Wire Read & Burn 03 [EP]

[Pinkflag; 2007]

Styles:  digi-punk
Others: Githead, Course Of Empire, Oracle, Immersion, PiL, Earth (predating Southern Lord’s band of the same name), Oscillating, Intens, Dome, Cupol, P’O, Duet Emmo

As easy as it is to forgive latter-day sins – many of us obviously think it’s better to fade away than burn out – I don’t think it would be a stretch to say the Read & Burn and Send records, up to this point, have seen the legendary punk quartet fall flat on their faces. Even Colin Newman’s Githead project, a star-studded affair, is missing that essential javelin-style thrust of electricity I’ve always counted on pre-late-‘80s Wire to deliver.

Of course, you wouldn’t know it from reading the reviews. Out of sheer reverence – that’s my only guess – for one of punk’s most creative bands, the critics have taken the soft approach. This trend is absolutely rampant, too; read reviews of The Buzzcocks’ Flat-Pack Philosophy or Nikki Sudden/Joe Strummer’s last few albums and you’ll find plethoral (yes, I made up a word, wanna fight about it?) praises for sub-par products. Hey, it happens man. [Wanna get loaded?]

So what’s a Gumshoe to do? Sheeeeet; the only solution, of course, is to stiffen my upper lip and shoot from ‘da hip: Wire have managed an average release with Read & Burn 03, and... I must say I’m surprised and more than a little encouraged. Newman has apparently found more appropriate ways to walk his latest pet around the block. Where Githead often sounded aimless, struggling for meaning and closure, R&B03 sounds like it was created in the throes of inspiration; nothing seems obligatory or tacked on, which has been a major hurdle to clear for this band of late.

But, to quote Harvey Keitel: Let’s not start suckin’ each other’s dicks just yet. There are several hurdles to go for Wire if they are to truly make music worth paying attention to with no context attached (in other words, to make music that I would review even if it didn’t have the name ‘Wire’ emblazoned on it). For one, I’d appreciate a little more yellow-eyed avarice from Newman. His cranky shouts were a HUGE part of Wire’s early 30-second surges – not to mention the increasingly artsy stuff they made down the road – and he’s sadly been reduced to flaccid monotone narratives that never really change their practically complacent evenness. You couldn’t incite a nursery-school revolt with prose this dry, nor could you arouse the interest of anyone not in-the-know where Wire is concerned. It’s like Bob Dylan singing every post-New Morning tune in the precious conversational drawl he affects for “Three Angels”: it’s limiting, it’s redundant, and it’s flat-out annoying.

Too bad, because the words themselves are incredibly vivid when strung together in your head like colored bulbs at X-mastime; Newman’s lyrics have always been next-level. And his Read & Burn 03 delivery is light-years ahead of recent outings, not to mention the – lest I obsess too much about the vocals – band is tight and imaginative as ever, managing to harness enough energy to carry each track over the threshold.

Barely. This is still pretty threadbare, and if Wire didn’t want to be held to such high standards, they shouldn’t have made the best punk record of the late ‘70s (Pink Flag – seriously, name an album of the era with a more balanced-but-menacing tracklist) and, at that, among the best post-punk albums of the late ‘70s (Chairs Missing, 154). You see, I only penalize these fellas out of true, maniacal respect and will continue to await all related projects just to see if they carry an ounce of the joy juice Wire used to unleash like wham-bam-thank-you-m’aam pop-shots every time they set foot in a studio or on a stage. I still haven’t found what I’m lookin’ fo’ in latter-day material, but with such a rich history in tow and continued improvement even at this advanced age – these guys were never ones to stand still anyway – Wire are worth the effort even when they fail to deliver.

Most Read



Etc.