Wire – Nine Sevens (2xLP)

Combining the run of early singles with more obscure later period tracks underlines the strength and depth that Wire had. This is pop art as art/pop and an exploration of the blank canvas of pop culture and how far that canvas can be stretched, going from three minute constructs to ambient washes. The 7” single was always the ultimate artefact and statement, with the A side being the band momentarily paused in time and distilled and freeze-framed into the forever with less than three minutes of electric sound.

Perhaps the greatest pop band that you may never have heard of, Wire understood this implicitly. They somehow found the sweetest of spots between the post-punk’s short sharp shock shapeshifting, art prog’s defiant experimental and a disciplined pop touch that pushed the parameters of what a song could be.

These “sevens” released from 1977 to the end of that decade signpost the band's remarkable development from their brilliantly monochromatic early phase to the textured complexity of the almost psychedelic unzipping of their sound and vision.

In some ways the compilation of Nine Sevens onto a double album makes for quite a weird documentation of the band in this period. The first disc, to some extent, follows the script of a singles / greatest hits collection but the second one goes wildly off-piste and ends up somewhere quite far from where the collection started.

A conventional Greatest Hits collection, besides being conceptually a bit naff would, if strictly based on charting singles, consist of only one song! A Best Of is subjective and somewhat pointless in the age of the Spotify playlist that anyone can make. The only thing really that these tracks have in common (besides being by Wire) is that they were released or destined to be released on 7” by Wire in the period 1977-1980. Nine Sevens is both title & elevator pitch!

Wire always understood the language of pop and also the artfulness of playing with it, deconstructing it and reassembling it into new and thrilling shapes. Decades later, these adventures into sound are like slices of delicious, perfect pop/noise and hits from a parallel universe.

* Previously released as 7" box set reissuing original singles. This Record Store Day 2025 2 x LP release is the first time for most tracks on LP and includes a 1980 track previously unreleased on vinyl.