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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    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Phenomenal Handclap Band
    Serves it purpose as a ready-made playlist for your next party, but perhaps the band's oversimplifying of its sound has stripped away some of its mystique in the process.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gravity the Seducer
    Gravity the Seducer isn't the ultimate Ladytron album, a title which still belongs to Velocifero. It's too uncertain for that, with the slight wobbliness of someone injured learning to walk again.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sky Full of Holes
    Yet, something's missing. An emotional engagement, perhaps, because they sometimes seem positively embarrassed to play from the heart.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Freight Train
    Buoyantly produced, it finds the singer leaning a little too comfortably on the conversational Georgia drawl of his baritone, and the writer coming up a little shy on the sort of detail and wordplay that lifts a cliche.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fear Is Excruciating But Therein Lies The Answer
    In its own right, The Fear... is an impressive piece of work. As inevitable as comparisons with their previous creations are, they shouldn’t detract from what is by anyone else’s standards a major achievement
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    End It All
    Ambitious, and brilliant, fourth LP from the New York MC.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Oh, Fortune
    It's a set that does reward investigation, perhaps not with lasting love but certainly first-few-plays impressions which will last into the New Year.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sigh No More
    Sigh No More sees four-piece Mumford and Sons strike out for equally distinctive territory, carving out a mostly winning--if nigglingly naive--debut that deserves an audience to match its impressive convictions.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bad Penny
    Whatever the inspiration, everything adds up to 29 minutes that pack in more truth and melodies than many records twice as long. Terrific stuff from a songwriter of any age.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Reality Tour
    With 33 tracks stretching well over two hours, A Reality Tour isn’t exactly suited to single-sitting listening. It’s also far from a genuine greatest hits collection, though it certainly does feature a number of Bowie’s most-loved songs. But it is a great document of one of the world’s most inspirational recording artists.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tosta Mista
    By focusing on the sweetest of hooks amid some wonderfully retro-twanging surf guitar and licks from dusty Tijuana barrooms, it really clicks with immediate effect.... This is quite the upbeat treat.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Abbey Road Sessions
    More often than not, these reinventions are successful. They won't usurp the originals, but they're not really supposed to, and some shed new light on the well-known version.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mind Chaos
    Originality niggles aside, the vitality and wit these Oregon upstarts display on this first LP is enough to recommend them to anyone interested in hearing a quality good-time band. Hockey seem to actually give a puck, and that’s reason enough to like ‘em for now.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Gold Dust
    All things considered, Gold Dust works as an introduction to Tori Amos, though an imperfect one. It should also persuade a few lapsed fans to get reacquainted.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Charleston, SC 1966
    Every one of the 13 tracks on this album are co-writes that he's had a hand in, but all the same, a certain autobiographical tone predominates.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Conduit
    This is their best album for years.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Opposites
    It's a solid, engaging and high-calibre Biffy Clyro album. And that's no bad thing.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Weathervanes
    A serviceable but utterly derivative slice of twee electro-pop, the album quietly retreads the ground covered by Sufjan Stevens, The Postal Service and Frenchkiss labelmates Passion Pit, failing to form any identifiable shape of its own.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Jojo Burger Tempest
    It's less Working For than Driving Through a nuclear-free (or otherwise) city, taking in all the myriad sights, as opposed to the unchanging view of the motorway/ autobahn.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    MAYA
    Striding through metal, dancehall, space pop and dubstep, our multicultural mascot has littered MAYA with politicized sonic motifs: from marching drums, gunshots and modems to heavy machinery and blaring sirens. It's loud, proud, and taking no prisoners.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Songs for the Ravens
    In Sea of Beas there is definitely a voice, and perhaps a songwriter, who still has something stunning to offer.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strange Clouds
    He's blessed with a gift for clear language, rarely missing his point and delivering his thoughtful lines with flinty disdain.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    America Give Up
    An album of thoroughly contagious, albeit fairly derivative, Strokes-flavoured gutter-rock.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Where Did The Night Fall
    This is electronic psychedelic-groove, flush with drama. Neither space rock nor alt-dance but flickering somewhere on the cusp of both, it should win back deserters while glamouring new converts.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Head First
    At an economic 38 minutes and free of anything in the slightest bit terrible, you should welcome Head First like the first sun of spring, know it inside out by the time the band are slaying festival crowds mid-summer and possibly buying copies to give to close friends and family at Christmas.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We Are Proud Of Our Choices
    He now presents his third compilation which, as such compilations should, demonstrates to the world that he is a man of excellent taste.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Invented
    Seven albums in, Jimmy Eat World are still going strong, and Invented is an enjoyable record. But it also fails to dispel the concern that the band's well of ideas is about to run dry.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ivory Tower
    While a talented producer in his own right, here we find Chilly collaborating with Berlin dance producer Boys Noize, re-rendering the elaborate, minimalist-flavoured piano debuted on Solo Piano as louche, polished Euro-disco with one beady eye on the chill-out dollar. It is often much better than this sounds.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Palace
    So they might be inserting themselves into a canon known for its critical consensus, but Palace is still a vital addition to the oeuvre, and richly deserving of the inevitable praise.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My ______ Is Pink
    This is scintillating fare, albeit rock of a variety that can dizzy itself to the extent where a point becomes dulled by the practice--not that it matters, because the poise is so polished (when it's not drenched in feedback) that the band's directionless bombast is a most pleasing soundtrack to all and any whatever-the-weather escapades.
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