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 1.1 points 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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    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One Second of Love
    One Second of Love is arresting from the outset, Gonzalez's airily velveteen vocals cascading in with a similar invitingly icy inflection to St Vincent on Surgeon while luscious, Eyes Without a Face-esque keyboard washes burble by on their way to a skippily abrupt, if recoverable, meltdown.
    • 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.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Open Your Heart
    Rather than insolently demanding your attention as most rock albums do, Open Your Heart possesses a wonderfully self-indulgent, insular quality.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    World, You Need a Change of Mind
    For all its capricious cherry-picking of the historic benchmarks of sensuality and synthetics, there's still a sense of genuine invention that permeates the whole album.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Zoo
    At its best Zoo prowls menacingly and intensely, shrouded in sheets of steely guitar and fogs of squall and distortion... [But] this mood-heavy mix doesn't always work.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Other People's Problems
    This debut album deserves to take them to a new height of recognition: it's a superbly mainstream-accessible set, and distinctive of design too.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ekstasis
    It's both refreshing and exciting to hear an artist so vividly committed to exploring new frontiers in such a rewarding way.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Between the Times and the Tides
    One mighty fine rock'n'roll record.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Giants
    Longstanding fans of the band will no doubt be able to immediately fall in line with Giants' odd and unique groove. But for the uninitiated, the overall sound seems crude, even amateurish... Give this album a day or two, though, and its 10 songs begin to slip into context.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Home Again
    It might not heave with originality, but it's run through with a faith and sincerity that just about overpowers reservations.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In a Dim Light
    The whole thing's really rather magnificent.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Happy to You
    It's a delight.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pressure & Time
    Simply stuffed with rollicking tunes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Port of Morrow
    Even when it sounds routine – Simple Song sounds exactly like a Shins song written to order – it works, simultaneously mixing zippy and plangent, joy and resignation.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    SSSS
    Tremendous stuff.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sonik Kicks
    Psychedelic, kaleidoscopic pop... heady and brilliant.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Temple Beautiful
    On one hand, it's raw and stripped down, but on the other it's expertly crafted.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Milk Famous
    White Rabbits concoct something both contemporary, cultish and catchy as a cod net.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Clearing
    In fashioning it so lovingly and with such care, Bowerbirds have come up with their best to date.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We Bought a Zoo [Original Soundtrack]
    Jónsi is on form.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pretty Ugly
    A consistently engaging and at times exhilarating listen.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Victim of Stars: 1982-2012
    Yes, it's a ridiculous, sometimes patchy affair, but that feels entirely apposite.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rich Forever
    Counting cash – and stacks of it – seemingly continues to prove this rapper's primary concern, rather than a desire to significantly stretch the artform.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Start the Revolution Without Me
    they've upped their creative ante somewhat, a number of these songs (assuming you pick the 'right' ones) coming across as more measured and mature, and a heck of a lot gloomier, than the upbeat bounce-alongs of old. [Review of UK release The Future Is Medieval]
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shallow Bed
    Although at times the tunes and excitement commonly associated with a debut album can become lost in painful pursuit of authenticity, this is a surefooted and uncompromising collection.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nzca/Lines
    This is an album that glides between the concertedly cold and clinical, and a simplistic joy in pop harmonies.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Visions
    The Montreal-based artist has again delivered some fascinating and healthily progressive music on Visions, her third album.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Point of Go
    Streamlining has done them good, as has ignoring the need to be as brainy as possible, with classy and effortless-sounding results.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rise Ye Sunken Ships
    Rise Ye Sunken Ships is the embodiment of that thought – the phoenix rising from the flames, scarred yet triumphant, sad and solemn but alive.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Wrecking Ball
    Wrecking Ball is a work of commanding range and masterful execution.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Breakfast
    An instant hit with tasty ingredients, and worth waiting for.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Wall [Experience/Immersion Edition]
    It's great, don't be mistaken; but trim a little of its fat and it goes from a fantastic listen to an unforgettable one.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love at the Bottom of the Sea
    It's not easy to inject humour into songwriting but Merritt does it seamlessly, peppering sweetly sung melodies with just the right amount of acerbic lines--the cynical and the sentimental balanced beautifully.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    On the Impossible Past
    It might only be February, but you wouldn't look foolish calling this one of the albums of the year.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Black Radio
    Overall, Black Radio surpasses the excellence of Double Booked, which is a brilliant album in its own right.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Leaving Eden
    There's artful variety; the band may have a particular approach, but they're no purists.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    All of Me
    The lack of standout hits here is disappointing, but All of Me's Achilles heel is its conversational interludes.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Personality
    As a standalone listen this is an interesting development of the stylistic restlessness that's driven Rose's progress so far.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Featherbrain
    It's another Hukkelberg album to treasure.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Toward the Low Sun
    By getting back to basics and running on their instincts it would seem as if Australia's finest threesome have rediscovered just what it is that makes them great.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?
