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Track Listings
| 1. Practice Makes Perfect |
| 2. French Film Blurred |
| 3. Another The Letter |
| 4. Men 2nd |
| 5. Marooned |
| 6. Sand In My Joints |
| 7. Being Sucked In Again |
| 8. Heartbeat |
| 9. Mercy |
| 10. Outdoor Miner |
| 11. I Am The Fly |
| 12. I Feel Mysterious Today |
| 13. From The Nursery |
| 14. Used To |
| 15. Too Late |
| 16. Go Ahead |
| 17. Former Airline |
| 18. Question Of Degree |
Product Description
Album Description
Remastered reissue with the original 1978 album plus 3 bonus tracks from 1979 'Outdoor Miner' (2 mins 54 secs), 'A Question Of Degree' (3 mins 9 secs) & 'Former Airline' (3 mins 20 secs). EMI. 2002.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
This is an easy choice for the best album from Wire, an always interesting group. Pink Flag was an excellent beginning, but that album gave us a band that was very raw, impatient, and loud. Wire tones it down here, adds more intricate sounds and song structures, and offers a greater variety of styles. It can be bleak and melancholy('marooned'), light and appealing('outdoor miner'), amusing and silly('I am the fly') and energetic and boisterous('Too Late'). A very thoughtful and impressively laid out album, highly recommended.
By Paul H.
Format:Audio CD
Having worn-out my copy of Pink Flag, my first listen to Chairs Missing was a tad shocking. With this album, Wire moved beyond the spastic bursts of fractured art-punk and produced a slower, more pondorous, more textured work. There are some synths here and there, and "Heartbeat" is downright subdued. But there's still the old Wire here as "Mercy" and "I Feel Mysterious Today" can atest to. And like any great album, it grows on you. I wouldn't argue against this as a starting point for Wire, and I can imagine it being not as disarming if you haven't heard their first record. But even fans of Pink Flag will be pleased if they give this one time.
By chris stolz
Format:Audio CD
CHAIRS MISSING is surely Wire's masterpiece. The title suggests a bunch of people, assembled for a meeting, looking around for somewhere to comfortably sit and proceed with their business. But the chairs are missing, and so things, like Wire's music, are surreal, comical and sometimes uncomfortable, and they will require a bit of adjustment.
On their debut, PINK FLAG, Wire married two minute, three-chord punk thrash with oddly allusive lyrics. Here, the band totally transcends its punk beginnings and creates something entirely new.
Wire spin simple riffs into eerie and shifting dreamscapes that recall Kafka, Brazillian concrete poetry, top-40 pop and modern trance music. The lyrics are allusive, elliptical, witty and surreal. Songs that sound like they are built of one chord exfoliate into subtle and complex structures. Sometimes Wire make absolutely perfect pop-- "Outdoor Miner"-- and sometimes their work has the insistent throb of nightmare ("Mercy"). Some songs capture whimsy ("I Feel Mysterious Today") and others make you look over your shoulder to see what is hiding there ("Heartbeat").
This album was created in 1978 and sounds more contemporary than the works of any of Wire's contemporaries. Its production inspired Nirvana/PJ Harvey producer Steve Albini, who was mesmerised by the layers of guitars.
I listen to this often, and new ideas constantly creep out of the fascinating wordplay. Newman and Lewis trust their listeners, showing us ideas and images, and letting our imaginations, carried by the complex and powerful music, do the rest. This is essential listening.
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4.9 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly Moving, Truly Innovative
I've been a fan of Wire since the mid-80s. There are some bands I listened to back then that are only pleasant memories now, but Wire is not one of them. Read more
Published on Mar 20 2003 by W. French
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tell me what it's like when you've had enough
This album is amazing. I just don't know when to press the stop and take it out. From start to finish it's an album that's got exactly everything perfect. Read more
Published on Jan 3 2003 by filterite
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wire kept growing
After the choppy minimalist punk of "Pink Flag" Wire evolved into "Chairs Missing". Read more
Published on Oct 8 2002 by Virgil
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Punky Art-Rock
This is my favorite of Wire's '70s albums. Several songs on the album retain the punk approach of _Pink Flag_, but with tighter playing and an increased openess to experimentation... Read more
Published on May 23 2002 by CS
5.0 out of 5 stars
Minimalism Personified
What a great album. Wire retain the minimalism of punk, but change the form. They do something analogous to equilizing a blaring rock track and changing its nature by, say,... Read more
Published on Feb 28 2002 by Scott McFarland
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, if Slightly Flawed Step in Wire's Evolution.
[I'd actually rate this 4.5 stars if I could.]
After Wire's seminal minimalist art-punk debut Pink Flag (1977), they followed with Chairs Missing a year later. Read more
Published on Oct 23 2001 by Alan Koslowski
5.0 out of 5 stars
an enduring genius
Wow, did this really come out when I was 14?!?!?!? It's just impossible to grow tired of this album, and I return to its greatness every few years (I play 154 EVERY year). Read more
Published on Mar 8 2001 by Michael Heminger
5.0 out of 5 stars
The stuff of genius
Overflowing with innovative, potent ideas, this album is one of my five all-time favorites. Some additional songs are added to the original album sequence which are also quite... Read more
Published on Dec 6 2000 by D. A Wu
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genuinely basic
Unlikely punk groups such as Sex Pistols, Ramones and Clash, Wire is totally unknown in my country. I could not even think of analysing their lyrics in a deep way. Read more
Published on Oct 17 1999 by Katia de Almeida
5.0 out of 5 stars
haunting
simply put "used to" is one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard. crass did a similar type of thing on one "stations of the crass" song but that fuzzy... Read more
Published on July 2 1999
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