Object 47

Wire

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Number of Discs: 1
• ASIN: B0018M6IQO
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #174,409 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In the five years since the May 2003 release of their last ful-length album, Send, Wire has expounded, reviewed, contracted, lain dormant, recovered, expanded, and shed an old skin and grown a new one. Wire is not the same as it was before-but then Wire is never the same as it was before... Object 47 (the 47th object in their discography) is nonetheless only Wire’s eleventh studio album. It is the second product of an arc of work that began in 2006 and has so far yielded the rather well-received EP Read And Burn 03 (from which no tracks appear on Object 47), and stands as a confident statement of where Wire is in 2008-as ever, looking forward! While retaining Wire’s idiosyncratic mix of an avant-garde mindset with classic pop timing, this album boasts 'tunes with zoom', a unique formula that somehow manages to sound wholly Wire (in a classic sense) and wholly contemporary. A full press campaign is planned in the USA and UK, augmented with college radio promotion in the USA. Wire will play festivals throughout Europe and tour USA in October of 2008.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Protracted, Somewhat Tedious Album that Should've Been A Great EP., July 28, 2008

By	Alan Koslowski (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Object 47 finds Wire realizing what they seemed to be moving towards on their previous release, Read & Burn 03: An EP that was a more ambient, deliberate, mid-tempo incarnation of the intense, droning, distinctly modern industrial punk they created on the first two Read & Burn EPs (partially compiled on the full-length Send). O-47 features sonic industrial elements from R&B 02 along with some ambient elements from R&B 03, combined with the brevity of their early work and pop-sensibility of their 80s material: Recognizably Wire, yet most of it doesn't sound specifically like anything they've done.

The strongest songs on O-47 manage to strike the perfect balance between sonic adventurousness and pop sensibility, combined with clever, but accessible lyrics. The opening track, "One of Us" is among the very best songs Wire as ever done - propelled by a powerful, compelling bass/drum line which serves as the perfect undercurrent for an irresistibly catchy guitar riff and oddly harmonious vocals. "One of Us" sets a high bar the rest of the album never reaches, though "Mekon Headman" comes close.

While O-47 is more focused and taut than R&B 03 it suffers from many of the same weaknesses. Specifically, they consist mostly of mid-tempo, sonically-repetitive tracks that dilute Wire's strengths. With a couple exceptions ("One of Us", "All Fours") all songs on O-47 move at mostly the same pace, making the album feel somewhat tedious (even at only 35 min). A problem made more pronounced by the mechanical, monotonous nature of some individual tracks: "Four Long Years", "Hard Currency", and especially "Are You Ready?" - a dated dance-rock track which could've easily been one of the many similar mediocre songs they recorded in the 80s.

O-47 has enough interesting material to be worthwhile for those of us who are long-time fans, but listening to it and thinking about Wire over the last 5 years I can't help but wish they'd followed through with their original plan to release a series of R&B EPs - A logical and fairly brilliant extension of thier minimalist aesthetic (Since Send consisted mostly of R&B 01-02 tracks it was essentially redundant). If instead they compiled the 5 or so best tracks from O-47 with "No Warning Given" (the standout track from R&B 03), and instead released that as the R&B 03 EP it would have been a cogent statement on par with the first 2 R&B EPs. Instead, O-47 will likely be thought of much like their 80s albums: A mostly inconsequential release with a few worthwhile songs.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great, July 21, 2008

By	T. Schafer (CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been very excited for the release of this album, especially after Wire's previous album, the very impressive Send and the terribly great EP Read & Burn 03, but this release is a little bit disappointing. Plenty of good songs, which sound similar to some of Colin Newman's solo albums, but the music and lyrics can be tedious in a few places, although they do carry through the variation and repetition of the other recent material. Worth buying for the Wire fan, but I would get Send or R&B03 first.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good But Not Great is an Apt Description, July 28, 2008

By	Brian J. Greene "djbrian" (Durham, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I agree with the other reviewer that this album by Wire is good but not great. I think Send may be the best thing they've done since the heyday years of Pink Flag/154/Chairs Missing, and while this one is still sharp and on target, the overall quality level does not match that of Send. But this is comparing the album to other Wire releases - if this was a new band and this was their first release, I would think, "Wow, these guys are interesting - I want to hear more from them!" The sound is very much like Send, with a mixture of uptempo, edgy tracks and slower, more atmospheric and cerebral songs.