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
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Not every release in the heaving Boris discography is essential; this one most definitely is. [Oct 2022, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The vibe is hedonistic and dancefloor oriented, blending influences from techno, house and electroclash. The songs are horny, with lyrics occasionally stepping over the cringe line (“Oh yeah, you want it?”). Fortunately the album is also full of bangers. ... Diablo is a fun listen, but you might want a shower afterwards. [Oct 2022, p.40]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It is a gorgeous piece of work. [Jul 2022, p.48]
    • The Wire
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Air is also an omnipresent agent in Davachi’s extensive use of the pipe organ, as on “Vanity Of Ages” – an exquisitely slow unfolding of clustered tones that give rise to a shimmering microtonality. ... A similar compositional approach is used for the string pieces “Icon Studies I” and “Icon Studies II” but the effect is intimate and fluid rather than cosmic and imposing [Sep 2022, p.44]
    • The Wire
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An album of sombre yet uplifting electronic music. ... If that [a requiem for a close friend and respected artist] wasn’t the original intent, one can hardly imagine a finer tribute. [Sep 2022, p.43]
    • The Wire
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Galás crisply delivers excerpts from two works by the German expressionist poet Georg Heym, Das Fieberspital (The Fever Hospital) and Die Dämonen Der Stadt (The Demons Of The City). [Sep 2022, p.46]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s the input of guest musicians and co-producer Dave Harrington that draws the best out of the material. [Sep 2022, p.46]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The result is a record that feels in touch with the qualities that have powered Oneida in the past – the dogged repetition, the scorching climaxes – but this time trades the crankier avant tendencies for a sweet dose of bubblegum. [Sep 2022, p.48]
    • The Wire
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    He raps in a stereotypically ‘white’ voice shorn of regional inflections, and the contrast between his deadpan vocals and the beats ranges from startlingly imaginative (the hammering blapper “Fundrazors”) to anodyne (“Indifferent”). [Sep 2022, p.57]
    • The Wire
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Best not to think too deeply about it. [Sep 2022, p.57]
    • The Wire
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It’s a shame the tracks are so short – after a while it all starts to feel frustratingly sketchy and cramped. [Sep 2022, p.56]
    • The Wire
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    “All Souls Hill” itself is almost in Bad Seeds territory – the two bands were formed the same year and almost certainly aware of one another. “The Liar” is a swipe at Donald Trump but avoids sounding latecomerish by turning him into a folkloric figure. “Passing Through” does the opposite, giving political relevance to an old song. [Sep 2022, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Reset is bright and cheerful, drenched in supersaturated colour and psychedelic sunshine. Most impressive is the way the music explicitly draws from the past without slipping into pastiche or retro-nostalgic recreation. [Sep 2022, p.48]
    • The Wire
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sprawling spaciness is absent from A Foul Form which marks a return to the California shredders’ punk roots. The vibe is set by opener “Funeral Solution”: blistering guitar fuzz, punch drunk double drums, stumbling basslines and ragged vocals. [Sep 2022, p.48]
    • The Wire
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Danger Mouse constructs decorative, melodic beats that don’t really bang, resulting in a hazy, slightly funky and psychedelic quality reminiscent of late 1960s pop. ... It’s frustrating to see him [Black Thought] shut off that aspect of his creativity in favour of “bars as hard as Angola’s”. ... Cheat Codes is compelling enough, but one wonders where it’s all going. [Sep 2022, p.42]
    • The Wire
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The remixes feel fresh and tight. ... 30 Something is a fitting way to celebrate their impressive body of work. [Aug 2022, p.54]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She extends her compositional technique, with added space, breath and timbre, into new dimensions. ... On Spirit Exit, Barbieri is closer than ever to club territory and the ecstatic. [Jul 2022, p.42
    • The Wire
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pink Dolphins kicks off with four relatively short tracks (between three and eight minutes – I did say relatively) that demonstrate the evolution of an Anteloper sound. [Jul 2022, p.42]
    • The Wire
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The trio’s interpretation of the material is highly sophisticated, with the freshness and spontaneity of a newly minted band. [Aug 2022, p.56]
    • The Wire
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It is a working through of grief and abuse, characterised by Nastasia’s deeply resonant songwriting. ... It would be tempting to liken the run of songs in between to a personal descent followed by an emergence into the outside world, but Nastasia shuns such easy linear interpretations. [Aug 2022, p.53]
    • The Wire
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Even the occasional instances of hypergloss cinematic texture and vaporwave mannerisms have their place, glueing together spikes of noise, luscious organ reverberations and feverish glitch pulses into a synthetic yet intensely human whole. [Aug 2022, p.50]
    • The Wire
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ripatti employs a panoply of dynamic breaks and styles without sticking to anything for too long. The results are both claustrophobic and entertaining. [Aug 2022, p.48]
    • The Wire
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    While lightness and a wondrous sense of possibility colour the album, there’s also depth. Every track is made of layers of glimmering melodies that collide in dissonance and fade away in consonance. [Aug 2022, p.58]
    • The Wire
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    For all its bounce, this is a claustrophobic, airless LP, and you have to wait until the last track to hear a human voice free from distortion. [Aug 2022, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It serves as both a reconsideration of what’s come before and a confident step forward. [Jul 2022, p.52]
    • The Wire
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Back In Black actually manages to sound vibrant and resonant without sounding dated – thanks in no small measure to the immaculate production throughout from Black Milk. [Aug 2022, p.64]
    • The Wire
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Some will find Cruel Country monotonous; the patient however will be rewarded with an abundance of thoughtful, delicate, often brutally plaintive songcraft. [Aug 2022, p.60]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The long germination period of the project is an indication of the duo’s perfectionism, which unfortunately results in songs that are overworked to the point of blandness. [Aug 2022, p.57]
    • The Wire
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Despite her apparent striving towards sharpness and clarity, Hatis Noit avoids sterility in these pieces, all eight of which are constructed solely from her voice; while this starkness could leach the emotional impact, instead it is magnified. [Aug 2022, p.53]
    • The Wire
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s less focused, more instinctive in its approach to collaboration; the boundaries it sets for itself are less rigid. This meandering work is vastly more accessible than most of Moor Mother’s catalogue, but no less cerebral and impressive. [Aug 2022, p.52]
    • The Wire