Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,713 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: 10,450 out of 12713
  2. Mixed: 1,949 out of 12713
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12713
12713 music reviews
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    • 54 Metascore
    • 51 Critic Score
    Strength In Numbers
    Strength in Numbers is far from unlistenable--I don't know if your free time is spent sorting through stacks and stacks of charmless indie rock CDs that have the nerve to call themselves "pop," but when the chorus of the title track hits with the subtlety of a latter-day Nas album title, it's damn refreshing to hear a group bound for glory as shamelessly as the Music.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    Diamond Hoo Ha
    Diamond Hoo Ha does seem like an apt description of the glittery nonsense contained within.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    You Cross My Path
    It's difficult to determine whether You Cross My Path is a victim of the times or its own merits; it's the sort of thing that's so competent that it's more likely to be defined by its failures than its success.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
    Wainwright does lean pretty heavily on this formula of mild, occasionally rocky folk-pop doused with generous measures of vocal swooping and diving.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 47 Critic Score
    Evil Urges
    There are few fiery guitar freakouts, folk-influenced melodies, soaring space-rock bridges, or psychedelic flourishes here; instead, the empty space is mostly filled with serviceable falsetto funk and glassy-eyed yacht-pop.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Robert Pollard Is Off To Business
    Although Business ultimately ranks as yet another less-than-legendary offering from a living indie legend, its shortcomings are much more nuanced than typical Pollard releases.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    Tha Carter III
    Instead of hiding his bootleg-bred quirks in anticipation of the big-budget spotlight, he distills the myriad metaphors, convulsing flows, and vein-splitting emotions into a commercially gratifying package that's as weird as it wants to be; he eventually finds his guitar but keeps the strumming in check.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 36 Critic Score
    Here We Stand
    The Fratellis have comfortably nestled themselves among the ranks of British rock's most besotted, but even relative to their contemporaries they still manage to come off sounding bored, tired, and downright silly.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 46 Critic Score
    Seeing Sounds
    Like its unexpected stylistic kin My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges, Seeing Sounds finds its creators partaking in the subversively phallocentric narcissism of staring at their CD collections, confusing music listening with music understanding rather than enjoyment.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    To Survive
    It starts strong (with the pensive 'Honor Wishes'), and ends on a high note (with the title track leading into 'To America,' Wasser's duet with Wainwright). Unfortunately, the middle of the album, burdened with turgid low points.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 36 Critic Score
    The Dream
    Ultimately, this particular dream is less one of flight or past glories, and more one of going to work and finding you've forgotten your trousers.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Parallel Play
    Even those accustomed to Sloan's effortlessness will find the first half of Parallel Play almost flawless. There's still little in the way of artifice or innovation, but it's still easy to admire the architecture.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Los Angeles
    With its accomplished fusion of debris and warmth in a place somewhere between b-boy head-nod and laptopper experimentalism, Los Angeles is a big step forward for a still-young career, an album well worth revisiting years from now--preferably on vinyl, where the pops and clicks can only multiply.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
    Dead Deer is druggy and sexy and arty and pretty, but never pretentious.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 44 Critic Score
    Exotic Creatures Of The Deep
    Virtually every song enunciates its central joke, then repeats it and repeats it and repeats it. And repeats it. And repeats it. And so on, with the repeating. (And repeating.)
    • 67 Metascore
    • 19 Critic Score
    The Beautiful Lie
    The brio of an amateur would almost have to be preferably to the overzealous professionalism of Beautiful Lie, whose frilly "classicist" pop gets all dressed up to go absolutely nowhere.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    We Started Nothing
    Maybe once the Ting Tings stop trying so hard to convince everyone they're having a good time and start actually having a good time, these cute little ballads will no longer be their sole redeeming quality.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Takes
    His evident love of his source material and the material's alternative-era continuity make Takes a vanity project that's much better and more universally appealing than what we usually mean by the term.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    This Is Not The World
    While neither as frenetic as the group's debut or as stylistically curious as Tributes, World boasts smart pop sensibilities all the same.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Exiting Arm
    The album boasts the most opaque lyrics in Subtle's catalog. But put the record and the website together, and the big themes become clear.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Velocifero
    Even with a somewhat diminished speaker-filling capability and a couple of songs that seem to have less actual energy than they should, Velocifero's subtlety will eventually reward further listens.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 47 Critic Score
    Weezer (Red Album)
    Like the YouTube culture the "Pork and Beans" video depicts so well, the song--and this album--relies on a high quantity of short-lived pretty good ideas to distract from a shortage of great ones.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Fleet Foxes
    What follows is surprisingly full and wide ranging, almost as much as the Bruegel painting that graces the album's cover.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rook
    As impressive and uniformly gorgeous a record as Rook is, the band's best work is likely still to come.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Watershed
    Watershed has friction, and friction brings heat. Those left cold by metal's po-faced tendencies might well warm up to it.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    The Bake Sale [EP]
    The Bake Sale is the first commercially available product from a group that's built its rep via MySpace and live shows, and most of these tracks have been floating around the internet for a long minute. But it makes for a great little introduction to two guys who know exactly what they're doing and who do it well.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Real Close Ones
    Following their first two crunching and careening albums, it may seem as if the M's have lowered the bar for themselves, but through all the detours they've made an album that sounds more like themselves than any previous work.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 86 Critic Score
    Life...The Best Game In Town
    The best executed Harvey Milk album to date, and one of the most accomplished metal records you'll hear this year.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    This Is Alphabeat
    This Is Alphabeat feels labored, sacrificing identity in its endless eagerness to please.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Lay It Down
    Yes, it's a pleasure to hear Green articulate romantic satisfaction, and good for him if he's satisfied. But the grain and pull of his voice is all about longing for both flesh and spirit, and it doesn't quite fit here.
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