Your heroes, are they PAST IT?

[McChesney Duntz]

I think Bob Mould's still delivering the goods, once he got past that regrettable "techno" period of his (which is - gawd - a full two decades past already) and especially since he enlisted the rock-solid duo of Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster for his rhythm section.

And what about Wire? I'm not going to pretend I play the most recent stuff as obsessively as I do Chairs Missing (or A Bell is a Cup... for that matter), but they still feel as fully engaged and conceptually febrile as ever.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

There's a banging version of "The Art of Persistence" on the new record. I don't know how they do it. Seems like every time they seem like they're going to dwindle into interchangeable sugary Colin sing-a-longs, they either re-invigorate a bunch of old chestnuts or whack out a bunch of weird pop songs again. It's like they can tweak their formula just incrementally, and that gives them all the inspiration they need to set them off again on a new trove of material. The most conceptually restless band, even now when they could just be doing the same old stuff over and over, they could get away with "Map Ref" and "Strange" forever, instead they doing shoegazey remakes of deep cuts like "German Shepherds".

Finally got to seem them a few years back and certainly didn't disappoint, lovely that the old song they did was "A Blessed State".

[the science eel]

Given up the ghost on Pere Ubu. The last truly great song they did was "414 Seconds" about eight years ago and DT's "ironic" nativism/misogyny is waaaaaay past the point of being too intolerable to let me care about endless 'remixes' of recent boogie rock records.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?! Their last couple of studio releases have been fantastic - they sound totally reenergised after years of so-so 'difficult' stuff.

Maybe you just like so-so 'difficult' stuff...

[purlieu]

And what about Wire? I'm not going to pretend I play the most recent stuff as obsessively as I do Chairs Missing (or A Bell is a Cup... for that matter), but they still feel as fully engaged and conceptually febrile as ever.

What I like about Wire is that very few fans seem to like everything they've done, but also very few fans can agree what their good and bad material is. I remember getting into a Facebook discussion with a friend-of-a-friend who thought Object 47 is one of their best albums and Change Becomes Us is unlistenable, bland shit. Which is almost exactly the polar opposite of my view. Self-titled, Nocturnal Koreans and Silver/Lead all seemed to vie for 'best new album' in their fanbase for a few years - they're all stylistically similar, but the songs themselves seem to rub people up different ways. For me, Silver/Lead is the best thing they've done since the '80s, a gloriously understated mellow indie record, but some people find it really dull. Was worried Mind Hive would be more of the same, but it ended up opening with possibly their heaviest track ever and ending on a run of Eno-esque ambient pop songs. They're one of my favourite bands, despite me only really liking about half of their albums, because of this consistent moving forward, sometimes in tiny increments, then unexpectedly in huge leaps.

[Brundle-Fly]

Todd Rundgren is a mercurial force. Just when I've written him off, he returns with more gems. Same goes for Elvis Costello. And Beck.

[Brundle-Fly]

What I like about Wire is that very few fans seem to like everything they've done, but also very few fans can agree what their good and bad material is. I remember getting into a Facebook discussion with a friend-of-a-friend who thought Object 47 is one of their best albums and Change Becomes Us is unlistenable, bland shit. Which is almost exactly the polar opposite of my view. Self-titled, Nocturnal Koreans and Silver/Lead all seemed to vie for 'best new album' in their fanbase for a few years - they're all stylistically similar, but the songs themselves seem to rub people up different ways. For me, Silver/Lead is the best thing they've done since the '80s, a gloriously understated mellow indie record, but some people find it really dull. Was worried Mind Hive would be more of the same, but it ended up opening with possibly their heaviest track ever and ending on a run of Eno-esque ambient pop songs. They're one of my favourite bands, despite me only really liking about half of their albums, because of this consistent moving forward, sometimes in tiny increments, then unexpectedly in huge leaps.

Very true. I'm with you on Change Becomes Us. Bland shit? Your friend of a friend can do one. It's fantastic and one of the best gigs I've ever attended.

