zircona1 wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 8:38 am For me, it was more of their name being mentioned with Elastica - whose debut I still love - that piqued my interest.

Man, that one hit song was such a flagrant (but effective) case of riff theft.

Chairs Missing for me, though Pink Flag is perfect. 154 has grown on me a lot over the years, but I'll never tire of the first two.

My into them was via this Rhino punk compilation series. Pretty much how I heard all of these bands initially when I was 11 or 12 (thanks small town Idaho record store for having this in stock in a long box!):

That's a great comp, but they threw in an Australian band.

Man, 154 is a huge turn. You still get the tick-tock, skronk and discord contrasted with the ambience and melodicism they have in Chairs Missing but it sounds like with 10x the recording budget.

Having Graham Lewis singing the opening track (I believe) was also jarring. Colin Newman has this sneering Cockney that wouldn't sound out of place on a Crass record, dominating the first two records. Then you open 154 with Lewis sounding all rich and croony, more of a RP sounding guy, almost romantic in tone.

It's kind of an excessive record and a little disjointed, but there are some pretty incredible moments.

Krev wrote: Sun Jun 29, 2025 1:23 am Shit, tough one. I picked 154 although they're all amazing. Pink Flag might the closest to my heart. "Ex Lion Tamer" is history's catchiest song.

Agree about Ex Lion Tamer, and have to choose PF just for that.

All are great though.

I'll also remind people that Wire has not recorded a bad record, even Manscape is good.

Amending to Chairs Missing. Outdoor Miner is the best song ever written.

Krev wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 5:00 pm Amending to Chairs Missing. Outdoor Miner is the best song ever written.

Maybe the only single in history that had to be extended.

(Well, Teenage FBI too depending on how serious of a single effort that was)

My partner had music on in the bathroom this morning, and Journey's Separate Ways came on. I told her that I didn't think the subject matter justified how dramatic the presentation was.

I vote Pink Flag, but if that means I can never listen to A Touching Display again, I won't vote. Hell of a lot more dramatic than is actually called for, but a fucking banger.

Chairs Missing changed the course of my life undeniably, so I'll go with that.

And it's the best of the three.

Next to the Ditch Trilogy, hard to beat these three albums as a 1-2-3 combo. Stevie Wonder did it. Marvin Gaye did it. PJ Harvey did it. SKWM did it.

This is formative, though, these three Wire albums.

Which one of those three has "Dot Dash" in it?