I never did fully 'get' Wire when they first burst onto the music scene in the late 1970s. Maybe the timing was wrong. They were openly mannered and arty when their nearest musical peers (and audiences) were pretending to be solidly working class.
While Punk rockers acted as if 1976 was the new year zero, the members of Wire behaved as if they'd been invited to another party, tagging along to other 3-chord-wonders for a bit of a laugh. The band's cool aloofness from the filth and fury led to them being labelled as too clever by half.
Their inventiveness was bounded by the pop song format but otherwise they made no concessions to commercialism. This was frequently met with equal measures of critical acclaim and public disdain.
With the benefit of hindsight, all this looks and sounds very different. Now it's fairly plain that they were post-punk even before punk's first energy rush had fizzled out.
Their three key albums from 1977 to 1979 are now justifiably revered as classics. These moved from the fractured minimalism of the 21 tracks on Pink Flag to what Simon Reynolds has called the "oppressively textured" 154.
Colin Newman is generally regarded as the member of Wire with the most refined pop sensibility. The band sound was severe and deconstructed but was made slightly more palatable by Newman's understanding that some semblance of melodic structure was needed.
Now, with a muted fanfare, the reassessment of the man can continue via the lavish reissue of three of the four solo albums he first released in consecutive years from 1980. The daunting 95 tracks date from the first split of Wire to their first reunion in 1985.
These three albums on Newman's own label come complete with a whole shindig of remastered originals, bonus tracks, alternative takes, demo versions, B-sides and home recordings. And rest assured that, as he sings on But No from A-Z, "contradictions will arrive at every step and turn".
For example, the affected 'mockney' of his voice on the most raging moments contrasts with the spoken word nerdiness on the 'experimental' tracks that are the most overtly Eno-esque. Throughout, you often have to sift through the gobbledegook lyrics to glean precious moments of irony and lucidity.
As a crude summary of the three double CDs, A-Z is most akin to early Wire, 'Provisionally Entitled The Singing Fish' is Newman's imaginary ambient soundtrack (music for aquariums?) while Not To has a punchy and relatively accessible pop sound.
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A-Z opens on a high with the fierce and fractured brilliance of I've Waited Ages, five minutes worth of blurred guitars and snarling vocals.
The most well-known song on this album is Alone which was deemed haunting enough to feature in the movie of The Silence of the Lambs. A short instrumental piano version on disc 2 helps show why.
On the first CD of 'Provisionally Entitled The Singing Fish' there are a dozen instrumentals (i.e. squelchy and/or creepy rhythms with wordless vocals) each named Fish and numbered from 1 to 12. On the second disc (not necessarily by public demand) we have the dubious privilege of hearing vocal versions of each fish.
Not To's pop songs are fairly conventional and, after getting used to his more challenging forays, a little disappointing. Taken in isolation though these are intelligent, and entertaining tunes which include an improbable cover of The Beatles' Blue Jay Way plus a whopping 21 previously unreleased tracks on the second CD. Only the single We Means We Starts has been aired in public before.
Is It Worth Repeating? is the rhetorical question in the track of this name on the 'singing fish' album. The answer must be a resounding 'yes' and the lavishly expanded formats of each album should counter any accusations that he is selling the same products twice.
Newman's fourth solo album in 1986 is ironically entitled Commercial Suicide; these three reissues, however, stand as indicators of commercially shrewdness as it carries the possibility of winning over new fans while appealing to Wire completists.
Colin Newman's website
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