Colin Newman's fifth solo album comes during the second (1980s) period of Wire, and is much more electronically based than Wire albums from that period, such as A Bell Is A Cup or The Ideal Copy.
As a huge Wire fan, I'll snap up any product from the band or its members when I see it, but I have no recollection of when I picked this up, and it isn't a frequent item on the playlist.
In general, the sound is much more electronically based and more sparse than Wire albums of the time, but there's a lot to like here. Quite Unrehearsed is a thoughtful opener, followed by Can't Help Being, a far more upbeat number., as is An Impressive Beginning. Title track, It Seems is a slower, more intense song, which is followed by the much more bouncy and Wire-like Better Late Than Never, which features vocals by Malka Spiegel, Newman's wife, and sounds just fantastic. There are a couple more listenable but unremarkable songs, before we finish with the cheerfully jaunty Round And Round, and the much slower Si Tu Attends.
Anyone looking for undiscovered Wire classics here will be disappointed. There's nothing here I'd choose to put on in preference to Wire's late 1980s albums (which are due a review), but it's a very listenable set of songs documenting Newman's early steps into electronica.
3* - a side project, with the weaknesses that entails, but enough to keep the interest.
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