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: 100 SMiLE
Lowest review score: 10 Amazing Grace
Score distribution:
2879 music reviews
    • 68 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Without the strength of material to prompt the question of whether Byrne should be taken at face value or not, the songs on Look Into The Eyeball simply glide by unobtrusively, and Byrne's romantic sentiments start to sound like Paul McCartney at his blandest. [#208, p.53]
    • The Wire
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sadly much of Music Is A Hungry Ghost is marred by a pebbledash of clicks and glitches -- that already overused signifier of au courant production. [#207, p.87]
    • The Wire
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Granted, Flow's torrent of words is Thirlwell's familiar angsty blurt of near operatic proportions, but closer attention reveals his skill as an arranger, producer and rhythm sampler is now verging on the monumental. [#208, p.57]
    • The Wire
    • 76 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    A collection of slow, moody pieces whose unexceptional nature is made more frustrating by the occasional flashes of inspiration. [#206, p.77]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bardo Pond's most focused work to date. Who knows whether the group would take that as a compliment? [#206, p.61]
    • The Wire
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Idiology refuses to cohere so completely that it plays out as part of Mouse On Mars's very approach; the duo hop from style to style, treating them like so many stepping stones to no destination in particular. [#206, p.72]
    • The Wire
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Marks a radical departure in its scope and overall sound.... Unwound have reinvented their music as Progressive hardcore, framing abstract conceits in rock solid structures. This brave, ambitious record retains its edge in a blur of invention. [#206, p.76]
    • The Wire
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A highlty nuanced album which is at once razor sharp, and rich in new openings and possibilities. [#206, p.60]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    A splendid piece of work; compelling even when shorn of its conceptual and procedural backdrop, and infinitely more invigorating when considered as one with its making. [#205, p.58]
    • The Wire
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sunny Border Blue marks a return to a less considered, rawer style, and to lyrics which are nakedly confessional, mercilessly exposing her own and other people's weaknesses. [#206, p.67]
    • The Wire
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    [Tipsy] painstakingly process small episodes of manufactured excess and thoughtless musical effect into tracks evoking the giddy pleasures to be found in running your favourite party tapes at the wrong speed. [#206, p.81]
    • The Wire
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unremittingly bleak but absolutely compelling. [#204, p.68]
    • The Wire
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's an extremely listenable record, full of stray moments of delightful mischief, but it's as innovative as a favourite old armchair. [1/2001, p.63]
    • The Wire
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No great leap forward, but with a sound this distinctive, that's not yet a problem. [#205, p.59]
    • The Wire
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    If you value surehandedness, richness, immaculate timing and the occasional tilted eyebrow then there's a lot to enjoy on Tortoise's most assured set to date. [#204, p.65]
    • The Wire
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The album is not so much a departure as a continuation of Pavement, satisfying and occasionally inspired. [#205, p.59]
    • The Wire
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Low's original stark minimalism has gradually given way to a broader sonic range, without sacrificing their strangely accessible otherness. [#204, p.68]
    • The Wire
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Blues Dream is both a compendious evocation and synthesis of a range of genres that never sounds merely eclectic... It's one of Frisell's most ambitious productions to date. [#207, p.61]
    • The Wire
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The comforting familiarity of the Boards' muted beats, synth washes and glowing keyboards is just as potent and valium soaked as it was on their brilliant 1998 debut. [1/2001, p.71]
    • The Wire
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    It's hard to shake off the suspicion that The Fifth Release contains more than a few offcuts and outtakes that never quite made the final cut of its more assured and inventive predecessor. [#202, p.55]
    • The Wire
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    These heavily layered, smoothly produced compositions emit occasional warmth, but coolness is the prevailing order; the intricacies of arrangement demand admiration but fall short of engendering a more heartfelt response. [#204, p.68]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    What emerges so strongly from this collection is evidence of gradual development over time--stumbling, erratic, silent and brilliant by turns--ultimately leading to a stage of maturity. [#200, p.68]
    • The Wire
    • 54 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    What might have been an interesting exploration of Industrial Lite Pop gets spoiled time and again by badly rewired breakbeats and fussy electronic background chatter. [#201, p.66]
    • The Wire
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    More Light is, on the whole, more of what made him great--songs with airhead titles like "Where'd You Go," which stretch glorious guitar solos over solid chopping riffs--but it's packed with too much filler. [#200, p.80]
    • The Wire
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Given her capacity to align reinvention with a developing maturity, the 13 lucky songs of Stories deliver a complex text. It is certainly less frenetic, as if Harvey is finding new ways to exert her presence. In addition, its thoughtful spaces and pauses suggest room for doubt and manoeuvre. [#202, p.49]
    • The Wire
    • 51 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Intermittently pretty, massively inconsequential. [#215, p.69]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The sonic scribbles of Kid A are far more stimulating than their regular grind.... Along with Primal Scream's Exterminator, Kid A is a vital work. Anyone remotely interested in contemporary music should listen to it at least once. [#201, p.59]
    • The Wire
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Oui
    Oui may lack songs as vivid as those found on the [Sam] Prekop and [Archer] Prewitt records, but it has enough charm of its own to recommend it. [#201, p.63]
    • The Wire
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This recording attests to their powerful rock credentials. [#201, p.63]
    • The Wire
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    For Bjork, this release marks a development in her craft.... SelmaSongs is a little big brave collection of songs that makes me feel better whenever I listen to it. [#201, p.58]
    • The Wire