Born in 1977, while punk was rearing its ugly head, Wire emerged as a heady alternative to the antagonistic snarl of bands like the Sex Pistols. Employing some of the sonic qualities, but preferring to wave the finger with their actual art, not their mouth, Wire started off wielding the metronomic guitar economy of The Ramones, but coloured their songs with paintbrush concepts & arty ideals. Their debut, Pink Flag, is one of the key punk albums for the early era. Its breakneck tempos, plays on repetition & acerbic wit (courtesy of frontman Colin Newman) were refreshing & vitalizing in 1977 & echoes of Pink Flag are heard everywhere to this day. But over the course of their next two releases (in as many years), Wire pushed the envelope of what in meant to be “punk”, conceptually & sonically, openly embracing synths, avant approaches & straight up pop on the brilliant & still under-rated Chairs Missing & 154. Both albums still sport shreds of the punk energy present on Pink Flag, but diversity in approach & structure are the main themes. Many fans of Pink Flag are lost when it comes to chatter about Chairs Missing & 154, but they’re albums literally full of the future of art-rock, indie-rock & avant-pop, quietly sitting next to Joy Division’s Closer with the “hugely influential” tag plastered all over. Wire disbanded after 154‘s release; they’ve reformed numerous times over the past 20 years with mixed results. With the recent release of Object 47, Wire have again reminded us how “on it” they are; now in their 50s, Object 47 still bristles with energy & texture. There’s no better time to revisit the first 3 albums for a trip through art-rock history…

Pink Flag

The scope of influence of Pink Flag is one of those unfathomable things. Much akin to the legend of Velvet Underground, it’s said that most lucky enough to have embraced Pink Flag‘s economic arrangements, furious guitar approach & knack for pop melody went on to form bands. Minor Threat, Black Flag & Minutemen were all devout fans (all have covered Wire at some point). With Pink Flag, Wire carved their own sound within the sphere of punk & post-punk. Brevity, minimalism & varied approaches to the first-wave-of-punk template are what set Pink Flag apart from the rest of the ’77 pack. Opener “Reuters” is basically a one-chord tune, but the vocals & unrelenting rhythm keep you going until the 28 second-long burst of “Field Day For The Sundays” spins you around. “Three Girl Rhumba” opens with guitar stabs that will remind you of one of the more memorable casualties of 90’s Britpop & “Ex Lion Tamer” bears the imprint for modern day California pop punk. Brief stop/start punk songs like “Brazil” & “The Commercial” are offset by the repetitive experiments of “Pink Flag” & “Lowdown”, both playing with mid-tempo, cycle-ridden guitar riffs that entrance you to head-nod. And then there’s the mysteriously legendary “12XU”, one of basic templates for proto-hardcore & a huge song with fans. Pink Flag was massive for punk, post-punk & art-rock & its lasting impression is still present. Classic in every sense of the word.

Chairs Missing

Post Pink Flag, Wire sensed a lethargy about the ideal of “punk” & decided to hopscotch over the repetitive monotony that eventually transpired before anyone could’ve even predicted it. In 1978, Chairs Missing threw many for a loop when released; after the brevity & economic punk of Pink Flag, “Practice Makes Perfect” must have surely turned many fans away from Chairs Missing. It’s got Gregorian chant stylings in there for chrissakes! What “Practice Makes Perfect” does is establishes out the gate, that from Chairs Missing on, Wire will do whatever the hell Wire wants to do. There are still tracks that would qualify for Ping Flag — “Men 2nd”, “Sand In My Joints” & “Too Late” all bristle with punk urgency & “Another The Letter” is like Pink Flag-meets-Kraftwerk — but the adoption of synth & quirky, left-turn pop structures are some influential & ahead-of-their-time shit. Ahh, where to begin… “French Film Blurred” is all, uh, wiry guitars & minor melodies until a elevating chorus pops by for all of 8 bars. And then it’s done. “Marooned” eludes drums, washing the track with organ drones, giving it a near-monolith-in-space sense of grandeur. But it’s “Outdoor Miner” that illuminates refreshingly surprising avenues for Wire; still under 2 minutes, it is beautiful melancholy pop with as singable a chorus as anything the group would ever produce. “I Am The Fly” & “Being Sucked In Again” embrace effects as their core, leaning on a flanged-to-death rhythms & chorused guitars, juxtaposing arrangements with British-as-hell vocals, but still keeping it hooky. And the hushed pop vocal arrangements of “Used To” escape drums pretty much all together, allowing a bit of room to breath; it’s almost pretty & definitely NOT punk. Chairs Missing was a giant step sideways from Pink Flag & created enough room for Wire from their punk bretheren that they could funnel all that creative air into new ideas, arrangements & tonalities. True art rock.

154

By 154, Wire had nearly eschewed all punk-isms – except the desire to wrench expectations back & forth. 154 pits reverberous, effects-laden clangs & snares against the brilliantly textured, Eno-esque pop stylings introduced on Chairs Missing. The synths play as prominent a role as anything else on 154, giving much of what appears a milky texture that washes the harsher voicings, guitars & drum stabs. Opener “I Should Have Known Better”, sung by bassist Lewis, is a bit of a builder, agitating the track with that snare drum until 2:35 when the song approaches something resembling “smooth” for about 30 seconds. That song’s quirk & near-deflatedness is challenged by the post-punk of tracks like “On Returning” & “Two People In A Room”, both of which clip at quick tempos & keep the proceedings around 2 minutes. But the spine of 154 is the art-pop (with heavy emphasis on the pop) of “The 15th”, “Blessed State” & especially “Map Ref. 41˚ N 93 ˚ W”, which features some serious pre-shoegaze/Britpop inklings, fully complete with gang-esque backup vocals. So many bands ended up drawing heavily from the sonic pallet of 154 (even if they didn’t know it); the album’s refusal to focus on one style serves it as a challenging, yet hugely rewarding record.