The Wire's Scores

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For 804 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 48% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 70
Highest review score:
Kid A
Critic Score 100
Lowest review score:
Amazing Grace
Critic Score 10
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 609 out of 804
  2. Mixed: 180 out of 804
  3. Negative: 15 out of 804
804 music reviews
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    • Metascore: 78
    • Critic Score 80
    Misery Is A Butterfly
    A rewarding new departure. [#242, p.72]
    • Metascore: 78
    • Critic Score 80
    Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs
    A quietly masterful concoction. [#236, p.62]
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 80
    Venice
    There's at once a sense that Venice is weightier and more purposeful than its predecessor. [#243, p.56]
    • Metascore: 71
    • Critic Score 80
    Zoomer
    May be the year's most surprising pure pop pleasure--precisely because it's nothing like you'd expect a pop album to be. [#224, p.61]
    • Metascore: 76
    • Critic Score 80
    Throwing Muses [2003]
    It may lack subtlety but it sounds incredibly vital. [#229, p.68]
    • Metascore: 87
    • Critic Score 80
    Things We Lost In The Fire
    Low's original stark minimalism has gradually given way to a broader sonic range, without sacrificing their strangely accessible otherness. [#204, p.68]
    • Metascore: 85
    • Critic Score 80
    Fever To Tell
    A set of intelligently performed rock tunes distinguished by Karen O's smart and smarting lyrics. [#232, p.74]
    • Metascore: 81
    • Critic Score 80
    Sunny Border Blue
    Sunny Border Blue marks a return to a less considered, rawer style, and to lyrics which are nakedly confessional, mercilessly exposing her own and other people's weaknesses. [#206, p.67]
    • Metascore: 88
    • Critic Score 80
    Rejoicing In The Hands
    Banhart mixes a relaxed bearing and a tense vocal delivery in a fascinating manner. [#245, p.51]
    • Metascore: 69
    • Critic Score 80
    Blue Album
    Marks a return to the kind of intricately interleaved rhythms, seamless progressions and aching harmonies that characterise their earlier sound. [#245, p.69]
    • Metascore: 90
    • Critic Score 80
    Alice
    The sense of loss and longing becomes so physical at points that rather than respond, it's simpler to go with it until the ride ends in a drained silence. [#219, p.72]
    • Metascore: 84
    • Critic Score 80
    Blood Money
    Disturbing and delirious when it's not romantic and hilarious, the songs have a much more direct emotional appeal than the patently surrealistic Alice. [#219, p.72]
    • Metascore: 72
    • Critic Score 80
    Fast Future Present
    A scattering of influences have been streamlined into tightly focused songs, with a keen sense of melody and an impressive grasp of agitated, Gang Of Four-style rhythms. [#247, p.70]
    • Metascore: 89
    • Critic Score 80
    HoboSapiens
    Hobo Sapiens is a confident and consistently rewarding record, and some of its songs rank alongside Cale's best. [#236, p.56]
    • Metascore: 79
    • Critic Score 80
    One Bedroom
    The production is so delicate and the arrangements so well crafted that you can't help being utterly seduced by this open-ended, non-narrative yet elegant and accessible pop music. [#227, p.71]
    • Metascore: 83
    • Critic Score 80
    Shine A Light
    Impressively raucous. [#240, p.68]
    • Metascore: 78
    • Critic Score 80
    Feminist Sweepstakes
    Its infusion of HipHop drum programs, Old Skool electronics, rabblerousing calls-to-arms and repetitive guitar riffs is highly addictive. [#213, p.58]
    • Metascore: 80
    • Critic Score 80
    New York Noise
    New York Noise is exemplary: the right mix of 'hits' and obscurities. [#233, p.71]
    • Metascore: 73
    • Critic Score 80
    I Com
    Laced with a shot of self-doubt that has it coming on almost like an electroclash Exile On Main Street. [#244, p.69]
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 80
    Transfiguration Of Vincent
    This is a dark night of the soul record, a distant country cousin of Young's Tonight's The Night, but it feels flooded with light and air and space. [#232, p.73]
    • Metascore: 79
    • Critic Score 80
    Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
    An exciting record crawling with new ideas. [#243, p.74]
    • Metascore: 90
    • Critic Score 80
    Original Pirate Material
    His verbal style is notable because it avoids typical ragga chat or MC freestyling in favour of an almost literary blend of prose and verse. [#219, p.75]
    • Metascore: 78
    • Critic Score 80
    Real Gone
    A set of powerfully written and unfussily executed songs. [#248, p.50]
    • Metascore: 80
    • Critic Score 80
    The Grind Date
    The best thing they've done since Stakes Is High. [#250, p.73]
    • Metascore: 81
    • Critic Score 80
    MM..Food
    Lyrically, Mm.. Food is the best of the three albums released by Daniel Dumile this year. [#250, p.73]
    • Metascore: 77
    • Critic Score 80
    Margerine Eclipse
    Continues along lines that Stereolab have been laying down since the late 1990s: motorik drumming and a swish of keyboards tarversing a linear landscape, with the emphasis on Sadier's laconic, dewy vocals. [#239, p.65]
    • Metascore: 82
    • Critic Score 80
    Niño Rojo
    Another charming collection. [#248, p.51]
    • Metascore: 57
    • Critic Score 80
    When The World Was Our Friend
    The sound has a new depth. [#249, p.65]
    • Metascore: 74
    • Critic Score 80
    Ovalcommers
    However difficult is might appear on first hearing, his music is at once curiously involving and constantly inviting. [#209, p.59]
    • Metascore: 78
    • Critic Score 80
    In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country [EP]
    The comforting familiarity of the Boards' muted beats, synth washes and glowing keyboards is just as potent and valium soaked as it was on their brilliant 1998 debut. [1/2001, p.71]
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