Wire – The Ideal Copy (1987)
It's 1987 and I don't know if you've heard, but Wire are back and they aren't a punk group any more. We all know, that despite the three chord simplicity of their debut album, they never were just a punk band, and even a cursory listen to 1979's 154 album shows there's far more going on.
After that album, various musical and contractual difficulties sent the band their separate ways, with Colin Newman releasing a couple of albums of varying degrees of commerciality, Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert working together as Dome and with Daniel Miller as Duet Emmo, releasing albums without a shred of commercial potential, and Robert Grey returning to farming in Leicestershire.
But the band clearly had more to say, and returned in 1987 to say it. I have to confess it passed me by, not realising the band were back until they'd once again called it a day in 1992. I picked up the albums from this period on vinyl, and they have been firm favourites ever since, quickly replaced on CD.
The band had now fully embraced the technology of the 1980s, brought their solo experiments to fruition in the band, and they lead the listener gently into the new Wire. Point Of Collapse and Ahead are gentle, even commercial pop songs with dense and complex lyrics, while Madman's Honey continues this feel. But at the end of the first half, Lewis steps in with the louder, more angular Feed Me, reminding us that Wire aren't a pop band.
And Lewis vocals kick off the second half, with the fantastically abrasive Ambitious. Cheeking Tongues follows, possibly the most lightweight song on the main album, but still enjoyable before conclusion with the gentle and minimal Still Shows, and ratchetting up the decibels, the uncompromising Over Theirs.
It's a stunning comeback, for me still one of the band's finest. But on this CD version, the fun continues. It also contains the band's EP from the previous year, Snakedrill, containing four tracks - the light hearted A Serious Of Snakes, the dark, repetitive and stunning Drill (see bemused US chat show hosts here), later to spawn a full album, the relatively ordinary Advantage In Height and the strange vocal duet of Up To The Sun.
Additionally, there's the single version of Ahead, backed only by synths and losing something compared to the album version, and its other tracks, Ambulance Chasers, which is fairly forgettable, a much more electronic version of Feed Me, and a live a cappella version of Up To The Sun, entitled Vivid Riot Of Red.
While not all the bonus tracks might entrance, the album proper is a fantastic comeback from one of the most consistently innovative bands of the last half century.
5* - after a superb three album run in the 1970s, Wire regroup and produce something special for the 1980s.
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