Wire – The Ideal Copy

Yep I thought AHEAD was New Order when I heard it on KROQ when it came out. They made an appearance on EARDRUM BUZZ video along with BJORK and others. I had zero idea about how Wire was worshipped by post-punks in their previous incantation. I was only 17(?) when this came out. I owned this and the next but really didn't continue after that. I truly believe those diehard older fans can't stand the band as it evolved. Never listened to the older stuff. Only heard OUTDOOR MINER and I AM THE FLY much much later. This and A BELL IS A CUP are awesome though.

I've always played the second side first, as this opens with the one-two punch of "Ambitious" and "Cheeking Tongues" before a most pleasing progression of introspective Newman songs. This is a supremely wonderful album. And I was lucky enough to see Wire on this tour. Famously opening act The Ex-Lion Tamers played Pink Flag note for note, including a longer gap between the album sides! Gotobed had exactly three drums: kick, snare, hat. The Ideal Copy is a supreme achievement.

For a band so prone to shifting through the sonic landscape, this album stands out as the one where their experimentation seemed to profit the most. It hits the sweet spot, landing neatly between post-punk and new wave. There are moments so catchy that even the most stoic of human beings can't help but bob their stubborn heads (Ahead), and yet there are also moments so sublime that they almost feel like a dream (Man's Honey). As a teenager, this album was a musical awakening to me. It presented sonic possibilities that I'd never encountered before. It was everything I'd loved about music in one package.

Their most underrated album, no doubt, this and Pink Flag are their very best and shows such astonishing progression, adaptation and slight mutation - truly magnificent !

So underated and absolutely brilliant. From experimental to commercial and everything in between to offer on this album. I just think it's a classic in all senses of that word. Go out and get it if you want to see how versatile this group can be.

A fuckin Masterpiece album wich enriches all the electronic sounds from the eighties, recorded and produced superbly by the wonderful Gareth Jones in the mythic Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin.
The Ideal copy is a perfect picture of that time, and a photo of the time of the band at the point they were ready for a new strong second coming with better loaded spirits after Indian Meditations and Swedish astractions.Thie music is magically in inversed in time like the group:
this was normal and old in the 1987 and totally new and actual in 2010.

A milestone full of tracks where the minimun i can say is that they are epic: the opening Point of Collapse, the astonishing Feed Me thaty give you the creeps, only to mention two of the eight track bunch.
All the tracks are perfect and well balanced with a distinctive weight and progressive effects layers.

This is perfect for warming when you get up from bed in the morning at 8 o'clock or later or for a start in the early evening.
On the first listening you will be surprised how works after the woke up!

Why?

"skinnig the rabbit, dressing the skin, selecting an ear, tearing about, tearing about...."

Wire.