In the age of the single download, Jeff Harford
rediscovers the album . . .
One way to add a bit of zing to any lacklustre potion is to
mess with the formula.
English band Wire did just that on 1977 debut LP Pink
Flag, giving the punk movement a taste of the tonic it
would need if it were to see out the decade.
Out went the basic structure of the three-minute,
verse-chorus-verse-chorus song.
Fifteen of the album's 21 tracks came in at under two
minutes, with six not even cracking 60 seconds.
Once an idea was shaped and a message delivered, the band
moved on.
Neither were the messages framed in generalised
anti-establishment rhetoric nor off-colour cartoon porn.
While lyrics were aimed at many of punk's conventional
targets - girlfriends, politicians, warmongers and the middle
classes - some possessed a spare, haiku-like quality.
From Fragile: I have a fleeting love/Scorching when
it lands/ Fragile, needing precious hands.
Guitars were heavily distorted but muted, lending the album
an air of suppressed malevolence at odds with the
in-your-face attack of the Sex Pistols or the Clash.
The sounds, primitive as they were, hinted at what was to
follow in the post-punk era's experimentation and artiness.
The decision to present songs in such a spare form was a
brave one for a band on debut, but few tracks come across as
underdone.
Twenty-eight second Field Day For The Sundays and
the 1min 23sec Three Girl Rhumba are so neatly
executed it's hard to imagine where they might have gone had
the tape kept rolling, and two-minute album-closer 1 2 X
U is as tasty a slice of power pop as any of the era.
REM covered Strange on 1987 album Document,
and Henry Rollins, Minor Threat and Firehose are others to
have reprised cuts from this adventurous, riveting release.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.