Wild Gift

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/wild-gift-mw0000312152 |title=Wild Gift – X |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=September 11, 2005 |last=Prato |first=Greg}}

| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev2score = A+{{cite book |chapter=X: Wild Gift |chapter-url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=4216 |access-date=February 26, 2006 |title=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |title-link=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=1990 |isbn=0-679-73015-X}}

| rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev3score = A{{cite magazine |title=X: Los Angeles / Wild Gift / Under the Big Black Sun |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=September 28, 2001 |last=Weingarten |first=Marc |page=75}}

| rev4 = Record Mirror

| rev4score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |title=X: Wild Gift |magazine=Record Mirror |date=August 22, 1981 |last=Cooper |first=Mark |page=18}}

| rev5 = Rolling Stone

| rev5score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/x/albums/album/104902/rid/5945689/ |title=X: Wild Gift |magazine=Rolling Stone |issue=350 |date=August 20, 1981 |access-date=April 4, 2006 |last=Cohen |first=Debra Rae |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080507083625/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/x/albums/album/104902/review/5945689/wild_gift |archive-date=May 7, 2008 |url-status=dead}}

| rev6 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev6score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite book |chapter=X |last=Sisario |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Sisario |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor1-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/889 889–90]}}

| rev7 = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| rev7score = 10/10{{cite book |chapter=X |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |author-link=Rob Sheffield |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |title-link=Spin Alternative Record Guide |editor1-last=Weisbard |editor1-first=Eric |editor1-link=Eric Weisbard |editor2-last=Marks |editor2-first=Craig |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1995 |isbn=0-679-75574-8 |pages=438–39}}

}}

Trouser Press wrote that "Zoom's ingeniously simple guitar transcends its influences, and the Doe/Exene harmonies attain a knifelike sharpness."{{cite web |title=X |url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/x-band/ |website=Trouser Press |access-date=3 October 2023}} In The Village Voice{{'}}s Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1981, Wild Gift was ranked at number two, behind Sandinista! by the Clash.{{cite news |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres81.php |title=The 1981 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll |newspaper=The Village Voice |date=February 1, 1982 |access-date=October 23, 2005}}

In Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), critic Robert Christgau lauded Wild Gift, writing:

{{blockquote|Hippies couldn't understand jealousy because they believed in universal love; punks can't understand it because they believe sex is a doomed reflex of existentially discrete monads. As X-Catholics obsessed with a guilt they can't accept and committed to a subculture that gives them no peace, Exene and John Doe are prey to both misconceptions, and their struggle with them is thrilling and edifying ... Who knows whether the insightful ministrations of their guitarist will prove as therapeutic for them as for you and me, but I say trust a bohemian bearing gifts. How often do we get a great love album and a great punk album in the same package?}}

Christgau later ranked Wild Gift third on his "Personal Best" list for the 1980s, the highest placing of any rock album.{{cite news |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/list/decade80.php |title=Decade Personal Best: '80s |newspaper=The Village Voice |date=January 2, 1990 |access-date=October 17, 2010 |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau}} Wild Gift was ranked at number 334 on the 2003 edition of Rolling Stone{{'}}s list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", subsequently rising to rank 333 in the 2012 edition.{{cite book |chapter=Wild Gift – X |chapter-url=http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/wild-gift-x-19691231 |access-date=December 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101220150116/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-19691231/wild-gift-x-19691231 |archive-date=December 20, 2010 |title=Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time |title-link=Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time |editor-last=Levy |editor-first=Joe |publisher=Turnaround |location=London |edition=3rd |year=2006 |orig-year=2005 |isbn=1-932958-61-4 |oclc=70672814}}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/x-wild-gift-38999/ |title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=May 31, 2012 |access-date=September 9, 2019}}

All tracks written by John Doe and Exene Cervenka.

1. "The Once Over Twice" – 2:31
2. "We're Desperate" – 2:00
3. "Adult Books" – 3:19
4. "Universal Corner" – 4:33
5. "I'm Coming Over" – 1:14
6. "It's Who You Know" – 2:17

1. "In This House That I Call Home" – 3:34
2. "Some Other Time" – 2:17
3. "White Girl" – 3:27
4. "Beyond and Back" – 2:49
5. "Back 2 the Base" – 1:33
6. "When Our Love Passed Out on the Couch" – 1:57
7. "Year 1" – 1:18

1. "Beyond and Back" (Live) – 2:48
2. "Blue Spark" (Demo) – 2:04
3. "We're Desperate" (Single version) – 2:01
4. "Back 2 the Base" (Live) – 1:40
5. "Heater" (Rehearsal) (Doe) – 2:32
6. "White Girl" (Single Mix) – 3:29
7. "The Once Over Twice" (Unissued Single Mix) – 2:35

1. "Beyond and Back" (Live) – 2:48
2. "We're Desperate" [Explicit] (Live) – 2:31
3. "Year 1" (Live) – 1:26

;X

• John Doe – bass, vocals
• Exene – vocals
• Billy Zoom – guitar
• D.J. Bonebrake – drums

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.radio3net.ro/dbartists/supersearch/V2lsZCBHaWZ0/Wild%20Gift Wild Gift] (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)

{{X (U.S. band)}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1981 albums

Category:X (American band) albums

Category:Slash Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Ray Manzarek