Early reviews. Critics give All Eternals Deck an early B-Side Breakdown of 78 (Keeper), from 5 reviews so far. It will settle as more outlets weigh in.
The verdict on All Eternals Deck
5 of 5 critics liked it, and they mostly agree.
- Highest 81 Pitchfork
- Lowest 70 Spin
- Career Tied for #7 of The Mountain Goats's 17 albums with a Breakdown
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Grayson Haver Currin | 8.1/10 | 81 | 2011 | “After two previous albums together, the rock trio version of the Mountain Goats now sound like a properly developed unit that plays with nuance and purpose.” |
| Tiny Mix Tapes via Wikipediaby Nick RS | 4/5 | 80 | ||
| Slant via Wikipediaby Jaymie Baxley | 4/5 | 80 | 2011 | “The harrowing character sketches and wry declarations of self-loathing that populated the Mountain Goats’s previous releases are in short supply here.” |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby K. Ross Hoffman | 4/5 | 80 | 2011 | |
| Spin via Wikipediaby Marc Hogan | 7/10 | 70 | 2011 | “On the Mountain Goats' 18th album, frontman John Darnielle radiates an unfamiliar feeling: comfort. He enlists death-metal dude Erik Rutan as an unlikely” |
Every Sunday: the week's new albums, scored by the critics. Plus our own reviews when we post them. Free, and one click to leave.
All Eternals Deck in The Mountain Goats's catalog
How these critics usually treat The Mountain Goats
- Spin Harsher than usual10 points below the other critics here. Usually 9 points above on The Mountain Goats's other albums (5).
- Slant Kinder than usual2 points above the other critics here. Usually 13 points below on The Mountain Goats's other albums (3).
- Pitchfork About usual for them4 points above the other critics here. Usually level with the others on The Mountain Goats's other albums (15).
- AllMusic About usual for them2 points above the other critics here. Usually 4 points above on The Mountain Goats's other albums (13).
More from The Mountain Goats
← Earlier The Life of the World to Come (2009)Later → Transcendental Youth (2012)
More Rock from around 2011
Would you spin it again?
Be the first to answer. Results show once 3 listeners weigh in.
How the Breakdown works
Every outlet’s score is converted to 0–100 (2/5 is 40, 5.9/10 is 59) and averaged. A letter grade counts as the star rating it matches across thousands of reviews of the same albums, so a B+ is 75, like four stars, and a B is 65. Verdicts: Heavy Rotation is 85 and up, Keeper 70–84, Mixed Bag 55–69, Back of the Crate below 55. Approval is the share of critics who scored it 70 or higher (7/10, three and a half stars); the Breakdown shows green at 70 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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