The Wire's Scores

  • Music
For 2,628 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 7% same as the average critic
  • 42% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: 100 SMiLE
Lowest review score: 10 Amazing Grace
Score distribution:
2628 music reviews
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    IDLSIDGO is monumental in its willingness to just be a great rap album. [May 2015, p.59]
    • The Wire
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Merging a sophisticated rhythm dynamism, often with an almost gamelan aspect (“Two Flames Burn”) with a Laibachian apocalyptic proclamatory element and 90s crossover rave-electronic-industrial urgency, Disturbance may not be entirely different from what Test Dept were doing a long time ago, but, then again, nor is the political context in which they’re doing it. [Mar 2019, p.60]
    • The Wire
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Complex puzzles for nimble feet to crack, custom-built for dancing. [Apr 2015, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hurley was simply ready to make a new record, which includes a cover of The Louvin Brothers’ gem “Alabama” and a remake of his gorgeous “Lush Green Trees”, and that’s what he did. It’s a gesture that shouldn’t be taken for granted. [Dec 2021, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The mainstreaming of yoga, mindfulness and other pursuits of spiritual enrichment in our digitally distracted, permanently anxious modern reality might have tipped the balance, as Laraaji pulls in listeners who aren’t necessarily collectors of forgotten, strange or otherwise outsider music. [Nov 2017, p.58]
    • The Wire
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is von Hausswolff’s most open, personal and ultimately affirmative recording to date. [Mar 2018, p.48]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    1988 is full of these striking juxtapositions, placing tales of hustling and gunplay in smoothed out, soulful musical beds. [Jun 2020, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Like O'Rouke, Ambarchi skips light-footed across vast terrain in under an hour, and comes out with something that resonates perfectly. [Mar 2012, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unremittingly bleak but absolutely compelling. [#204, p.68]
    • The Wire
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With its warm timbres and cushioning delays, sonically Captain Of None is Colleen's most approachable record yet. [Apr 2015, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hendrix’s collaboration with Stephen Stills on the Joni Mitchell penned anthem “Woodstock” is one of the album’s standouts, as they push the song further out than Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young could ever have imagined, while Johnny Winter on “The Things I Used To Do” sounds like the boy got moonshine on his fingers and pain in his heart. [Jun 2018, p.72]
    • The Wire
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Embracing several facets of Lafawndah’s incredible virtuosic vocal abilities, every track on The Fifth Season leaves you immediately wanting more. [Oct 2020, p.56]
    • The Wire
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trees Outside The Academy is a relaxed, organic record that charms without really trying, and perhaps the closest Moore will ever come to the lost Moby Grape album. [Sep 2007, p.57]
    • The Wire
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Encore is Hall’s first record under the moniker since the 1981 single “Ghost Town”, and with guitarist Lynval Golding and bassist Horace Panter in the fold, it feels more like The Specials than anything has in a long time. [Mar 2019, p.59]
    • The Wire
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Where Spectrum was full of empty (head) space, All Things Being Equal is flooded with warm, luxuriant modular texture, across its bandwidth. [Jun 2020, p.56]
    • The Wire
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The five pieces do indeed feel like direct transmissions from Batoh's withered soul. [Mar 2012, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    For the most part, however, throughout its undulating ride, Antiphonals transfixes and immerses, transporting the listener deep into their own psyche. [Sep 2021, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Eton Alive is but another visceral and impetuous take on a grim political reality. [Mar 2019, p.58]
    • The Wire
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The record works best however when Leandoer wears his heart unashamedly on his sleeve.
    • The Wire
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The recipe still works. [Mar 2012, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fantasy Empire stands out from run of the mill noise rock because it captures not only the ferocity of the playing, but also the fecundity of sharp and serious ideas that lesser acts cannot match. [Apr 2015, p.58]
    • The Wire
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A return visit for these two tourists would be welcome. [Nov 2012, p.60]
    • The Wire
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Each piece might be filled with personal meaning to the artist, but they all leave enough space for listeners to reflect on their own worries. The transition between the noisy, illusory interlude “[ A Backlit Door]” and the understated beauty of “Haruspex” is an especially poignant moment on an album rich with them. [Dec 2023, p.54]
    • The Wire
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The album exhibits two players of formidable range and ability. [Apr 2015, p.60]
    • The Wire
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Superficially, Lovage is a continuation of the Handsome Boy Modeling School aesthetic that collides HipHop, rock and electronica into an ironic hipster epic. [#213, p. 59]
    • The Wire
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The sound is crisp without sacrificing any of Chesnutt’s trademark grit. By adding a little glean, Cody Chesnutt gives you the best of both sonic worlds. [Aug 2017, p.48]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Torche’s engagingly awry blend of harmony and heaviosity finds full fruition on Admission, an album you might feel somewhat ashamed for enjoying so thoroughly. [Sep 2019, p.61]
    • The Wire
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Maus’s genius is to splice nostalgic sonic expectations for the future with new structural realities. [Nov 2017, p.60]
    • The Wire
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    As a whole, Goons Be Gone feels strangely anachronistic, but not nostalgic. Retrieved from the heyday of punk rock, but with a lot of its own to say. [Jun 2020, p.59]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The trio are in classic 1970s rock mode throughout. [Mar 2012, p.53]
    • The Wire