Released December 1977 Length 35:37 Artist Wire Label Harvest Records | Recorded September–October 1977 Pink Flag
(1977) Chairs Missing
(1978) Release date December 1977 Producer Mike Thorne | |
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Studio Advision Studios, London, England, UK Genres Punk rock, Post-punk, Art punk Similar Wire albums, Punk rock albums | ||
Pink Flag is the debut studio album by English post-punk band Wire. It was released in December 1977, through Harvest Records. Though the album failed to chart on its initial release, the album has been widely acclaimed and is considered influential by critics.
Contents
Wire pink flag dot dash options r
Critical reception
Upon its release, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called Pink Flag a "punk suite" and praised its "simultaneous rawness and detachment" and detected a rock-and-roll irony similar to but "much grimmer and more frightening" than the Ramones.
In a retrospective review, Steve Huey of AllMusic opined that Pink Flag was "perhaps the most original debut album to come out of the first wave of British punk" and also "recognizable, yet simultaneously quite unlike anything that preceded it. Pink Flag's enduring influence pops up in hardcore, post-punk, alternative rock, and even Britpop, and it still remains a fresh, invigorating listen today: a fascinating, highly inventive rethinking of punk rock and its freedom to make up your own rules." Trouser Press called the album "a brilliant 21-song suite" in which the band "manipulated classic rock song structure by condensing them into brief, intense explosions of attitude and energy, coming up with a collection of unforgettable tunes".
Legacy
Although the album was released to critical acclaim, it was not a big seller. The album was listed at number 412 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2012 and at number 378 in NME's list of the same name in 2013. Music journalist Stuart Maconie described it as "extraordinary" by the standards of the time at which it was produced. Pitchfork ranked Pink Flag number 22 in its list "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". The album was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
The album's wide-ranging influence is exemplified by the number of bands which have covered its songs. Hardcore punk and post-hardcore acts that have covered songs from Pink Flag include Henry Rollins ("Ex Lion Tamer", on Drive by Shooting), Minor Threat ("1 2 X U", on Flex Your Head), and Firehose ("Mannequin", on Live Totem Pole), while Minutemen attributed to Pink Flag their approach of recording and releasing briefer songs. American alternative rock band R.E.M. reworked "Strange" on their 1987 album Document. Britpop band Elastica also used a riff similar to that of "Three Girl Rhumba" for their song "Connection". Graham Coxon of Blur cited Pink Flag as an influence on his eighth studio album A+E.
Track listing
All tracks written by Bruce Gilbert, Graham Lewis, Colin Newman, and Robert Gotobed, except as indicated.
Personnel
Songs
1Reuters3:03
2Field Day for the Sundays0:29
3Three Girl Rhumba1:23