Comments for Wire, The First Letter

Underated at the time, this album is basically the conclusion to the work that Wire began back in 1985. After the disappointing Manscape and minimalist Drill this LP finally shows how they got to grips with technology and combined it with their honed down abstract version of pop/rock. "So and Slow it Grows" is the stand out track - beautiful and powerful with a simple lyric that encapsulated the listener. Honorable mentions also go to the spoken word tracks "Naked, Whooping and Such Like" and "A Bargain at 3&20, yeah!" for being disconcerting, interesting and bloody odd.

Released under the group name of "Wir" as drummer Robert Gotobedquit in 1991, this is the latest release of new material fromWire so far (2/96). More synth/techno oriented than earlierreleases, this is still classic Wire. That includes, as usual,taking the English language to places it`s never been before.