Review by Mark Fleming
4 stars out of 4
When this album was first released in 1977, the initial notoriety of Punk
Rock had subsided to the extent that short-haired bands yelping about
boredom and anarchy were practically mainstream. Wire, a quartet from
the English Home Counties, were very different. For one thing, they
didn't adopt faux-Cockney accents for street credibility. Also, they
sometimes played slow songs. For them, 'experimental' wasn't a musical
term that had been consigned to the bin. If anything it was their
defining hallmark.
Pink Flag opens with a dense, churning piece called 'Reuters', featuring
a press release from an un-named war zone, culminating in vocalist Colin
Newman endlessly repeating the phrase 'Rape.' Amongst a sea of
Clash-copycats, here was a 'Punk' band commenting on the nullifying effect
of tabloid journalism. But just in case you were anticipating a sequence
of tracks that were too big for their boots, this was followed by
'Field Day for the Sundays'. Track time: 28 seconds.
The album merges slowly-bludgeoning wall-of-sound pieces and punky thrashes
into one mesmerizing flow. Along the way we are treated to the sublimely
atmospheric 'Strange', complete with strangled flute accompaniment (later
covered by R.E.M.),Wire's debut single, 'Mannequin', brilliantly off-setting
a catchy chorus with terse put-down lyrics, and its B-side, the furious
3-chord dragster race of '12XU'.
For music compiled nearly a quarter of a century ago Wire's Pink Flag
still seems curiously ahead of its time. The re-mastered CD featuring
the plain blue cover with the lone pink standard is one British rock band
staking a claim on originality.
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