Read & Burn 03 is the first Wire release featuring entirely new material since 2003's Send. Along with the re-launch of Wire's official website, www.pinkflag.com, this 26-minute mini-album signals the stage-by-stage re... more »-activation of the legendary and influential band as a recording and live entity.
Read & Burn is the R&D series representing the state of Wire's art right now. Wire continues to evolve and offers here the fresh fruits of its latest development. It should be noted that tracks from Read & Burn 03 will not be included on the next album to follow in the later half of 2008.« less
Read & Burn 03 is the first Wire release featuring entirely new material since 2003's Send. Along with the re-launch of Wire's official website, www.pinkflag.com, this 26-minute mini-album signals the stage-by-stage re-activation of the legendary and influential band as a recording and live entity.
Read & Burn is the R&D series representing the state of Wire's art right now. Wire continues to evolve and offers here the fresh fruits of its latest development. It should be noted that tracks from Read & Burn 03 will not be included on the next album to follow in the later half of 2008.
CD Reviews
Evolution
Charles A. Miller | Baltimore, Maryland U.S.A. | 11/27/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As has already been pointed out in reviews of this EP (and by my own review of the last Wire album, Send), the first two Read & Burn EPs, as well as the full-length album, Send, were an extension of Pink Flag. Wire delivered stripped-down and very short tunes, first so successfully achieved on Pink Flag, and took it to new heights with a new "maturity" via the release of the CDs from the early 2000s.
Now comes Read & Burn 03. The big difference here compared to what has gone before is guitarist, Bruce Gilbert, is no longer a member of Wire. Perhaps as they did for their release The First Letter (which did not feature drummer, Robert Grey), the name should have been Wir to indicate the missing band member. This is an excellent CD however, even though it sounds more like a Colin Newman and Edvard Graham Lewis collaboration than true "Wire" material.
The high-point is the first track, 23 Years Too Late, clocking in at nearly 10 minutes. The remaining three tracks are exceptional too and this short EP will find itself in your player quite often."
Experimental pop
P. Guest | Venice, California | 01/12/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"If you have 01 and 02 then you just have to get 03, even if just to appreciate the color permutations of those lovely minimal graphics!
Anything by Wire is worthy of attention, and this is what they are doing now. Wire were seminal in the 70's and the 80's - both eras currently being heavily plundered in derivative ways. Wire's lack of popular status is possibly due to their restlessness. They always move on just when others are catching them up. In spite of their pedigree for them the past seems more properly consigned to its place than with many contemporary acts.
03, of course is completely different from its predecessors. If 01's bludgeoning noise was a reboot of the initial punk thrash and 02's buzzing intensity (my favorite!) of the post punk with electronica, 03 is supposedly an update of the mellower "beat combo" 80's. Which, while valid, is kind of misleading 'cause the whole point is that this stuff doesn't sound old, it sounds new!
This e.p. has four quite distinct tracks (less than the previous installments but longer). Different people seem to like different ones. Personally I like the first two. The first track is nearly ten minutes long. It has a great bass line (more than just one note this time around!), nice sparse textures, spoken lyrics that could be cringe-worthy but which manage to become highly amusing in their obtuse wit and delivery, and an absurd chorus which compresses the meandering travelogue into a manic pogo. I love the time song; it has a great groove, an amusing conceit, lots of lovely layers of processed noise and one of those drop-ins that really works!
After that it all gets a bit Githead but without the lightness. I love Githead (especially the yellow one!) but the fourth track of this set just seems a bit too ponderous for me. Others think this is the outstanding track, so horses for courses I suppose.
In a way though it doesn't matter with Wire whether or not a particular track falls within your personal "like" zone. Here's a band that acknowledge and seem to be actively reflecting on their work in the past while determinedly pushing into new forms. Successful or not (and I think they mostly are, although this e.p. is more like a set of experiments than a single coherent statement) Wire deserve the attention of anyone interested in the past, present or future of experimental pop."
Easy to Play on Repeat
Joren A. Lindholm | Washington DC | 01/09/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Wire's endurance I would say is, by now, a legend of legends... It's really nice to spend life's decades with one of my fav's in this way. I own and love LPs and CDs of Wire and their members from each and every phase they've had. It's amply evident to say they have the wisdom of deliberately leaving the future open, knowing that the present moment - once seized - is as good as gone. The commercial nature of the music business in itself does not jive with this, and Wire have been leading what apparently has been revolutionary in these times: mature bands taking the opportunity to reform, go on hiatus and 'stitch time'.
After reading about it, I had imagined Read and Burn 03 with abstract compositions in the vein of Gilbert, Lewis releases - as a possible twist for the band. I found out this week that instead of doing something 'more arty' sounding, they just did 'Wire' 'again'; and the band is at a place where (A) they have consciously undergone a sort of retro self-distillation in terms of sound, and (B) their lyrics are very very very very good, channeling their views and ethics better than ever. Also, they have thoroughly honed their official website, which is demonstrative of their incremental control around Wire's cumulative business dealings.
23 Years Too Late sounds like late 70's period (including a background ring reminiscent of Dot Dash); however the drums sound the way they did on Send. It has the classic Lewis/Newman alternating between verse/chorus and typically clever, very funny text read by Lewis - which reminds me also of the style they had for Wir's The First Letter. The whole sound image for Our Time sounds like it could be from Send. It's about time experience and the wasting of time. Both No Warning Given and Desert Diving sound like a summation of what I love about the 80's period, yet also a lot like 154 and Colin Newman circa 1980/82. All the singing is by Newman and they have guitar grind and pop hooks similar to It's A Boy or Blessed State. I am highlighting the reminiscent sound here, yet I believe it to be one of their intentions - as they have a rare, innocent talent for it. If you like Wire, don't miss this staggering release - it will educate you!"
Orwellian, 23 Years Too Late
Stargrazer | deep in the heart of Michigan | 12/27/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Beginning with the nearly 10-minute sleeper track "23 Years Too Late," Wire's prelude EP to whatever full-length will arrive in 2008 poses a number of conundrums, not only via tantalizing hints of what-will-be but by burrowing deeply into my ear with positively Orwellian pop songs, whose cool sheen and measured pace belies subversive sentiments barely restrained beneath. While 2003's near-industrial "Send" was (inaccurately) hyped by the press as a return to "Pink Flag"-era energy and ethos, "Read and Burn 03" suggests a more nuanced and challenging record is in the works for 2008. Restrained by comparison to "Send," this EP of all the recordings of late '07 leaves me with the most heightened sense of electrified anticipation for what is to come next year."
An Awesome EP that stands on its own
Said Head | MN, USA | 10/17/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"After having reviewed Object 47, the other R&B's and Send, I feel I should give my ideas on this piece as well. In a way, this short album is less a transition period from Send and Object 47: There's a long period between Send and RB3, so it isn't as though Wire released this to finish off any ideas they still had from RB1-2/Send; also, the tracks on this EP were recorded during the same time of working on Object 47, so it isn't really an introduction to the O47 material, but stands out as its own piece.
The music, as well, is much different from Send: much less aggressive in musical the lyrical content (most of which I find represents time), but it does use the same electronic style presented on that album. RB3 does have some hard hitting moments, but more refined and composed.
It also doesn't resemble O47 much either; I personally think that album sounds more like a Githead album than Wire, not that it's a bad thing really, but Githead just doesn't hit as strong or intelligently as Wire (the O47 tracks to which I'm referring: 'Circumspect', 'Four Long Years', 'Patient Flees', especially). This EP is the last release with B Gilbert in the band, who's always been a major artistic force behind Wire, and the lack of his input in O47 really shows.
23 Years Too Late is an awesome, lengthy, and intelligent track that sums up the rest of the tracks. It's airy verses function well with the narration provided by Graham Lewis's deep and heavy voice. The chorus, which is repeated many a time, uses Send-stylized guitars and percussion with Wire's trademark vocalist, Colin Newman. In my opinion this track is not any short than it should be, and the production qualities are very attentive to every detail, easily one of my all-time favorites.
'Our Time' is another great, somewhat airy, often muscular piece that couldn't be any better.
'No Warning Given' is to me the weakest track in the EP; it's too long, and drags on for a minute longer than it should, and just doesn't hit that airy/muscular contrast that the previous tracks do.
'Desert Diving', a semi-acoustic, down-tempo tracks, sounds the most diverse of all tracks, yet closes the EP perfectly. Like the other tracks, the chorus comes in full force, but it doesn't overdo it by removing the calming nature of the verses.
Since none of these tracks appear on O47, this is a definite necessity for Wire fans, especially for those disappointed in their latest material. It's so strange to compare the perfection of style of RB3 with O47, but hopefully RB4 will be a whole new phase."
Track Listings (4) - Disc #1