NPR has named "California Girls," off Distortion, The Magnetic Fields' latest Nonesuch release, today's Song of the Day. A perfect "cold-weather anthem" for the arctic chill about to hit much of northeastern US, the song "hums and reverberates with defiled surf-rock," says NPR. "California Girls" is "sung with supreme confidence by Shirley Simms, with the faint outlines of a catchy melody glimmering under a cloud of fuzz."

In a four-star review of The Wire soundtrack ... and all the pieces matter, the Independent declares: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that The Wire ... is the most consistently excellent tele-drama of this millennium," with its music "a large factor in the show's impact." In keeping with that high-set bar, the soundtrack itself offers "a compelling array of hard-hitting cuts."