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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    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Falling Down A Mountain
    Falling Down a Mountain opens with the six-and-a-half-minutes of insistent, monotonal jazz of the title track. Mercifully, this fails to set the scene for what follows, as the album is dominated by the band’s whimsical, playful side, a usually dormant but altogether delightful aspect of their character.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A+E
    Spectacularly creative pop.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    (III)
    The core elements are so big, like blasts of pure plasmic energy, that it sounds planet-sized.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
    While some consistency may have been sacrificed in favour of a space-filling selection of tracks, this set still represents a heaving, breathing journey through the introspective and the bombastic, the striving and the exhaustive.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Expressions
    Bell’s vocals are mountain-fresh like Frida and Agnetha’s and the songs they’ve written are walloping feel-good anthems with the sort of cacophonous choruses that would knock Mika and The Feeling into the middle of next week.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Never
    Whether or not Never is a record you'll want to revisit that often is a moot point, but its ability to hit like a spring-mounted boxing glove to your peripheral vision is hardly in doubt.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Endgame
    While Endgame is a strong album, and certainly an honourable one, it does lack an ingredient that might be identified as magic.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Singles Collection 2001-2011
    Admire the riches this national treasure has bestowed upon us.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Chelsea Light Moving
    It’s hard not to by won over, once again, by Moore’s indomitable, eternal teenager energy.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Down There
    With little pop appeal, Avey Tare's swampy debut is unlikely to grace top 40 radio playlists. But given time, Down There is a rewarding and fascinating listen, its allure in the seductive atmosphere it exudes with every glistening note and slimy drum fill.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Road From Memphis
    The Road From Memphis hasn't got any of the surprise factor of Potato Hole; in fact, it's more like reacquainting yourself with an old friend. But it's a work of such high quality it doesn't really matter it's nothing new.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Devil's Walk
    If only there was more drama of this sort here, and a little less schmaltz, to bolster Ring's talent as an arranger and a producer.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    936
    936 is a delight, a ray of welcomed sunshine as the wintry outside fades into shades of grey.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Thank You, Happy Birthday
    Throughout, CTE prove that they are an alternative act that's not scared of offending mainstream sensibilities. Time to break their locks.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [OST]
    Ross and Reznor receive A grades for effort, and commendations for their execution of this most-malevolent of soundtracks; but Dragon Tattoo is such an exhausting listen that one might well switch to the music from Arthur Christmas before the fine, Ferry-penned finale comes into view.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Smart Flesh
    Easy-going and mellifluous, songs built on the simplest of patterns.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Wolfroy Goes To Town
    [A] sober, smart and his finest record since 1999's I See a Darkness.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Time Flies... 1994-2009
    This utterly unnecessary but partially satisfying "complete" (says the sticker on the sleeve) singles collection manages to fall at the first hurdle by not including their first (and best) 12" from debut album Definitely Maybe, the shameless cocaine elegy Columbia.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Simon Werner A Disparu
    The results are every bit as enthrallingly out of step with the group's "mainstream" catalogue as previous SYR releases, but fashioned into something that's perfectly coherent, and really quite a delightful listen.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Fake History
    Far from didactic or preachy, it's a lesson in the pure power of music.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons: Live from The Union Chapel, London (Diversions Vol.1)
    In other words, it's a perfect match.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Sirens
    Those unfamiliar with ancient Greek literature need not be daunted, as knowledge of the book is not necessary to appreciate the moods and melodies of The Sirens.
    • 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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ghost People
    From his eulogy of Detroit strings and deep beats, to London's ambiguous constant reinvention of bass culture, these are tracks that will hold their own in any city with DJs operating at the forefront of the shifting beat.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    No One Can Ever Know
    Whereas Editors seem to ape the tortured soul of Joy Division, here it's the real deal.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fool's Gold
    Fool’s Gold stretch Western pop templates out into African shapes; and this debut album belies their name by being a genuine gem.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Similes
    But it’s not float-away, background material; these songs poke and prod while clasping you close, the embrace warm but never completely comfortable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Body Talk Pt 1
    Early trio Fembot, the single Dancing on My Own and Cry When You Get Older are scorchingly catchy, and laced with Robyn's familiar cordial of sparkling hook mixed with unutterable poignancy. The thing is, it's alarming when the first instalment of a trilogy houses so much filler.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Boys & Girls
    Lyrics are route-one effective throughout, as you'd expect from an album called Boys & Girls, but the Shakes are not one-dimensional.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Belong
    A consistent second album of big choruses from the New Yorkers.
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