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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    • 84 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Blue Reminder
    Though Duffy’s voice and sensibility guide the record, the fingerprints of their musical community are all over Blue Reminder, including (among others) Uhlmann on guitar, bass, and percussion; Perfume Genius’ Alan Wyffels on piano, Wurlitzer, and flute; producer Blake Mills on organ and guitar. Together, the band shapeshifts across a range of sounds.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Live Drugs Again
    What LIVE DRUGS AGAIN proves, more than LIVE DRUGS, and maybe more than any of their studio albums, is the band’s force as a symbiotic unit.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Communion
    Communion plays out like a kind of fever dream, a delirium of cold sweat and disturbing visions in which there are only brief moments of daylight before you're plunged back into the maelstrom once more.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Drift
    There are sonic Easter Eggs for a thousand listens here, and it would take six pairs of headphones and an equal number of high-grade strains of weed to track them all down. Happy hunting.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Autumn, Again
    It is more concise (conveniently, coincidentally, half as long as Ashes Grammar) and less wily than its predecessor, often relying on comparatively sturdy and rock band-y arrangements.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft
    Suitcase is crammed with classic Pollard moments-- those unique occasions where poorly-recorded, sloppily-delivered songs somehow become transcendent pop genius.... But perhaps the greatest problem with Suitcase is simply its size. At 100 songs, it's practically impossible to comprehend in one sitting.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    English Tapas
    If English Tapas at times veers towards formula, it’s at least Sleaford Mods’ own formula, and one that continues to serve them well.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Kitchen Sink
    She colors her songs with vibrant shades, drawing out tragicomic absurdities with sly panache. The result is direct but disorienting, like a grim domestic scene painted by Matisse.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Insula
    Powers has forged a sound of his own, too: scattershot and emotional, attention deficient and frantically detailed. As its filigree twists expand into every available space, Insula suggests there are still acres left to explore in this increasingly virtual territory.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    evermore
    While folklore seemed to materialize from nowhere as a complete, cohesive vision, evermore is structurally akin to something like 2012’s Red, where the breadth of her songwriting is as important as the depth.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Eden
    That ability to blend the real and the absurd, the cartoon and the corporeal, distinguishes CupcakKe from any other rapper. There’s a pulsing power in the center of her songs. It’s the sound of a woman in charge.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    The Peel Sessions 1991-2004
    A vibrant living record whose nervy, protean spirit pushes it miles beyond mere alt-rock radio nostalgia.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Several Shades of Why
    Several Shades of Why gives us that softer, gentler J Mascis. But it's not kids' stuff -- these are lullabies for adults, offered up with a compassion that doesn't come easy.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Era Extrana
    This is a far more serious record than its predecessor, but Palomo isn't always as assured in rendering the darker material.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Yoyogi Park
    The line separating Saturday night and Sunday morning is no thicker than a second hand; Yoyogi Park invites you to clear out a space inside that sliver of time, and to luxuriate in it.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Värähtelijä
    Värähtelijä is a weird, grotesque record, where genres are superimposed on one another and where eccentric choices are the rule and not the exception. Yes, Oranssi Pazuzu is out of the old black metal box and lost--wonderfully, strangely--somewhere between heaven and hell.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    All My Relations
    All My Relations boasts a syncopated charm that stems from the freedom of groove inherent in jam sessions. But the album’s spiritual elevation comes from Gastelum’s songwriting process.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Thao & Mirah
    Everything on Thao & Mirah feels of a cohesive collaborative piece, separate from either artist's solo work, a combination that synthesizes their individual strengths to outstanding effect.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Crooked Man
    Crooked Man’s overall vibe is the timeless aspiration of people who share great parts of their lives on dark dance-floors. All these songs boil down to the idea of community and its desires and rules, a set of signposts to keep the party going in the right direction.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Epic Ten
    There was already a disarming openness to epic, and the best covers find new horizons in these songs still.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    SremmLife
    Though a few songs stretch out an interesting idea too far—for instance, the post-Nae-Nae scrum "My X"--SremmLife is a showcase of an electric new talent paired with all the trappings of a bigtime major label debut.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    True Hallucinations
    True Hallucinations is ultimately a triumph of focus and discipline.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Holiday
    What it lacks in traditional hooks, it compensates for with distinct and weighty gestures.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    House and Land
    House and Land don’t just make these songs their own: they effectively reclaim them, illustrating that they’ve always been theirs.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Foxing
    For 56 minutes Foxing alternately thrills and confounds but provides little in the way of catharsis.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    You're the Man
    Within the course of a single album, Gaye could come off as conscious, pensive, concerned, driven, committed, topical, tough, sexy, urbane, hypnotic, tortured, troubled, hip, religious, defiant, disillusioned, high-flying, defiant, blunted, and compassionate.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    The Dream Is Over
    Frankly, the energy and intensity that’s channeled into the first half of The Dream is Over feels utterly impossible, especially given the subject matter. But even at 31 minutes, Babcock’s relentless self-loathing can go from intoxicating to simply toxic.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    FOREVER
    An album that prizes both goofiness and growth, one that takes the long view of emotional vacillation without sacrificing forward momentum.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Rainbow Revisited
    The music is spare, laser focused on those incandescent gospel melodies that feel like a Mzansi jazz birthright, and on ways to minimally ornament them for a broader, internationalist (Anthem and otherwise) audience. Such embellishment doesn’t obscure Ntuli’s expansiveness. It shows her power in a different light.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Sleepwalking Sailors
    Helms Alee doesn’t slough any of its previous interests wholesale, and each aspect of their musical personality is too distinct to camouflage with the rest. But the seams now crisscross in brilliantly unsuspected patterns, giving each element its space and the benefit of contrast.
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