To get a sense of how long Wire has been around let me tell you this – their first album came out two years before Thatcher became prime minister.  Punk has died a thousand deaths since then but Wire aren’t any snotty punk band. Their energy and metallic cool is as present here as on debut Pink Flag, as is the iconic combination of tight drumming and bass.

This is the London punks’ 13th studio album, 37 years after their first. The world has changed a lot since 1977 and on opening track ‘Bloggers’ Wire try to get their heads around people  “blogging like Jesus” and tweeting “like a pope”.

The motorik rhythms are still sinister but perhaps these old punk stalwarts have mellowed.  For large parts of the album the synths swoon and guitars gurgle rather than the seventies spit and thrash. Nowhere is this more apparent than the beautiful haze of ‘In Manchester’, filled with lovely played-down harmonies and trickling synths. Plus anyone who doesn’t fall a little bit in love with the excruciatingly tender melody of ‘Swallow’ has a colder heart than I.

There are some reminders of their old punk ferocity though. Listening to the two lead singles ‘Joust and Jostle’ and ‘Split Your Ends’ is like catching a glimpse of your Dad’s old Sex Pistols tattoo. You’re reminded that the fiery spirit still burns but it’s now inside the body of someone who looks more botanist than anarchist.

Wire might not have the canonical resonance of Pink Flag and it might not force young teens to put down that Blink 182 and discover some real punk.  Yet what it does do is remind you that Colin Newman and Gary Lewis are two of the most consistently brilliant songwriters of the last 35 years.

How Wire aren’t recognised as one of the best bands Britain has ever produced is baffling to me…  Maybe we’re too busy “blogging like Jesus” to notice.

Alex Fowler