Billboard.com's Scores

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For 825 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 81% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 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: 100 The Complete Matrix Tapes [Box Set]
Lowest review score: 40 Jackie
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 750 out of 825
  2. Mixed: 75 out of 825
  3. Negative: 0 out of 825
825 music reviews
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    • 100 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Sticky Fingers [Deluxe Edition]
    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.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Complete Matrix Tapes [Box Set]
    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.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Hamilton: An American Musical [Original Broadway Cast Recording]
    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.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
    Needless to say, West has proved once again that he is most on point in the face of adversity.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 95 Critic Score
    Blunderbuss
    Blunderbuss isn't just (arguably) the best album of the year so far, it opens up a whole new world for him.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 94 Critic Score
    Channel Orange
    No matter what Ocean's mood is on the album, the songs sound fantastic.... it's one of the best albums of the year.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 94 Critic Score
    Pure Heroine
    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.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 94 Critic Score
    The SMiLE Sessions
    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.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    So Beautiful or So What
    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.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Belong
    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.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Father, Son, Holy Ghost
    With Father, Son, Holy Ghost, the band has vaulted the equivalent of three albums ahead, taking the conciseness of the EP and confounding expectations.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Musica + Alma + Sexo
    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.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Feels Like Home
    She may be changing direction, but that swagger is still intact.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert [40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set]
    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.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    The 2nd Law
    Muse fans will have a hard time being disappointed by "The 2nd Law," and rookies have a new perfect place to jump in.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do
    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.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Slow Me Down
    As strong as this album is, it’s hard to pick out a standout track.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Who Kill
    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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Civil Wars
    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.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Sale el Sol
    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.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Next Day
    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.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    The Harrow and the Harvest
    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.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In Colour
    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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Thank Me Later
    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.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Xscape
    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.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Looking 4 Myself
    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.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Beyoncé
    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.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Something Big
    Mary Mary never forgets to weave in an empowering, uplifting message that lingers long after the last note has sounded.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    I Remember Me
    Jennifer Hudson has never sounded better.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Disconnect from Desire
    For the listener, disconnecting will be all but impossible.
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