The Wire's Scores
- Music
For 2,880 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 0.8 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:
-
Positive: 2,405 out of 2880
-
Mixed: 455 out of 2880
-
Negative: 20 out of 2880
2880
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
-
- Critic Score
Landless’s four singers Méabh Meir, Lily Power, Ruth Clinton and Sinéad Lynch spin tightly woven harmonies with crystalline precision over beds of drones. However the album is less doomy than might be expected from a Murphy-produced album – or maybe it’s just that these voices sparkle with light and life, even as they sing about encounters with death. [Aug 2024, p.52]- The Wire
Posted Jul 5, 2024 -
- Critic Score
Producer Gary Odlum builds an atmospheric, sunset glow version of the Tuareg sound that rolls and chugs with every conventional element in place, but has a widescreen stadium swagger few other groups have mastered. [Apr 2020]- The Wire
Posted Apr 7, 2020 -
- Critic Score
Three years ago Eyes On The Lines marked the emergence of an important songwriting talent, a rebirth midwifed by a dozen years on the road. The Unseen In Between delivers the same impact, but deeper and more lasting. If you wanted to pinch a Chapman reference, you might say it acknowledges that those growing pains never actually stop. [Mar 2019, p.48]- The Wire
Posted Mar 7, 2019 -
- Critic Score
An album of big hooks of which “Golden Brown” is perhaps sharpest with its promise “The boys are back in town”. [Jun 2020, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Jun 11, 2020 -
- Critic Score
Thanks undoubtedly to their established friendship and chemistry, With Trampled By Turtles sees Sparhawk and the band bring an effortlessness and consistency to material of varied origin, from old songs never recorded with Low, to newer compositions. [Jun 2025, p.59]- The Wire
Posted May 29, 2025 -
- Critic Score
The barbershop harmonies are, as always, impeccable, while the blend of acoustic and electronic textures is subtle and unforced. [Mar 2011, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Apr 28, 2011 -
- Critic Score
This intensity and force, despite the stillness, brings a new dimension to Low's sound and makes C'Mon an interesting addition to an already impressive body of work. [Apr 2011, p.60]- The Wire
Posted May 3, 2011 -
- Critic Score
It is surprisingly polite and beautiful in places yet conjures up an air of real menace and myriad Nietzschean altitudes and climates. Fras’s voice and heavy, laden, deadpan German is perfect for Nietzsche’s portentous fragments and aphorisms. But there is a lightness here too. [Aug 2017, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Aug 9, 2017 -
- Critic Score
It's a concise, tidy sounding album, with little of the noise leakage of old. [May 2011, p.51]- The Wire
Posted Jun 13, 2011 -
- Critic Score
The intelligence and emotions of the lyrics also capture the accidental complexities of the pop of yesteryear when light entertainment could find itself the place for heavy themes. [Oct 2015, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Sep 15, 2015 -
- Critic Score
Their pop is the sharpest it’s ever been. [Dec 2019, p.53]- The Wire
Posted Nov 20, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Its 16 tracks are vignettes of memory and emotion, which see her thoughtful production informed by IDM, glitch and electronic emo. True to the album’s concept, there's a charming bedroom maximalism. .... Lovely, affecting record. [Oct 2023, p.48]- The Wire
Posted Sep 19, 2023 -
- Critic Score
It’s as stunning and vibrant a set of agitpop brilliance as Conn has ever produced. If he’s ever moved you, move to this. [Apr 2020, p.64]- The Wire
Posted Mar 18, 2020 -
- Critic Score
Wonder at the natural world has been an inspiration for musicians for as long as there has been music, but the mournful, realist shade to Park’s work makes that wonder all the more resonant and poignant now. [Mar 2025, p.52]- The Wire
Posted Feb 14, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Shorn of much crowd noise or banter, it operates more as an alternative greatest hits set.... [It] allows them to take their rightful place as a warm, distinct and proudly independent voice in the rock pantheon. [Nov 2013, p.52]- The Wire
Posted Dec 11, 2013 -
- Critic Score
Just as David Tibet uses English folk to create his own apocalyptic mythos, so Wood takes the bare bones of Americana and makes something personal and timeless. [Oct 2008, p.58]- The Wire
-
- Critic Score
What's striking is that he's less wacky than he's ever been, instead pursuing a rougher, more complex sound. [#208, p.66]- The Wire
-
- Critic Score
Although Lee Perry’s name will probably sell more copies of Guide To The Universe, New Age Doom are what makes this album worthwhile. ... With everyone involved recording their parts remotely, the result is impressively coherent and live-feeling. [Dec 2021, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Dec 21, 2021 -
- Critic Score
The collaboration has had the effect of sharpening Oldham's focus and yielding one of the most gripping collections to bear one of his many pseudonyms. [#252, p.48]- The Wire
-
- Critic Score
It’s tempting to call these outtakes but their vision is sharp and purposeful, sustained by a consistently monolithic interplay and helped by Steve Albini’s signature traits. It all makes Pyroclasts one of Sunn O)))’s heaviest and most penetrating albums. [Dec 2019, p.55]- The Wire
Posted Nov 20, 2019 -
- Critic Score
There Is A Place flirts with pastiche, but it’s hard not to be swept along by its uplifting grooves. [Dec 2018, p.52]- The Wire
Posted Nov 27, 2018 -
- Critic Score
Again and again, these pieces fade out, just shadows and threads, before reappearing to lock into something slinky, straight out the fridge, Dad. [Jun 2026, p.60]- The Wire
Posted May 15, 2026 -
- Critic Score
"Feral," "Codex" and "Giving Up The Ghost" finally win me over. [Apr 2011, p.62]- The Wire
Posted May 3, 2011 -
- Critic Score
Out of a dangerous, pitfall-laden area of song, she makes a variety of riches. [Jun 2015, p.48]- The Wire
Posted Jun 5, 2015 -
- Critic Score
That persistent footwork pulse holds the album together, preventing it from dispersing into a grey stew of genres. [May 2011, p.53]- The Wire
Posted Jun 13, 2011 -
- Critic Score
St. Catherine departs from the lo-fi meditations of earlier releases to explore a fuller bodied sound environment where structures are tighter and colours less smeared. [Sep 2015, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Sep 2, 2015 -
- Critic Score
A richly nuanced album, and eloquent in its restraint. [#257, p.57]- The Wire
-
- Critic Score
The Sisypheans is a work of personal reinvention that succeeds in open-armed, accessible fashion. [Dec 2019, p.56]- The Wire
Posted Nov 20, 2019 -
- Critic Score
Throughout there's a strangely prosaic lyricism at work making the mundane threatening. [Dec 2018, p.48]- The Wire
Posted Dec 22, 2017 -
- Critic Score
[Tempest has] a sense of dues paid as a continual creative replenishment, rather than a swansong. [Nov 2012, p.63]- The Wire
Posted Dec 5, 2012