Wild Gift

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Professional reviews
Wild Gift

Studio album by X
Released	May 1981
Recorded	March 1981, Clover Recorders, Los Angeles, Golden Sound Studios, Hollywood
Genre	Punk
Length	33:02
Label	Slash Records
Producer(s)	Ray Manzarek
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (A+) link Rolling Stone link
X chronology
Los Angeles (1980)	Wild Gift (1981)	Under the Big Black Sun (1982)

Wild Gift is the second album by X. In 2003, the album was ranked number 334 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

In a review published in his "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau gave Wild Gift a rare A+ rating, writing that "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 was not alone in his enthusiasm; when The Village Voice held their Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1981, Wild Gift was ranked at #2, right behind Sandinista! by the Clash.

Wild Gift was remastered and reissued in 2001 by Rhino Records, with seven bonus tracks.