brand.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Savage Mode II
    The first Savage Mode didn’t become an ATL classic because of celebrity cameos or Billboard numbers; it was because Metro and 21 were at the peak of their powers, and only the producer is close here. 21 Savage is just along for the ride.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Live Forever
    Live Forever argues that life is not some march toward a peak, but a closed loop—one that’s tighter if you’re Black. The brilliance of Bartees’ debut is in how it carves out an expansive space within that loop.
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