Needles & Grooves

Fair score. His weakest project, but not bad either.

i thought they'd totally give it a 9 if just because of the hype a la the current metacritic of a 100%

The only valid rating system is your own. Pitchfork is a revenue driven music whore. Strike it from your life.

I just use it as a "what do I listen to" machine.. not a lot of great algorithms that find out what id like

I think its a dead on score, but also find it funny that even Kendrick can't escape from the P4K hip hop mid 7s. It's the score range they give every good rap album anymore

@Woob_woob, funny enough, they do post some pretty good freelance reviews of indie rap, but the reviewer isn't in charge of the score, so they keep publishing reviews that read like 9+s with 7.7s.

...the reviewer doesn't get to choose the score?

Some writers have responded in the past and said something along the lines of the score is decided by the editorial board and especially a freelance writer has no say. Maybe if it is written by one of the editors it is different.

That's mindboggling. I'd be ripshit if I wrote a review of an album I thought was a 9, as a 9, and then I see my name on the byline for a 7.5.

seems like Pitchfork have been throwing a lot 7s out there lately, like they don't really want to say something was great or bad. Sharon Van Etten, Arcade Fire, Fontaines, Wet Leg, Spiritualized, Belle & Sebastian... all getting "just fine" ratings recently.

I've been seeing it for the past year or two, basically unless you release something they think is abhorrent or transcendent they give you somewhere between 6.5 and 8.0 or so. I am wondering if there was an editorial edict over extreme scores. I expect this Kendrick score will be in the 2030s column about scores they effed up

I mean for me today, a 7 feels about right. I’m still surprised they gave The Smile such a high score and BNM. I think it’s a pretty good album, but I haven’t felt incredibly strong about it yet. I guess that goes for both The Smile and Kendrick tbh

That Smile album is the best Radiohead album in years imo

@Woob_woob only because we haven't had a radiohead album in 6 yrs (i do like it more than TKoL and maybe even HttT too tho)

A Moon Shapped Pool is 6 years old?!?!? Damn. Well I like the Smile album more than everything since HttT (I'm not nearly as hype about In Rainbows as most)

The fact that it has a metacritic of 100 shows no one knows what the hell they're talking about and looking merely for ratings/revenue as Unc D pointed out. Rolling Stone gave it a 3.5/5 and they give everything a 4/5 these days. So basically, RS did something correct. It's a fine project, but these perfect reviews are a knee-jerk reaction.

@Melt Face Molly Drop reminds me of how everyone and their uncle (pun intended) rated the video game Elden Ring 10/10. Like across the board almost perfect scores from EVERYONE. It's a very, very good game but not worth perfect scores. Perfect means no flaws and it has flaws.