Weekend Reissue Roundup

     

Artist: Album (label, release date) 1-5 stars

Wire: Pink Flag (EMI, October 11, 2005) *****
The Waterboys: Best of the Waterboys 81-90 (EMI, October 11, 2005) ****
Styx: The Best of Times: The Best of Styx (Universal International, October 11, 2005) **
Tom Verlaine: Warm and Cool (Thrill Jockey, October 11, 2005) ****

Wire: Pink Flag

Any argument about punk's genesis also has to include the debut album Pink Flag by Wire, released in 1977, the same year Never Mind the Bullocks was released. There's no denying the album is a punk album, but Wire took a more art-school approach to the concept. One of the first thing that people noticed about the album was the extreme brevity of the songs; fifteen of the album's original twenty one tracks are under two minutes and six are under one minute. Their artiness is closer to the Pere Ubu school of sculpting noise more than the grad school artiness of the Talking Heads; as Brits, they avoided the overt politics of the Clash and Sex Pistols but nontheless displayed a wry and sardonic wit. The brevity of the songs keeps their focus honed and direct, but somehow doesn't make them sound like fragments; each works as its own little song. Picking favorites is tough, but on the title track (which clocks in at nearly four minutes, an epic) guitarists Colin Newman and George Gill lay a rough texture underneath as the rhythm section of bassist Graham Lewis and drummer Robert Gotobed builds a tightly-wound tension that is released in a climax of chanting and screeching and collapses into rubble. Colin Newman's drawled out "loove" on "What Is This Thing Called Love?" displays the right irony, as the band crunches out a Troggs-like backing with Animals-style vocal harmonies. "Dot Dash" could be a toe-tapping pop single. "The Commercial", and instrumental rides in on a rollicking bass and chiming chords and establishes itself in just 49 seconds. The opener, "Reuters" opens with a slow groove over which Newman intones headlines from an apocalyptic future that sounds more relevant today. And on and on; words cannot do it justice. Wire changed directions with nearly every release (and went on long hiatus twice, rather than release uninspired stuff). One of the few bands punks and art-rockers can agree on.

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