BBC Music's Scores

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For 1,831 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 68% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 28% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1 point higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 Live in Detroit 1986
Lowest review score: 20 If Not Now, When?
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,531 out of 1831
  2. Mixed: 293 out of 1831
  3. Negative: 7 out of 1831
1831 music reviews
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ashes and Roses
    She places faith in unremitting earnestness. It's often affecting, and draws you in at times, but somewhat smothering in its unrelenting glumness. There's also a paucity of fresh melodies here. This profoundly personal album is unlikely to woo passers-by, but loyal, long-time admirers will adore it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Totem
    Intensely individual without being overly self-indulgent, TOTEM offers an at-times madcap, at others beautiful but always-rewarding insight into Ryat's mystical and eccentric world.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Swing Lo Magellan
    The result is an album that is far less-crowded than previous works and one that, on the whole, feels suitably bucolic.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Welcome to the Fishbowl
    [Welcome to the Fishbowl] is aimed squarely at the mainstream. These songs are genetically engineered to be both supremely catchy and intensely wet.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sun Midnight Sun
    She's created a sound that's gritty and determined to avoid clichés.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Life in a Beautiful Light
    While lyrical simplicity is welcomed when attached to music that dazzles, here it regularly sounds predictable.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Visions of Trees
    Visions of Trees are enjoying themselves, which is evident throughout this atmospheric and surprisingly tight album.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Living Things
    Linkin Park will always be a compelling and watchable entity. But Living Things doesn't deliver music as interesting or as arresting as what immediately preceded it. Which comes as both a surprise and, more importantly, a shame.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lucifer
    With six-minute songs in which to stretch out, they continue to weave surprising musical strands into an agreeably amorphous whole.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fortune
    Fortune is never terrible. It just feels cripplingly pointless.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Trespassing
    The first half of Trespassing offers a smorgasbord of succulent up-tempo pop. There are a couple of derivative cuts, but the highlights are tasty enough to compensate.... The album's second half is less entertaining.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    L'Enfant Sauvage
    Gojira is one of the finest bands of our generation, and with L'Enfant Sauvage they've created another album to suit such a reputation.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rispah
    Rispah is brilliant enough for the listening public to find it naturally, in their own time.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Write Me Back
    His relaxed intonation shows a talent that doesn't need to be stretched to the limit to produce its best work.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Plot Against Common Sense
    Subversion of the most intelligent, insidious, inventive kind.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Slaughterhouse
    This is dark, feverish garage rock as it's meant to be played.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Copper Blue [Deluxe Edition]
    Similarly reissued in expanded form it presents proof that, even on sunnier days, Mould still had angst to burn.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Overexposed
    Otherwise every passing second is a vocal battle against a declining attention span, like a clicked finger in the face, forever.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Appia Kwa Bridge
    It's a sturdy set of mostly new material mixing Afrobeat and funk with traditional influences.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The House That Jack Built
    On the strength of this richly felt, richly imagined album, though, lack of love needn't concern Hoop.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends
    For sheer frazzled sonics and sci-fi future textures, Heady Fwends can't be beat. Actual songs are few and far between, and anyone looking for heart-stopping melodies will be disappointed. But if you're in the mood for a 70-minute aural assault, listen no further.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Stoned Immaculate
    It's a contented celebration of success with weed as the indisputable toasting substance of choice. The sound is bigger, with more detail, exhibiting more confidence to experiment.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love & Danger
    Love & Danger takes on verbal Picasso forms with the reliable regularity that has made him a cult figure.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Daybreaker
    Daybreaker is a great album. It'll go down as one of Architects' finest works.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ask the Dust
    ess gritty, less grimy, and more digital in its overall sound but no less inventive than its predecessor, Lorn has thrown down another musical challenge that's well worth rising to.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Cherry Thing
    The Cherry Thing is more than just a welcome return – it's an essential album.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Lost Tapes
    With staggering live versions of Spoon and Mushroom to boot, The Lost Tapes turns out to be even rarer than its contents: a collection almost as vital as Can's official album output.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Oceania
    Straddling the line between art and commerce, between arena rock and cult devotion, for the first time in quite a while Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins sound energised and alive.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Synthetica
    It seems that the band still have plenty to say, and the means to say it well.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Believe
    Justin Bieber's new album not only finds him becoming an artist for adults on his own terms, but showcasing impressively distinctive tones and translating an innate charisma across many styles.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do
