Currently enjoying “Red Barked Tree” by Wire

I got into Wire during their Read & Burn era; Send is my favourite Wire album, hands down. I’m glad to say that for a fan like me, their twelfth and newest doesn’t disappoint.

Wire, as I’ve mentioned, is a band that’s made a name for itself over the years by pushing the limits of the music of the time, disappearing for a number of years, and then emerging from nowhere to do it again. The Read & Burn series was Wire at its most abrasive. The punk-pop sound of their initial releases and the grandiosity of their eighties albums had little in common with the noise and dirge of Wire’s third incarnation.

And while I get the impression that further listening might change my opinion entirely, Red Barked Tree, like the more subtle Object 47 before it, has an odd way of combining the best elements of those three eras with an unmistakably forward-thinking determination.

The constants among Wire’s many incarnations are still in full force. The tracks are sharp and expedient, the musicianship is tight, and the tone is alternately snide, sympathetic and weary.

If there can be said to be a single decent introduction to Wire – an album that bears more than a passing resemblance to any of their other albums, let alone all of them – then Red Barked Tree might be it. And if ever there was a group that deserved more listeners, it’s Wire. Do check it out.

Posted in Currently Enjoying