The Wire's Scores
- Music
For 2,880 reviews, this publication has graded:
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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 0.8 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
| Highest review score: | SMiLE | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest review score: | Amazing Grace |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 2,405 out of 2880
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Mixed: 455 out of 2880
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Negative: 20 out of 2880
2880
music
reviews
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- Critic Score
Pole aka Stefan Betke is actually making the best music of his life right now. ... Tempus is mesmeric and that leaves space for Betke’s amazing painterly hand to weave magic. [Feb 2023, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Mar 21, 2023 -
- Critic Score
A Short History Of Decay is a stirring suite of studiosculpted alternative rock that jettisons most of their heavy music influence while finding new routes to scoured ears amid plumes of dreampop drift. [Mar 2026, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Feb 25, 2026 -
- Critic Score
It feels like a self-conscious attempt to approximate jazz without ever quite committing to it, no doubt partly due to the fact that Flea's horn chops are somewhat rudimentary, favouring languid lines that could generously be seen as resembling Chet Baker at his most unbothered. .... It's hard not to feel the project lacks any of the liberatory qualities one would hope for from a genuine jazz statement. [Apr 26, p.50]- The Wire
Posted Mar 23, 2026 -
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The group demonstrates admirable judgement, gesturing at entropy while craftily dodging its embrace. [Mar 2011, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Apr 28, 2011 -
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Even if the music remains fairly consistent, the concepts mark off more ambitious territories. [Oct 2011, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Dec 6, 2011 -
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Endgame is spacey and lush in the manner of Deppechord's roster or Donato Dozzy, solidly crafted and a bit of a drag at just over an hour. [Sep 2014, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Dec 2, 2014 -
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Luminal perhaps would have been more impactful as a release by itself – all but the most devoted Eno completists should prioritise it. [Jul 2025, p.52]- The Wire
Posted Jun 17, 2025 -
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Tracks like “It’s Not Me” and “All-Seeing Eye” feel like works in progress and weigh down an already overlong album. Yet the album has its superlative bursts, like the fingerpicked coda of “Goodbye” and the gnarly biker metal guitars on “Alarms” and “Goatfuzz”. [Oct 2016, p.61]- The Wire
Posted Nov 8, 2016 -
- Critic Score
There's a lot going on and while he never rises to anything as wakeful as a melody or a solid riff, there's still a satisfying level of control that keeps him two steps away from the minimalism plus heavy effects tendency of similar acts. [Oct 2011, p.65]- The Wire
Posted Dec 6, 2011 -
- Critic Score
This may be a mini-album, but it's so well turned, so successful in completing what it sets out to achieve that, far from marking time in his discography, it could end up being one of his key releases. [May 2008, p.55]- The Wire
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Posted Nov 8, 2016 -
- Critic Score
It's an uneven set, relying strongly on her performance to carry the songs forward. [#229, p.68]- The Wire
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Overall, as a listening experience in itself, The Master feels like a retreat. [Nov 2012, p.59]- The Wire
Posted Dec 5, 2012 -
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Strongly guitar based, their music alternates from being dreamily subdued one second to full on, hair flailing freak out the next. [Jun 2016, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Jul 18, 2016 -
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The lyrical intricacy and rhythmic playfulness of old are still there, but an arthritic creakiness creeps in, especially when he indulges in hackneyed poetism and dodgy wordplay. [Feb 2012, p.71]- The Wire
Posted Feb 17, 2012 -
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Mr Mitch’s productions are as fastpaced, tight and spirited as his DJ sets. He makes the most of these sparse landscapes, marking a path for a complex of emotions to bleed though. Part of the album’s charm is that Mitch doesn’t shy away from adopting a pop sensibility nor embracing love as his subject matter. [May 2017, p.51]- The Wire
Posted Aug 8, 2017 -
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This album is not about re-using their old sounds. Most of the tracks offer something different and work well to complement the story being told. [Sep 2019, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Aug 22, 2019 -
