Customer Reviews

Pink Flag (Dig)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Really, what more can I say about Wire's Pink Flag that hasn't already been said? The album is so good, so burned in the retina of my brain (even though I still cannot for the life of us unscramble Graham Lewis' lyrics), so nearly perfect that it's sort of hard to write about. In a perfect world, whatever nonsense I may have to say about the record would be moot, as you should already own this record (along with Chairs Missing and 154, Wire's second and third albums respectively). But for those of you who may be enraptured by the recent flurry of post-punk revivalists who continue to make quite a stir, let the reissue campaign of the first three records introduce you to the band that Interpol, Maximo Park, Franz Ferdinand, and Bloc Party only wish they could be.

Recorded in 1977, Pink Flag is an immaculately concise punk record, even as Wire recognized that punk was becoming a self-parody and willed themselves to develop through experimentation with structure, technology, and process. Pink Flag's 21 songs cover a mere 35 minutes, many of them clocking in around 90 seconds or "when they ran out of words" as bassist / vocalist Graham Lewis once quipped. Energetic and volatile, each of the songs on Pink Flag thrash through the repetoire of reductivist power-pop riffs as immediately catchy and aggressive as anything by the Damned, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols. But even on their first album, Wire demonstrated an uncanny ability with chord changes and melodic shifts that by '70s standards were much artier than their punk bretheren. Of course, in the aftermath of math-rock's acrobatic twists and turns, Wire's Pink Flag hardly sounds unpredictable... but if it weren't for Wire would we really have Laddio Bollocko, for example? Probably not.

The album's opening track "Reuters" is an anxious introduction to Wire's provocation with lead vocalist Colin Newman over-annunciating a polemic against government's abuse of propaganda (sound familiar?) on top of an increasingly agitated metronomic blast of bass, twin guitar, and drums. Elsewhere near perfect pop songs develop out of the angular punk slashing, as heard on "Ex Liontamers" and "Mannequin." Wire ends the album with the monotone anthem "12 X U" which many have declared their "Anarchy In The UK." With a motorik rhythm punctured by concise punk riff, the track simultaneously decries homophobia and censorship with the song's entire lyrics "I saw you in the mag kissing the man / 1 2 X U!"

So yeah, Wire are a seminal band for a reason, and it all started with this album. If you don't have it, please do yourself a favor and buy this album. You won't regret it!

Everyone's heard of the Iggy Pop, The Clash, Ramones, Damned and Sex Pistols, but many of you have probably not heard of Wire. I was very into the punk scene in the 1970s and I loved it all back then. But of all the punk albums that came out between 1976 and 1980, Wire's "Pink Flag" (1977) holds up best for me 30 years on. This album is very raw with a minimum of production, but with some key elements of production here and there. It's been referred to elsewhere as minimalist and taking a deconstructive approach to rock music. Both are true, and Wire does it with intelligence on "Pink Flag". I think they set a standard for what can be done with a few chords that no one else has achieved. The lyrics on "Pink Flag" are mostly imaginative and timeless, certainly better than most of what was written back then. If I had to recommend a few albums that best represent the era, I would include this one. This re-mastered version of "Pink Flag" sounds every bit as good on CD as my original-pressing vinyl LP, maybe even better. I highly recommend it.

Every decade sees thousands of albums released, each barely making its mark in the world. But there are those albums that are so revolutionary, filled with an urgency and a potency to shatter our preconceived notions of music, that they deserve attention. Dangerous is not Judas Priest, NWA, Slayer, or any rap album from the last fifteen years. Those artists and albums were simply selling an image. In this sense, dangerous refers to that music which punctured and tore the musical zeitgeist. And so begins our list, beginning with entry number one:

Pink Flag - Wire

1977 saw the birth of punk, and with it the death of standard rock and roll as it had been known up until that year. Seminal bands emerged and used punk as a method of shattering all the fat and excess from rock and roll, a purification of an over-sexed and commercialized sound. Thus, punk presented rock and roll in its simplest form: three chords, verse-chorus-verse.

But an English quartet would quickly and radically change punk in 1977. The band? Wire.

The songs contained within their debut album, Pink Flag, stripped punk down to its core essential. If a verse were not needed, Wire would discard it. If that additional chord did not need to be strummed, Wire would not strum it. If a song only need be twenty eight seconds long, Wire would only play the song for twenty eight seconds. Most songs clock in at under two minutes, filled with an urgency that not even the newest punk band could match. This is the sound of punk's bare bones.

With this album, Wire grabbed punk by the throat and held it at the edge of the musical precipice, threatening to destroy punk while showing all that it was and could ever be.

(nine more entries to follow)

Wire will always dwell in a strange place. Sure, they're punk rock with their short, fast, simple songs. But at the same time Wire, from day one, were highly experimental despite their amatuerish ability. I don't think this stems from their art school background either, though this has been cited before. Many, many of the first wave of punk bands were art school kids. What made Wire different?

Dynamics? A philosophy?

I don't know. I love this album. It's almost like Wire wrote haiku. They were once quoted as saying something like 'we write short songs because when the lyrics were done so was the song...' Their basic musicianship (at the start) coupled with this minimalist attitude toward song structure creates a limiting thing, but in that restrictive enviornment a person ca really open up a lot of possibilities.

And these songs do that.

From the garage of "Three Girl Rhumba" to the smarmy, haunting "Mannequin"... this album is perfect.

A great recording. Song after song careen past in a glorious rush. Some of the tracks may seem at first like undeveloped sketches but further listening demonstrates that in most cases the music is memorable even without the repetition and structure most ears have come to expect -- it simply requires a bit more concentration. And Wire is full of ideas and display quite a range. I feel the term "British punk" is far too simplistic for this debut album. The songs on this album range from slow, haunting texture excercises, warped power pop, punk anthems, proto-hardcore rants -- and you must BLAST the volume when the title track comes on (do this while driving and you're in rock ecstasy.)

