Album review: Wire, 'Red Barked Tree'
3 stars (out of 4)
The most cerebral of punk bands, Wire rarely wastes its time on the trivial. When the band has something to say, it regroups and records intensively, then it disappears. Now in the midst of its third major incarnation, this time as a trio, Wire retains its high standards on “Red Barked Tree” (Pink Flag), only its 12th studio album in 34 years. In contrast to the more focused violence on “Send” (2003), Wire’s latest releases -- “Object 47” (2008) and now “Red Barked Tree” -- function more as career overviews of the band’s many stylistic shifts. There’s the relentless attack of “Moreover” and “Two Minutes,” the hymn-like “Adapt,” the spastic “A Flat Tent,” the waltz-time title track, the deceptively serene “Please Take.” In the latter, the caustic collides with the beautiful, as Graham Lewis calmly sings over a dreamily atmospheric bed of guitars, “Please take your knife out of my back and when you do, please don’t twist it.” Wire doesn’t break ground on “Red Barked Tree,” but more than three decades into its career, the band’s deceptively simple songs still exude subversive allure.
greg@gregkot.com