''Mind Hive'' is the seventeenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

from English art punk band

Wire file:Sample cross-section of high tension power (pylon) line.jpg, Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample d ...

, released on 24 January 2020 by Pinkflag. The release was preceded by a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Cactused" made up of clips from the forthcoming documentary ''People in a Film'' and streaming audio for "Primed and Ready". They also announced a brief tour of North America to promote the recording.

Critical reception

Review aggregator AnyDecentMusic? assess the critical consensus as a 7.7 out of 10. ''

Brooklyn Vegan ''BrooklynVegan'' is an American online music magazine founded in 2004 by David Levine. The company is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, and originally focused on vegan food and the music community in and around New York City, before broadeni ...

'' praised the album saying Wire "have honed a sound that pulls from all periods of the band."

Alexis Petridis Alexis Petridis (born 13 September 1971) is an English journalist. He is the head Rock music, rock and pop music critic for ''The Guardian'', and a regular contributor for ''GQ''. In addition to his music journalism for the paper, he has written ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' gave the album four out of five stars and said, "If ''Mind Hive'' were the debut by a hot new band, you suspect what's left of the music press would be doing their nut over it."

Accolades

Track listing

All songs written by

Colin Newman Colin John Newman (born 16 September 1954) is an English musician, record producer and record label owner. He is best known as the primary vocalist and songwriter for the post-punk band Wire (band), Wire. Early life Newman was born in Salisbury ...

, except "Oklahoma" by

Graham Lewis Graham Lewis (born Edward Graham Lewis, 22 February 1953) is an English musician. He is best known as a bassist, songwriter, and vocalist with punk rock/post-punk band Wire, of which he has been a core member since founding in 1976. Biography ...

. All music by Wire. All lyrics by Graham Lewis, except "Cactused" and "Unrepentant" by Colin Newman. (Songwriting credits as per liner notes for ''Mind Hive'') #"Be Like Them" – 3:51 #"Cactused" – 3:35 #"Primed and Ready" – 2:44 #"Off the Beach" – 2:23 #"Unrepentant" – 5:01 #"Shadows" – 2:46 #"Oklahoma" – 3:08 #"Hung" – 7:54 #"Humming" – 3:30

Personnel

Wire *

– bass guitar, backing vocals on "Be Like Them" and "Cactused", synthesizer on "Oklahoma", vocals on "Oklahoma" and "Humming"; effects on "Hung" * Robert Grey – drums, cymbals on "Unrepentant" *

– vocals, guitar; keyboards; acoustic guitar on "Be Like Them", "Off the Beach", "Unrepentant", and "Shadows"; 12-string acoustic guitar on "Off the Beach" and "Unrepentant";

stylophone The Stylophone is a miniature analog synthesizer played with a stylus. Invented in 1967 by Brian Jarvis, it entered production in 1968, manufactured by Dubreq. Some three million Stylophones were sold, mostly as children's toys, but they we ...

on "Hung";

tenor guitar The tenor guitar or four-string guitar is a slightly smaller, four-string relative of the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar. The instrument was initially developed in its acoustic form by Gibson and C.F. Martin so that players o ...

on "Be Like Them" and "Unrepentant" * Matthew Simms – guitar; synths on "Be Like Them", "Primed and Ready", "Unrepentant", "Oklahoma", and "Hung"; effects on "Hung"; organ on "Humming" Additional musicians *Sean Douglas – organ on "Humming" *Harald Pettersson – hurdy gurdy on "Oklahoma" Technical *Colin Newman – producer, mixing *Sean Douglas – engineer *Matthew Simms – additional engineer *Denis Blackham – mastering * Jon Wozencroft – art direction, photography

Charts

References

External links

* * * {{authority control 2020 albums Self-released albums Wire (band) albums