Pink Flag, the debut album from seminal punk band Wire is one of the most perfectly put together albums to date; one that is completly flawless. The sort of album that the five star rating system was created for all those years ago. Combining all the best of true punk rock, post-punk, and art rock into one twenty-one track album which is only around the length of a half an hour.

Opening with 'Reuters' possibly the greatest album opener of all time, the pace is set for an album that will not let up and will not slow, but will keep bludgioning you till the last note of '12 x U.' Tracks like the pulsing 'the Commercial' or the lament of 'Manneuin' or 'Champs' the angry 'Three Girl Rhumba' carry Pink Flag that depending on whom you ask, Wire were never able to reach, ever again.

It's a flawless record, and one that I personally can't believe I put off buying for so long. Now that it's been nearly a year of living amongst my collection I can't think of not listing it whenever I create a best of anything list; becuase really it is that fantastic.

this is one of the absolute best of the '70s punk albums, along with the clash debut, sex pistols (which now sounds a bit dated), and the ramones. the sound quality of this disc is a major improvement over the late '80s cd reissue. the only problem is the lack of a lyric sheet, which really puts the album into perspective, and makes it more impressive. i removed the lyrics from my older, flat sounding version, and added it to the new one. THE SOUND AND THE SONGS ARE GREAT, GREAT. I didn't care for some of Wire's later synthesizer styled music, but this 'punky' debut is a classic.

Oh yeah. There's no hyerbole for the punk rock album that "plays like the Ramones Go To Art School", a punk rock suite of 21 tracks of exercises in arty punk rock. Be forewarned that the minimalistic approach doesn't make it boring or dull. Yeah, it's stripped of all excess to the fundamental features of music, but it doesn't even stick to one formula. Pink Flag, in it's short time span, won't dull, as it boasts at least 21 bursts of arty brevity.

Pink Flag is one of those albums that are so consistently good, it goes with a feeling of "wait, both tracks are on the SAME album?" What I mean, usually, whenever I'm listening, I get so focused on the fearlessly impressive 30 second Field Day for The Sunday's and the dance punk masterpiece that is Three Girl Rhumba, that the ultra catchy and clever Mr. Suit and the surf blasted surf riff of Mannequin are part of the album too. It's an album that when you look at the track listing, you get a feeling of complete overload of music goodness. While the musical goodness of this isn't AS good as a perfect ten album with the same feeling, it's one of the biggest compliments this album has.

Of course, one of this album's strongest points is the music itself. With crisp, rhymatic pulses, wry, cynical delivery, textured guitars accordingly to fit, and fluid, melodic bass, it already establishes itself as an extremely tuneful album. And that art feel? Oh, it's there. Reuters, for starters, trudges like the war, and the vocals ring over the audio landscape like an announcer of death. There is even some sweet pop. Mannequan melds fake, overly plastic woman in the lyrics with strangely pretty surf rock that would bring that really annoying fantasy California so famous in the 60's. Great harmonization! Fragile is a heartbreaking love song at first sight (call me pretentious, but I think they are using love to allude to something). They can snap up the perfect punk rock song in Mr. Suit and 12XU, and can even groove out to the best of them. Try not dancing along to Champs, Options R and Brazil. Heck, they even have commercial theme music, perfectly placed after the grim title track.

Sure, the album is more than meets the ear; when I first introduced myself to Wire, I found this music to be vapidly boring, one dimensional, and definitely not creative; but listening reveals tons of little details, done with the idea of making art in mind. Not a bad listen to start out 2009 eh? If anything, it sounds good in this day and age. Both punk and indie fans will find this a record they must add to their collections. It's one thing both can agree on.

9/10

Post Punk, music, which is hard to define, because it really cannot be compared to anyone else, or stereotyped. So, then, a well written and performed record, with interesting guitar work, might describe this record, on a surface level, anyway.

'Pink Flag' has often been regarded as "the punk version of punk", stripping punk itself down to its rawest, barest bones. And with 21 songs in just over 30 minutes, you'd be forgiven for thinking it consisted of nothing but abrasive, rushed hardcore fury. But while there's certainly some of that on the album, there is also a surprising amount of diversity and experimenation on display here.

The short, sharp, scathing hardcore sound is most clearly evident in rants like 'Mr Suit', '12XU', and 'Field Day For The Sundays', and on several other songs they mix hardcore with pop to produce an early example of pop-punk (e.g. 'Ex-Lion Tamer', 'Brazil', 'Start To Move', 'It's So Obvious'). Elsewhere, there are elements of power pop ('Three Girl Rumba', 'Fragile', 'Mannequin'), plus some quite dark, heavy songs such as the grinding opener 'Reuters' and the ominous 'Lowdown'. And for an album noted for its short songs, there are a couple of more extended pieces, such as 'Strange', and the title track.

What is surprising is how catchy most of the songs are, and how Wire pack several different ideas into even the shortest songs; odd chord changes, stop-start dynamics, different vocal styles. You wouldn't think a 28 or 41 second song would have much room for experimentation and hooks, but even the most breathless tracks here have something memorable. Wire haven't thrown away the basics of songwriting; all they do is cut out the unnecessary padding. For this reason, the songs never sound unfinished or incomplete, despite many being only a minute or so long.

It's nowhere near as diverse and oddball as their later albums, but even at this early stage you can clearly see that Wire were restless innovators. A punk classic that will please hardcore fans while also clearly pointing the way forward to the post-punk, art-punk, and noise-rock of Wire's later career.