    She's full of vim and vigour, mixing tender character studies with doe-eyed love songs and impassioned protest pieces.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Keychain Collection
    Ozanne has here delivered one of the most perfect after-party collections in recent memory.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hell in a Handbasket
    Unconvincing and overbearing, it's like being ambushed by the cast of a Broadway rock musical.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Always
    Always is one of Stewart's most accessible albums.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rooms Filled with Light
    Rooms Filled With Light never dips beneath beguiling. Most of the time it's really quite grand.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bones
    Bones is a fiery yet melodious modern rock album made by a band who may come to regret their name should they survive to become old hands.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Felt
    Felt is a transportative album, a balm for troubled minds.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unlock Your Mind
    This is a full-on, joyous, positive album that makes you feel like celebrating.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I Will Set You Free
    There's much substance with the employment of piano, organ, synthesiser, guitar and horn solos, but the actual song structures and vocal performances don't share this same level of achievement.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Waking Up
    Second album Waking Up is a set of polished arrangements so middle of the road they make Snow Patrol sound like Animal Collective.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Be Good
    Yeah, Gregory Porter is the real deal.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sounds from Nowheresville
    It's fun, but not a lot to show for four years work.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ghostory
    A staggeringly beautiful success.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pray To Be Free
    If there is an overall mood, imagine a slightly sozzled, mischievous Leonard Cohen on the front porch having discovered the joys of country music.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    L.A. Woman
    With its harder edge, its hindsight-laden sense of imminent loss and its sheer dirtiness, L.A. Woman comprises a brilliant bridge between the floral madness of the 1960s and the tougher decade to come.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Put Your Back N 2 It
    Exists in a bleakly beautiful twilight zone of Hadreas' own making.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    True Loves
    True Loves delivers on the fantastic promise of its title-track, comprising a commendable listen for those demanding defined individuality from their chosen songsmiths.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Learning
    So sublime are these ten spectral soundtracks to the minutiae of a modern lover's tribulations that their sorrow is translated into something more uplifting than unsettling.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kinshasa Succursale
    Baloji is interested in an involved fusion that is at once nostalgic and innovative, quickly establishing its own musical identity.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Reign of Terror
    Boy-girl group pop-rock that's polished and pleasing.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fin
    It's a really, really good record.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Maraqopa
    One of Jurado's strongest albums in an encouraging line of strong albums.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Something Rain
    It may not be a Tindersticks classic, in the same vein as 1997's sublime Curtains, but The Something Rain is a record full of mystery and intrigue that will keep you listening--and discovering new things each time--for a good while.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Black Session [Live]
    Immaculately-placed jibes that slice to the bone and highlight a sharp, intellectual take on rock music that continues to prove you don;t have to dumb things down while letting your pop sensibilities win out.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Form & Control
    Ultimately, Form & Control 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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Melt
    This is a discernibly different beast from any aforementioned acts of convenient comparison – from a distance, sure, it has its similarities, but zoom in and it's an exquisite new breed to behold.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mr. M
    If there's a problem here it's how personal this album is, how bleak and heartbroken its protagonist appears. This is not music romanticising heartbreak, but the very sound of heartbreak itself.
