Sleep Well Beast

The National – Sleep Well Beast: B-Side Breakdown 84 (B) from 9 critic reviews.

Album cover for Sleep Well Beast by The National
Released September 8, 2017
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The National

Sleep Well Beast

84
B-Side BreakdownGrade B · 9 critics · 100% approval
B-Side Breakdown84Grade: B
Approval100%9 of 9 critics scored it 75 or higher
DivisivenessBroad agreementHow close the scores are: most critics land within 14 points of each other

Based on 9 reviews from outlets we track. Scores run 80 to 100.

By the numbers: The best-reviewed album of The National's career on B-Side Breakdowns, ahead of High Violet (82). All 9 critics liked it, and the lowest score was 80, from AllMusic.

020406080100Rolling Stone: 80Pitchfork: 80Q: 80Mojo: 80NME: 80The Guardian: 80AllMusic: 80The A.V. Club: 95The Independent: 100 Breakdown 84
The gist
The Independent via Wikipediaby Christopher Hooton 5/5 100 2018
The A.V. Club via Wikipediaby Josh Modell A 95 2017
Rolling Stone via Wikipediaby Will Hermes 4/5 80 2017 “Our take on the seventh album from the New York indie-rock heroes.”
Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Jayson Greene 8.0/10 80 2017 “The band’s seventh album adds more chaos to their stately drama. It is full of abandon and quiet contemplation as Matt Berninger sings not about how to enjoy life, but…”
Q via Wikipediaby Victoria Segal 4/5 80
Mojo via Wikipediaby Mike Barnes 4/5 80
NME via Wikipediaby Hannah Jane Parkinson 4/5 80 2017
The Guardian via Wikipediaby Alexis Petridis 4/5 80 2017
AllMusic via Wikipediaby Stephen Thomas Erlewine 4/5 80

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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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