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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    • 72 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    On a Clear Day I Can See You Forever
    Lindstrøm may have timed these tracks to fit on a vinyl record, another sign of putting material concerns over creative vision, but there’s a good 15 minutes of so of beauty within those grooves that just might make a believer out of you.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Hello, I'm Doing My Best
    Hello, I’m Doing My Best often reads as a guidebook for young adults learning to navigate the world, and in that light, Barter’s no-bullshit lyricism is punkish and endearing.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Guv II
    Like the Luddite lover pining for old-school communication in a digital world, GUV II is the sound of a pop classicist forging his own singular path in a post-everything era.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Three Chords and the Truth
    Though he sticks closely to the conservative R&B, blues, and jazz modes that have defined his ’00s discography, the LP’s 14 songs showcase his determination to wring profundity out of even the most common language.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 56 Critic Score
    Seeker
    Cronin’s music has always been ingratiating, but that quality works against his material here, which yearns for something deeper or darker. There are clear limits to the affability that makes some of his previous singles so winsome.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Colorado
    On tracks like “Olden Days” and “Rainbow of Colors,” Young’s basic folk melodies are rendered grittier and heavier by the band, if no less tender.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Four of Arrows
    Four of Arrows’ best songs are ones Menne co-wrote, ones that keep the energy up and the ideas simple.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pyroclasts
    Pyroclasts feels about as close to that completeness as a metal album by a druid-robed group named after their amplifiers can get.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Jesus Is King
    Yes, the bassline on “Water” is one of the best I’ve heard in a long time, but a moment like this feels like a consolation, not a highlight. Kanye albums used to stretch our perspectives and imaginations. Now they illuminate the contours of his increasingly shrunken world.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Surviving
    The album on the whole is a solid, self-aware addition to Jimmy Eat World’s catalog, and if the band’s modest strivers’ outlook has proved anything, it’s that there will be another. A band whose biggest song is against writing oneself off always has work to do.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Cheap Queen
    She isn’t breaking ground in pop by disregarding its supposed borders. But where post-genre stream-baiters pull their numbers by anesthetizing distinctive sounds, King Princess pulls hers by playing up their contrasts.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Cry
    Cry is a soulless and Styrofoam record as hollow as a booty-call text at 3 a.m. “Hey sexy, you up?” the record seems to beckon. It’s hardly an inviting proposition.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    Woptober 2
    Like most of his recent records, it’s another collection of mostly very good Gucci Mane songs, marred by occasional awkward bits.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    PONY
    Rex Orange County isn’t Frank Ocean; he stacks vast emotional weight on predictable, inoffensive songs until they buckle like wire shelving. Pony is simplistic, clueless, subtlety-free.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Anicca
    There’s constant movement here, and while everything is lovely, nothing lingers too long or lends itself to stasis.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Bigger Than Life
    Bigger Than Life takes Black Marble aboveground, where some songs bloom, while others struggle to adjust to the daylight after so long in the shadows.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 57 Critic Score
    Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Pt. 2
    Rather than forming the second half of a complete statement, Part 2 struggles to differentiate itself.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 65 Critic Score
    All Encores
    All Encores takes a step backward [from 208's All Melody], toward a simpler, sparer sound. In essence, it represents a set of rough drafts, avenues abandoned as All Melody assumed its final form.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 68 Critic Score
    You Deserve Love
    It’s wish fulfillment as transportative as any of the prog fantasies White Reaper’s idols put to tape. On You Deserve Love, the risk and rewards are lower: White Reaper aspire to be a very good American band.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 77 Critic Score
    Dawn Chorus
    Dawn Chorus is most compelling when the production does the bulk of the talking.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    Over It
    Occasionally she steers into blander territory, like the well-written but sleepy “Fun Girl,” but a rotating collection of R&B’s most toxic crooners keeps the energy level high.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 45 Critic Score
    There Existed an Addiction to Blood
    The point of horrorcore is to both piss off church moms and find a language and vehicle for rage and misery. But there is no aching, tortured self at the center of clipping., just three fanboys’ overworked hearts palpitating into the abyss. While you can’t deny the imagination, you also can’t fathom the point.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 76 Critic Score
    Vagabon
    Vagabon concludes as a work of not only personal self-discovery, but evolution in real time.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Crush
    Crush offers proof that Shepherd has quickly learned to harness its noise and power. In a live setting, this material might have the potential to blossom into something unruly, but on the LP it comes across as more mischievous than deranged.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 61 Critic Score
    Juice B Crypts
    Juice B Crypts is an act of overcompensation from a duo trying to make too much happen with less.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    No Holiday
    Shattuck’s voice feels raspier and more raw on some of the album’s 18 tracks, a little less energetic, but the musical chemistry between her, McDonald, and bassist Ronnie Barnett remains untouched by time.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 69 Critic Score
    Screamer
    The album’s open-door policy helps keep things fresh, and the band sounds more comfortable in their skin than they have since the ’90s. ... Jenkins’ swaggering vocals remain an acquired taste.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    Heavy Lifter
    What distinguishes this record from any number of other nostalgic indie-pop ruminations on suburban teenhood is the sparkling optimism Hovvdy carry with them.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 73 Critic Score
    Pang
    Pang is such a coherent musical statement that when something doesn’t fit, it stands out. Polachek restructured the album somewhat late, swapping out five songs; what’s left is a sweeping, delicately latticed album with a few odd pop songs. They’re not bad pop songs.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    2020
    On 2020, the arrangements are proudly inorganic as they lurch and blast, sputter and break. The long-form structure of the record feels more like a short story collection, and taking it in front-to-back can have an overwhelming, exhausting effect. But unlike the sometimes hopeless characters in his songs, Dawson can wield this glut of information in his favor.
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