Judging A Cover By It’s Cover: Wire “Pink Flag”

June 4, 2008 by John Foster  Send to a Friend

John Foster takes music packaging very seriously. He has deconstructed the design of the recording industry through his personal work and his books, Maximum Page Design (HOW), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport) and the upcoming For Sale: Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design (HOW) as well as a monograph of Sub Pop’s Art Director, Jeff Kleinsmith, slated for publication by the label in 2008.

He will be poking and prodding various albums on a weekly basis so please be sure to keep an eye out!

This week’s victims:

Wire “Pink Flag”

Is it worth listening to no matter what it looks like? With the release of a new Wire single and having watched Mike Thorne be a good sport having Roddy Frantz describe his living room in detail from the stage of the 930 Club during the Urban Verbs show it seemed like the perfect time to dive back into Wire version 1.0. In Thorne’s honor I likely should have tackled “154″ but I truthfully have a nearly impossible time separating the first three records (although they are all very distinct from one another sonically) and I just went the easy route straight to the initial introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing a punk (and all-time music) classic: “Pink Flag.”

Thorne was instrumental in having EMI sign Wire as their A&R man and would sit behind the boards and essentially become a fifth member in recording the band’s initial output. Wire were already an amazing mass of creativity and far removed from the current crop of punks with their arty outlook and challenging mode of thinking. They certainly would have made bracing records on their own but the steady hand and sympathetic ear of Thorne made for some important decisions that keep “Pink Flag” as exciting to listen to today as it was in 1977. Recording the band live so as to retain the rough edge of the playing and the nervous singing of Colin Newman, the music sounds fresh and almost as if it is coming together before your eyes/ears. He would then isolate pieces and work with them in that capacity. The key result is Newman’s vocals retaining a live feel, careening about and showcasing his brilliance with singing around a melody, while not being buried deep in the mix as so many punk records would have done.

The band and producer were still finding their way instrumentally (the leap on the “Chairs Missing” LP that followed soon after was staggering in it’s new found complexity - only to be surpassed again by “154.”) The buzzing guitars are not quite here yet but Bruce Gilbert’s and Newman’s thrashing and chopping at their strings finds itself high in the mix above Graham Lewis’ pub rock basslines (Lewis would soon completely reshape the instrument’s role in their music) and Robert Gotobed’s simple, yet effective drum work. Thorne’s use of eerie flute and found sounds fly in and out, especially showcased on “Strange” and setting the stage for a much larger presence moving forward.

The record has it’s share of sub two minute bursts - most notably the iconic “1 2 X U” and the shout-a-long “Mr. Suit” as well as dirge-like passages like the opening “Reuters” and appropriately named “Lowdown.” What really sets the record into a level few could ever reach though is the pop smarts. The band wrote incredible hooks without taking obvious routes to them. The album is chock full of songs that would be magic no matter the era they were played in. Wire may have been lyrically obtuse but musically they hit you right across the jaw with riffs and leave you wanting more. “Three Girl Rhumba” to “Ex Lion Tamer” to “It’s So Obvious” to “Fragile” to “Mannequin” to “Champs” all make the case for the group as an incredible pop band that just want to fuck with you by presenting it from snotty art school kids. It’s typical Wire that none of these more immediate songs opens either side of the record as would have been the norm for the day (and commercially a much better idea.) In fact they turn this practice on it’s side with an instrumental (a punk first?) track titled “The Commercial” starting side two. The beginnings of an amazing recording career that continues today is right here and through the twists and turns over the years the band has managed to remain as relevant and challenging today as they were then.

Incredible.

Essential.

Credit: “Sleeve Concept B.C. Gilbert and Lewis, Cover Photograph by Annette Green”

Any signs of creative interference in the design process by the artist? Yes. The concept is from two members of the band.

Does the look fit the sound? In it’s own special way it does. Annette Green’s photo was of a flagpole sans flag on a parade ground the group had passed on the way to a show. There was something about the way it sat on the slightly curved ground that appealed to the eye. A glob of paint later the “pink” flag was set sail. The oddly engaging quality of the cover goes against all senses when you encounter the roughhewn music inside, yet as you listen and discover the clarity of focus and intentions it all begins to come together. My favorite part of the entire package has always been the inclusion of the black photo frame breaking up the clean simple lines formed by the pole running at a 90 degree angle to the ground. It is oddly positioned far too close to the edge, yet seems to be slowly encroaching on the lonely pink burst in the middle. The thick typography stands to declare the band’s name yet is tucked away far in the upper left corner so as not to disturb the image. This dichotomy would be reflected in the pop hooks buried behind the punky swell of the guitars and the band’s penchant for experimentation that would soon flourish.

It is simple and direct but not at all what you expected.

The back panel reveals a bit of the sharp humor the band hid just below the surface. A rudimentary layout has engaging black and white photographs of each member, with Newman singing with his hands jammed into his jacket pockets, Gotobed stretched out all limbspan, Gilbert spacey and reflective and Lewis dark and powerful. This is countered by being credited not just with instrumentation, but also with weight or height, or eye or hair color.

As a photographer, Green would chronicle the band visually and serve as the eyes for Gilbert and Lewis’s conceptual covers through the first three albums. She would even compose all 43 seconds of “Different to Me” on “Pink Flag.”

Final score (out of 10): 7.5 design 10.0 for the music

 Send to a Friend