When I was growing up it was a given that there was nothing more pathetic than an aged rocker. Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Paul McCartney; none were even a pale shadow of their former selves, their continued popularity only a reflection on the increasing lameness of the baby-boomer generation. As Neil Young famously once sang, before he went through his own creative slump, "it's better to burn out than to fade away." Post-punk came of age feeding on the fires that burned in the aftermath of punk rock's annihilation of those last remaining dinosaur acts. If punk was the final cataclysm that took down stale rock stars who had been living solely off of their former glories from the 60s and 70s, post-punk was the more thoughtful and constructive aftermath, which rebuilt rock and roll after the filth and the fury of 1977. Post-punk appeared to glean cautionary tales from both classic and punk rock, determining that it was neither better to burn out or to fade away, but instead create forward looking music that could last a lifetime. It's no wonder then that bands like The Ex, Killing Joke, Mission of Burma and Wire, who made some of the most influential and enduring work from the late 70s and early 80s are still capable of making important, vital music some thirty years removed from their classic early recordings.This isn't to say that everything from the past thirty years that each of those bands have produced has been a classic. With the exception of Mission of Burma, who dodged a mid-career slump by disbanding for a number of years, each of the aforementioned artists have blights on their resumes. Yet each have come back strong for the third act with works that not only rival their early groundbreaking albums, but are often leaner, harder and stronger. Take Wire's "Send," for example. Twenty-five years after releasing "Chairs Missing," the record that provided the blueprint for the early-aughts post-punk revival, Wire released "Send" a vicious and violent attack that laid to waste every note that Interpol and Liars had cribbed from them. I know it may be blasphemy to suggest, buy "Send" burned faster and brighter than even Wire's debut "Pink Flag," in my totally humble opinion.
Nearly a decade after that massive victory Wire return with "Red Barked Tree," yet another bases-loaded home-run. While not as relentlessly aggressive as "Send," "Red Barked Tree" is an incredibly strong post-punk record that blends melody with taut and powerful playing by everyone involved.
The record begins with the album's only real throwaway track. Opener "Please Take" is an anemic new wavey song that does little but possibly scare off listeners. The piece had me scratching my head wondering why the initial word on the album was so strong. Thankfully "Please Take" is an anomaly that the band is able to quickly put in their rear view window as the record proceeds and Wire rack up killer track after killer track. "Now Was" follows "Please Take," and immediately improves the album's prospects by 100%. It's a tight, fast upbeat number that recalls the band's "Pink Flag" era, but bares the sound of a band made confident by years of experience. Even when the band goes soft, with acoustic based tracks like "Adapt," their songwriting and delivery combine the best of mid to late 80s early "alternative" (think The Cure, New Order and The Smiths) with what is uniquely Wire to craft thoughtful and effective songs that will hit all the right spots for anyone who ever came of age listening to Robert Smith or Morrissey pout. Of course, Wire doesn't make records to pout and are never far off from getting back into the ring with rollicking punk-fueled tracks like the aptly titled "Two Minutes," or "Moreover" and "A Flat Tent."
Yet, unlike "Send," which was all white hot fury, "Red Barked Tree," finds Wire mining that rich post-punk middle ground, where melancholy and moody atmospherics mix so well with the guitars and snarls of its immediate predecessor. Many of the best tracks here offer up emotive melodies that stick with you a lot longer than the fist pumping barnburners. For instance the poppy Enoesque "Bad Worn Thing," threatens to make the lyric "the overcrowded nature of things" into a veritable earworm. It's too smart to be a pop song, but it's too melodic and addictive to be anything else. Either way it's the kind of intelligent and enjoyable songcraft that very few can pull off, without veering too far in one direction or the other. You can rock out to this, you can dance to it, or you can sit in an armchair and digest it, or a combination of all three as I am wont to do.
The album ends not with a bang, but the ponderous and meditative title track. The song almost sounds like the kind of piece that would fall directly in the middle of a record, acting as a bridge to something else. It's an odd choice in sequencing, but one that I hope is symbolic, pointing toward great things yet to come from the band. Certainly "Red Barked Tree" sounds like a band nowhere near the end of their career, and offers every reason to bet on their ability to continue to produce incredible records.
In the end "Red Barked Tree" proves once again that Wire are no dinosaur act, but a vital band still full of ideas, talent and skill. Not only can they hang with the kool kids, but they still have plenty of lessons left to teach. It remains to be seen if any of today's indie stars will have the longevity of Wire, Mission of Burma, or Killing Joke, for that matter, but one thing is for sure; Wire have proven they have much more to offer as elder statesmen than any of the bloated baby-boomers they replaced over thirty years ago. "Red Barked Tree" is a blueprint for how to age gracefully in rock and roll, proving that age and one's ability to rock have nothing to do with each other.
"Now Was"
"Smash" live
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