The best albums by Wire
In any restaurant where the menu stretches beyond a single page, you know a few dishes aren’t quite up to scratch. With a whopping 17 studio albums, 26 live records, 11 EPs, 24 singles, and a smattering of compilations and reissues, the same can be said of Wire’s output. Part of the beauty of delving into the mercurial waters of the band is learning to appreciate their daring dance with inconsistency.
The post-punk outfit was formed in London in 1976. It was the height of the perfunctory punk movement, but Colin Newman had his scope cast between the snarling. Even from the outset, their paradoxical mix of complexity and minimalism signified that something devilishly singular was afoot. In 1977, their debut album, Pink Flag, affirmed that diversity by running on for 21 tracks.
This was the perfect showcase of the smorgasbord approach they would offer forevermore. As Johnny Marr would comment to Ameoba, “I like that they put out quite a lot of stuff and you never really quite know what you’re going to get. It’s not always great because of where the group was at a particular time, and some things don’t always date that well, but I find that really interesting. It’s great that bands aren’t always classic every time.”
It’s certainly a backhanded compliment, but it does typify their appeal. You forgive the odd blemish because you can tell that Wire have arrived at that in the same searching manner that made them happen upon curious, little masterpieces like ‘Outdoor Miner’. As Marr justly adds, “I like that surprise element—so, I’ve always had a lot of respect for Colin Newman for that. For me, the idea of sticking with the one sound for 20-odd years is lazy.”
Wire haven’t stuck to much over the years other than their task of being artists in their very particular way. As Newman defined it himself, “I do everything really fast. I have zero patience. There is a creative muse concept that I sort of subscribe to. Creativity doesn’t happen with any rational part of the brain. You don’t think, ‘I am going to do this’, and then you do it. You do something, then you figure what it is afterwards. That’s being an artist.”
We’ve run a scalpel through that art to offer an introductory guide of sorts to their greatest albums.
Far Out’s list of the best Wire albums
Wire’s best entry point album: ‘Pink Flag’
Release Date: November 1977 | Producer: Mike Thorne | Label: Harvest Records
Wire didn’t spend any time dithering about when it came to asserting their position as one of the most forward-thinking punk acts in the UK, ushering in a new era that would go on to be referred to as post-punk. With plenty of angular riffs and a ton of ideas to gorge upon, Pink Flag is one of the most essential records of its kind, and a perfect way to get acquainted with Wire before delving into the headier parts of their catalogue.
Their searing debut made a bold statement about their originality, and while it doesn’t have the same chops as some of their later works, the ambition present in the record is staggering for a record released at the height of the punk era, where brashness and simplicity was high in favour.
The influence of tracks like ‘Three Girl Rhumba’ can be heard in today’s post-punk bands, and their minimalist approach to a genre that is usually all about creating the most raucous din was something that was a breath of fresh air. Of course, there are plenty of great songs where they do make a din, such as ‘Mr Suit’, and they’re just as exhilarating.
Defining track: ‘Ex Lion Tamer’
Wire’s most experimental album: ‘The Drill’
Release Date: April 1991 | Producer: Paul Kendall | Label: Mute Records
We play a trick on ourselves in life, one designed to keep us sane. We like to imagine that things are more fixed and less susceptible to chance than they ever are. We often think of songs as solid. As though they are as tangible and unchanging as the vinyl they were once captured on. But the truth is, every masterpiece has always been one note, one line, one floating whim away from being different by degrees.
The Drill is not a masterpiece, but it still makes a deeply interesting point even in its relative mediocrity. For the album, the band simply cut eight different versions of the same song. Finally, a group willing to grapple with the thorny issue of ‘a draft’. Each draft offers something new—new enough to keep you interested and engaged for a single sitting, proving the true art house underbelly of a group who just so happened to also be capable of proverbial ‘bangers’.
Defining track: ‘In Every City?’