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The duo have created a world of two halves; a land of tension and mystery that collides with a place of release and transcendent sorrow. [Feb 2017, p.55]- The Wire
Posted Jan 27, 2017 -
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Posted Aug 15, 2013 -
- Critic Score
The bookending tracks from Ulf Lohmann, "Sicht" and "PCC," play seductively with auras of overloaded guitar and synth, cyclical patterns accruing intensity, but an unfortunate saccharine edge remains. [Feb 2014, p.57]- The Wire
Posted Jan 30, 2014 -
- Critic Score
Sumac's rock thunder becomes more involved as they sink deeper into their own personal spaces, uncorking emotions and letting loose inner demons, while still fully functioning as part of a group experience. [Aug 2016, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Aug 19, 2016 -
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His work manages to square Cecil Taylor with Ralph Vaughan Williams. [Feb 2012, p.72]- The Wire
Posted Apr 18, 2012 -
- Critic Score
Totem is a pensive and heterogeneous offering, with glitchy and glittery textures, wandering melodies and echo. [Aug 2012, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Aug 2, 2012 -
- Critic Score
Bassist Haz Wheaton and drummer Richard Chadwick provide the solid underpinning, while Brock's knack of fashioning and delivering strong melodic and verbal hooks is plentiful in evidence. [May 2017, p.46]- The Wire
Posted Aug 8, 2017 -
- Critic Score
The album suffers at points from fastidiously clean production; it’s not just lo-fi romanticism to want to hear musicians of Vieux’s calibre in settings that are less polished. [Jun 2017, p.76]- The Wire
Posted Aug 8, 2017 -
- Critic Score
Moving between diverse musical contexts, with self-assurance yet also unflagging inquisitiveness, open to the unexpected even within the familiar contours of Ruby My Dear or ’Round Midnight, Smith continues to renew and transcend his legacy. [Dec 2017, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Dec 21, 2017 -
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Posted Jul 12, 2018 -
- Critic Score
This has to be the sunniest winter record ever. .... Stuffed with sunflowers and tiny xylophones, this is sweet, joyful stuff. And then, just as you start to worry that it could all congeal into a Zach Braff score, Saunier hits you right in the weird.- The Wire
Posted Jun 18, 2024 -
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The tracks succeed more where they move away from those compromises towards experiments, extremes of play, texture, tempo, density or sparseness. [Mar 2025, p.53]- The Wire
Posted Feb 4, 2025 -
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Ariel Pink's writing is completely scattergun, but this is what can make it so disarming. [Sep 2012, p.56]- The Wire
Posted Oct 3, 2012 -
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It's just a coarser, clumsier version of the updated industrial bashing of their last album, without the dreamy coronae of guitar.[Jun 2016, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Jul 18, 2016 -
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Boosie's attempts to remain commercially relevant in today's rap climate, however, makes the album a diluted draught of medicine and mediocre chart fodder. [Jul 2015, p.57]- The Wire
Posted Aug 5, 2015 -
- Critic Score
With an outfit like Napalm, one looks for the subtle touches, and they're present: clean vocals on "Analysis Paralysis" and "The Wolf I Feed," a psychedelic burst of guitar noise on "Leper Colony." [Mar 2012, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Apr 18, 2012 -
- Critic Score
Those nostalgic for the Aphex sounds of old may find them here, but served up rotten and misshapen, as an agreeably queasy warning that nostalgia can only get you so far. [Aug 2016, p.46]- The Wire
Posted Aug 19, 2016 -
- Critic Score
This mixtape sounds more coherent than its 2012 predecessor, the shroomed-out Tumblr rap artefact King Of The Mischievous South Volume One Underground Tape 1996 . The features are bigger. [Sep 2024, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Aug 6, 2024 -
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Mouse on Mars's melodic power has been greater across the years, but the textural richness of Parastrophics is unmatched. [Mar 2012, p.57]- The Wire
Posted Apr 18, 2012 -
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Hold It In finds these crusty veterans meeting the threat of middle-age ennui with ingenuity and enthusiasm. [Oct 2014, p.57]- The Wire
Posted Dec 2, 2014 -
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Vol 3 finds Sean C at the helm, resulting in a batch which sounds clunky at times, but works perfectly at others. [Dec 2020, p.66]- The Wire
Posted Jan 6, 2021 -
- Critic Score
