The Wire's Scores

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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 Spiderland [Box Set]
Lowest review score: 10 Amazing Grace
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,168 out of 2618
  2. Mixed: 430 out of 2618
  3. Negative: 20 out of 2618
2618 music reviews
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Strangers
    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
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Everything's Beautiful
    Glasper is undoubtedly a class act, but the lacks the wildness a Madlib or a Flying Lotus might have brought to this project. [Jun 2016, p.54]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Jul 18, 2016
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Genesis
    An album which largely plays assured and empty. Genesis is home to a few brilliant moments, however. [May 2016, p.49]
    • The Wire
      • Posted May 9, 2016
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Mirror
    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
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache
    In spite of the road drill rhythms, punished percussion and damaged vocalising, though, the collaboration fails to fully connect. [Apr 2016, p.46]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Mar 29, 2016
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Life Of Pablo
    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
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    EVOL
    Despite the bloodlettting and reckless spending, Future just sounds bored. And occasionally lazy. [Apr 2016, p.50]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Mar 22, 2016
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Traditional Synthesizer Music
    It's only when that rhythm programming is either stripped right back or broken apart that you get a sense of overabundant glee in playing with the blurts and splurts of the synth timbres, and this feels like more than the generic, albeit impeccably executed IDM record that the title rightly suggests. [Mar 2016, p.53]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Mar 8, 2016
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Made in the Manor
    The momentum doesn't dip through the sunny but sinister celebration of "T-Shirt Weather In The Manor," Kano's rapid flow over electronic rowdiness on "new Banger" and the stunning dancefloor swagger of "3 Wheel Ups."... The album peters out after that. [Mar 2016, p.46]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Mar 8, 2016
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Nevermen
    An album remarkable only for just how bland it gets, despite every effort to the contrary. [Feb 2016, p.60]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Mar 8, 2016
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Convenanza
    Likeable but fairly forgettable listen. [Feb 2016, p.57]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Mar 8, 2016
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    HitNRun: Phase One
    Phase One impresses more on first listen [than Phase Two].... But it wears thin quickly. [Feb 2016, p.54]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Feb 18, 2016
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    HITnRUN: Phase Two
    Even in the midst of the fairly wretched Phase Two there are gems but you sure have to dig for them. [Feb 2016, p.54]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Feb 18, 2016
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Painting With
    For all of its constant activity, [the album] feels stale. It does next to nothing new to build on previous releases, and from song to song there's so little variation that its ultimate effect is numbing. [Feb 2016, p.50]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Feb 18, 2016
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    M:FANS
    M:FANS sounds way too much of its moment: it sounds just how you expect right now to sound. Worse, maybe: it actually sounds like a few years back. [Jan 2016, p.84]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Feb 18, 2016
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Catastrophist
    The song ["Yonder Blue"] is as intricately tied into pop and soundtrack tradition as the rest of the album, but it carries an immediacy that otherwise eludes The Catastrophist. [Jan 2016, p.72]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Feb 18, 2016
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Where All Is Fled
    There's not much going on texturally. [Nov 2015, p.56]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Dec 16, 2015
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dillatronic
    It's a tribute to Dilla's imagination that every track here has at least a spark of some interest, but ultimately Dillatronic is, like so many exhaustive archival box sets, a dry reminder that brilliance is usually the result of a drafting process. [Dec 2015, p.66]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Dec 16, 2015
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    f(x)
    ["f=(2.5)"] has a nice queasy seasick vibe, but feels over-egged, with too many ideas thrown at it too quickly. Other tracks repeat this formula with diminishing returns and cut 'n' paste fatigue sets in.... "f=(2.6)" is a lot more fun. [Oct 2015, p.48]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Oct 13, 2015
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Foam Island
    Sounds at times as much like an audio documentary of Cameron's Britain as a collection of electronic songs. [Oct 2015, p.62]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Oct 8, 2015
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Adrian Younge Presents: Twelve Reasons to Die II
    If the Wu-Tang Clan's A Better Tomorrow was a shoddy attempt at cinematic audio in a Hollywood blockbuster sense, this is the arthouse variety show alternative with caricature Ghost as compere. [Sep 2015, p.57]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Sep 2, 2015
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Discreet Desires
    Her latest iteration that limited palette of vintage machines feels trapped in the past; evocative but ossified. [Sep 2015, p.45]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Sep 2, 2015
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Good Sad Happy Bad
    The cumulative effect of these strange patchwork songs as in the end ambivalent. [Sep 2015, p.48]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Sep 1, 2015
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ones and Sixes
    One And Sixes brings a welcome edge... Unusually for Low, the lyrics are where One And Sixes falls down, frequently dealing less in acutely felt emotions than in questions and negotiations. [Sep 2015, p.47]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Sep 1, 2015
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    La Di Da Di
    On occasion, stupidly fun. [Sep 2015, p.44]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Sep 1, 2015
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Secret History, Vol. 1
    Vol 1 collects the same tracks as the bonus disc from 2002's Luxe Reduxe reissue.... It's a little bizarre. [Aug 2015, p.67]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Aug 14, 2015
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    PC Music Volume 1
    PC Music Volume 1 resembles the soundtrack to a posh private schooler's teen sleepover--glossy, giddy, sparkly and shallow. [Aug 2015, p.55]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Aug 14, 2015
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sounding Lines
    This trio are rarely an ecstatic proposition, preferring the slow burn to the white flame, but in truth there's little heat here at all. [Aug 2015, p.54]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Aug 14, 2015
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I Am All Your Own
    His songs are still gauzy and intangible, the breathy vocals offering lyrical wisps that only hint at turbulent emotions. [Aug 2015, p.58]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Aug 5, 2015
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tundra
    If anything, it sounds over-finessed at times, the slick mixing resisting the rawness and density that is the album's most vital quality--the duo is at their best when the few fragments of eclectic prettiness get swamped in cacophony. [May 2015, p.58]
    • The Wire
      • Posted Aug 5, 2015
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