    It is punchy, vibrant, compelling stuff.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Endless Flowers
    They've produced an album worthy of a closer look.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of Spaceghostpurrp
    If you avoid Mysterious Phonk during the impatient daytime hours, you'll find it impressively dark and uncomfortable.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The National Health
    It's potent stuff.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Graceland [25th Anniversary Edition]
    Forget the boycotts and controversy, and marvel once again at the magic that Simon conjured up on Graceland.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unity Band
    One of Metheny's best releases in recent times.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Triple F Life: Friends, Fans and Family
    If you've heard one track, you've heard them all. But there are a few standouts.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Looking 4 Myself
    Ultimately, Looking 4 Myself reveals Usher as lost within the genre pick 'n' mix as he ever was; but inbetween its shortcomings, this seventh album sees him beaming proudly through a new and exciting sound.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trouble
    An outstanding debut album that's been a long time coming.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Instinct
    One of the essential debuts of the year so far.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Bravest Man in the Universe
    While The Bravest Man in the Universe may not be quite a masterpiece, it is unquestionably a great achievement in which weaknesses are so few and far between that they barely even register.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In Our Heads
    In Our Heads is a record for all occasions, an album that balances sentiment and soul with an ever-evolving talent for constructing infectious pop hooks.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kill For Love
    Kill for Love is also one of the finest records to surface this year.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hope in Dirt City
    Dirt City stands little hope of entertaining the masses (again). But its maker has outdone himself, presenting variety with commendable cohesion and experimenting where others might've chased trends for overdue commercial returns.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    By the Horns
    By the Horns misses Angus' gruffer harmonies offsetting Julia's wide-open heart.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Language
    Language is a sturdy and well-produced collection which, given the right exposure, sounds like the sort of thing that could be very large indeed.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Machines That Make Civilization Fun
    What first seemed like an impenetrable puzzle will prove endlessly engrossing.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    That's Why God Made the Radio
    The sterility and cleanliness of [the album's engineering and production] affords these 12 songs all the warmth and personality of a motorway hotel's car park.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    WIXIW
    WIXIW is an unqualified success and, now that LCD are no longer with us, its makers are truly are in a field of their own.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Manifest!
    [Singles] I'm His Girl and Friend Crush both appear here, and though they're highlights, they don't eclipse the rest of this generally impressive debut LP.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Americana
    It's the dampest campfire hoedown you ever did hear.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    What the World Needs Now
    It all depends where you stand on the group's painstakingly retro, sax- and organ-fuelled sound. If you love it and go the distance, these grooves are simply mesmeric.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    One Day I'm Going To Soar
    There is so much personality, poetry, vulnerability and resilience here that most other records sound like dry runs by comparison.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Banga
    Banga is the best Patti Smith album since Horses. No one else makes rock records as rich, poetic and sexy as this.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Orangefarben
    She's an undemonstrative talent, certainly, but there's understated to the point of blending into the background – which is where much of Orangefarben sounds disappointingly at home.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bending the Dark
    It's a huge, focused, and daring leap forwards.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Storm Corrosion
    Bonkers and beautiful, Storm Corrosion leaves one wondering what this duo will come up with next.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blood Speaks
    Sometimes you wish they'd let themselves go a little more, but there's much here to adore.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It's a Corporate World
    The results occasionally jar, when Epstein's consistently elaborate productions overshadow the more pedestrian of Zott's compositions, but generally the sum of their parts is an equation to be savoured, and frequently produces magic.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Spirit in the Room
    It may be time to tinker next time around, but right now he's redeemed an awful lot of himself.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An Awesome Wave
    This debut offering is strong, addictive and enthralling, the perfect accompaniment to any mood, any moment, anywhere.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Flight
    Even though much of the album is inwardly gazing, there are repeated outbreaks of jazz toughness.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Celebration Rock
    An album wracked with spirit and a ferocious refusal to let anything slide away. Every track's an anthem; every second's precious, each breath as breathless as the last.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Cancer4Cure
    It's far ahead enough of that competition, intellectually and inspirationally, to exist on another plane of appreciation altogether.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Better Living
    Better Living, Flats' 34-minute debut album, is a commendably cacophonous outpouring which contains not the slightest germ of future commercial gold.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Boys Don't Cry
