We sipped from a freon tank together for relief.

I think we as Amer­i­can music crit­ics expect too much of British artists. We want 1984 and Bil­ly Liar. Por­tishead and the Kinks. So I had to laugh when I saw Wiley on the cov­er of The Wire this month. Do they not know that the whole world went post-grime the moment Lady Sov first melt­ed down, you know, like two years ago? Did­n’t Dizzee just release an album this week to no fan­fare at all? Now Soul Jazz is releas­ing a dub­step compilation?

Did The Wire pur­pose­ly tank the moment I bought a sub­scrip­tion? I know that’s not true, but when they changed graph­ic design­ers a few years ago, the look and feel of the mag­a­zine suf­fered and the con­tent soon fol­lowed suit. What happened?