Early reviews. Critics give Écailles de lune an early B-Side Breakdown of 84 (B), from 4 reviews so far. It will settle as more outlets weigh in.
By the numbers: The best-reviewed album of Alcest's career on B-Side Breakdowns, ahead of Kodama (80). All 4 critics liked it, and the lowest score was 80, from AllMusic.
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PopMatters via Wikipediaby Adrien Begrand | 9/10 | 90 | 2010 | “Twenty years ago, nobody would have even considered the notion that it might be a good idea to combine shoegaze and extreme metal. Back then, both worlds were” |
| Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Grayson Haver Currin | 8.4/10 | 84 | 2010 | “French artist Neige finally fits all his component parts– arching atmospherics, celestial melodies, suffocating roars– into one dynamic metal record.” |
| Sputnikmusic via Wikipediaby Mike Stagno | 4/5 | 80 | “Alcest – Écailles De Lune review: Écailles de Lune sees Alcest improve in all the right ways.” | |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby Ned Raggett | 4/5 | 80 | 2010 |
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How the Breakdown works
Every outlet’s score is converted to 0–100 (2/5 is 40, 5.9/10 is 59, a B+ is 88) and averaged. Grades follow the B-Side scale: A is 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69, F below 60. Approval is the share of critics who scored it 75 or higher; the Breakdown shows green at 75 and up, red below. Divisiveness asks a different question: not how many critics liked it, but how close their scores are to each other. Five critics who all give it 50 are Unanimous, even though none of them liked it. The labels run Unanimous, Broad agreement, Some debate, Divided, and Contentious. Replay rate comes from listeners, not critics: yes counts fully, a few tracks counts half, no counts zero. The gist quotes each outlet’s own summary of its review. Published is the date on the review itself, read from the outlet’s page, so you can see whether an album’s reputation came at release or years later. Scores marked est. come from reviews that publish no number. Scores marked via Wikipedia are archive ratings, mostly for older albums, taken from the “Professional ratings” box on the album’s Wikipedia page (published openly through Wikidata); each links to the original review when we can find it online, and to that Wikipedia entry when we can’t. When an outlet reviewed an album twice, years apart (often for a reissue), both scores count, each labeled with its year.
A-Side marks the critics’ top tier. An album earns it automatically, from its numbers alone: a Breakdown of 90 or higher, from at least 5 reviews, with at least 75% approval. Nobody hands it out and nobody can buy it; if new reviews pull an album below the line, it loses the badge.







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