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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    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Credo
    At times Credo sounds like The Human League of today trying to be The Human League of the past, which makes for uncomfortable listening. That said, it's probably still better than it has any right to be, given the time between the group's hits and their missing out on chart positions nowadays.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Light Me Up
    This is at heart a fun, dirty, insincere, cheap-thrill-laden pop record, with the raunch-riffery of Band of Skulls and lyrics which could be drawled from the mouth of a Bret Easton Ellis character.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Doggumentary
    Album proper or not, there's no denying this is greatly entertaining stuff.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tomboy
    While much here can be summarised as more of the same, when Lennox's natural quality control operates at such an admirable standard, that's precisely why Tomboy is such a chilled-out triumph.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Diamond Mine
    This is a collaboration that makes sense. Both share a taste for a rather languid tempo, that of small-town life and the more tender, bittersweet emotions; and theirs is a pairing that's complementary.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Euphoric Heartbreak
    U2 producer Flood marshals the band's bulldozing energy into an altogether slicker sort of bombast, and admittedly there are moments (Dream Dream Dreaming and the seemingly endless build-up of Lots Sometimes) where the songs sound in danger of losing their way in the middle of it all.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Apocalypse
    Callahan has gifted us perhaps his most subversive set to date: an album less about apocalypse and ruin than it is upheaval of the positive variety, and one of the most contented and rewarding of his career.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No Color
    There's little denying the sincerity of No Color as both tribute and experiment, but the duo's previous work was just a shade more likely to make everyone fall in love with them.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Holy Ghost!
    Unfortunately, over 10 tracks, the band's musical limitations become ever more obvious, with songs like Hold My Breath and Jam for Jerry rummaging through the same box of retro tricks to lessening effect.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Wasting Light
    Really, though, this is nothing more than business as usual: some killer, some filler.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Most Incredible Thing
    It doubtlessly works better as a full performance, but as a stand-alone soundtrack has wonderful moments nonetheless.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cotonou Club
    It's a shame the band don't stretch out a little more on some of the songs. Even so, if Cotonou Club isn't quite what it might have been, fans should bear in mind that the reformed Orchestra Baobab didn't really hit their stride until their second "comeback" recording.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    How to Become Clairvoyant
    While there's much to marvel at, not everything convinces.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hope St.
    It is, essentially, a pop record to stick on and sing along to. If that was Kassidy's aim, to have fun and make people dance, they've undoubtedly succeeded. But don't come looking here for anything more profound than that.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Submarine (Original Songs from the Motion Picture)
    Five swoony songs, sung beautifully, no duffers, and plenty of knotty lyrics to try and unravel. Another job well done.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Scandalous
    More of the same from Black Joe Lewis – and this is a good thing.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cherish the Light Years
    Reboots Scott Walker and the androgynous end of 90s Britpop into distinctive darkwave.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blood Pressures
    At its best, album four matches the duo's darkly seductive early material.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    See My Friends
    These all-star gatherings are more fun for the artists than the listener.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Sleepwalking Society
    Throughout the album, Lamdin's production offers a sense of clarity and understated confidence.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?
    The less they do big dumb bravado, it seems, the more there is to love about this London bunch.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang
    A great fifth album from the Wu-Tang rapper, but not quite another catalogue classic.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hunger
    Even when tracks pass without too much of an impression left, the listener is never without a smile on their face--there's simply that much fun on show.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    You Stand Uncertain
    You Stand Uncertain isn't quite legendary, but it is exceptional in today's hurried dance scene.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)
    The strongest tracks here stand tall, ensuring Monch remains a powerful rap force.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mind Bokeh
    Although Mind Bokeh can be expected to be a wilfully eclectic pick'n'mix affair, what he's actually going to pull out the bag can still surprise.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All Eternals Deck
    While the other songs, intelligent pieces of art that they are, may intrigue, it's disappointing that only one song here compels us to really feel anything.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Gimme Some
    They seem to have stopped trying to subvert their pop nous and accept what they do best, and for the most part it works a treat.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Who You Are
    What it's not, though, is a collection that confirms the arrival of a significant solo talent. It's too patchy, too hurried, the powers behind it too eager to capitalise on the artist's current chart success.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Femme Fatale
    As it turns out, Spears' seventh studio album is part-success and part astounding failure, mixing some of her very best songs with hideous black holes.
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