The 15th - Wire
These guys speed ran inaccessibility
Much is often said of bands and artists who undergo significant artistic evolution and progression in a relatively short time period. In fact, it is a common trend among a number of my favorite bands — The Beatles, Rush, Radiohead, yada, yada, yada. I’m not breaking any new ground here saying that any of these bands rapidly matured and improved with each ensuing album release, that’s the reason that they have continued to stand out through the entire lifespan of popular music as some of the greats.
There is a band that doesn’t get nearly enough flowers for this artistic progression, however. Granted, this may be because, while they never started out as the most generally accessible band in their scene, they for sure didn’t win over any radio listeners with their artistic evolution. This band gets the credit they deserve in the right circles, but I firmly believe that the first run of Wire albums from 1977 to 1979 display maybe the fastest and one of the more drastic turnarounds for any band.
Pink Flag, the band’s debut, was released in December of 1977 on Harvest Records and made not the slightest dent commercially. Arriving during the initial wave of UK punk rock with the likes of The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Damned, and the S*x Pi*to*s, Wire was notably artier and more obtuse with their songwriting. This is blatantly clear from the first track, “Reuters,” a gloomy gothic epic. At its core though, this was still a punk rock album, and more often than not, you’re going to find the DNA of early punk rock all over this record.
Chairs Missing was released just 9 months later and already showed an insane level of growth for the band. You’re not going to find ferocious 4 chord, stick-it-to-the-man songwriting chops on this record. Still undoubtedly rooted in punk rock (“Sand in My Joints,” “Too Late”), by and large, the band took the atmospheric, mysterious stylings of tracks like Pink Flag’s title track and “Lowdown” and turned the weirdness up to 10.
The weirdness across 154, the band’s third record in 21 months, reaches uncharted territory.
Fully embracing synthesizers and abandoning all principles of standard song structure with chilling, ominously-soundtracked short storytelling, 154 bears almost no resemblance to the band that wrote “Field Day for the Sundays” not even 2 years earlier.
I could write an essay on 154’s contribution to underground music. I mean it is the quintessential art punk record. Nestled early in the album’s track listing, though, is a track so lush that it wouldn’t sound out of place on a My Bloody Valentine record, a far cry from the angular, unforgiving stylings heard elsewhere on the record.
“The 15th” is one of the group’s most endearing and enduring tracks. Named simply because it was the 15th song written in the batch for what would become 154, the song is a beautiful little nugget of nonsense.
The immaculately layered guitars the track opens with crash over the listener before Robert Gotobed’s ever steady timekeeping comes in and vocalist Colin Newman serenades the listener in all of his distinctly English glory.
This track just has a certain sound, a certain aura about it that mystifies me every time. It is so naturally ethereal. I can’t tell if I should be comforted or disturbed. That’s what makes it so good, though. I just can’t get enough.
Unlike a lot of the other songs on the record, this track follows a fairly conventional structure. The lyrics, though? Yeah, I got no fucking idea.
“Reviewed, it seemed
As if someone were watching over it
Before it was
As if response were based on fact”
For sure, man. I don’t think the lyrics have any meaning. Honestly, trying to dissect meaning out of a song that sounds like this is futile. It’s all about the mood here, and the timbre of the words fit perfectly into their niche.
Sonically, the song hits its peak during the extended outro section, where the synths take full charge and transform the track into a quasi-ambient ride downstream. I am not sure entirely how to describe the way this song makes me feel, but it has continued to leave a deep, direct impression on me for years. It is truly magnificent.
It is appalling to track how Wire got from where they were to where they ended up in a sub-2 year time span. I mean, really think about that. It’s astounding and a testament to the prowess and ease with which Wire cemented themselves in the punk movement. They were a band who were never content staying in one place. They wouldn’t even play tracks live from the album that they were touring to promote, opting instead to test out increasingly ambiguous and patience-testing material on disgruntled audiences. Their live album Document and Eyewitness displays this perfectly. It’s not necessarily an easy listen, but by golly it’s a rewarding one.
I love Wire for just being Wire. You can call them post-punk, you can call them art punk, you can call them new wave, but at the end of the day, they’re just Wire. One word, four letters, zero meaning. There’s perhaps no better way to surmise their legendary existence.
Listen to “The 15th” here.
Wire's superpower is never sounding old. 154 is incredible, as are Pink Flag and Chairs Missing-- but so too are later LPs like A Bell Is A cup... and It's Beginning to And Back Again. Just an incredible band, and The 15th is them at their best.