Well, sort of fun. This here is the third album by Wire, 154:

I say sort of because, while it’s hypnotic and compelling and occasionally darkly humorous, it’s got a bit of emotional weight to it. 154 is an album about people and relationships, of which it takes a generally skeptical view. What I like most about it is the variety–the approach ranges from the opaque (“The 15th”) to completely specific (“The Other Window”), perspectives differ on each song, and the realizations hit home to me more than any of their other albums. A lot of the punks and post-punks were known to have gone to art school, but not many of them were genuine artists who worked on all these different levels. Plus, not for nothing, there are hooks, and “Map Ref.” is actually just a great pop song. You’ll remember it.

I do respect the hell out of these guys, because they could have gone in so many different directions but didn’t. They could have made a legitimate go of things as a pop act, they showed a number of times they had the chops for it (generally 1 song per album could have been a big radio hit if they’d wanted it to be). After all, that is basically what U2 did, going from post-punk to pop, and look at them now. But Wire didn’t do it. Could have, but didn’t. They didn’t play requests at concerts, they didn’t even play anything old. They didn’t want to be one of those alternative institutions, a la Fugazi, who had this loyal following that sustained them. They didn’t care, and didn’t try to exploit or even maintain such a following.  They basically decided not to have a career, taking years to release new material, and doing everything in their power to keep the focus on what they were doing. Now that’s uncompromising.