Review by Steve Wilson, Special to The Star
With the release of their debut, Pink Flag, in 1977, Britain’s Wire were punk by proximity. Their jagged, sharp, sometimes brutal songs shared aggression and brevity with British punk, but compared to the Sex Pistols (street Situationists) and the agit-pop punk of the Clash, Wire were art school conceptualists with no allegiance to punk as an ethic or style.
Less prolific in the Eighties, Wire continued to record, gradually softening their sound to incorporate dance elements and experiments with musique concrete. Good stuff, but it lacked the urgency that made their Seventies work compelling.
The members of Wire abandoned the group to pursue other musical interests in the Nineties. After a twelve-year hiatus they re-emerged in 2002 with the album Send, an update of Pink Flag that rocked with a metallic brutality that sounded like a virtual rebuke to albums like A Bell is Cup Until It’s Struck (1988). In 2009 Wire changed course again and released Object 47 which revisited their Eighties palette (icy, mellifluous, but lyrically subversive).
On its new release, “Red Barked Tree,” virtually all aspects of Wire’s varied history are covered, creating a stylistic best-of composed of new material. It may be the band’s best work since 1979’s “154.”
“Please Take” sounds like “Positively 4th Street” vintage Bob Dylan interpreted by Brian Eno circa “Here Come the Warm Jets.” It’s relaxed groove eases the listener into the album. Wire works a variety of mood and tempi throughout “Tree,” ranging from “Adapt” with its Paris 1919 (John Cale) setting and barbed, absurd lyrics to “Two Minutes” (exactly two minutes long), which shifts gears with punk-metal ferocity.
Colin Newman alternates between a punk snarl and a blasé recitative, singing about the “end of western civilization” and “the age of fragmentation” as the band’s performance finally dissolves into discordant noise.
Graham Lewis’ bass lines propel songs like “Bad Worn Thing” and “Now Was.” the former, Newman’s guitar and synth lines mix compellingly as he delivers a lyric that sounds like stray fragments of radio broadcasts (“the future sold, the chancellor paces”), with the chorus addressing the ugly weight of class hegemony (“the clip their speech, they clip your wings”).
The crazy, Wire-like stops and starts of “A Flat Tent” sound like Chuck Berry after Kraftwerk, while “Smash,” with its sublimated rage (“count to 10 when you see red”), explodes like demonic, post-grad Ramones.
“Down To This” is a manifesto lamenting contemporary discontents, followed by the title track, a genuine and genuinely gorgeous departure from Wire’s oeuvre. A waltz-time beauty that builds from strummed acoustic guitar, “Red Barked Tree” explores the ambiguous intersection between science and alchemy, describing armies that “slash and burn as they retreat,” but giving equal time to the sanguine side of the human spirit’s “search … in the southern seas to find the healing red barked trees.” The song leaves the answer to our human riddle open, with Wire sounding sage, mature and here for the duration.
If influence were sufficient currency to buy one’s way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Wire would be a contender. You can count bands as diverse as R.E.M., Guided By Voices, the Manic Street Preachers, Minor Threat and the Cure as among those who confess a fondness for Wire that extends to inspiration.
“Red Barked Tree” demonstrates that Wire can be a sustained influence; it’s a most worthy addition to the band’s estimable catalog.
-------------------------------
Social Distortion | ‘Hard Times and Nursery Crimes’
Writes Spin magazine in its 8-out-of-10 review: Social D’s “trademark brew of punk, country and Stonesy-blues raunch feels weirdly, surprisingly fresh.” There’s also a dandy cover of Hank Williams’ “Alone and Forsaken.” Available Tuesday.
Gregg Allman | ‘Low Country Blues’
T Bone Burnett produced Allman’s first solo album since 1996. This one features one original plus 11 covers of songs from such legendary bluesmen as Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Sleepy John Estes. Available Tuesday.
