Casual observers are no longer forgiven for making the common mistake that Wire’s legacy extends a mere three albums long. Despite the British post-punk group’s remarkable opening gambit—the groundbreaking work in 1977’s raucous Pink Flag, 1978’s relatively relaxed Chairs Missing, and 1979’s outright numb 154—Wire went on to expand upon those breakthroughs with a very worthy second act in the late ’80s and a third excellent phase that we’re now in the middle of. The Londoners’ brand-new one, Silver/Lead finds the group riding the electric currents that fueled their youthful endeavors, cracked open by the wisdom of age and the hollow, outraged despair that we still haven’t figured how to fix this mess of a planet yet.

NED LANNAMANN