The effect of these new elements is to bring a new solemnity and calm to Pioulard's already gentle brand of blissed out songwriting. [Mar 2013, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Apr 5, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Citizen Zombie is not a refusal. Rather, it's a fully plugged in reckoning with the eternal power of now. [Feb 2015, p.49]- The Wire
Posted Mar 4, 2015 -
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The selections step sufficiently far from the territory established by their own songs to generate intrigue without stretching credulity. [Jul 2020, p.64]- The Wire
Posted Jul 27, 2020 -
- Critic Score
The Notwist's songs sound almost too arranged and it's only after they've seeped in a little that it becomes easier to admire the trio's deftness, the way they absorb electronica's qualities of dissonance and disruption and use them as essential building blocks of their music. [June 2008, p.59]- The Wire
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Posted Dec 16, 2015 -
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The music is meditative and calm-inducing, though occasionally it leans a little too much towards Opal Records tropes, particularly the piano-led pieces. [Apr 2016, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Mar 22, 2016 -
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Orchestra Hits is the truest iteration of Rice and Schrader’s aesthetic to date. By polishing these songs, buffing them to relative shininess and adding serrated electronics, their emotive impact and melodic drama are greatly magnified. [Oct 2024, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Sep 20, 2024 -
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Lost Themes satisfies more than it irks, and it's unambiguously the most enjoyable creation Carpenter has put his name on in probably 27 years. [Feb 2015, p.44]- The Wire
Posted Mar 4, 2015 -
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Dragged out doom riffs and saw-edged unison vocals capture their fury and helplessness. [Sep 2016, p.59]- The Wire
Posted Oct 21, 2016 -
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Weird is more insular, almost cabin feverish in Hatfield’s tendency to celebrate her own company (“All Right, Yeah” and the impossibly wholesome “Do It To Music”) or conversely magnify her own physical flaws (“Broken Doll”). If you hold some nostalgia for Hatfield’s early years but tuned out some time ago, you might get more from this than you expect. [Mar 2019, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Mar 7, 2019 -
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Far from being some utopian unity of the opposites her work has summoned – beyond binaries – she’s still clearly experimenting and sometimes failing. [Aug 2020, p.48]- The Wire
Posted Jul 14, 2020 -
- Critic Score
A usually sharp MC, Murs sounds conflicted throughout, a little too anxious to be loved by everyone. [Dec 2008, p.74]- The Wire
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- Critic Score
The Clearing isn't a work of artfully suspended melancholy which leaves the listener wanting and wondering00it gestures ahead toward comfort and resolution. [Jun 2015, p.48]- The Wire
Posted Jun 5, 2015 -
- Critic Score
Live In Cuxhaven 1976 may not dispel the impression that these live records are mainly for Can devotees, but it also confirms that the last word about their volatile processes has yet to be said. [Nov 2022, p.77]- The Wire
Posted Oct 20, 2022 -
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Though you'd be justified in hanging this writer for conflating person and persona, you're asked to contemplate the uneasy positivity that chacterizes Paper Trail's three mot popular songs. [Dec 2008, p.74]- The Wire
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Patten's ability to conjure such urgency with out ever slipping into anything so easy as a typical groove goes some distance. [Oct 2011, p.65]- The Wire
Posted Dec 6, 2011 -
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It always feels uncomfortably like being trapped in someone's else's headspace. [Jul 2012, p.68]- The Wire
Posted Jul 24, 2012 -
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None of the pieces seems to reach a destination, and are all the more poignant for that. [Sep 2018, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Aug 15, 2018 -
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A dull, clunky, unjustifiably smug AOR rock album: no more, no less. [#243, p.71]- The Wire
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Evokes the same stark, road weary melancholy as Ry Cooder's score for Paris, Texas, but with a far more extensive sonic toolbox. [#240, p.57]- The Wire
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The posthumous tracks that have emerged are among the best of Hendrix's late work. [Apr 2013, p.50]- The Wire
Posted Apr 24, 2013 -
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Forgoing any temptation to portray herself as an alluring curio, Lafawndah instead pushes a singular yet communal vision, processing a blessedly rich vein of cultural information and cutting edge influence. [Apr 2019, p.63]- The Wire
