Wire – “The Ideal Copy” (1987)

Once upon a time there was no Internet, at least not among the common man and in the shape it has today. It was in the second half of the 80's and I was in my mid-teens. I heard a really good song on the radio and as usual at that time you had to listen carefully when the song was coming to its end if you wanted to know who performed it. If you missed this golden moment you were done for, then you'd better hope that soon you would hear the song again and then manage to get the artist’s name. As a consequence of this, some songs had an almost mythical status, at least in my life. Songs that you’d heard only once, which were fantastic but you had no idea who performed them and therefore had no chance of getting. But that’s another story, in this case, I got the name of the band - Wire, a totally unknown band to me, but one that I decided to investigate further.

I visited the legendary music store Musikörat (the Musical ear) ear in Uppsala, Sweden, and asked to listen to The Ideal Copy. I soon realized it was the second track Ahead I had heard on the radio, a nice kick-ass song with a lot of energy on a record that was quite different from most other records I owned. Although there was not total love at first sight, I bought the album.

Wire was founded in 1976 in London and released their first album the following year. Initially, the band is considered to have belonged to the punk scene, but they developed their sound constantly, and on their second and third album, they had moved quite far away from the classic punk sound. Some call what they did in the 70s for art-punk, others believe that they can not be categorized. 1980-85 the band took a break and The Ideal Copy was their first full length album after this break (and thus their fourth LP). And as before, the band had developed a new sound.

Wires history was something I knew nothing about and was blissfully unaware of until much later in my life (thanks to the birth of Internet). As mentioned, it was not unconditional love at first sight, and it never was. Sure, it held a relatively strong attraction to me and I found quite a lot of joy in the album, but the great passion never appeared. There was always something in the music that made me a bit ambivalent towards it. I think it had something to do with the relatively dark sound of the record and the singer's voice, which for some reason raises a neurotic feeling inside me. I never got curious about Wire's earlier creations and let the band remain an unknown entity in my record collection. However, this album was played extensively during my teenage years although it has become increasingly less played as more years have passed by.

The feelings from my teenage years have persisted. There is still something in the sound and vocals that makes me a bit uncomfortable, although many tracks are quite enjoyable. I still like the earlier mentioned Ahead, Feed Me and Ambitious are other highlights. Side A has always been my favorite and I think the B-side, apart from the opening song, always have been relatively boring.

A difference today is that a curiosity has been awoken concerning Wire's earlier works. That I now know more about them is problably a factor in this. Thanks to the internet it’s now very easy to explore new music and at the top of my list are Wire's second and third album. It can be mentioned that Wire has released its twelfth album this year (2011).

Finally, it must also be mentioned that The Ideal Copy was the first album also released on the then new format DAT, so if not for anything else, it should go down in history for that. After listening through The Ideal Copy for the first time in many years before this post, I think it will get more playing time from now on.

Favorite Songs

Ahead

Feed Me

Ambitious

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. The Point Of Collapse 3:18
2. Ahead 4:52
3. Madman's Honey 4:23
4. Feed Me 5:50

Side B

1. Ambitious 4:00
2. Cheeking Tongues 2:02
3. Still Shows 4:00
4. Over Theirs 5:18