Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,711 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: 10,448 out of 12711
  2. Mixed: 1,949 out of 12711
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12711
12711 music reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    Plat du Jour
    With Herbert, I've always been happy to consider the political content of the records to be a clever bonus, while the music as a purely sonic experience is allowed to stand on its own. I listened to Plat du Jour five or six times without paying attention to the song titles and not having read the online methodological descriptions, and this one didn't hold up quite so well.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    We're Animals
    We're Animals still has haywire guitars, bushwhacking rhythms, and those homemade synthesizers we're always hearing about, but the real story is the band's conflicted strategy for melody.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Birds Make Good Neighbors
    A dark, disconcerting record that derives its power from restraint. It's Southern gothic through the filter of Ernest Hemingway, with the frightening stuff left off the page but seeping between the lines.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?
    It's all terribly charming. Too bad lyrics are straight from soporific bio class margin-notes.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    If Songs Could Be Held
    There's the potential for something here; as of If Songs Could Be Held, it's yet unrealized.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Apollo Sunshine
    There are great stand-alone songs here, like the 1960s-at-78-rpm sugar rush of "Eyes", but Apollo Sunshine is best listened to in a full dose and appreciated in all its messy glory.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Broken Ear Record
    It's flighty, frustrating, and at times a little frigid, but intelligent and never lacking in momentum.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Cole's Corner
    Coles Corner is unapologetically retro to the max but it works.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 47 Critic Score
    Amber Headlights
    Amber Headlights is a step backwards after the lush beats and subdued songs of the Twilight Singers' debut, 2000's Twilight, but it also seems weak following the harrowing Blackberry Belle and even the so-so covers album She Loves You.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Invisible Invasion
    The Coral have reverted to a subdued and almost jaded sound-- Invisible Invasion reveals way too many wrinkles and stretch marks for a band barely into their twenties.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    Plans
    In a way, it's comforting to know what you're getting: Four or five songs you'll treasure, four or five you'll tolerate, and a pretty good band sticking to their guns.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 22 Critic Score
    Oh No
    Mimicry is one thing, but at least choose wisely. You see, OK Go decide to impersonate post-Pinkerton, post-catchy, fun-by-numbers Weezer, resulting in an Ivy Leaguer Sugar Ray sound.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    Late Registration
    The sprawling Late Registration is the year's most accomplished rap album, and in turn, he's done something that his heroes-- the Pharcyde and Nas, and father figure Jay-Z-- couldn't do: deliver on a promise the second time around.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Gods And Monsters
    After two albums of post-Britpop mediocrity, Manchester trio I Am Kloot kick things up a notch (or think they do), and suffer from bipolarity and an ambition that outstrips their ability.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Howl
    Cramming together brash rock snottiness with meek country hollers is hardly uncharted territory (not that it matters), but BRMC's particular mash-up still makes for a strangely intriguing party.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Invisible Ones
    If you're striving to restore faith in a world of "prophets, pimps, angels" and "whores," you gotta do better than Sarah McLachlan melodies and a rented Haitian choir.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    Menos el Oso
    Menos el Oso ultimately stumbles on its own self-conscious maturity.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Twin Cinema
    With more developed ideas than Mass Romantic and a more cohesive sound than Electric Version, it's their most consistent, confident, and best album to date.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Bright Ideas
    Bright Ideas is more pleasant than kick-ass or inspired. But for an album this deep into his career, at a time when he could start growing aesthetically antsy, McCaughan sticks to a blueprint that works best.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 64 Critic Score
    Blitzkrieg Pop
    Haas has a problem: Let that cartoon tech-metal ramp up (or camp up) just a step too far, and it turns into something kind of, well, uncool-- crossing the line from lovably brutal Germanic electronics into something sub-Rammstein, a kind of mallrat military-industrial metal that doesn't really square with the guy's skill set.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 53 Critic Score
    Knitting Needles And Bicycle Bells
    Where the Rock*A*Teens played an artful, echo-laden take on rockabilly, Tenement Halls takes traditional pop and plays it through a murky wall of sound.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Pixel Revolt
    Some might wish this gift for fastidious arrangements would carry over to the lyrics, which feature a bevy of look-it-up references and descriptions that might stymie attempts at easy listening. It doesn't hurt to do a little research or, like, pay attention to lyrics worth a damn.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    Infiniheart
    That's ultimately the sticking point with Infiniheart: VanGaalen's songs tend toward folly, yet it's impossible to discount his commitment to the material.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Year Of Meteors
    Veirs is maybe the gazillionth iteration of the quiet voice and plucked guitar, but she serves as a potent reminder how variable and compelling that combination can be.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 17 Critic Score
    Surgery
    A mopey bunch of trite sap O.D.-type tales almost as unstomachable as the band's former crapothecary hymns.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Drawing Restraint 9 OST
    A couple of really cool parts, and the rest I don't feel so bad for forgetting.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Inside/Absent
    Inside/Absent is a nice listen, but doesn't hint at anything greater to come-- a frustrating flaw for an album already unexcited with itself.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    Warnings/Promises
    Songwriting chemistry is a tricky thing, and while having two or three competing voices can push writers to new heights, a group of five here leads to songs that are merely passable.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    No Flashlight: Songs Of The Fulfilled Night
    The album's laissez-faire production fails to anchor its quaint, melody-allergic songs. In turn, Elverum's retiring vocals float to the top, which is a horrible place for them.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    Giving Up The Ghost
    May stand as the band's most focused disc to date.
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