by Will Sisskind (@theparisbuns)
Several opening salvos to albums have stuck in the minds of listeners throughout the years. I can name a few that come to me with ease: Billy Joel’s intro riff to The Stranger; the synth swell into U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name”; Jeff Rosenstock’s “U.S.A.” on his 2019 banger POST-. Wire’s 1977 track “Reuters” also makes for a fond memory; as one of the first punk records I ever heard in my teen years, the opening song to Pink Flag blew my mind and opened it up to a world of tunes I’d never before thought to give the time of day.
With great joy, I would hope that new fans of Wire picking up their latest album Mind Hive will have the same incredulous reaction. While the disc comes 43 years after the band’s debut, the first track “Be Like Them” begins with a chugging ostinato of clunking synths and crunching guitars before plunging into a dark headbanger of a song featuring Colin Newman’s punky and haunting vocals, which sound no different -- if not more polished and matured -- than they did back in the Seventies.
Mind Hive continues to ride a wave of fantastic sonic decisions that Wire have made since their essential reformation back in 2003, when the release of Send put the group back on the maps of critics and listeners worldwide. 2017’s Silver/Lead saw outpourings of adoration, especially for the pop-tinged “Short Elevated Period” and atmospheric songs like “Sleep on the Wing”. It almost sounded like Wire had tapped into the qualities of their music which had made their earlier releases timeless. Mind Hive digs even deeper into those characteristics; you could have said that a New Wave-forward track like “Cactused” was released in 1978, and I would have believed you if I didn’t know better.
The other notable elements of Wire’s work appear on Mind Hive as well. Post-punk and techno join forces on the track “Oklahoma,” which speaks of dread and death, but could also come from the point of view of Jud from the musical of the same name. Ghostly depths open up on “Unrepentant” and “Shadows,” the former having subtle post-country notes and the latter taking a bit of a turn toward the grave. “Hung” has a touch of the band’s noise-rock era, serenading with doom metal riffs and electronic squeaks and hisses through its almost eight minutes of length. “Humming” closes out the record with a pensive meditation from Newman; an epilogue which is neither a band nor a whimper, but a transition to something unknown.
Wire spent much of the last decade reclaiming the glory which they had captured in the awakening days of post-punk. Mind Hive continues that journey for the band, but it does make me wonder what lies ahead for the group. Is Mind Hive a continuation of Wire’s current chapter in music history, or the beginning of another one? After more than forty years in the game, showing no signs of slowing down, another few years and another album may tell us what we need to know.