The Decemberists | ‘The King Is Dead’
Colin Meloy and his mates strip down their sound and give it a country twist, conjuring the rootsy sounds of early R.E.M. and the Byrds. Peter Buck plays mandolin and 12-string; Gillian Welch is a guest, too. Available Tuesday.
Cake | ‘Showroom of Compassion’
John McCrea and his band haven’t released an album since 2004’s “Pressure Chief.” The single “Sick of You” is typical of the album’s sound: McCrea’s lively deadpan lyrics aboard a groovy, poppy, horn- and harmony-infested melody. Available now.
Cage the Elephant | ‘Thank You Happy Birthday’
The follow-up to its self-titled debut, “Thank You” delivers more sideways and off-kilter sounds. Spin says several songs feel like “the kind of fuzzy, poppy alt-rock radio hit alt-rockers just don’t make anymore.” Available now.
Edie Brickell | ‘Edie Brickell’
This is one of two Brickell releases this month. Charlie Sexton produced and plays guitar. Some songs were written on the tour for her last album in 2003. Her other release will be with the Gaddabouts, featuring Steve Gadd and Andy Fairweather-Low. Available now.
OUT THIS WEEK
•British Sea Power, “Valhalla Dancehall”: The BBC says this is an album that “neither treads water nor reinvents the wheel. Instead, it sees BSP continue their stately, unruffled progress.”
•Tapes & Tapes, “Outside”
•Creed, “Live” (DVD): Shot in Houston in September 2009 with 239 high-definition cameras. Available now on Blu-ray.
•Alter Bridge, “Live from Amsterdam”
•Joe Lovano and Us Five, “Bird Songs”
•Louis CK, “Hilarious”
•Diana Krall, “Doing Allright: In Concert”
•Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Skynyrd Nation”
•Abigail Washburn, “City of Refuge”
DUE TUESDAY
•The Jayhawks, “Tomorrow the Green Grass” (double-CD legacy edition)
•The Jayhawks, “Hollywood Town Hall” (expanded edition)
•James Blunt, “Some Kind of Trouble”
•Pearl Jam, “Live on Ten Legs”
•Roomful of Blues, “Hook, Line and Sinker”
•White Lies, “Ritual”
•The Aquabats, “Hi-Five Soup!”
•The Fall, “This Nation’s Saving Grace” (omnibus edition): a three-CD set of original album tracks, B-sides and alternative edits.
•Mad Lib, “Medicine Show No. 11: Low-Budget Hi-Fi Music”
•Stratovarius, “Elysium”
•Tennis, “Cape Dory”
•John P. Kee, “The Legacy Project”
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/12/2577460/new-audio-releases.html#ixzz1Ax6LjzOL
WIRE's "Pink Flag" was definitely a game changer when it arrived in the late 70's. Looking forward to picking up their new disc, as well as the new Social Distortion. But I am salivating over the forthcoming expanded edition of one of my favorite Alt-Country albums of all-time, "Hollywood Town Hall" by The Jayhawks. Still love that record, and they are going to add more onto it? Even better........
Posted by: Geordan | January 13, 2011 at 03:48 PM
What, you're not excited about the Creed live DVD?
Strong couple of weeks of new releases after a lackluster start to '11...Social D, Cake, Gregg Allman, Cage, Jayhawks reissues and I wasn't even aware of the live PJ. And saw Louis CK 'Hilarious' the other night on Comedy Central...funny stuff.
Posted by: pellboy | January 14, 2011 at 07:57 AM
Those purchase Red Barked Tree from the group's site pinkflag.com will also receive a four-song EP of re-recorded Wire songs Underwater Experiences, He Knows, German Shephards and Boiling Boy.
Also, while Wire may have had a 12-year recording hiatus, they weren't completely inactive. I saw them in 2000 play their old Pink Flag material in Chicago and was blown away by how great those songs still sounded.
Posted by: Rick | January 15, 2011 at 11:49 AM