WIRE
MIND HIVE
PINK FLAG
The climax to Wire’s 17th album is Hung, which delivers eight minutes of growing but largely unresolved tension, and it’s not the only malevolence here. Be Like Them opens with what sounds like a bouzouki punctuated by hammered drums, fierce guitar chords and Colin Newman’s monotone vocals, while Oklahoma finds Graham Lewis snarling in similar fashion. Elsewhere, though, they’re unusually poppy: Cactused is airy and melodious, and the brief Off The Beach’s arrangement, with added saxophone, is surprisingly jangly. WW