Wire - Wire

Wire’s 13th studio album—simply titled Wire—features material written specifically for the record, some of which was extensively toured beforehand, and other songs introduced by Colin Newman in the studio just prior to recording. The goal was to capture the most spontaneous reactions from the band, and while one might expect a rough-and-ready outcome from such an approach, Wire instead delivers swooning pop melodies with a '60s hue and an irresistible, almost motorik rhythmic momentum.

Certain melodic inflections, guitar and bass motifs, and drum rhythms are familiar from Wire’s idiosyncratic vocabulary, yet the album retains a striking freshness. Basic tracks were recorded at Rockfield Studios, with overdubs added later at Brighton Electric. The 11 tracks chosen for the final release were those that came together most naturally.

From the beginning, Wire has been a collaboration between four very different personalities. Since 2012, the group has included guitarist Matthew Simms (formerly of It Hugs Back), who is roughly 30 years younger than the other members. “With Matt, there was a really new dynamic that had appeared in the group’s sound—and that was something we wanted to capture, utilize, and be creative with,” says bassist Graham Lewis.

Wire is the first album on which Simms was involved from the ground up in shaping the material. As the band’s distinctive chemistry took hold, Simms became an integral part of the creative process.

Lewis wrote most of the album’s lyrics, which range from love songs to cryptic narratives and coded messages. In one instance, Newman asked Lewis to send over some unformatted, unfinished text to avoid being locked into a traditional chorus structure. This led to the creation of two songs in a single day: “Split Your Ends” and the droll “In Manchester.” The latter features a soaring chorus that repeats “In Manchester,” despite the song having almost nothing to do with the city beyond a single passing reference.