The Wire's Scores
- Music
For 2,618 reviews, this publication has graded:
-
51% higher than the average critic
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7% same as the average critic
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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: | Spiderland [Box Set] | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Amazing Grace |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 2,168 out of 2618
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Mixed: 430 out of 2618
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Negative: 20 out of 2618
2618
music
reviews
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- Critic Score
It's so sweet and monotonous they should try [naming the album] something instead like Strawberry Ice Cream. [Jul 2012, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Jul 24, 2012 -
- Critic Score
Almost without exception, these 11 tracks lurch along at a donkey's pace that seems designed to signify grace and dignity, while the crystal cave reverb applied with such liberality by Randall Dunn, producer of choice for the likes of Sunn 0))), Wolves In The Throne Room and Earth, seems after the nth track to cloak a more profound problem, which is that much of the material on Strangers is thin pickings. [Jun 2016, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Jul 18, 2016 -
- Critic Score
At her best she lives up to the statement of intent on “This Sound” where her style is pitched as physical, literal but metaphysical, mystical and medicinal. ... But by the time she implores us to “do yourself a favour and eat some shrooms”, she sounds dangerously like just another hippy with too much faith in her medicine. [Jun 2021, p.- The Wire
Posted Jun 29, 2021 -
- Critic Score
This is the sort of shtick that the band have been pulling for over two decades, and it's as earnest and laudable as ever. ... Though, the band could also do with a sonic rehaul. [Oct 2017, p.53]- The Wire
Posted Oct 11, 2017 -
- Critic Score
The five tracks penned and played on by PJ Harvey... reverberate with all the dark, elastic abrasion of PJ's best work. [#248, p.66]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
The next person who decides to write a book on Miles Davis, or agrees to play him in a movie, will find this set invaluable. But for the casual Davis fan, it’s bound to be a bore and a chore. [Nov 2016, p.76]- The Wire
Posted Dec 21, 2016 -
- Critic Score
Overall you sense that the full potential of the encounter is not being realised. [#230, p.61]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
The conceptual core of Vessel’s third album is rather ambiguous. Queen Of Golden Dogs follows a loose narrative of self-discovery and transformation and a couple of queer literary and surreal visual art references. ... Musically, Queen Of Golden Dogs is similarly vague and amorphous. [Dec 2018, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Nov 15, 2018 -
- Critic Score
Fay aficionados may be unsettled that our man seems to have been kidnapped by aliens and reprogrammed as a frail new age gospel singer. Eccentricity is kept to a minimum, as thin songwriting is padded out by repetitive chanting of a chorus's final line. [May 2015, p.49]- The Wire
Posted May 15, 2015 -
- Critic Score
There's being reflective and then there's navel-gazing, and unfortunately Alopecia is too frequently guilty of the latter to really engage either the mind or heart. [Apr 2008, p.66]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
Patton’s signature style is overpowering, transforming an opportunity to create something unique into another of his side-projects.- The Wire
Posted Aug 9, 2017 -
- Critic Score
A mixed bag. [Oct 2012, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Dec 5, 2012 -
- Critic Score
It begins as quite a thrilling ride. But at this level of concentration, ten minutes feels like an hour; it soon becomes enervating. [#255, p.55]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
It's another cautious portion of well-made, moderately experimental not-quite-rock. [Feb 2013, p.49]- The Wire
Posted Feb 15, 2013 -
- Critic Score
It's easy to imagine more time and effort infusing these tracks with more colour and variety. [Apr 2016, p.55]- The Wire
Posted Apr 21, 2016 -
- Critic Score
With moderately different production, a lot of this would probably sound significantly tougher, but one gets the sense that studio slickness has rendered it a little toothless, blunting what could be a much sharper edge. [Apr 2019, p.68]- The Wire
Posted Apr 3, 2019 -
- Critic Score
At their worst, Ui thrash like run of the mill math-rockers, basses turned to 11 and meandering loudly.... What rescues them is a burgeoning melodic sensibility. [#233, p.71]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
Leaving Meaning has all of the reassuring turgidity and tortured self-importance devotees have come to expect plus a cast of name contributors (The Necks, Ben Frost, Baby Dee, Anna von Hausswolff among others) for that vital essence of “Well, if they’re working with him, he’s probably OK, right?” [Dec 2019, p.57]- The Wire
Posted Nov 20, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Here, the 70s simulations, artful enough in their own way, are presented straight. The result, sadly, doesn't evoke 70s Italian Horror; it merely makes one think of already-over-familiar period and genre signifiers. [Jan 2013, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Jan 8, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Clams is one rap's most distinctive producers, pushing his vocal collaborators to new emotional depths; but as an instrumental electronic producer, that choice is muddled by a sea of similarly charged chillwave types. [Jun 2011, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Aug 12, 2011 -
- The Wire
Posted Jan 8, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Mind Bokeh feels driven by the way recording music allows its maker to home in and hear clearly hazy, unformed ideas as material for the next piece. This at least would account for its restless churn of styles. [Apr 2011, p.69]- The Wire
Posted May 3, 2011 -
- Critic Score
Dead Ringers lack the singular vision needed to hold so many digressions and disparate references together. [Aug 2016, p.61]- The Wire
Posted Aug 19, 2016 -
- Critic Score
Sandoval's overly stylised vocals really start to grate over the distance of a whole LP. [#213, p.65]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
Pleasant, yes, but not much more.... Too many of these 'songs' snap off at around the three or four minute mark, just as they start to get interesting.... It sounds consistently half-there. [#208, p.52]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
Pablo grips your attention through an attraction-repulsion effect: the attraction largely pertaining to the sonics, the repulsion manifesting almost entirely in the lyrics. [Apr 2016, p.52]- The Wire
Posted Mar 22, 2016 -
- Critic Score
Throughout this solo effort--his fourth, for what it's worth--Callahan mumbles ever onward like a charmless, tranquillised version of Giant Sand's Howe Gelb. [Apr 2011, p.55]- The Wire
Posted May 3, 2011 -
- Critic Score
This mood of rocking-chair wistfulness becomes soporific, and there are times when, frankly, the mind, unjabbed by the sort of stimulus that was once Byrne & Eno's stock in trade, begins to wander. [Oct 2008, p.54]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
There’s a silliness and lightness to CEL that is often charming, but can stray into tweeness, and its lack of a deeper pull doesn’t necessarily warrant repeat listens. An interesting conceptual exercise but unlike a lot of the krautrock it is reminiscent of, nothing to stir the heart or body. [May 2020, p.50]- The Wire
Posted Dec 23, 2020 -
- Critic Score
A polished version of the group’s classic style propels this concept, but their invigorating eccentricity disintegrates as the album progresses. The opening title track feels familiar, with its quintessential electric riff, but this vibrancy quickly breaks down with songs like “Reduced Guilt”, whose tense harmonies drive a constant sense of unease. The record feels rote for the band, until it reaches its enigmatic conclusion. [Sep 2020, p.49]- The Wire
Posted Nov 6, 2020