The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project

I first attempted to listen to this while reading through some training for work and that was not working out. I can definitely see how this album was very influential to later punk and post-punk bands. I don't know if it's something I would go out of my way to listen to a lot but I'm glad I heard it. I also had the chance to listen to it with the lyrics from Apple Music turned on and I think that helped.

I'd probably give this one a 3.5. I will probably round up in my official rating on the website.
 
#4 - Wire - Pink Flag

So we're now back to familiar territory for me. Have had this album for years and I love it. An absolute punk classic, with its deconstructed songs and bursts of ideas and energy. It is extremely influential on the next generation or two of alternative music. There isn't much to say other than that, so in honor of Pink Flag itself, this will be a short review.

Rating - 5.0/5
 
MikeH said:
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Don’t know this one and John Martyn has been someone I know I’ve been needing to check out
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Solid Air was the John Martyn album in our house. Has the unfortunate distinction of being a HiFi fair staple for audiophile bores, but it’s so much better than that. Highly, highly recommended.
 
Thackeraye said:


Pink Flag resulted in one of my favourite cover songs.

Listening to the album now. I got this, or a compilation of early Wire many years ago, and I didn’t get it. Kind of fell down a post-punk rabbit hole in the last year or so, hopefully this means I like it more now.
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Enjoying this more than I remember, but I’m currently enjoying the relatively one note that Wire of this era are playing. It’s a great mixtape album - the vast majority of the songs on this album would sound great in a compilation.
 
My thoughts on "Pink Flag":
Musically, Punk (specifically short, hardcore punk like this album) is a genre that's never really caught my interest.That said, there were a number of songs on here I did like, mostly ones that deviated from that formula or ones where I could understand the lyrics lol. 3/5
favs: Strange, Lowdown, Fragile
least fav: Field Day for the Sundays
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This is by far my favorite album I've gotten so far (even though I've only done three) and the first one I'm considering giving a perfect 5. Which makes me feel a little bad I don't have more to say about it. It's just damn good music! I'm not turned off by the short song lengths or the sometimes incoherent vocals; I'd expect both of those from a punk album. Some songs are better than others but when there's 21 tracks in 35 minutes it's easy to sit through the lesser ones to get to the gold, which I think heavily outweighs whatever filler is here.

My favorites so far are Reuters, Ex Lion Tamer, Lowdown, Strange, Mannequin, and Champs.
 
I don't want to go overboard with my praise but this album really does check off a lot of boxes for me. Not to mention it was clearly highly influential on tons of bands and artists. Not just in the punk genre, but my ears also hear the early traces of some Britpop acts. That could just be me though.

This is probably something I wouldn't have sought out myself and the type of discovery I'd hoped this exercise would help with, so I've got no complaints really. I stand by my SpongeBob fire gif from the other thread.
 
Last thoughts on Pink Flag - you can hear the line from Velvet Underground and The Sex Pistols to Wire to REM and Fugazi. It DEFINITELY benefits from repeated listens (I've given - well am on the last of- it three). It's the first thing I was unfamiliar with that I would buy on vinyl without much thought if I saw a reissue in the preorder thread or in a shop. Gave it 4 stars.
 
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