Quote:
Originally Posted by Librarian On Fire
This line by Wire in his February 2018 interview in The Quietus http://thequietus.com/articles/24062...is-futile-2018 really struck me. " The only time we’ve ever reacted against ourselves in terms of popularity was Know Your Enemy, that was a wilfully destructive album.” Is Wire referring to the fuss made over the bands visit to Cuba and the band taking yet another change in direction and sound after the success of TTMT? Or is was there more happening in the studio than we perhaps know about? For all of the band's opinion on KYE, it's still a great album. So fresh and raw. I still think it captured the band at their very very best. In sound and song writing. I'm always wondering just what has Wire horded away over the years. |
Quite a few bands went down the "self-destruction" road. Pulp notably made This Is Hardcore deliberately as a reaction to their popularity and fame, and other bands played a similar hand including the Manics. I think that's often just down to growing pains in some ways.
The desire to avoid making another album with widescreen guitars and big string sections must have been a massive part of how KYE turned out. I certainly remember reading in interviews at the time that they wanted to channel their inner punk spirit a bit more (The Clash were mentioned a lot.) That led to some of the songs being a tad under-worked, which in turn led to the album perhaps being less focused than it otherwise might have been.