BBC Music's Scores

  • Music
Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Shadow Of An Empire
    As far as second albums go, it is a brilliantly bold, robust work, showcasing real development and the kind of graceful erudition that places Regan squarely ahead of the curve.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    R.I.P.
    It's an album that envelops even as it blurs and drifts, its hooks no less insistent for their subtlety.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Avi Buffalo
    Throughout, Avi's vocals coalesce remarkably with those of keyboard player Rebecca Coleman, who was originally Avi's muse by way of an intense teenage crush.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Last
    It's this ability to pare back extraneous matter and to stare unflinchingly into the very soul of a song that makes Last such a spellbinding, if at times unsettling, experience.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Storm Corrosion
    Bonkers and beautiful, Storm Corrosion leaves one wondering what this duo will come up with next.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Functional Arrhythmias
    This is the most exciting and substantial Coleman release of the last few years, rigorously challenging, pumped with insinuating melodies, sleek with propulsive energies and pulsating with a uniquely globular funkiness.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Life is Good
    Here, he exorcises the turmoil with a focused set of sustained brilliance.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Psychic Chasms
    While it lacks the freshness that saw it named one of Pitchfork's best albums of last year, there's no doubting that Palomo's best efforts retain their charm a year since they were first heard.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Public Strain
    If you're not quite there by the time six-and-a-half minute opus Eyesore encapsulates everything that's been wonderful about the preceding 36 before slowly fading out, turn it over and start again. It's worth it, because Public Strain is one of 2010's finest LPs.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    So Runs The World Away
    There are ten other very fine songs here, this album shows Ritter developing continually, and there's potential for greatness, in time.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Civilian
    Civilian pushes Wye Oak to the head of the nu-shoegaze pack with a record as blissed out as it is maudlin, as rootsy and tough as it is fey and introspective.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Burst Apart
    A collection of mesmeric, epic stillness.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Your Future Our Clutter
    This latest record also goes some way to proving that, while he may be an old dog with a pickled onion for a head, Mark E. Smith and The Fall are still capable of learning the odd new trick.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Push the Sky Away
    An LP as weighty, compelling and brilliant as The Bad Seeds have ever produced.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Violence
    Understated and thoughtful, The Violence is a true folk record that should rightfully see Hayman recognised as the national treasure that he clearly is.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I Speak Because I Can
    With I Speak Because I Can, that argument may now end. Though just 20, it doesn't appear within her scope to make an outright bad album, and here we are shown a few more glimpses of her gift, but yet not an overwhelming outpouring of it.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    I Learned The Hard Way
    What pushes I Learned the Hard Way towards being something truly brilliant as opposed to just very, very good is how well it works as a cohesive, well-rounded whole.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
    Godspeed have once again created a challenging, intense, evocative work, worthy of their canon.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Boca Negra
    There was a time when it seemed anything emanating from a Chicago zip code was essential. That time may have passed, but if you're in any way interested in atmospheric, exploratory music that creates worlds as it progresses, seek Boca Negra out.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Here's The Tender Coming
    As good as their 2007 Mercury Prize-nominated album, The Bairns, undoubtedly was, Here’s the Tender Coming raises the standard higher still.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Maraqopa
    One of Jurado's strongest albums in an encouraging line of strong albums.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    James Blake
    Aside from the hype, this album is by no means a feasible breakthrough into the mainstream--there's not stride enough for that. But when it's at its best, it's boundary-breaking.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Shadows
    Teenage Fanclub's first album since 2005's Man-Made, coming so soon after the death of Alex Chilton, has the warmth and poignancy of a tribute, even if writing and recording was all wrapped up by then.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Paradise
    It's not sonically unique. Yet there's a charm here.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Money Store
    Death Grips achieve the density and intensity of several Bomb Squads, Public Enemy's famous production wing.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lion's Roar
    The full band which appears on The Lion's Roar enjoys the rare achievement of being saccharine-free, and serves to highlight the sisters' brilliant captured-on-tape chemistry.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Live in Marciac
    Remarkably, across its length the virtuosity and excitement levels never dip. After repeated hearings, the music sounds as fresh as ever.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    If...
    Ryder-Jones has not only pulled off the unusual feat of writing a soundtrack for a complex and experimental novel, complementing the book's allure handsomely. He's also, with its sentiment and inventiveness, made it worthy of repeated plays.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An Introduction to Elliott Smith
    Smith remains stubbornly entrenched in a perpetual slough of despond. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem he had much to laugh about during his short, unhappy life, but over an entire record, his maudlin musings are rather hard work for all but the most introspective of listeners.
Page: