Taking Sides: Pink Flag vs. Chairs Missing vs. 154

(Also, there are few joys greater than being with a friend who wants advice on what albums to buy and who's never heard Wire, and telling them to get one or the other, depending on their tastes, and then getting a call later that day saying "holy GOSH this is good.")

154 certainly has its pleasures ("On Returning" = heartstopping), but it's also flawed in a way the other two aren't. (Does anybody want to wave the flag for "A Touching Display"?)

Someday I must tell you all the story of how I learned about Pink Flag.

I would have to say Chairs Missing.

154 HAS got the sublime 'Map Ref' ("chorus!") on it, but is overall a bit too gloomy industrial-gothy-prog for me.

Am I alone in finding post-154 Wire almost utterly w/out merit?

After 154, there are some good moments -- "Ahead" being the favorite by a country mile.

Chairs Missing = "HOLY SHIT!" (realized about the time "Mercy" finishes)

154 = "Hmm...interesting..." (thought while stroking chin during the course of entire album, excepting a brief HOLY WOW SHIT during "Map Ref.")

1985-1990: The A-Sides = "Hey, they DIDN'T suck after 154! Nice!"

OK, then. Off to that stupid selling-promo-CDs-at-full-price ass store right about now.

I'm keeping this in mind for the future, you realize.

As to the question at hand: Chairs Missing is my sentimental favourite because I bought it during my first post- punk affair and it had a huge effect. Of the other two, I can't automatically say which I prefer, but I tend pull out 154 a bit more than Pink Flag, probably for the same reasons as Clarke suggests.

Chairs Missing

154

154 for the unstoppable one-two punch of "The 15th" and "Two People in a Room". I'd go with the slight consensus above and put 154 and PF just above CM. All three great though.

154 is unspeakably boring and unintentionally funny in spots (the fussy grammar in "I Should Have Known Better" is worthy of an Evelyn Waugh character). I'll take the C-90 I once made of it, and its two predecessors.

I find I cherry-pick songs from Wire albums all over the place. I dont know if Ive ever played anything but 154 all the way thru more than once. But it is a great album.

Actually, the collection "On Returning (1977-1979)" did a decent job summing up things, about as well as a single-disc could do, at least.

1 1.2.X.U. (1:56)
2 It's So Obvious (0:52)
3 Mr Suit (1:25)
4 Three Girl Rhumba (1:24)
5 Ex-Lion Tamer (2:18)
6 Lowdown (2:27)
7 Straight Line (0:46)
8 106 Beats That (1:13)
9 Strange (3:58)
10 Reuters (3:02)
11 Field Day For The Sundays (0:29)
12 Champs (1:47)
13 Feeling Called Love (1:22)
14 I Am The Fly (3:07)
15 Dot Dash (2:24)
16 Practise Makes Perfect (4:06)
17 French Film Blurred (2:35)
18 Another The Letter (1:08)
19 I Feel Mysterious Today (1:56)
20 Men 2nd (1:42)
21 Marooned (2:20)
22 Sand In My Joints (1:51)
23 Outdoor Miner (2:51)
24 A Question Of Degree (3:11)
25 I Should Have Known Better (3:50)
26 Two People In A Room (2:09)
27 Blessed State (3:28)
28 The Other Window (2:09)
29 40 Versions (3:28)
30 A Touching Display (6:55)
31 On Returning (2:06)

Wait...it's missing The 15th. Worthless collection, obviously. It's also missing Map Ref, but I've always thought that song was a little overrated, myself.

154 - although this thread caused me to put on Chairs Missing just now and... yeah.

Are people into that Send/Read and Burn business? I've never quite been able to get into the groove with those, but perhaps I'm missing out.

Personally/subjectively it's a toss-up between Pink Flag and 154, though Chairs Missing is probably the best album of the three.

THAT DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE

Why not? I like Pink flag and 154 more, but Chairs Missing is the more cohesive, "objectively" better album of the three.

i guess the thing is it's hard to choose between them all so i'm trying to have my cake and eat it too

we might need to take this one to the polls

That "On Returning" is fine. If the listener wants more, there are more jewels to be found. (Mannequin and Map Ref and the 15th and so on)

Missing those 3 songs off On Returning was kind of WTF. I like the live version of 12XU though - basically the only reason I still own the CD, having bought the albums separately since I got it.

a Wire collection without "The 15th" is like a Britney comp without "Toxic."

"154" for me although "Chairs Missing" is great too. "Pink Flag" is the obvious loser here, for me anyway.

I have that other compilation, "The A List", which was based somehow on votes from journalists I think? It also omits "the 15th" (in fact to my shame, I discovered that song by the cover by Fischerspooner pls dont kill me). But it does have "Ahead", "Queen of Ur and the King of Um" and "Serious of Snakes", all of which I love.

That comp is basically all the "Mute" label stuff, so it wouldn't be on there.

The Wire song I keep playing all the time is "Sand In My Joints"! It crept up on me that one! After many years.

the answer is Chairs Missing. Chaki was right all along and we chased him away ;_;

Mother fucking Chairs Missing is the goddamn answer and I still don't have it on my iPod yet. I shall correct this RIGHT NOW.

Chairs Missing is an absolutely brilliant record, as I am discovering thru repeat listens. I need the other two, like, now.

OMG it's so good. "I Am The Fly!"

Also the version of Outdoor Miner with the "pointless" piano interlude is, like, squee etc

anyone?

Pink Flag might be a little too punk for you.

Tom D OTM about Sand In My Joints. Love that one.

I actually think "French Film Blurred" is probably the best track, and one of the best songs of the era that I've heard.

154 is one of my very favourite albums ever - LJ i think you'd prefer it to CM

I've only heard very, very good things.

chairs missing was the first wire album I ever heard and still my favorite of these three.

CM was the first one i got into as well & i think it's the most immediate of the 3 (not as weird as 154 and not as stark & conceptual as PF, altho they all have great hooky songs obv) but omg 154 is just next level shit, so focused & intense & pop all at the same time. it's also hilarious (not unintentionally as suggested upthread - the screaming at the end of Indirect Enquiries is total comedy schlock). and i find it emotional and moving, secretly think it's a break-up album in fact, full of all these attempts to approach the raw fact of an ending relationship from various brainy articulate perspectives with the intensity coming from the fact that they realise they can't think their way out of pain. and i guess it was a break-up album in a way, marking the end of one phase of the band, so it doesn't just have to be about romantic relationships, altho i think a lot of the lyrics hit hard in that context too.

plus so many of the guitar sounds are just siiiiiick.

Still think 154 is difficult in an unrewarding way.

i find it easier to listen to than either of the others! more variation in colour & tone, or something.

and i guess it was a break-up album in a way, marking the end of one phase of the band,

Newman's solo album A-Z was released the year after 154 and originally intended as the fourth Wire album. I believe everybody except Lewis is on it as well, so not really.

Anyway, I 154 is great, with perhaps higher highs than Chairs Missing. It also has a couple of sour moments, so slightly less stellar overall.

yeah, i don't get how 154 is difficult. though it depends on what you are used to, i suppose. i find that whole album so beautiful. and dramatic. it sweeps me up. i think that album acually makes me a better person when i'm listening to it. or at the very least it fools me into thinking that i could be someone very cool someday.

i love A-Z so much too! listening to that is like mainlining some friggin' perfect postpunk bassline heaven. i'm still looking for my soulmate who loves commercial suicide as much as i do. okay, maybe not a soulmate, but it's one of my favorite albums of the 80's and i don't know too many people who love it. or anyone, really. (i even love It Seems, the one that came after commercial suicide.)

yeah, i don't get how 154 is difficult. though it depends on what you are used to, i suppose. i find that whole album so beautiful. and dramatic.

"On Returning" and "The 15th" conjure that feeling -- something so awesomely, impassively cool-as-in-collected and cool-as-in-chic kinda way. Stuff like "A Touching Display" and "Once is Enough" are more histrionic than dramatic. Every time I approach this album, I'm repelled. I try to describe that suspicion here.

