Billboard.com's Scores
- Music
For 825 reviews, this publication has graded:
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81% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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16% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.5 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 76
Highest review score: | The Complete Matrix Tapes [Box Set] | |
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Lowest review score: | Jackie |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 750 out of 825
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Mixed: 75 out of 825
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Negative: 0 out of 825
825
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
Finally, a deluxe version of their 1971 masterpiece Sticky Fingers that includes a bounty of concurrent outtakes and live material, along with a companion DVD/CD release of a live-for-TV performance.... [Sticky Fingers itself] is indisputably one of the greatest albums of 1970s, if not the entire the rock era. The end.- Billboard.com
- Posted Jun 25, 2015
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What makes this collection essential is the cohesion of the band and the setlists: The shows find the Velvets at their absolute peak as a live unit.- Billboard.com
- Posted Nov 23, 2015
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- Critic Score
Hamilton’s stage production should be required viewing for every American citizen, but this exhilarating listen is a much more practical, and every bit as enjoyable, stand-in.- Billboard.com
- Posted Oct 20, 2015
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- Critic Score
Needless to say, West has proved once again that he is most on point in the face of adversity.- Billboard.com
- Posted Dec 7, 2010
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- Critic Score
Blunderbuss isn't just (arguably) the best album of the year so far, it opens up a whole new world for him.- Billboard.com
- Posted Apr 13, 2012
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- Critic Score
No matter what Ocean's mood is on the album, the songs sound fantastic.... it's one of the best albums of the year.- Billboard.com
- Posted Jul 18, 2012
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September has been a profoundly great month for new female vocalists in popular music, but Lorde is easily the most vocally striking and lyrically thought-provoking. Pure Heroine is honest and addictive.- Billboard.com
- Posted Sep 30, 2013
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The SMiLE Sessions captures Wilson, session musicians and the Beach Boys in moments that are chaotic, loopy and remarkably in synch. It's a consistently brilliant album.- Billboard.com
- Posted Oct 28, 2011
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So Beautiful or So What is vintage Simon, but it's also all over the map stylistically, touching on blues, African, folk, Indian and more. The music is unmistakably his, but finds the artist challenging himself melodically and with his phrasing.- Billboard.com
- Posted Apr 29, 2011
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The 10-track set barely has a weak moment and actually ends too soon. It's like '90s alt-rock had a child who suddenly grew up beautiful.- Billboard.com
- Posted Apr 15, 2011
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With Father, Son, Holy Ghost, the band has vaulted the equivalent of three albums ahead, taking the conciseness of the EP and confounding expectations.- Billboard.com
- Posted Oct 17, 2011
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Martin largely shuns easy romanticism for more assertive messages that celebrate liberation and diversity, themes that can be associated with his coming out last year.- Billboard.com
- Posted Mar 4, 2011
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- Billboard.com
- Posted Sep 9, 2013
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- Critic Score
This smart four-disc package commemorates the concert's 40th anniversary with a pristine remastered version of the original recording, five previously unreleased songs from the same show and an entire disc devoted to the fiery opening acts, B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner.- Billboard.com
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Muse fans will have a hard time being disappointed by "The 2nd Law," and rookies have a new perfect place to jump in.- Billboard.com
- Posted Oct 1, 2012
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The result is an album that was absolutely worth the seven-year wait, not to mention the mountain of hype atop which Apple has sat since her big comeback at SXSW in March.- Billboard.com
- Posted Jun 19, 2012
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- Billboard.com
- Posted Mar 11, 2014
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On the follow-up to her 2009 breakthrough album, "Bird-Brains," Merrill Garbus (aka Tune-Yards) again creates a clamorous assemblage of warm, overdriven kitchen-sink instrumentation, field hollering, layered stacks of processed vocals and a sonic smorgasbord culled from the world cafe-only more so.- Billboard.com
- Posted Jun 29, 2011
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Singer-songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White brought in more instruments, added deeper textures and, in general, upped the intensity of the songwriting for their second effort.- Billboard.com
- Posted Aug 5, 2013
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- Critic Score
Sale el Sol manages to bridge the divide between the old and new Shakira with a spark that keeps you listening to the very end.- Billboard.com
- Posted Oct 25, 2010
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Bowie and producer Tony Visconti, who helped shaped his sound in the 1970s as well as produce seven T. Rex records, have struck gold in creating a work that is modern and well-connected to the artist's fabled sonic-past.- Billboard.com
- Posted Feb 27, 2013
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- Critic Score
Rawlings' guitar work is an engaging mix of the decorative and functional, marvelously recorded and a perfect balance to the warmth of Welch's vocals.- Billboard.com
- Posted Jun 30, 2011
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Jamie xx is among other U.K. electronic-dance acts, such as Disclosure and Four Tet, that are tapping the genre's past to forge its future. But no one has nailed it quite like this.- Billboard.com
- Posted Jun 8, 2015
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- Critic Score
Toronto MC Drake has said that he wants fans to feel the different layers of his debut, Thank Me Later. From the sounds of it, he's held little back, sharing with listeners his deepest thoughts on family, women, and fame.- Billboard.com
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Jackson's music mixed celebration and terror, as if he was unable to find, or maintain, the division between the two. His music offered a place to both explore and escape those tensions. On this album, it does again.- Billboard.com
- Posted May 13, 2014
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At its best, a truly next-level soul album. One that has the warm, organic feel of R&B and deep pop hooks, but also the pulsating low-end and shimmering keyboard flourishes of EDM.- Billboard.com
- Posted Jun 11, 2012
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Once the initial novelty and shock wears off of Beyoncé's impressive stealth-release feat, the brilliance and creative audacity of the album itself can sink in.- Billboard.com
- Posted Dec 13, 2013
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- Critic Score
Mary Mary never forgets to weave in an empowering, uplifting message that lingers long after the last note has sounded.- Billboard.com
- Posted Apr 19, 2011
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- Billboard.com
- Posted Mar 31, 2011
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- Billboard.com
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