Billboard's Scores
- Music
For 1,720 reviews, this publication has graded:
-
71% higher than the average critic
-
2% same as the average critic
-
27% 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: | The Boxing Mirror | |
---|---|---|
Lowest review score: | Hefty Fine |
Score distribution:
-
Positive: 1,457 out of 1720
-
Mixed: 240 out of 1720
-
Negative: 23 out of 1720
1720
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
-
- Critic Score
Endearing sour trumpet and recorder notes on uptempo tracks like 'Judy and Her Dream of Horses' and a stunning 1998 version of 'Slow Graffiti' capture the essence of early Belle & Sebastian, while the four unreleased songs from 2001 find the group experimenting with funky, spoke-sung vocals ('Shoot the Sexual Athlete') and haunting atmospherics ('Nothing in Silence').- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Much like his predecessors' quick-turnaround debuts, Cook's is fairly generic, but its rock edge is dirtied up with crunching guitars and the artist's tuneful growl.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
His relationship [with Miranda Lambert] gives Startin' Fires its verve and spirit, a love-struck recovery from the heartbroken pall that hung over 2007's "Pure BS."- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Some of the fierce headbanging that is Mudvayne's stock in trade can still be found in 'The Hate in Me,' 'We the People' and 'Dull Boy,' but the bulk of the record finds the group playing its New Game with hard-hitting exuberance.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Kuti studied piano and revisited the trumpet, his original instrument, resulting in a more textured and jazz-influenced approach this time out.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
A silky tenor with a natural melancholy that makes him a heartbreaker by default. His charming debut exploits that very quality with some strokes of pop genius.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Though they're written by a teenager, Swift's songs have broad appeal, and therein lies the genius and accessibility of her second effort.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Seal's David Foster-produced tribute to classic soul is a figure skater of a collection, all elegance and grace. But some of these songs require the more aggressive approach of a hockey player.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Twenty years after her self-titled debut, Tracy Chapman remains true to her musical calling: soul-rich folk melodies around a voice of honesty and nuance that nails ambivalence like no other.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Not surprisingly, its 11 songs bristle with an urgency that more closely resembles (but rocks harder than) Travis' 1997 debut "Good Feeling" than 2007's sumptuously crafted "The Boy With No Name," with a decidedly uptempo countenance and plenty of room for lead guitarist Andy Dunlop's riffs, solos and fills.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Brad Paisley's mostly instrumental new set, which chronicles his self-described "love affair with the guitar," is both outstanding and diverse.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Nothing on the album is as catchy or as memorable as the Strokes' sharpest material, but several cuts sport a sweet Latin lilt, which helps distinguish the music from work by any number of similarly situated acts.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Deliciously decadent, Take It to the Limit has even more melodic power than its predecessor, delivering tons of guilty pleasures that sound fresh and familiar and strangely exciting.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Intimacy is the English dance-punk outfit's most urgent-sounding effort yet, and frontman Kele Okereke and his bandmates probably couldn't bear the thought of waiting two or three months for it to be heard.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The lush arrangements on 4:13 Dream don't build a Wall of Sound so much as a whitewater, where heavily distorted guitar and effects share momentum with fluid melodies and memorable pop hooks.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Snow Patrol handily manages the challenge of following up breakthrough album "Eyes Open" on A Hundred Million Suns.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
On her confident fifth album, the multiplatinum hitmaker attacks her recent divorce in all styles.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Legend's voice remains beyond reproach, but for a guy who's an oasis of style and soul in a sea of synthetic, robo-call R&B, at times it seems like he's playing catch-up.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Musically, the band works up a handsome country rock sound with shades of the Rolling Stones and Wilco throughout, making room for swagger ('Fix It,' 'Magick') and sentimentality ('Natural Ghost,' 'Evergreen') in equal measure.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The full-length The Fame proves she's more than one hit and a bag of stage tricks.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
His new album is not exactly like the last or the one before that, and is pleasantly surprising in its evolution.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Barnes isn't so much indulgent as he is overly ambitious and seemingly out of his mind, making Skeletal Lamping as wonderfully brilliant as it is weird.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The Sea & Cake has dabbled in electronic grooves and Brazilian lilt throughout its seven sleek albums, but the band has never quite let it rip like it does on Car Alarm.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Much has been made of the fact that Gang Gang Dance named this record after the patron saint of outcasts and rebels, but this effort shows more crossover potential than anything the act has ever done.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Call Me Crazy, the follow-up to her highly lauded "There's More Where That Came From," is Womack's best album yet.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Hank Williams III has always respected his lineage, but he gives it even more love at the outset of his poignant and pugnacious sixth album.- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
The miracle of Aterciopelados is that it backs up its message songs with beautiful, infectious music. The Colombian duo's latest, Rio, is no exception- Billboard
- Read full review
-
- Critic Score
Perfect Symmetry bursts out of the gate with a suite of giddy, '80s-inflected Brit pop songs that, surprisingly, suit the band well.- Billboard
- Read full review