Pitchfork's Scores

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For 12,767 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: 10,500 out of 12767
  2. Mixed: 1,953 out of 12767
  3. Negative: 314 out of 12767
12767 music reviews
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    • 82 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Secret South
    Secret South is a characteristically strong showing, but ultimately, it pales in comparison to its predecessors. The self-produced album retains the band's unique sound, but fails to measure up to the perfect match they found in guitarist John Parish for Low Estate's crisply rustic atmosphere. Even without any of the droning squeezebox ballads that accounted for Low Estate's few weak spots, it somehow lacks the momentum and fury that made that album such an engaging listen.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Spectrum of Infinite Scale
    Though the band still sticks faithfully to their trademark sci-fi surf gimmick, they've omitted the annoying science film samples, and actually show, for the first time in years, traces of creativity.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 49 Critic Score
    Private Suit
    Private Suit shows the band taking some risks. They continue to write catchy and cute guitar rock songs, but also experiment with backing vocals and strings, a noble ambition that raises the bar higher than "the little band that could" is able to reach.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hyacinths and Thistles
    The biggest difference between the two 6ths records is obvious: Wasps' Nest allowed some of indie rock's finest vocalists to lend their talents to a grade-a batch of Merritt tunes; Hyacinths and Thistles pairs remarkably average Merritt songs with largely substandard vocalists.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 55 Critic Score
    Excuses for Travelers
    One of Excuses for Travelers' greatest weaknesses is that the album is too uniformly boring to be affecting in the least.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 62 Critic Score
    With Ghost
    One would think that, coming off of last year's rich Snuffbox Immanence, the psych-folk collective would add profound depth and originality to Damon and Naomi's dreamy folk.... But, regardless of who's to blame, Ghost's role isn't large enough to alter Damon and Naomi's sound.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    Essence
    Infuriatingly sub-standard...
    • 51 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    Early Days
    This album, barely over half an hour in length, bears the hallmarks of a barrel- scraping reissue program.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    The Mirror Conspiracy
    Sure, it's just acid jazz with disco and bossanova inflections; naturally, the arrangements are less than surprising; of course the beat could use some variation. But this is about transference, not transcendence. The Mirror Conspiracy provides the soundtrack your mediated soul requires, and that's all that's important.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Disappeared
    If anything, Disappeared reestablishes Spring Heel Jack as drum-n-bass experts, gifted at layered percussion, and erudite at unsettling listeners with an uneasy ambience.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 51 Critic Score
    Fragments of Freedom
    Fragments of Freedom is a consistent and predictable stylistic overhaul into hyphenated hipster pop for people who actually liked Cibo Matto's last album. It fits the form to a T, right down to the brief, pointless Biz Markie cameo.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I'm Lonely (And I Love It) [EP]
    Future Bible Heroes frontman Chris Ewen just isn't a Merritt-caliber composer, and this EP suffers in comparison to the Magnetic Fields.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Weekends of Sound
    On their third full-length, Weekends of Sound, the band showcases their strengths and improves upon their weaknesses, making it their most accomplished work to date.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 82 Critic Score
    Mad for Sadness
    This 1998 set, recorded in its entirety with minimal interaction with the audience, melds the finer points of their best work into a potent display.... this succinct live recording stands as their most direct and effective release to date.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 29 Critic Score
    Alone With Everybody
    Overly orchestrated mid-tempo ballads with inane lyrics.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Mwng
    A charming batch of stripped-down rock songs that isn't as fully realized or inventive as last year's Guerrilla, but still makes a damned enjoyable listen.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 59 Critic Score
    The Rising Tide
    So, essentially, this is the pop record '70s prog bands would make in the '80s-- Big Generator and Power Windows for a new generation. Aside from two major blunders nothing is overtly offensive, but simply lachrymose and lactose.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 51 Critic Score
    Ovalprocess
    Try listening to Brian Eno's Music for Airports in choppy RealAudio. Hear that? Digital clicks, random bursts of static, and underwater compression swim over icy electronic drones, numbing your mind into a state of paralysis. Now imagine spending $12 for it. That's the Oval experience in a nutshell.... As always, Ovalprocess isn't bad for what it is, but it's certainly not clever anymore.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Faith and Courage
    While many adolescents go through mixed-up times, most have the sense not to let Wyclef Jean remix their accounts of first love into a four-minute bowl of mush called "Dancing Lessons."
    • 82 Metascore
    • 98 Critic Score
    The Moon & Antarctica
    For the first time, Modest Mouse craft an album, not a collection of songs. That they manage to go beyond any other rock band out there is staggering.... OK Computer must be mentioned, for Modest Mouse just got invited to the same club.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Sound of Water
    The songs flow effortlessly along, and even the instrumental tracks are fully developed-- none suffer from the half-finished feel that made Places to Visit so dissatisfying.... As with past Saint Etienne albums, Sound of Water is ear-candy all the way through. Still, they've managed to add a layer of subtlety and novelty beneath the glossiness...
    • 77 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Quality Control
    What sets the Jurassic 5 apart from the dead sea of generic hip-hop crews is their sheer charisma.... Quality Control serves as a fine follow-up to the Jurassic 5's self-titled 1999 EP, with more than its fair share of top-shelf tracks.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Elephant Shoe
    Arab Strap's music is still fractured, Smog-like, and woefully beautiful. The group's pitted, narky ambience fuses Irvine Welsh with Brian Eno's Another Green World-- Elephant Shoe is ambient for the Tamazipan massive.... Arab Strap's depression is as addictive as their expression of it is alluring.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Movement In Still Life
    Brian Transeau is a trance artist-- not hip-hop, big beat, breakbeat, or any other beat for that matter. And he is certainly no rock and roll artist! Yet, I listen to Movement in Still Life, and what do I hear? All those things!
    • 73 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
    Blonde Redhead's biggest detractors focus on the group's uncanny resemblance to Sonic Youth. But while Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons won't exactly silence such suggestions, it does seem to move conscientiously away from the influences that have marred the group's previous work.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 81 Critic Score
    Transcendental Blues
    Earle's music doesn't simply mirror the transcendence of its creator; it lends transcendence to the listener as well, as all excellent music will. But what truly makes this one of Earle's best records is that he refuses to be pulled down by musical decisions. It's as if he never faced a problem of whether or not to add this or that instrument, or to veer off in this or that direction. He simply had the idea and went with it.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
    There are some good songs on here, I guess, but they're not as good as anything from If You're Feeling Sinister, or even The Boy with the Arab Strap. It's weird, because the songs definitely sound better, but the album is still kind of disappointing.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Mermaid Avenue Vol. II
    Volume II is like an unnecessary b-sides compilation.... Nonetheless, the album has its high points.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Communicate
    Sasha and Digweed appear to be suggesting that, along with setting an NYC club aflame, they can also bore you to tears in your living room.
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