Bands described as ‘influential’ usually aren’t living the life of luxury, so the release of a set of old demos – previously only available as a bootleg – may make a little extra cash for Wire.
Cited as influential by Blur, The Cure and Johnny Marr, covered by REM and plagiarised by Elastica, the art rockers show their punk roots in 18 tracks timed in seconds rather than minutes.
More refined takes on some songs would appear on the band’s second and third albums, others are released officially for the first time. Hitman tale ‘French Film (Blurred) is far from its sinister incarnation on sophomore album ‘Chairs Missing’ while ‘154’s ‘The Other Window’ somehow rips song at double speed but is still done in around two minutes.
Most welcome are ‘lost’ tracks like Love Ain’t Polite’ and ‘It’s The Motive’, clear as a bell and free from punkisht distortion while the title track aka ‘Stepping Off Too Quick’ in under 90 seconds shows how the band melded art with punk and what their acolytes saw in them.
This article originally appeared in the Portsmouth News.