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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    • 79 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Next to the Sun
    Her striking lyrics take aim at present-day bigots who clamor for closed borders—“Look how these brown hands cook all your meals/But mama says you want us all to disappear”—but she’s more concerned with the persistence of this foundational hatred, and with the people she loves, who have thrived “through so many moons” and continue to thrive in spite of racist brutality.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Songs for You
    It isn’t fair that it took years of label mishandling to get here, but Tinashe has finally found equilibrium.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Information
    The 12 compositions that make up Information have evolved his sensual, liquid style into one that distills the contradictory logics of the digital age—it’s tense, airless, and paranoid without losing an inch of his comic swagger or mischievous irony, a sensibility cultivated by bone-deep cultural exhaustion.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Cotillions
    For all its surface simplicity, Cotillions is saddled with its own peculiar Corganian paradox: the lightest, breeziest songs of his career add up to a demanding slog of a record.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Hyperspace
    Sometimes he hits pure signal, and sometimes it’s just background noise as he gets to wherever he’s going next.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Hidden History of the Human Race
    At every point, you hear a band going somewhere new, hurtling towards a forever-receding spot in the consciousness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    Reflections
    If you hate PC Music, you will continue to; if you love them, Reflections will not change that. But producer A. G. Cook’s done a lot since 2013, so inevitably, these tracks register less as individual Cook songs than as types of Cook song.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    1999 [Super Deluxe Edition]
    The rare record that has come to define its era while also existing outside of it, a masterpiece that immediately precedes the albums Prince fashioned, conspicuously, as masterpieces.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Chixtape 5 [Mixtape]
    At over an hour long, the album suffers from sag and bloat. Each song loses momentum after the first minute, despite the endless parade of guest stars – Lil Wayne, Ludacris, Mario — popping by. Still, there are moments where the experiment almost works.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Afterlife
    There’s something in the way the Comet Is Coming skewers the typical jazz trio that stands apart from his other projects. Its surface speaks to the cosmic sounds of Sun Ra, but there’s something raw and earthy at the core.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    Our Pathetic Age
    Our Pathetic Age reflects the way much of Shadow’s post-Endtroducing material has lacked structure, with the producer happy to throw ideas at the page, even if many of them don’t stick.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Everyday Life
    Despite its sprawling architecture, the album is one of the band’s most consistent, unified works.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Tangerine
    At a time when so many of Celeste’s peers are delving into dark, distorted sounds, she’s chosen to walk a lighter path. It’s not easy to sound this carefree, yet it appears to come naturally to her.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Everybody's Everything
    It is the work of a kid still determining his creative identity, and the best part of EVERYBODY’S EVERYTHING is how it shows him figuring himself out through his work with others.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    The Order of Nature
    Some of James’ solo songs struggle to emerge from under the shadow of their former selves. ... The merging of Abrams’ and James’ worlds owes more to geography than to atmosphere. That makes The Order of Nature something of an inherent gamble. The two composers end up breaking even.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Iowa Dream
    The miracle of his catalog is how the seams mend together, stitch by stitch, a different way forward, as if creating no “endings” for himself. Many of Iowa Dream’s tunes instantly find a place in the pantheon of Russell’s best work, though perhaps it’s more fitting to say they create oxygen in his ever-expanding world.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    2042
    It’s hard to say whether 2042 would be a more compelling record with more appropriate sequencing, or if this sprawling sixteen-track album would have made, perhaps, for a better set of separate EPs. What’s all too clear, unfortunately, is that 2042 stumbles precisely where Okereke has proven himself so capable of soaring.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Thanks for the Dance
    The reverence is understandable, but you’re left wondering if it stymied bolder invention.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Saints & Sebastian Stories
    Konradsen’s approach skips the groundwork to go for experimentation. It’s folk music untethered from tradition, prioritizing well-crafted production over well-crafted songwriting.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    The Lioness
    Molina's songwriting here is much stronger than on last year's Axxess and Ace, but he's abandoned some of the guests who helped make the album so affecting when he opted to record in Scotland, rather than the U.S. ... making The Lioness a decidedly more resigned and less passionate affair.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Hot Pink
    Though there are moments where a new tone or inflection runs the risk that Doja might be mistaken for someone else, the album’s anchor in her R&B and soul background creates a tender space for her to stack and reveal her layers. Hot Pink doesn’t demand that Doja figure out the totality of her sound right now.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    I Made a Place
    One of Oldham’s most complicated albums. ... If you’re left confused or disoriented, that’s exactly Oldham’s point. Welcome, he seems to say, we’ve been waiting for you.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mummer Love
    A large, baroque gesture toward the act of what it means to purposefully lose oneself.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    2019 [EP]
    Dacus intended 2019 EP as something of a diversion from her usual work, a series of stand-alones intended to flex new musical muscles. Perfect as these songs are for our moment, there’s an unmistakable staying power to them, too.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    No Other [Deluxe Edition]
    Tragically ignored during its time, the album takes its rightful place it alongside Love’s Forever Changes, Judee Sill’s Heart Food, or Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, bringing together the conflicted, clashing aspects of Gene Clark’s art into a cohesive whole.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Leaving Meaning.
    Sonically, the album backs away from the dirge-rock rave-ups that defined the group’s last four albums. That’s a welcome development.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Lost Wisdom pt. 2
    However exquisitely rendered they may be, and however strange their circumstances may seem, these are breakup songs. ... Doiron’s presence, though, is a welcome balm, warming these cold realizations and offering Elverum a steadying hand for some of the most difficult moments.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes
    In comparison to 2016’s Fetish Bones, Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes, is a refinement. ... Her lyrics seethe with revelatory clarity.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    One of the Best Yet
    Through all of this chaotic history, DJ Premier is trying to patch together an album that will pass the smell-test, and he does a decent job. Anyone who held out this long for a Gang Starr album will likely be pleased with the results.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15: Travelin' Thru
    Comparing the Scruggs cuts and the funky, swampy Cash covers with the austere John Wesley Harding outtakes that begin Travelin’ Thru is illuminating.
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