Wire first split up in 1980, after they’d recorded three miraculously inventive albums and a stack of 7-inches. Of course, the English band never really “broke up”; its members kept collaborating on various projects, and the Wire name has been resurrected several times over the years. Currently, Wire is an active, ongoing concern—they’ve released seven albums since 2003—and thank heaven for that.
But it’s hard to overstate the sheer artistic magnitude of Wire’s initial run. Born in the thick of the British punk scene in 1976, the band metabolized the genre almost immediately, then began to kick against its limitations in profound ways. Their first three albums—1977’s Pink Flag, 1978’s Chairs Missing, and 1979’s 154—are vital documents of punk’s evolution into post-punk, made clear by the new, superbly pressed vinyl reissues on the band’s own Pinkflag label. With original copies commanding high prices, this marks the first time these indelible recordings have been presented properly in the vinyl format since the ’80s. (Let us refuse to acknowledge the 2006 reissues on the dodgy 4 Men with Beards imprint, a label notorious for substandard master sources, crappy artwork reproduction, and bad, crackly pressings.)