Chairs Missing [Original recording remastered]

Wire | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 11, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1978
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Pink Flag
• ASIN: B000ENC7L8
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,233 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #31 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > British Punk

Track Listings

1. Practise Makes Perfect

2. French Film Blurred

3. Another the Letter

4. Men 2nd

5. Marooned

6. Sand in My Joints

7. Being Sucked in Again

8. Heartbeat

9. Mercy

10. Outdoor Miner

11. I Am the Fly

12. I Feel Mysterious Today

13. From the Nursery

14. Used To

15. Too Late

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

By the time of their sophomore effort, Wire had notched plenty of live gigs off the incredible strength of their debut Pink Flag. Where its predecessor had been awash in herky jerks and jagged guitars, Chairs was rife with what must've seemed like downright longform musical essays. The dirge-like "Mercy," after all, clocks in at an unheard-of five minutes and 46 seconds, and the synth-surrounded "Another the Letter" is the only song that spans just over a minute, sirening and getting nervy and portending 1979's third Wire outing, 154. It's a silly phrase given the stature of Wire's debut, but compared to Pink Flag (see how silly it is to compare things to Pink Flag?), what's here is diffuse. It's also brilliant: claustrophobic and rich in post-punk detail, furious and floating, anthemic ("Sand in My Joints") and pop-laden ("Outdoor Miner"). And now it's back, in a gatefold digipak, remastered and rich in color. --Andrew Bartlett

Product Description

Digitally remastered reissue of the British Post Punk band's sophomore album, originally released in 1978

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chairs Missing is incredible; and if you don't have it, you really should, April 15, 2006

By 

Aquarius Records (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chairs Missing (Audio CD)

In 1978, being qualified as "the Pink Floyd of the New Wave" might have come across as something of an insult; and by today's artistic strategies of rampant revivalism such a pithy remark may ring true to many a listener. That statement was, in fact, the critique prescribed to Chairs Missing, Wire's second album, as the album decelerated the pogo punk minimalism found on their first album with an increasing use of experimental production. In hindsight, Chairs Missing is the perfect transition between the high-strung velocity of Pink Flag and the staggering gloominess of 154; yet most transition records have a clunkiness about them, like a lanky teenager not quite able to fit into his sunday best. But Chairs Missing is miles above the average transition album.

To many a listener, Chairs Missing stands as the ultimate Wire album, with near perfect pop songs alternating between anthemic punk and eccentric production techniques (i.e. atonal synth drone, staccato guitar chops, overdubbed guitar distortion, etc.). Where Pink Flag kept many of the songs under a minute and half, Chairs Missing is downright baroque in its presentation of 3 minute tunes. The genius of Chairs Missing is how Colin Newman, Robert Gotobed, Bruce Gilbert, and Graham Lewis manage to steer through the diverse songwriting landscape, in how the album's opening track "Practice Makes Perfect" transitions from a delicate prance for jangled guitar into a precise expression of menace, in how "Outdoor Miner" creates the catchiest, Beatlesque chorus you'll never be able to sing back to yourself given the complexity of its rejoining, nonsensical syllables, in how jaggedly clean the guitars of Newman and Gilbert attack each other, in how Lewis' bass is fluid and effortless, in how this run-on sentence seems to have lost its way trying to fathom the complexity of Wire.

If you believe that the length of my reviews directly correlate to how good the record actually is, then I have failed as I would need to write a f-cking a book about how stunning this album is. Yeah, Chairs Missing is incredible; and if you don't have it, you really should.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most influential records of the past thirty years., April 30, 2010

By 

Robert Darlington "Howlinfido" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chairs Missing (MP3 Download)

There are some records that changed my life forever, and Chairs Missing is one of them. I first heard this record when it came to this country as a U.K. import over thirty years ago, and it is still as fantastic to me now as it was then. It certainly pointed me in a different direction and showed me the possibilities of what a band could be and do. From the moment I heard it, I was off down a new road, and I've never looked back. Sadly underrated, do yourself a favor and get this incredible album by an amazing band that was truly decades ahead of its time. It is wonderful to have this record on my iPod. And don't forget Pink Flag and 154, Wire's other great records that are required listening for lovers of modern music. Happy listening. Cheers, Robert Darlington (Singer/songwriter and guitarist for Translator)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably their best album, December 22, 2009

By 

H. Jin (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chairs Missing (Audio CD)

'Chairs Missing' is yet another of those unfortunate "transitional" albums, that tend to get somewhat overlooked. 'Pink Flag' was a punk classic, and '154' widely acknowledged as a post-punk masterpiece, but 'Chairs Missing' sometimes falls between the cracks a bit. But this is arguably their best album, certainly it's their most diverse, retaining the energy of their debut while incorporating synths, studio effects and different shades of production.

There are a few energetic punk anthems worthy of 'Pink Flag' here; 'Men 2nd', 'From the Nursery', the proto-noise-rock 'Sand In My Joints' and the frenetic closer 'Too Late'. Elsewhere, the songs and arrangements are much more ambitious. The highlights are the defiant punk/pop declaration 'I Am The Fly', and the suprisingly sunny pop of 'Outdoor Miner'. 'Heartbeat' and the opener 'Practice Makes Perfect' are unsettling slow-burns, while 'Marooned', 'French Film Blurred' and 'Used To' are more subdued and accessible. The centrepiece 'Mercy' mixes punk attitude with an art-rock arrangement, while 'Another The Letter' sounds like a three-way marraige of punk, synthpop and psychadelia.

And it all works. There's not one mis-step or awkward moment here. The raw punk songs still hit hard, and the ambitious tracks never sound bloated or pretentious. And despite all the diversity, the album fits together as a whole quite well, because Wire sound so comfortable no matter what they're doing.

A great album from an legendary band in top form. Five stars.