    Boys Don't Cry works superbly as a companion piece to Seasons.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heaven
    [An] impressive debut album.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Anxiety
    Anxiety is as tight and catchy as a baseball mitt.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    2:54
    2:54 have delivered a collection of deeply mature and addictive tracks. In avoiding their own hype they have created something almost naively unaffected, and purely affecting.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Heaven
    Heaven is a record with the power to grab your heart, like an ex-lover you just can't shake off--no matter how many years you've been without them.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ram [Deluxe Edition]
    There's little coherence... but the best moments are breathtaking.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Kiss Before You Go
    Peculiar and unconventional, this is an album which constantly shape-shifts and surprises, but does so with a graceful, effortless ease that feels incredibly natural and utterly delightful.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This is PiL
    A curious mixture of rage and nostalgia.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    What We Saw from the Cheap Seats
    At times, Spektor can be too cutesy... More often though, her little idiosyncrasies are charming.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Valtari
    In some ways, this is one of their most beautiful releases in a career that has never been short of elegance.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Majenta
    As difficult as it is to take Edgar seriously at times, so earnest is he about his sexualised sonic seercraft that resistance is futile. In short spurts, Majenta's kosmische perv-core satiates.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Island Fire
    Ray is a shining example of creating your own world and inviting the listener in with tunes you can whistle after the first play.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One
    It's perhaps a bit long, and there may be too much repetition for some – but persist and Drokk is quite the engrossing, and sporadically discomforting, listen.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Blue Slide Park
    Blue Slide Park ends up a charm-bereft everyman hip hop record merely ticking boxes required to shift units.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Magic Hour
    Scissor Sisters have rediscovered a magic touch lacking slightly on Night Work. Their progress is marked by a developed sense of reflection, which balances their familiar flamboyance – surely to resurface with their Fraggle Rock soundtrack – quite wonderfully.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Presents...Here Come the Bombs
    Here Come the Bombs is a rewarding and substantial offering.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    R.A.P. Music
    This music declares war: face-punching, heart-stomping, no-holds-barred conflict for your ears and mind. It's an all-out assault on pop culture and its worldly accessories.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Love You, It's Cool
    Almost everything is tight and controlled, returning time and again to the simple power of a pop song.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heroes
    If anyone asks how Heroes differs from the 65 Willie Nelson studio albums that preceded it, the happy answer is: not much. The expressive, intimate tenor, the matchless musical instinct and Willie's distinctive ringing guitar lines are just as compelling, and just as delightful, as ever.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Live in Detroit 1986
    You'll wish you'd been there. You'll wish it would never end.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Some Nights
    It's camp, but it's shadowy. It's epic, but it's introvert. It's highly peculiar, yet hugely commercial. It's one big, beautiful oxymoron.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    All Our Reasons
    ECM may have its detractors, but they've given us an unexpected gem here and maybe one of the jazz records of the year so far.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Exister
    A little of this niggling frustration sticks, but for the most part Exister subsequently reveals itself as a more positive, uplifting record than its predecessors, adding something new to the band's eight-strong studio album canon.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    De Vermis Mysteriis
    Once more they've turned sludge, slime and slurry into heavy metal gold.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    OFF!
    It's remarkable how purist a reenactment of three-decades-old LA hardcore this record is.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Words & Music by Saint Etienne
    Wonderful stuff.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Urban Turban: The Singhles Club
    There's the occasional meander and they'd surely revel in a bigger production budget, but there's nobody remotely like them and few who seem to actually enjoy being in a band more.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Galaxy Garden
    One of 'dance'-in-2012's very best albums.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Adventures in Your Own Backyard
    Adventures in Your Own Backyard is a frankly exquisite, elegantly crafted gem.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Go Fly a Kite
    It's not groundbreaking, and it's not that interesting.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Love Is a Four Letter Word
    For a listener who's only been aware of Mraz by reputation, this is no instant-fix point of entry. It relies on past experiences, knowledge of what the artist is capable of rather than anything he delivers with consistency across these 12 songs.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unpatterns
    SMD lovers will have to content themselves with a deep, well-crafted dance manifesto by two talented producers.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ufabulum
    A few surprisingly wishy-washy string-synths aside, it is, as always, hugely impressive but disappointingly cold and forbidding.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Not Your Kind of People
    Despite occasional lapses into overproduced mess, the surprise here is their enthusiasm.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Joyful Noise
    You could argue that A Joyful Noise is the album Madonna should be brave enough to make. But it might also be the case that it's the album that Gossip should have been brave enough not to.
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