Wire – Red Barked Tree

Having begun their career in 1977 with arguably the definitive post-punk record, Pink Flag, Wire have sought to reimagine rock’s parameters with each subsequent release. In recent years, 2003’s Send stands out as proof of their continuing potency and relevance, a blistering assault on the blandness of contemporary rock characterised by interlocking layers of shimmering metallic riffs.

By contrast, Red Barked Tree opens cautiously, with the understated Please Take; a track which invokes the dreamy phased guitar style of early classics like Outdoor Miner, without ever really reaching their heights. Indeed, things don’t fully kick off until track four, the self-explanatory Two Minutes, which conjures some of the hypnotic intensity of the band’s best work. Although they don’t really break any new ground here, Red Barked Tree features enough to demonstrate that, even at cruising speed, Wire are more compelling than most of their followers. [Sam Wiseman]