Critics give The Wilderness a B-Side Breakdown of 80 (Keeper), from 8 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 70 to 90.
The verdict on The Wilderness
8 of 8 critics liked it, and they mostly agree.
- Highest 90 The Line of Best Fit
- Lowest 70 Rolling Stone
- Career #2 of Explosions in the Sky's 5 albums with a Breakdown
- By the numbers Explosions in the Sky's best-reviewed album here since The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place (2003).
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Line of Best Fit via Wikipediaby Ian King | 9/10 | 90 | 2016 | “The Texas post rock pyro engineers have finally found their next phase with a new album that is thrillingly foreign yet familiar in its finest moments.” |
| Uncut via Wikipedia | 8/10 | 80 | 2016 | |
| Q via Wikipedia | 4/5 | 80 | ||
| Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Brandon Stosuy | 8.0/10 | 80 | 2016 | “Explosions in the Sky's sixth album, their best since 2003's The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, is a quietly masterful, emotionally rich work.” |
| Consequence via Wikipediaby Jonathan K Dick | 4/5 | 80 | 2016 | “Post-rock legends collapse epic sagas into an equally captivating series of vignettes.” |
| The Guardian via Wikipediaby Dave Simpson | 4/5 | 80 | 2016 | |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby Paul Simpson | 4/5 | 80 | 2016 | |
| Rolling Stone via Wikipediaby Jon Dolan | 3.5/5 | 70 | 2016 | “Check out our album review of Artist's The Wilderness on Rolling Stone.com.” |
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The Wilderness in Explosions in the Sky's catalog
How these critics usually treat Explosions in the Sky
- AllMusic About usual for themLevel with the other critics here. Usually 4 points above on Explosions in the Sky's other albums (4).
- Pitchfork About usual for themLevel with the other critics here. Usually 3 points below on Explosions in the Sky's other albums (4).
More from Explosions in the Sky
More Indie & Alternative from around 2016
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How the Breakdown works
Every outlet’s score is converted to 0–100 (2/5 is 40, 5.9/10 is 59) and averaged. A letter grade counts as the star rating it matches across thousands of reviews of the same albums, so a B+ is 75, like four stars, and a B is 65. Verdicts: Heavy Rotation is 85 and up, Keeper 70–84, Mixed Bag 55–69, Back of the Crate below 55. Approval is the share of critics who scored it 70 or higher (7/10, three and a half stars); the Breakdown shows green at 70 and up, red below. Divisiveness asks a different question: not how many critics liked it, but how close their scores are to each other. Five critics who all give it 50 are Unanimous, even though none of them liked it. The labels run Unanimous, Broad agreement, Some debate, Divided, and Contentious. Replay rate comes from listeners, not critics: yes counts fully, a few tracks counts half, no counts zero. The gist quotes each outlet’s own summary of its review. Published is the date on the review itself, read from the outlet’s page, so you can see whether an album’s reputation came at release or years later. Scores marked est. come from reviews that publish no number. Scores marked via Wikipedia are archive ratings, mostly for older albums, taken from the “Professional ratings” box on the album’s Wikipedia page (published openly through Wikidata); each links to the original review when we can find it online, and to that Wikipedia entry when we can’t. When an outlet reviewed an album twice, years apart (often for a reissue), both scores count, each labeled with its year.
A-Side marks the critics’ top tier. An album earns it automatically, from its numbers alone: a Breakdown of 90 or higher, from at least 5 reviews, with at least 75% approval. Nobody hands it out and nobody can buy it; if new reviews pull an album below the line, it loses the badge.
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