154 is the third album by the English post-punk band Wire, released in 1979
on EMI imprint Harvest Records in the UK and Europe and Warner Bros. Records in America. Branching out even further from the minimalist punk rock style of their earlier work, 154 is considered a progression of the sounds displayed on Wire's previous album Chairs Missing, with the group experimenting with slower tempos, fuller song structures and a more prominent use of guitar effects, synthesizers and electronics.
The album is so named because the band had played 154 gigs in their career at the time of the album's release. The unusual title of the track "Map Ref 41°N 93°W" was based on a guess of the centre of the American Midwest by bassist and singer Graham Lewis; the location of these coordinates is coincidentally close to Centerville, Iowa.[4]
Following the album's release, a falling out with the band's record label, EMI, as well as creative differences led to their breaking up in 1980,[5] making 154 the band's last album up until their eventual reunion in 1985 and subsequent release of The Ideal Copy in 1987.
Release
154 peaked at number 39 in the UK Albums Chart, the highest position the band has achieved.[6] It was first issued on CD in 1987 by EMI Japan and later reissued by Restless Records in 1989. First editions of the vinyl album were accompanied by an EP, the tracks from which are included on the Harvest CD, issued in 1994, along with an additional bonus track. The 1996 remastered release, released on Wire's Pinkflag label as a digipack, does not contain any extra tracks, because, according to the band, such additions dishonour the "conceptual clarity of the original statements."[7] In 2018 Pink Flag release a 3-CD Special Edition of the album. The first disc contains the remastered album, while the second disc includes 11 non-album tracks including the 4-song 154 bonus EP, two non-album singles and additional b-sides. The third disc contains the 16-song "Sixth" demo session.
In 1979, shortly after the album's release, notable NME critic Nick Kent wrote that "154 makes 95 percent of the competition look feeble,"[citation needed] Chris Westwood of Record Mirror stated that "Wire [were] achieving a lot of things other–and more recognized–names have been striving for," in a review of the album,[citation needed] and Melody Maker writer Jon Savage called the album a "musical tour de force."[citation needed] In a 1980 The Village Voice review, Robert Christgau wrote: "Predictions that these art-schoolers would turn into art-rockers no longer seems so cynical. Their gift for the horrifying vignette remains. But their tempos are slowing, sometimes to a crawl, as their textures venture toward the orchestral, and neither effect enhances the power of their vignettes, which become every more personalistic and/or abstract."[17]
In a retrospective review, Steve Huey of AllMusic wrote: "154 refines and expands the innovations of Chairs Missing, with producer Mike Thorne's synthesizer effects playing an even more integral role; little of Pink Flag's rawness remains." He continues, "If Chairs Missing was a transitional album between punk and post-punk, 154 is squarely in the latter camp, devoting itself to experimental soundscapes that can sound cold and forbidding at times."[8]Rolling Stone wrote that the album "continued to complicate their [Wire's] sound with more elaborate arrangements, a thicker sound, and more complex, studio-enabled melodies."[14]The Guardian critic Dave Simpson called the album "an unexploded firework in that no one dares return to it" and "a benchmark for unsettling adventures with guitars."[10]
Influence and legacy
Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard has cited the album as an influence, stating "154 was a bolt of lightning. When we started, we wanted to sound like a bunch of different bands. The songs were going to be short, sound like they were recorded in a bunch of different places. That was the Wire influence."[18] In a 2014 interview with Magnet, he expressed his fondness for the album: "I've decided that the greatest album of all time is Wire, 154. Yeah. That's not even a top-20 band, but that's the greatest album. I listened to it again the other day, and it's the most intelligent, rewarding-with-repeated-listenings album that I ... it just never fails."[19]
Guitarist Johnny Marr of the Smiths cited the album as a significant and long-lasting influence on his approach to guitar playing, stating that "Wire's approach to guitar was just something I couldn't ignore. It was a real pointer away from the blues-based guitar playing which dominated pop music – including punk – since rock music had started. As a young guitar player, discovering 154 showed me a world that was an alternative way of looking at the instrument. It has stuck with me all the way through my career."[20] Lead vocalist and lyricist Michael Stipe of R.E.M. said that the track "The Other Window" "provided, in the early '80s, something to aspire to lyrically, [...] [a]nd the mood of the [track's] music is chilling and beautiful, like a memory."[21]
One of My Bloody Valentine's last releases prior to reconvening in 2007 was a cover of "Map Ref 41°N 93°W" for a Wire tribute entitled Whore, along with other artists for other 154 tracks, including "40 Versions" by Godflesh and "The 15th" by Minutemen bassist Mike Watt.[22] The song was selected as a favourite cover of the 1990s by Flak Magazine.[23]Fischerspooner covered "The 15th" as part of their 2001 debut album #1.[24]
"The 15th" was featured as one of the earliest and most crucial examples of shoegaze by Treblezine in its list A History of Shoegaze in 45 Essential Songs.[25] In 2004, Pitchfork listed 154 as the 85th best album of the 1970s.[26]
Track listing
Credits adapted from the 2018 Special Edition.[27]
Tracks 19–24 are demo versions that have also appeared on compilations such as Behind the Curtain and After Midnight.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the 2018 Special Edition.[27]
Wire
Colin Newman – vocals, guitar, backing vocals, distorted bass on "On Returning"
Graham Lewis – bass, vocals on "I Should Have Known Better", "A Touching Display" and "Blessed State", backing vocals, percussion on "Once Is Enough", sleeve concept
B. C. Gilbert – guitar, spoken word on "The Other Window", sleeve concept
Colin Newman – vocals, guitar, syndrum on "Go Ahead", saxophone on "Former Airline", keyboards on "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe", production on "Get Down (Parts I + II)"
Graham Lewis – bass, keyboards on "Go Ahead", saxophone on "Former Airline", vocals and production on "Let's Panic Later"
B. C. Gilbert – guitar, bass on "Go Ahead", saxophone on "Former Airline", production on "Small Electric Piece"
Robert Gotobed – drums, production on "Song 1"
Mike Thorne – production on "A Question of Degree" and "Former Airline"
Paul Hardiman – engineer on "A Question of Degree" and "Former Airline"
Ken Thomas – assistant engineer on "A Question of Degree" and "Former Airline"
Wire – production on "Go Ahead", "Our Swimmer", "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe", "Our Swimmer (2nd Length)", "Catapult 30" and the sixth demo sessions
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