    • 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.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Queen of the Wave
    There's just too much noise here, and not enough cohesion, for a singular identity to sing clearly.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Young Man In America
    A fierce, melodic affirmation of sadness and grief, love and lust, attachments formed both strong and precarious, Young Man in America is a marvel of a record from start to finish.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Freedom of Speech
    Freedom of Speech shows that one of Britain's most intriguing hopes still has some serious thinking to do.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Stage Whisper
    It's not that Gainsbourg is swallowed up by her band, more that she doesn't – or can't – rise to the occasion as a natural singer can... It still charms, though.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Young & Old
    It's a collection that feels fresh and clean, uncomplicated by over-thinking.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Montauk Variations
    The album demands to be heard in a single sitting, in a contradiction of the digitally shuffling age.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sweet Sour
    They still have enough primitive power to brush past any road blocks, but they could do with tweaking their formula somewhat if they don't want to run out of gas.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Further Explorations [Live]
    When the trio clicks it is utterly magnificent.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Living Room Songs
    It certainly meets every expectation, albeit without stretching far beyond anticipated designs.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Six Cups of Rebel
    Points for trying something new, but it's hard to disagree with Lindstrøm's own assessment of the record as something of an experimental misfire.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Format
    Confirms that Tennant and Lowe have always been songwriters first and pop stars second.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    MU.ZZ.LE
    His darkest and most oppressive work to date.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Singles
    [This album] makes one thing absolutely clear: whatever else they were up to, Goldfrapp have always delivered astonishing pop singles.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kisses on the Bottom
    Remind[s] you just what a good singer the rocking knight can be. And after years of personal and professional earnestness, he sounds like he's having fun.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Plumb
    Some of the straighter songs can seem a little underwhelming – for example, A Prelude to Pilgrim Street is a decidedly flat glam blowout. But such lacklustre moments are few.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose
    Now, it seems, her time has finally come.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon)
    La Voyage Dans La Lune is the 'most Air' thing this duo may ever craft, a perfect set with which to remind audiences of their continuing excellence.
    • 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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tramp
    Tramp continues the trajectory that got underway with her debut LP Because I Was in Love in 2009, broadening her sound and exhibiting greater confidence while markedly ramping up the volume.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hello Cruel World
    There's an unusual sophistication and depth of lyrical craft here, and maybe it's not best advertised by a polished country-pop setting that sounds overwhelmingly usual.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    E Volo Love
    E Volo Love has a strong onomatopoeic power, suggesting mystery, enchantment and romance; all properties this terrific and charming record has in spades and shovels.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan
    A largely redundant – and frequently downright woeful – endeavour.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Have Some Faith in Magic
    It sounds as if it's the work of human trial and error, rather than a series of computer-coded phrases and melodies, and it's this fragility that really has it standing out as the work of a band hitting its peak.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mindset
    Elements create a thick, clotted atmosphere which is enveloping but sometimes almost claustrophobic.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Loudest Engine
    By trying to interpret a whole new landscape and atmosphere, Howling Bells have compromised their strengths in an awkward attempt to force themselves into a new style.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Tamer Animals
    It's the most uniquely sublime, meticulous and heroic 40 minutes of 2011.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blues Funeral
    A mighty voice of formidably expressive multitudes, here given room to roam, and to roar.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Django Django
    Smart but not showy, clever but never at the expense of a catchy hook, this is 'indie' par excellence.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Resolution
    It's not exploring new musical frontiers, but Resolution is an eminently listenable heavy metal album.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Area 52
    Their sense of adventure seemingly knows no bounds, yet when, after six leisurely minutes of jazz-rock noodling, 11.11 suddenly segues into a passage of Cuban folk singing backed by a lone drummer, the strong whiff of pretension might hang rather too heavy in the air for some tastes.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Born to Die
    It's brilliantly realised, thanks to Del Rey's extraordinary delivery, her ability to slip from deep-toned haughtiness to breathless ecstasy to velvety vamping – often in the same gorgeous melody.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    This Silence Kills
    Everything is bound by a vocal that speaks to the soul... There are moments here, details of songs, which cause the throat to close, the eyes to widen.
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