Wire - Read and Burn 03

Just as the first two volumes in the Read and Burn series of EPs foreshadowed the triumphant reunion of Wire's original members on 2003's SEND album, so Read and Burn 03 offered hints of the band's subsequent full-length. While the earlier Read and Burns were full of in-your-face attitude a la Wire's classic debut album, PINK FLAG, 03 is a much more textured, low-key, arty affair seeming to suggest that the band's next release will be along the more refined lines of the second Wire album, Chairs Missing. Across the four tracks, a bed of moody, layered guitars and percussion supports vocals that are alternately spoken and intoned like prayers in a Latin mass. Ultimately, it's a statement to the continuing vitality of the reformed, 21st century Wire.