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A Bell Is a Cup... Until It Is Struck

 
Album Review: A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck
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Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck

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  • Artist: Wire
  • Rating: StarStarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: 1988
  • Total Time: 70:20
  • Type: Lyrics are included with the album
  • Genre: Rock

Review

Wire's return to full-time active duty came as something of a surprise. Colin Newman, Bruce Gilbert, and Graham Lewis (the latter two both separately and as the duo Dome) had been growing increasingly abstract and non-rock in the six years since the group had split up, but 1988's A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck is, at heart, an album full of pop songs. Admittedly, they're mainly peculiar pop songs full of stream-of-consciousness lyrics ("Money spine paper lung kidney bingos organ fun," goes the chorus of the catchiest song, sung by Newman in a dreamy reverie as if the unrelated non sequiturs were just another love song) and produced in an oddly detached way that emphasizes the atmospheres over the melodies, but they're pop songs nonetheless. Newman and Lewis coat the songs with overdubbed layers of gentle guitars, treated and phased into waves of sound that ebb and flow around the songs over Gilbert's throbbing bass and Robert Gotobed's dancefloor-based rhythms. Arguably Wire's best album and certainly its most accessible, A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck is a work of modern rock genius. The CD includes four bonus tracks, including a thoroughly reworked alternate version of "The Queen of Ur and the King of Um" and a chugging eight-minute live version of "Drill." ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Silk Skin Paws Wire Wire (4:53)
The Finest Drops Wire Wire (5:01)
The Queen of Ur and the King of Um Wire Wire (4:03)
Free Falling Divisions Robert Gotobed, Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Bruce Gilbert Wire (3:39)
It's a Boy Graham Lewis, Robert Gotobed, Colin Newman, Pete Townshend, Bruce Gilbert Wire (4:26)
Boiling Boy Bruce Gilbert, Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Robert Gotobed Wire (6:22)
Kidney Bingos Robert Gotobed, Graham Lewis, Colin Newman, Bruce Gilbert Wire (4:12)
Come Back in Two Halves Robert Gotobed, Graham Lewis, Colin Newman, Bruce Gilbert Wire (2:43)
Follow the Locust Graham Lewis, Robert Gotobed, Bruce Gilbert, Colin Newman Wire (4:22)
A Public Place Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Bruce Gilbert, Robert Gotobed Wire (4:30)
The Queen of Ur and the King of Um [Alternate Version] Wire Wire (4:02)
Pieta Wire, Dave VanKriedt Wire (7:29)
Over Theirs [Live] Wire Wire (6:36)
Drill [Live] Graham Lewis, Bruce Gilbert, Robert Gotobed, Colin Newman Wire (8:02)

Credits

Simon Hardiman (Stage Monitor Engineer), Paul Davis (?), David Heilmann (Engineer), Simon Hardiman (Engineer), Paul Davis (Engineer), David Heilmann (Engineer), Gareth Jones (Producer), Slim Smith (Layout Design)
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Wikipedia: A Bell Is a Cup... Until It Is Struck
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck
Studio album by Wire
Released May 1988
Recorded 1987
Genre Post-punk
Electronic
Length 70:20
Label Mute Records
Producer Gareth Jones
Professional reviews
Wire chronology
The Ideal Copy
(1987)		 A Bell Is A Cup...Until It Is Struck
(1988)		 It's Beginning To And Back Again
(1989)

A Bell Is a Cup ... Until It Is Struck is the fifth studio album album by the British post-punk group Wire.

Contents

Critical response

In 1989, the Trouser Press Record Guide described the album as "a stylized set of dreamscapes and consciousness streams.... It's arguably Wire's most ruminative album, and while immersion in it won't, as 'Silk Skin Paws' suggests, 'wring your senses' – that's more a job for Chairs Missing – it will twirl your lobes a time or two."[1] However, in a later edition, Trouser Press held a more critical view, writing that "Wire stayed the dance-pop course with diminishing results on A Bell Is a Cup."[2]

At the time of the album's release, Wire faced accusations that they had abandoned their earlier rough-edged sound for a softer, more refined style.[3] Graham Lewis dismissed such criticism: "This is a fallacy.... When [Wire's early albums] were released, they were considered more polished than other records at the time. Every record that's been made, the same criticism of being less abrasive has been leveled at it. The abrasion is actually in the content – both lyrics and sound."[3]

Allmusic gave the album a laudatory review, describing the record as "arguably Wire's best album and certainly its most accessible" and "a work of modern rock genius."[4]

Track listing

All titles by Wire, published by Stainless Music.

  1. "Silk Skin Paws"
  2. "The Finest Drops"
  3. "The Queen of Ur and the King of Um"
  4. "Free Falling Divisions"
  5. "It's a Boy"
  6. "Boiling Boy"
  7. "Kidney Bingos"
  8. "Come Back In Two Halves"
  9. "Follow the Locust"
  10. "A Public Place"

The CD version appends the following tracks:

  1. "The Queen of Ur and the King of Um" (alternative version)
  2. "Pieta"
  3. "Over Theirs" (live)
  4. "Drill" (live)

Musicians

References

  1. ^ Green, Jim (1989). "Wire". in Ira A. Robbins. The Trouser Press Record Guide (third ed.). New York: Collier Books. p. 632. ISBN 0-02-036370-2. 
  2. ^ DeRogatis, Jim; Wilson Neate. "Wire". Trouser Press. Trouser Press LLC. http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=wire. Retrieved June 5 2007. 
  3. ^ a b Balfour, Brad (August 1988), "Wire", Reflex Magazine 1 (6): 33 
  4. ^ Review at Allmusic
v • d • e
Wire
Colin Newman · Graham Lewis · Robert Gotobed · Margaret Fiedler McGinnis
Bruce Gilbert
Studio albums
Pink Flag · Chairs Missing · 154 · The Ideal Copy · A Bell Is a Cup... Until It Is Struck · It's Beginning to and Back Again · Manscape · The Drill · The First Letter · Send · Object 47
Compilations and live albums
Singles and EPs
Related articles
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