[jamiefairlie]

I love Wire  today just as much as I did in 1978 and if anything I value and appreciate them even more for not becoming what all their contemporaries became.

[Brundle-Fly]

I love Wire  today just as much as I did in 1978 and if anything I value and appreciate them even more for not becoming what all their contemporaries became.

They're extraordinary.

[jamiefairlie]

Very true. I'm with you on Change Becomes Us. Bland shit? Your friend of a friend can do one. It's fantastic and one of the best gigs I've ever attended.

Yeah strange opinion given that it's effectively their unreleased fourth album and much closer in style and composition to 154/Chairs Missing that their later material. My favourite of their recent albums.

[purlieu]

Yes, it's one of the more baffling opinions I've come across over the years. But it gives an idea of the range of opinions Wire fans have.
And yeah, how many bands, 45 years into their career, continue to challenge themselves and still manage to sound contemporary while doing it? Yeah, Manscape, The Drill and a lot of The First Letter was a creative dead end, but otherwise they've been consistently creative otherwise.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Loved Change Becomes Us, disliked Object 47. Wire seem to have a precision targetting on some sets of their fanbase - definitely felt like an exploration of the unreleased record was aimed at me, and anyone who dwells on the what-ifs around the Document and Eyewitness era. It could've easily gone wrong and ruined the mystique that material has built up but it ended up deepening in. Definitely made good on their reputation of unpredictability by putting out a studio version of "Eels Sang Lingo" in 2013.

My one major disappointment with post-reunion Wire is that Red Barked Tree was relatively undercooked. It's their best sounding record since 154 by far, but the material isn't quite up to the sound and them doing a 180 from distorted dancefloor pop to meditative material and even acoustic tracks deserved a bit better than it got. Still great but its their closest to equalling their big three and they could've done it! How the fuck does a band cut something like "Bad Worn Thing" after being around for THIRTY FIVE years? Of course Wire being Wire they immediately went from their warmest ever record to putting out a string of their most processed sounding work since the late 80s.

Maybe you just like so-so 'difficult' stuff...

I think I probably do. I like Pennsylvania and the first Pale Boys record a lot.

[pupshaw]

Todd Rundgren is a mercurial force. Just when I've written him off, he returns with more gems. Same goes for Elvis Costello. And Beck.

Todd is a good example of how an artist should handle getting older, although I wince a little at his reenactments of yesteryear material. His voice was so incredibly strong at his peak and of course it's rather depleted now.

The very worst example of being past it, although he's no longer with us, is Keith Emerson, the antithesis of Todd Rundgren in many ways. Arm and hand surgery completely ruined his technique and made him sound like a total beginner. That combined with awful choice of instrumentation led to 30 years of hurt. You just should look at what he did with the Nice (there are quite a few vids on Youtube) to see what a bummer it must have been for him.

[Famous Mortimer]

I just popped on an Adrian Belew album from a few years back, and as much as I loved the magic he sprinkled over the 80s, looks like he's run out of whatever it was.

[phantom_power]

Eno's still got it, I think. And David Byrne. His last album was one of his best

[sutin]

Can't agree with Beck. I still enjoy his records fine but nothing post-90s holds a candle to the Mellow Gold-Midnite Vultures era. His wordplay became a lot more forced, his singing voice went weird and it doesn't  feel like he was pushing forward anymore.

[Johnboy]

Richard Thompson
Paul Weller
Joe Jackson
Madness
The Psychedelic Furs
Ride

Still making pretty good records and doing very good gigs.

[Pauline Walnuts]

I find Richard Thompson's released the same album for the last 20 years. At least.

[Egyptian Feast]

Can't agree with Beck. I still enjoy his records fine but nothing post-90s holds a candle to the Mellow Gold-Midnite Vultures era. His wordplay became a lot more forced, his singing voice went weird and it doesn't  feel like he was pushing forward anymore.

