Wire
Wire were definitely one of the most interesting British bands to emerge from the late 70’s punk/post-punk era. While they had much of the energy and anger of punk, their songs were also often very cerebral and abstract, with structures leaning in the direction of prog or art rock without the pretension. The songs were short and sharp and usually had a very interesting architecture.
Unfortunately, and this is only my personal opinion, the only Wire albums worth owning are their first three: Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154. After that some of the original members left the group and the subsequent music was quite different in many ways. However, those first 3 records are highly recommended and have definitely had a huge influence on many other musicians over the years.
