Wire: The Drill
Artist: Wire
Title: The Drill
Acquired: Late 1990s, Best Buy cutout bin
Rating: 2/10
"This collection of recordings represent an exploration of 'DUGGA' - i.e. monophonic monorhythmic repetition."
Some things are best left unexplored. What we have here is not so much an exploration of "monophonic monorhythmic repetition" as it is nine recordings of the same song. Specifically, "Drill," which had originally appeared on Wire's Snakedrill EP some five years earlier. What we also have here is an unfortunate, but fortunately rare, instance of Wire looking back instead of ahead.
Things open promisingly enough, with In Every City?, an imaginative, varied take on Drill good enough to stand on its own merits. It's all downhill from there, and not in the good way. Of the remaining eight tracks, only Do You Drive? (Turn Your Coat) holds any lasting interest for me, thanks mostly to the line "What's your quote? / Do you vote? / Do you turn, or does your coat?," which I find amusing (I should probably point out that the lyrics for Drill and its various decendants consist mostly of a series of questions, left unanswered).
Tracks 2-4 and 9 are vaguely interesting for the first listen or so. Tracks 6-8 are music to fall asleep to, although track 7 could have a future as background music for a commercial in which Sam Neill, resplendent in an expensive, well-tailored suit, looks directly into the camera and talks about the internet or blade servers or something like that. I should be on Madison Avenue.
I was curious to see how the Wire A List voters collectively ranked songs from this disc. Here's how they ranked them:
22 In Every City (track 1)
46 What's Your Desire? (track 2)
49 A Chicago Drill (track 9)
58 A Berlin Drill (track 4)
60 Turn Your Coat (track 5)
62 Arriving/Staying (track 3)
68 Did You Dugga? (track 7)
71 Where are You Now? (track 8)
74 Jumping Mint (track 6)
I would place Turn Your Coat no worse than third, but other than that I think they did a pretty good job. Anyway, if you haven't figured it out already, this is probably Wire's least essential album - buy anything else by them before you buy this. One point for In Every City and one point for everything else combined gives this effort a 2/10.
Title: The Drill
Acquired: Late 1990s, Best Buy cutout bin
Rating: 2/10
"This collection of recordings represent an exploration of 'DUGGA' - i.e. monophonic monorhythmic repetition."
Some things are best left unexplored. What we have here is not so much an exploration of "monophonic monorhythmic repetition" as it is nine recordings of the same song. Specifically, "Drill," which had originally appeared on Wire's Snakedrill EP some five years earlier. What we also have here is an unfortunate, but fortunately rare, instance of Wire looking back instead of ahead.
Things open promisingly enough, with In Every City?, an imaginative, varied take on Drill good enough to stand on its own merits. It's all downhill from there, and not in the good way. Of the remaining eight tracks, only Do You Drive? (Turn Your Coat) holds any lasting interest for me, thanks mostly to the line "What's your quote? / Do you vote? / Do you turn, or does your coat?," which I find amusing (I should probably point out that the lyrics for Drill and its various decendants consist mostly of a series of questions, left unanswered).
Tracks 2-4 and 9 are vaguely interesting for the first listen or so. Tracks 6-8 are music to fall asleep to, although track 7 could have a future as background music for a commercial in which Sam Neill, resplendent in an expensive, well-tailored suit, looks directly into the camera and talks about the internet or blade servers or something like that. I should be on Madison Avenue.
I was curious to see how the Wire A List voters collectively ranked songs from this disc. Here's how they ranked them:
22 In Every City (track 1)
46 What's Your Desire? (track 2)
49 A Chicago Drill (track 9)
58 A Berlin Drill (track 4)
60 Turn Your Coat (track 5)
62 Arriving/Staying (track 3)
68 Did You Dugga? (track 7)
71 Where are You Now? (track 8)
74 Jumping Mint (track 6)
I would place Turn Your Coat no worse than third, but other than that I think they did a pretty good job. Anyway, if you haven't figured it out already, this is probably Wire's least essential album - buy anything else by them before you buy this. One point for In Every City and one point for everything else combined gives this effort a 2/10.
posted by RDConz at 9:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home