The best late-period Wire album – ‘Send’
Release Date: May 2003 | Producer: Colin Newman | Label: Pinkflag
When we say late-period Wire, we’re referring to anything that has arrived during their third spell as a group that began in 1999, with the band having split up in 1980 and 1992. While 2003 is almost as far away from the present day as it is from the band’s birth, Send is a fantastic example of why the early days of Wire 3.0 were fascinating.
The band had long since abandoned their origins, and had spent plenty of years both as a group and separately exploring different avenues and influences, and while records such as 1990’s Manscape are often seen as a misguided attempt at dance music, with dated production styles and forays into acid house weighing the project down significantly, the abrasion of Send and its dystopic atmospheres are a far better representation of Wire toying with electronics to create a tinnitus-inducing record of stunning variety.
They may well have been over 20 years into their career at this point, but the well of ideas wasn’t drying up, and the blurring of noise rock, industrial techno and punk showed that they were just as innovative at this point in their career as most newer bands who ought to have had a far fresher approach.
Defining track: ‘Read & Burn’
The best Wire side-project – ‘A-Z’ by Colin Newman
Release Date: October 1980 | Producer: Mike Thorne | Label: Beggars Banquet
When Wire disbanded for the first time in 1980, shortly after they’d released their stellar third album, 154, it seemed as though the group had reached their peak for the time being and were eager to explore new avenues separate from each other. Creative differences were getting in their way, and a major falling-out with EMI was the final nail in the coffin.
A-Z, the debut album from frontman Colin Newman, could easily have been the fourth Wire album, but they never entered the studio together to work on such a release. As it happens, this is Newman’s finest work outside of the band, and sees him expand on the darker side of 154 and head down a more goth-inspired route.
There are elements of The Cure, Cabaret Voltaire and even PiL in the sound of A-Z, and judging by how much more Wire became when they reunited on both occasions, it was clear that the time they spent apart from each other figuring out new ways to expand their musical horizons paid off significantly.
Defining track: ‘Troisième’
The connoisseur’s favourite Wire album: ‘154’
Release Date: September 1979 | Producer: Mike Thorne | Label: Harvest Records
Their first two albums are masterful worlds unto themselves, but they are worlds that you picture playing out on stage. You hear ‘Different to Me’ and you can picture the darkened back room and smell the spilt beer. But with 154, you are welcomed into a world that feels strange, foreign and unknowable. With a studio stretched to the limit, the album has a futurist heart that embalms you in an uncertain mood.
Tracks like ‘The Other Window’ abandon typical song structures in favour of a wealth of avant-garde experimentation, but amid the loops and splicing, a distinct melody still arises from the rubble in nearly every song, extracting order from chaos. This strange mirage of catchiness desperately endeavouring to outdo itself perfectly captures the appeal of the band. 154 feels like an odd experience unfurling in a banal world. It’s borderline maudlin, yet you’re pleased to be wrapped up in its strange grip.
Defining track: ‘The 15th’
The definitive best Wire album – ‘Chairs Missing’
Release Date: September 1978 | Producer: Mike Thorne | Label: Harvest
Chairs Missing is awash with nostalgia, though you can’t be sure how. It is vaguely haunting, though you don’t know why. And it is one of the greatest albums of the second half of the 1970s, but you entirely put your finger on the quality that lifts it to that lofty mantle.
There are clearer leaps into other genre territories, and a sense of bravery that suggests they had always envisaged their second album to be a more daring feat. Song structures are much more extensive, with most songs lasting longer than the minute-and-a-half masterpieces on the debut, but with that came greater melodic sensibility.
While the bulk of it is resplendent with melodic hooks, there are still plenty of tracks that appease fans of Pink Flag and its scrappy sprawl, but if you thought that their debut was as far as you could logically stretch the parameters of punk, they only took another 10 months to prove that there was still a little more stretching to be done.
Defining track: ‘Outdoor Miner’
Never Miss A Beat
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