The Wire's Scores

  • Music
For 2,618 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:
2618 music reviews
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It blends jazz, funk, dub and electronic sounds into a seamless, at times psychedelic whole. [Nov 2019, p.66]
    • The Wire
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The whole set has the provisional, unfinished feel of a diary or sketchbook. Some tracks are arranged so sparsely you’d think they’re missing parts; the flipside of this is that For You & I an incredibly personal, even intimate listen. [Nov 2019, p.64]
    • The Wire
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It sounds like something struggling to be born, and probably not something you’d want to see grow up in your house. [Nov 2019, p.64]
    • The Wire
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One Eleven Heavy have an uncanny knack for sucking in the charms of rock heroes of yesteryear and expelling them with contemporary fancy, with the best results being the hazy drag of “Hot Potato Soup” and the dizzying Allman Brothers-like closer “Three Poisons”. [Nov 2019, p.62]
    • The Wire
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    JPEGMAFIA ain’t really here for the put-ons and doesn’t expect his listeners to be either. But those expectations do not come without a kind of sound education, one that considers the context and multiplicity of characters he’s speaking to and through. In that way, Cornballs demands repeat plays, critical engagement and a goddamn sense of humour. [Nov 2019, p.57]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This LP kicks off with a run of tunes that are wistful and simply beautiful. [Nov 2019, p.56]
    • The Wire
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She’s the type of restless innovator that doesn’t stick with the same style for too long, and FIBS is a joyful, energetic follow-up to her debut. [Nov 2019, p.56]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gordon sings with a becalmed daydream-y satisfaction, mixing and matching phrases from different notebooks into a confident patchwork. [Nov 2019, p.54]
    • The Wire
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    From the cartoonishly unhinged prog/ boom-bap hybrid “Savage Nomad” to “Shine” (a duet with Blood Orange that flirts with melancholic, synth-heavy new romanticism) it’s the seemingly contradictory emotional timbres that animate uknowhatimsayin¿ and provide the core tension that brings the project to life. [Nov 2019, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Combined with the sincere and fiery anguish of Lenker’s delivery, this propensity for surprise makes Big Thief a genuinely affecting proposition. [Nov 2019, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is a record that doesn’t sound like it emerges from hermetic isolation, rather it feels as extrovert and joyous and intriguing and intrigued as the city that inspires it. New York City made sound flesh.
    • The Wire
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In mindbending, psych-wormhole cruising mode. Nobody should be able to write a song like “Flesh Fondue”, about alien invaders out for human snacks, as a stomping rock-out, but Hawkwind pull it off. [Nov 2019, p.55]
    • The Wire
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    There’s a lot to unpack, endless fun to be had cataloguing his references from Three 6 Mafia to Octavia Butler, his consummate brilliance as a wordsmith and architect of flow. ... But it gets monotonous quickly. [Nov 2019, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Balancing the 31 minute title song is “Heart And Soul” – another surprise, in that it’s contemplative and piano based, written by former bassist Derek Spaldo, who, for geographical reasons, has largely taken his leave of the band to make way for Andy Cush. It’s the epic title track that carries the whole thing though, making One Step Behind another step beyond for these Peoples. [Oct 2019, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Whatever your take on Tibetan Buddhism, this is done with powerful sincerity and musical sensibility. The Albanian born Kodheli in particular does a remarkable job, and I defy anyone to listen to Anderson’s voice for an hour and not become a better person. [Oct 2019, p.48]
    • The Wire
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    More so than her previous work, Carla dal Forno establishes a cold, dreary atmosphere as the ground for lyrics and delivery that strike a balance between doleful and cool. [Oct 2019, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bringing further gravitas and grace to mundanity, he continues in the business of poetically detailing everyman strife and significant moments. [Oct 2019, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Each listen evokes a different feeling. At times there is a feeling of contentedness. [Oct 2019, p.55]
    • The Wire
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sonic Citadel is a showcase for titanic, incisive riffs, gnarly yet immediate, accessible. [Oct 2019, p.56]
    • The Wire
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Somebody’s Knocking is marginally more rockin’ than 2017’s uninspired Gargoyle – due to a slightly increased emphasis on guitar – but it doesn’t measure up to 2014’s Phantom Radio (or its EP companion No Bells On Sunday). [Oct 2019, p.63]
    • The Wire
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Unlike the alluring textural build-up that precedes it, this rocking culmination feels frustratingly empty, as if missing a voice. ... Eventually [on "8 Spring Street"] a groovy, almost accidental rock lick is dispersed by a radiant conclusion. ... [On "Galaxies (Sky)"] Picked and bowed strings sound pleasant like wind chimes, then painful like nails scraping across a blackboard. The guitarists’ incessant repetitions are reminiscent of Orthrelm’s OV until a lone guitar breaks the cycle by oscillating sharp chords, augmenting them to saturation. [Oct 2019, p.56]
    • The Wire
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    This album finds itself wandering far too into pop territory, without the accompanying substance and adventure that made his preceding releases so refreshing. [Oct 2019, p.67]
    • The Wire
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It is al-gitarra in the classic style: raw and intimate, with the gravel-voiced Abaraybone leading the band through the militant and melancholy blues that have long been his trademark. [Oct 2019, p.61]
    • The Wire
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Patton and Vannier make a fine combination, vintage and modern, taking familiar sounds wonderfully elsewhere. [Oct 2019, p.58]
    • The Wire
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s dense and esoteric, but gorgeous. [Oct 2019, p.55]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There’s a sweetness, and an earnestness, driving these ecstatic breakbeat rave confections (you can hear the influence of Drew’s hardcore-heavy record collection too). In someone else’s hands that mood could feel forced, or just plain naff, but Resonant Body never does – if your hairs don’t stand on end for the daft euphoria of “Spin Girl, Let’s Activate” or the raw junglism of “Ecstatic Beat”, it’s about time you got off the dancefloor. [Oct 2019, p.64]
    • The Wire
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There’s a weighty sense of looking back and taking stock to Venus In Leo, while simultaneously navigating a present that’s growing increasingly alien to its protagonists. [Oct 2019, p.55]
    • The Wire
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Antwood hops between an arcade’s worth of genres, twiddling microprocessors to their squiffy, pixel-helicopter max later in that track, or embracing flute and some approximation of a banjo on “Castalian Fountain” before the Street Fighter beats hit. [Sep 2019, p.65]
    • The Wire
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Devour is unwaveringly formless; drills, drones and hysterical screeches become food for trauma. It’s frightening, at many points torturous, but not without emotional weight. The record mirrors what oppression really looks, sounds and feels like – no pool parties, ice tea, sunglasses and shiny colour palettes, just untamed agony, screaming and pain. [Sep 2019, p.60]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Code warms up as it winds down, as Malone is joined by frequent collaborator Ellen Arkbro for a trio of live recordings. [Sep 2019, p.56]
    • The Wire