I have never been able to appreciate 154 as much as the first two, and Chairs is definitely my fave.

re: the band break-up, point taken. i'm probably reading too much into the account of the fractious 154 sessions in this (pretty interesting) essay by mike thorne that i read a few years ago: http://www.stereosociety.com/154.html

All three are untouchable Godlike works of unbelievable genius.

i'm still looking for my soulmate who loves commercial suicide as much as i do. okay, maybe not a soulmate, but it's one of my favorite albums of the 80's and i don't know too many people who love it. or anyone, really.

Errrrrrrrrr, me.

Yay!

(i even love It Seems, the one that came after commercial suicide.)

All together now...

"An imprrrrrrressive beginning and a move towards China
Implicit and duplicit, particle and meta particle!"

Is it weird that my favorite song on 154 is "A Blessed State"?

No

It would be weird if your favorite was The Other Window, or A Touching Display.

chairs missing
tie for 2nd

that stereosociety link was most informative, gave me new appreciation for how they got some of those sounds

love all three

Off the nut I have to say Chairs Missing but now I have to go back and listen to them all again to really decide.

"French Film Blurred" = my favourite Wire song, usually.

154 beats Pink Flag by just a hair. Their my #23 and #26 favorites of all time. Chairs Missing is #194. Certainly not bad, but I always felt like it was a transitional album.

they're, not their. I'm going senile. And what am I saying, my top 200 of all time is more than not bad, they're all awesome. Ever have a beer when you're almost over a cold and feel like crap again?

1) pink flag
2) 154
3) chairs missing

I love pink flag cuz it plays like a compilation. there are so many moves on it that bunches of punk/indie/pop bands would pull over the next decade, except wire probably did them better and what's more all at once in '77.

my favorite song on 154 *is* "a touching display". I guess that makes me weird? that guitar at the end! it eats the universe.

honestly I have a hard time listening to chairs missing all the way through. I get bored and turn it off.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uB-0D-gV8mY/RuNU0oyRNUI/AAAAAAAADys/XbIiRjGbwrE/s400/Wire-Chairs_Missing_%2528album_cover%2529.jpeg

I'm getting that new deluxe Chairs Missing w book (not bookLET) etc in mail today. Can't wait to see/hear it. PF should be here tomorrow. And next payday i will order 154. I love them all really but 154 contains the only dud out of all three afaiac and that is I Should've Known Better. Whew! That thing sounds so off putting (the awful speaking parts) and it starts the fucking record, it put me off 154 for literally years. A Touching Display is awesome however. Also got the cd/dvd of Wire On The Box which is also amazing and highly recommended to fans.

Took me years to accept Lewis' vocals.

Yeah, he can sound very pretentious. Hi, Alfred!

hi!

And yes I like queer too. And i used to like beer but i haven't drank in years.

"I Should Have Known Better" is great, the real dud is "Once Is Enough".

"Ambitious" recorded years later has a laughable part too

ARE YOU HOT
ARE YOU HOT
ARE YOU HOT
ARE YOU HOT
ARE YOU HOT
I FEEEEL AAAAABITTIOUUSSSSSS

my last post is gonna look awfully funny when yr screen name changes. Lol!!

Lol alfred that does sound funny. Don't know that one at all.

On the On The Box dvd the version of Once Is Enough smokes!

I Should've Known Better wouldn't smoke if it was on fire!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKWynGorQto

I Should've Known Better is fantastic. You pepole are insane. The turkey of all turkeys is The Other Window.

154 contains the only dud out of all three afaiac and that is I Should've Known Better

this is probably the wrongest thing posted to ILX in 2018

but hey, opinions!

at least we agree Graham Lewis' doomy doggerel and funeral camp were duds!

I don't! Go and listen to 23 Years Too Late until you recant

Unless I'm wrong, Lewis sings Sand In My Joints which has always been among my very favorite Wire songs.

I like it too.

I should point out, for fairness' sake, that Lewis was for many years the hottie in the band.

chairs, missing

A-Z won, 'f I've four.