Album Review: Wire – Mind Hive

Wire are by all accounts the original “Post-Punk bands” a category that seems to give the impression that your not Punk but your not quite anything else.  Putting Wire in a genre box is probably not an easy thing to do, personally Punk is a very very wide Genre and all you need to do is play your! Music and push the boundaries, hence Wire fit into this very perfectly.

So this brings us perfectly on to the newest of release Mind Hive believe it or not this is the 17th studio album although the last release was back in 2017 with Silver/lead a clear move forward from previous albums, but never to look back Mind Hive keeps the forward momentum going as always is the case with a band that only looks back as a way of learning.

Kicking off the album with Be Like Them a menacing sounding rhythmic composition filled with rabid dogs and hungry cats, the mood feels down but somehow lifts you along and pushes you all the way to the end.

Probably the catchiest song comes in straight after in the form of Cactused with its very bass led chorus and its sense of life given by the enthused vocals, the melody hooks you and the wonderful pauses have you somehow anticipating the end and then feeling happy that it isn’t.

Every song has its own definite sound and your not dragged from track to track thinking that you maybe heard the same thing 2 tracks ago, this is very refreshing. Possibly the only moment that you get a sense of history or should it be said a nod to the past comes in the form of the synth sequence pulsing away underneath Primed And Ready do you hear Visage there or don’t you? Let’s leave this up to you.

If there was to be any kind of criticism and this would only be by the kind of listener who has a profound dislike of prog or self absorbed music is that toward the end of the album you can easily find your wondering if maybe Pink Floyd or the like have walked into the room, but absolutely not in the same vein as that, the track Hung being 7 mins 54 secs long does seem long, but has its feet firmly on the ground and never looses sight of reality, well not totally at least.

If your’e a lover of modern music that always moves on then Wire have only gone and done it again….  John Peel would be so proud!

Pre- Order the album HERE

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