The Wire's Scores
- Music
For 2,879 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:
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Positive: 2,404 out of 2879
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Mixed: 455 out of 2879
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Negative: 20 out of 2879
2879
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
-
- Critic Score
Let God Sort Em Out, their first LP in 16 years, might be their richest to date. [Sep 2025, p.50]- The Wire
Posted Aug 7, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Slikback pours the joy of a new marriage and baby into this collection of chaotic and innovative tunes. [Sep 2025, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Aug 5, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Edging closer to the creation of a pop kingdom realised on her own terms. "1/17" is "Castles In The Sky" for the hyperpop generation, whose nostalgic weakness for Y2K club classics is well served here lyrics like "Poetry and nude selfies, love the way that you know me" hit hard. [Sep 2025, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Aug 5, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Every Open Mike Eagle solo album reliably unfolds like a tear-stained indie comedydrama. Neighborhood Gods Unlimited is no exception. .... “I dropped the cellphone, and it got ran over”, he says on “OK But I’m The Phone Screen”, just one of several nice twee bops. [Aug 2025, p.62]- The Wire
Posted Jul 30, 2025 -
- Critic Score
The resulting blast of raw energy successfully sucks the air out of the room to leave a hard rock sound that has been stripped to the bone – in a studio performance that deserves to be lauded as the UK equivalent of The Stooges’ Metallic KO aftershock. [Jul 2025, p.61]- The Wire
Posted Jul 30, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Channeling her raw, unflinching energy with the help of a host of collaborators, the album incorporates rap, live instrumentation and a range of bpms, murmurs and screams, forming an aural documentary of sorts. [Jul 2025, p.53]- The Wire
Posted Jul 30, 2025 -
- Critic Score
The Fateful Symmetry is a fittingly freewheeling and bold final work from a singular artist and performer. As the songs swoop from industrial disco to piano balladry, Stewart is a steadfast, dramatic and charming grand dame – as commanding and provocative as he ever was as frontman of The Pop Group, and as sentimentally wounded as a torch singer. [Jul 2025, p.60]- The Wire
Posted Jul 11, 2025 -
- Critic Score
A typically lightfooted zip through the ironies and anxieties of the modern world. If “Do Things My Own Way”, “JanSport Backpack” and “Running Up A Tab At The Hotel For The Fab” don’t become setlist staples, then I’ll eat my hat (and yours). [Aug 2025, p.59]- The Wire
Posted Jul 3, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Through it all, Tutti’s voice hovers above the tempo, clear, cold and mysterious like northern lights over a rave. Mantras that resonate inwardly speak also to an exterior side. 2t2 holds its structure like a living system. [Aug 2025, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Jul 3, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Small images ground these drifting, elusive, probing songs, providing moments of recognition and stillness, before they push off again into the mist. [Aug 2025, p.54]- The Wire
Posted Jul 2, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Yowzers is Gay’s most cohesive work to date, while losing none of its predecessors’ spirit of adventure. [Jul 2025, p.59]- The Wire
Posted Jun 25, 2025 -
- Critic Score
The sounds produced here move beyond music and closer to language. These machines seem to speak, generating a kind of emergent syntax. Osmium resist genre and resolution, channeling collapse into rhythm and rhythm into form. [Jul 2025, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Jun 23, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Objects scraped, rubbed, manipulated and plucked from their natural environments for the richness of their attack, decay and luxurious resonance here produce a superbly rich, tuneful and intricately rhythmic music. [Jul 2025, p.56]- The Wire
Posted Jun 20, 2025 -
- Critic Score
The oozing synths of “Umbra” slide deliciously in and out of phase to an ethereal keening. .... Elsewhere, she hacks and revolves samples into chittering humus – an overripe garden of imagination, bustling with enthusiasm, circuitry and life. [Jun 2025, p.64]- The Wire
Posted Jun 17, 2025 -
- Critic Score
It’s smooth and contemplative at times, punctuated by cinematic ruptures and ambient textures that trail behind El Shazly’s elastic vocal phrasing. Her voice, processed and layered with care, frequently emerges as the central narrative device and quickly slips between intimacy and distance. [Jun 2025, p.58]- The Wire
Posted Jun 17, 2025 -
- Critic Score
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 -
- Critic Score
One thing that makes this music feel so good is the way it puts such skilled players through their paces. You can almost hear them rising to the challenge. [Jul 2025, p.52]- The Wire
Posted Jun 12, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Lateral is far less remarkable than Luminal. .... It’s hard to discern Wolfe’s impact on what sounds like a typical Eno record. [Jul 2025, p.52]- The Wire
Posted Jun 6, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Founding Melvins members Buzz Osborne and Mike Dillard join forces with electronic musicians Void Maines and Ni Maîtres (aka Gareth Turner) for a lively and experimental session. Both guests are let loose on “Vomit Of Clarity” where, by way of introduction, they squeeze out an involved synthesized sound collage – an effectively intriguing interval to herald in the main event. [Jul 2025, p.61]- The Wire
Posted Jun 4, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Demilitarize was created in the wake of near-fatal illness – latent tuberculosis triggered by a brush with Covid – and is deeply reflective and personal. [Jul 2025, p.53]- The Wire
Posted Jun 4, 2025 -
- Critic Score
An album that marries similarly weighty existential themes with a deft, almost playful sonic curiosity. Though its lyrics grapple with capitalism’s erosion of humanity and the psychic toll of modern life, the music itself is anything but oppressive, being loaded with irresistible hooks, kaleidoscopic colours and confident, warm, kinetic production. [Jun 2025, p.50]- The Wire
Posted Jun 4, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Map Of A Blue City is the closest Ribot has gotten to a singer-songwriter album. It suits him. [Jun 2025, p.53]- The Wire
Posted Jun 4, 2025 -
- 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
Sonically, there is not much new ground to be found on Holograms On Metal Film as Stereolab are essentially revisiting the sonic pathways they carved out in the past. Yet the messaging in these songs is as timely as ever. [Jun 2025, p.49]- The Wire
Posted May 19, 2025 -
- Critic Score
An impeccably crafted sonic exploration of environmental destruction and renewal, whose haunting soundscapes evoke the textures of fire and ash. Many tracks work with rhythmic, noise shaping filters, lending a throbbing, breathing, convulsive quality. [May 2025, p.66]- The Wire
Posted May 7, 2025 -
- Critic Score
It feels a little overstuffed, though the effect on the listener isn’t boredom – more enjoyment at an impressive speaker taking up a little more time than expected. [Jun 2025, p.61]- The Wire
Posted May 7, 2025 -
- Critic Score
In truth, what World most resembles is Mclusky circa 2002 – the same explosive energy, the same alarming imagery and sarcastic tone, but directing their exasperations in different directions. [May 2025, p.56]- The Wire
Posted May 7, 2025 -
- Critic Score
Chrystia Cabral follows up her 2021 prog meets chamber pop album The Turning Wheel with an unexpected but delightful mash-up of late 1990s radio sounds. [Jun 2025, p.60]- The Wire
Posted May 6, 2025 -
- Critic Score
An immensely satisfying album which repays multiple listens. [Jun 2025, p.53]- The Wire
Posted May 6, 2025 -
- Critic Score
“I don’t know why I’m up here”, Hval ponders amid ebullient synths on “A Ballad”. “Lay Down” envelops her voice in a fluttering of strings and muted pads as it sifts through painful memories: “By the bed in palliative care/You had bled through your jeans” . Elsewhere, “The Artist Is Absent” paraphrases Marina Abramović, transforming presence into absence while juxtaposing low key ontological devastation with banging beats. [Jun 2025, p.52]- The Wire
Posted May 6, 2025