Posted Apr 3, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Haley retains the analogue wobble of his earlier work, particularly evident on 2010’s Cyanide Sisters and 2011’s Galactic Melt where his crisp and crunchy beats are at their impactful best. But on Persuasion System he’s combined them with stronger melodies and arrangements, elevating their effect from that of incidental, if still effective background music to the gripping theme of a main character. [May 2019, p.48]- The Wire
Posted May 20, 2019 -
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Gloopy Aphexian synths add a heady, after-hours quality to his itchy drum patterns, but the takeaway moment comes on the rather different closing track “Phosphorescence”, an endless plateau of serene deep house laced with jazzy keys, Mike Banks style. [Dec 2019, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Nov 20, 2019 -
- Critic Score
A loop can be a grounded, limiting element to work with – the delightfully wobbly “Slappin’ Yo Face” has nowhere to go, quickly running out of steam. Elsewhere this very quality opens up beautiful meditative potential. [Sep 2020, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Dec 23, 2020 -
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While Clockwork Angels is energised and intense, it neither sounds nor feels like heritage rock or a return to first principles. [Sep 2012, p.70]- The Wire
Posted Oct 3, 2012 -
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Most of what they play live here is more serene and thoughtful. Not that Pirog is incapable of letting the sparks fly, particularly on “The Inner Ocean” where he opens up with an electric guitar stormer worthy of Sonny Sharrock. “Crowds And Power” perhaps references Fugazi’s glory days. “The Weaver” subtly winds the album down with Pirog on acoustic guitar and an unexpected flurry of orchestral strings. [May 2018, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Jul 12, 2018 -
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Posted Apr 18, 2012 -
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The P-funk derived style of Dam-Funk us about as perfect a fit for Snoop's supine cool as can be imagined. [Feb 2014, p.57]- The Wire
Posted Jan 30, 2014 -
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Their world is one where the scrambling of senses serves a true psychedelic purpose--to open doors, to facilitate fresh ways of perceiving and, most gloriously, to wonder. It’s great to have (all of) them back. [Mar 2019, p.49]- The Wire
Posted Mar 7, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Despite the celebratory atmosphere, the group's air of menace remains intact. [Sep 2014, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Aug 27, 2014 -
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The results are tougher and less poised, less prone to pastiche or ironic self-identification. But in the process he’s become a bit workmanlike: you feel he could knock these tunes out to order and they’d all be creditable, but not much more. [Oct 2016, p.63]- The Wire
Posted Nov 8, 2016 -
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Lee Gamble’s In A Paraventral Scale makes another step towards a scene that for some has been and gone. [Mar 2019, p.51]- The Wire
Posted Mar 7, 2019 -
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It’s hard to tell if there’s irony in all the anachronism but the record’s nostalgic to the point of kitsch aesthetic feels out of touch. [Apr 2020, p.67]- The Wire
Posted Mar 11, 2020 -
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If anything, she has rediscovered the energy that defined her work with Uzi, Live Skull and Come, pouring imposing defiance into ten rocking cuts. [Oct 2021, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Dec 20, 2021 -
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Now more than ever, political songs need engagement and direct prescription. In that respect Spirit rarely cuts it. But as with many DM albums, it can still resonate in quieter moments such as “Cover Me”, and the group’s continued existence is one of the great love affairs between man and machine in modern music. [Apr 2017, p.56]- The Wire
Posted Jun 2, 2017 -
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This isn't really the future of HipHop, but as a fleeting reverie on its conflicted present, it makes for a fantastic detour. [#217, p.55]- The Wire
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Ultravisitor feels like another work in progress, another messy, powerful, occasionally remarkable, sometimes infuriating attempt to create a true, detailed, authentically multifaceted musical autobiography. [#241, p.52]- The Wire
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However difficult is might appear on first hearing, his music is at once curiously involving and constantly inviting. [#209, p.59]- The Wire
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Just like the great dub albums of the past, this is one that will provoke revisits to the original. [Jan 2012, p.67]- The Wire