Whenever I see those stupid worst-to-best rankings of Beck albums and click on them because I am a twat, they always have Mellow Gold almost at the bottom along with Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot In The Grave and fucking Sea Change is near or on top, cunts. Stop getting Beck wrong. I'm talking to you too, Beck.

[kngen]

I think Bob Mould's still delivering the goods, once he got past that regrettable "techno" period of his (which is - gawd - a full two decades past already) and especially since he enlisted the rock-solid duo of Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster for his rhythm section.

Yeah, I'd take his most recent stuff over Workbook or (most of) Black Sheets of Rain. My friend told me a lovely story about when he went to pick up Silver Age from the post office and dusted off his CD Walkman to listen to it on the way home. Halfway through the first track, he was so overcome he had to have a wee sitdown on a park bench and compose himself.

[daf]

he was so overcome he had to have a wee

Dirty bugger!

[lankyguy95]

Last year's Bob Mould album is a blast. That reminds me, I haven't put it on in a while.

[purlieu]

Whenever I see those stupid worst-to-best rankings of Beck albums and click on them because I am a twat, they always have Mellow Gold almost at the bottom along with Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot In The Grave and fucking Sea Change is near or on top, cunts. Stop getting Beck wrong. I'm talking to you too, Beck.

Other than Nigel Godrich's then-usual 'novelty whooshy noises at the end to try and distract from the lack of dynamics in the rest of the song' production, I do like Sea Change a lot, but yes, I'm always a bit baffled by people who rate his later albums over those early lo-fi ones. Stereopathetic Soul Manure is my favourite thing of his.

[Egyptian Feast]

It's great, these people have no taste. 'Satan Gave Me A Taco' is a masterpiece; still gives me a shiver, still extremely funny.

[H-O-W-L]

Devin Townsend still has it, for sure. Roger Waters definitely lost it in the 90s (at the latest). Peter Gabriel has also lost his charm not gonna lie. The piano-and-quiet-whisper-singing stuff is really dull for a man who did some really beautiful and pioneering stuff.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Roger Waters definitely lost it in the 90s (at the latest).

I'mma gonna say it, his last studio album was alright.

Live on the other hand, just give up mate, I know you like money, but...

[sutin]

Whenever I see those stupid worst-to-best rankings of Beck albums and click on them because I am a twat, they always have Mellow Gold almost at the bottom along with Stereopathetic Soul Manure and One Foot In The Grave and fucking Sea Change is near or on top, cunts. Stop getting Beck wrong. I'm talking to you too, Beck.

I agree 100% with all of this.

[sutin]

Other than Nigel Godrich's then-usual 'novelty whooshy noises at the end to try and distract from the lack of dynamics in the rest of the song' production, I do like Sea Change a lot, but yes, I'm always a bit baffled by people who rate his later albums over those early lo-fi ones. Stereopathetic Soul Manure is my favourite thing of his.

I've barely revisited Sea Change since 2002, such was my disappointment at the time of release. Everything that made his music interesting to me was absent from that album. A middle of the road bore that does not deserve an aota of the puzzling critical praise it gets.

[Key]

I've barely revisited Sea Change since 2002, such was my disappointment at the time of release. Everything that made his music interesting to me was absent from that album. A middle of the road bore that does not deserve an aota of the puzzling critical praise it gets.

At the time, I remember sort of thinking, ah what a clever guy. He's ironically affecting this detatched aura to mimic the numb shock of a breakup. But then after the next couple of albums I realised, nope thats just him now, its here to stay. His last couple of albums have been utter gash.

[sutin]

At the time, I remember sort of thinking, ah what a clever guy. He's ironically affecting this detatched aura to mimic the numb shock of a breakup. But then after the next couple of albums I realised, nope thats just him now, its here to stay. His last couple of albums have been utter gash.

Absolutely! What happened to him between 2000 and 2002?! Scientology?

[DrGreggles]

Wasn't he a Scientologist from birth and has now left?

For what it's worth, I don't think he's made a decent album since Midnite Vultures - which, admittedly, was fucking great.