So, doesn’t seem that long since Wire last released an album? Well, it wasn’t: it was Wire, which came out only last year. This mini-album, which was recorded at the same time as that album at the famed Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, very much stands on its own terms, rather than being cobbled together.
From the minute the album opens with the title track, it’s unmistakeably Wire, without sounding like they are repeating themselves. No mean feat for any band, especially one who have been around for forty years.
It chronicles a night that the band spent in a seedy hotel in Boston on their 2013 US tour. Clocking in at less than 30 minutes – not that Wire were ever prone to going on anyway – it hangs together almost seamlessly – and reveals more with every successive listen.
What is also very much worth noting is that songs like the title track and ‘Internal Exile’ keep up the high quality of Wire, and hold their own against the likes of their older back catalogue. They’ve continued on their own individual path for forty years – long may they continue to do so.