Posted Feb 17, 2012 -
- Critic Score
Funky Nothingness is, in any case, an enjoyable addition to his extensive discography. It may not disclose some previously hidden dimension, or even pursue the experimentation with overdubbing that gave Hot Rats its particular character, but Zappa’s sheer love for music and the playing of it, the insatiable essence of his artistic libido, oozes from the grooves. [Aug 2023, p.74]- The Wire
Posted Jul 13, 2023 -
- Critic Score
The pleasures of Reachy Prints are deceptively complicated, and it's another masterclass in how lightness needn't be thin or naive. [May 2014, p.72]- The Wire
Posted Jul 17, 2014 -
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These are worn vintage sounds, but the songs here lack the choruses and hooks to invest them with fresh life, and Buttery's voice is forgettable. [Dec 2010, p.46]- The Wire
Posted Dec 22, 2010 -
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Lindstrøm is better able to keep everything the right side of good taste, for better or worse. This continuous set of eight tracks gets into its spooky stride towards the end. ... A darker second hour might have been even better. [Nov 2017, p.59]- The Wire
Posted Dec 11, 2017 -
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Pram find themselves in a rather difficult position, where it doesn’t seem as if they’ve much room to evolve without changing the atmosphere of the project completely. That said, Across The Meridian tentatively paws at a few new directions even as it remains mindful of the group’s palette to date. [Jul 2018, p.57]- The Wire
Posted Jul 13, 2018 -
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It's doubtful that the official soundtrack for Dredd will be anything as satisfying as this atmospheric homage to the mean streets of the future. [May 2012, p.56]- The Wire
Posted Jul 24, 2012 -
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As comebacks go the album has an almost blissful assurance. It positively levitates with calm, like someone back from a long trip who knows they have all the time in the world to tell you about their new guru. [Sep 2018, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Aug 8, 2018 -
- Critic Score
Wong knows that to build up this depth of texture he has to restrict the harmonic content, but endless repetition of pentatonic scales played very fast by 100 Fender Tele-wielding Wong doppelgangers loses it lustre as a listening experience some considerable time before the 16th track reaches its conclusion. [Feb 2012, p.68]- The Wire
Posted Apr 18, 2012 -
- The Wire
Posted Dec 7, 2012 -
- Critic Score
I Like Fun isn’t as dazzlingly hyperkinetic as 2013’s Nanobots but retains the rich melodic content, complex songcraft and dynamic impact of 2015’s Glean and 2016’s Phone Power. It’s also their funkiest album since 2007’s Dust Brothers-assisted The Else. [Feb 2018, p.56]- The Wire
Posted Feb 23, 2018 -
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The music is immaculately performed and produced, yet lacks the divine spark of inspiration that might elevate it above the status of demonstration reel. [Dec 2012, p.65]- The Wire
Posted Dec 7, 2012 -
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The Moths Are Real is a crisp and atmospheric set of idiosyncratic and finely crafted pop songs. [Mar 2013, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Jul 26, 2013 -
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The astounding pressure of emotional ambivalence in Herndon's 2012 debut Movement--what belonged where? with whose porous body should the listener identify?--is half lost on this EP, which feels too sketchy to develop their immanent tension. [Feb 2014, p.56]- The Wire
Posted Feb 7, 2014 -
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This is swirling, volatile music, awash with synths and scorched to a turn by Mulholland's guitar. [Aug 2016, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Aug 19, 2016 -
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Not everything is great--in particular “Lifting You” with Ed Sheeran is about as limp as you’d expect--but even the clumsier moments feel relevant and contemporary. [Feb 2018, p.51]- The Wire
Posted Feb 23, 2018 -
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There's a mismatch between sound and vision here that forestalls true wonder or joy. ... A little more concision and concentration throughout could have made Guild of the Asbestos Weaver more effective. [Sep 2019, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Aug 22, 2019 -
- Critic Score
This second post-resurrection outing from the New York City noise rockers is an odd one, with two halves that could belong to different bands. The first part features new and rerecorded songs, like the siren led, lockdown inspired “In A Perfect World” – solid romps that become victims of circumstance. ... The first of the late 1980s Peel Session tracks bursts with rebellious energy, generated by a nervous interplay of guitars and rhythms and Thalia Zedek’s incendiary delivery.- The Wire
Posted Jan 6, 2021