Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,704 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: 10,441 out of 12704
  2. Mixed: 1,949 out of 12704
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12704
12704 music reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Ultramega OK [Expanded Reissue]
    The early-stage versions of a few Ultramega OK tracks that round out this reissue ... add to the story by showing how much more precise the band got in the year or so after they recorded the Screaming Life EP, with the two versions of the single-chord grind “Incessant Mace” showing how that song’s brimming dread was the result of a fair amount of experimentation.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Packs
    Packs is a record by, of, and for New York City, espousing the romantic notion it will never change, no matter how much the world does.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Damage and Joy
    It feels more like an intimate recording project than a live band document, mostly splitting the difference between routine electro-Stones rave-ups and strung-out ballads.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Doris & the Daggers
    This isn’t a record you crank in traffic en route to an across-town meeting; it’s a record to unwind with later that night on your second glass of Syrah--a sturdy shrug to cap off the day
    • 65 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Detroit House Guests
    ADULT. still do a convincing showroom-dummies impersonation, but they’ve never sounded more human than they do here.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Obituary
    In 2017, the challenge for a veteran metal act is to not relentlessly innovate, but to mine any small new parts of their sound. Kreator and Immolation have proved successful in this regard already, and Obituary, while sticking closer to their roots, have also proven their vitality here.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Spirit
    This is a band whose effortlessness can misguide you into thinking they’re not trying. Don’t be fooled.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Offers
    They sound twice as developed.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    Elektrac
    While it’s laudable that Jenkinson is always moving, never resting, Elektrac feels a bit of a sideshow: a flexing of technique with little to display but its own shiny spectacle.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Paradise [EP]
    Paradise challenges its listeners to emotionally engage with their surroundings in hopes that they develop a conscious understanding that there are consequences to our daily conveniences.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Cubafonía
    The result is a vibrant, bold record that is, at its heart, a love letter to her home country.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Hot Thoughts
    The tinkering of the trim Spoon attitude has become the most engaging part of their latter-day career. For a band that seems built on a reliable formula, they remain full of possibilities.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    The Navigator
    Her boozy, morning-after croon is still gorgeous, but now there’s elements of Puerto Rican bomba and salsa, son cubano, doo-wop, and even the spoken-word poetry of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe she haunted as a teen. Her band has gone through a variety of lineups, but this one feels like a clean slate.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Semper Femina
    Where Semper Femina might have sketched a feminist utopia, Marling instead uses her broad study of femininity to explore flawed, sometimes devastating relationships between women.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Salutations
    Though Salutations is one of Oberst’s most demanding albums, it’s also one of his least ambitious, even before taking these new arrangements into account.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Love in a Time of Madness
    The core strength of Love in a Time of Madness is its range of dance-pop appreciation.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 46 Critic Score
    Youngish American
    Youngish American is a hapless vanity album, sad for all the wrong reasons, and all the more frustrating because it couches wokeness in songs about the extra advantages afforded to Tomson’s demographic.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Children of Alice
    Children of Alice is different from its predecessors. Its nostalgia feels less escapist than therapeutic, and its composure amid the mundane and deranged is more of a promotion for mindfulness.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    World Eater
    World Eater does not seem like a doomsday device by design, though. It might sound like one now, but Power leaves open the possibility of it being his darkest transmission before the dawn of a new bright tomorrow.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Yours Conditionally
    Despite the lyrical punch, Yours Conditionally is hamstrung by Tennis’ drums. The keys and bass on the album are unfailingly warm, but the shabby percussion is one-note, almost the work of a different band.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Heartworms
    Although Heartworms never quite conjures the magic of those first couple Shins albums, it’s further proof that they weren’t a fluke. This guy always did, and still does, know how to write a song that sticks.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    New Gen
    While a cynic might see New Gen as merely a reflection of Caroline SM and Renz’s taste and grassroots network; an optimist might say it’s an underground scene collectivizing for its mutual benefit. Nevertheless, it’s one of the more impressive collections of underground talent of late.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Everybody Works
    Just a few years into her adult life, and only one album into her recording career, Melina Duterte has swept past a milestone many musicians never even get in their sights.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 28 Critic Score
    Divide
    The lack of honesty doesn’t really matter--nobody’s going to Sheeran for gritty soul-searching. But the lack of imagination does.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    Reassemblage
    While never able to fully grasp the Japanese sounds they adore, Visible Cloaks nevertheless have created an album along the axis of Fennesz’s Endless Summer and OPN’s Replica, an abstract electronic album that’s readily accessible and an immersive listen.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Atonement
    Ohren’s mix is beefy but not outsized or over-processed like so much modern metal can be. The music reveals endless contours over repeat listens.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Last Place
    They sound exhausted, right where we left them.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Piano Song
    There’s no explicit theme behind Piano Song. It’s simply strong, well-considered jazz, with Shipp’s piano leading a thorough dialogue with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Universe and Me
    Some minor touch-ups would have gone a long way. Had Sprout tightened a few loose screws here and there, it would have told us more about who he is now.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Chill, Dummy
    With Chill, dummy, P.O.S avoids retreating into the program of Never Better, while also one-upping his prior outing.
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