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Wire
Jam-packed with catchy late-modernist gems, bristling with cloudy electric tension, Chairs Missing is Wire's masterpiece. In the few months since Pink Flag the songs slowed down, stretched out, and held their breath longer before betraying to the punch lines. The sonic differences include the addition of ambient synths and a larger textural vocabulary of guitar sounds. These Sci-Fi pocket epics gradually unfold upon themselves as the jagged edges penetrate the rounded haze of the smoke-filled distopia. Psychosocial, psychedelic, psychotic, and perhaps even psychotropic if taken in heavy doses. All within three minute pop songs (hey - that’s three times the length of Pink Flag’s). I love the twenty short spastic gems on Pink Flag and the scattered dark ethereal electronic grandiosity of 154 – but this middle album of the holy trinity is the best conceived, most original, and most powerful. But then again I’m a sucker for a transitional record. Of course I'm not alone in my assessment. Chairs Missing gradually became an undisputed classic - taking on a life of its own in a number of different realms during Wire's long hiatus. "Outdoor Miner" has been a college radio staple for years and, beginning around the turn of the century, I began hearing "I Am the Fly" with increasing frequency in clubs. And I'm sure you don't want to get me started on how many bands have covered these songs. “Practice Makes Perfect” is one of the most intense LP intros there is - building on itself as 19th Century stage star Sarah Bernhardt is waiting for us. “French Film Blurred,” “Marooned,” “Mercy” (which was the intro to side two in the old days), and “I Feel Mysterious Today,” with their ambient keys and tense development, contain just enough early Pink Floyd elements to make Wire finally worthy of inclusion on Harvest Records. “Another Letter” and “Used To” are testament to the fact that they recorded this with Kraftwerk’s pictures on the wall and anticipate the next phase of their work as much as “Men 2nd,” “Sand in My Joints,” “From the Nursery” and “Too Late” sound like leftovers from the previous phase (which really ended where this album begins). “Being Sucked in Again” combines the late-period synth base with early-period guitar in the same fashion that “I Am the Fly” adds the signature Chairs Missing post-Floyd guitar to the synths. “Heartbeat,” with its two dimensional bubblegum repetition, could be a Suicide song but also anticipates stuff a decade down the line - like Jesus and the Mary Chain and Spaceman 3. “Outdoor Miner” is pure straightforward jangly Byrdsy guitar pop for the dawn of the post-punk era. While not approaching the brilliance of the rest, the three bonus tracks are still excellent. The fine single “Question of Degree,” the abstract loopfest B-side “Former Airline,” and the electronic 154 song “Go Ahead.” Everything from “Practice Makes Perfect” to “Too Late” is flawless not only alone but also as a unit – which is interesting for me because, before now, I’ve only listened to it split in half on vinyl. While I don't know if the remastering, original reordering, and bonus tracks warrant buying Chairs Missing all over again, I wholeheartedly recommend it to those who don't already have it and, for the rest of you, I prescribe giving it another spin.
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