Now the news of the new LP is out I thought it might be a good idea to start a new thread.

Short Elevated Period sounds very decent one one listen. Very melodic, and maybe a hint of hint of MBV on the guitar sound?

http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/01/23/510954969/wire-set-to-release-new-album-hear-short-elevated-period

"Keith will be pleased to know one of the songs has a T.Rex feel according to the press release ;)"

Hopefully it will have a 'Bolanic swagger'!! ;)

I do happen to know that there's a mine in Wales that claims to dig silver lead - or it used to. Maybe, between sessions at Rockfield, the lads (!!) took a trip out one day and were suitably inspired.

(NB This suggestion is not entirely serious. Please treat it as such.)

I just revisited a bunch of Wire stuff this week, and I really liked NK this time around (not that I didn't like it when it dropped, but it really hit me right this time). I like Wire better, though--I like that one better than anything else they've done post-Gilbert, maybe even post-154 (I'm not crazy about the sound of the '80s!). I am pretty excited about the prospect of a new album.

Oh, I see. All I knew was usually when it says "html" that works. Anyway, thanks, I'll look up html for it next time before I post.

In response to Fabio. One thing that may surprise in this age where vinyl is supposedly "king" again is that in fact Wire still sell much more on CD than vinyl. The Special Edition idea is all based on the size and shape of a 7". That's the key to it working both as a "record" & a "book". That size combined with the hardback cover and number of pages also makes for a meaningful book as opposed to extended sleeve notes. This wouldn't work so well at all using a 12" form factor. You would either need to have seriously more content of make everything "early reading" size which would totally destroy the notion of it being a book, or reduce the number of pages so it would be more a souped up pamphlet than a book. Then there is also the cost and time into production. The lead times on vinyl are crazy and the cost of doing the SE at that size would mean the price to you would be at least double! That's a lot of money to ask people to pay and to be honest what would happen is we wouldn't sell very many! Wire are really seriously not in the business of vanity publishing. The SE to "Change Becomes Us" was admittedly an experiment but we found we did have a proven market.

The term "special Edition" is bandied about a lot these days especially in the vinyl market. The same album in a sightly different cover with a £5 or £10 increase in price strikes me as exploitation of the willingness of fans to shell out for something a bit different. With our SE's you really are getting something original and different!

In response to Huntingdon. Can you please post a link to the pricing you have seen? We are experimenting with selling some SE's to regular retail but everyone is supposed to have it at the same price. If they are trying to undercut everyone else I will bring this up with our distributor, they don't have any stock yet and may not receive any if they persist.

After hearing Short Elevated Period four or five times so far, I think (and sincerely hope) Silver/Lead will be another welcome addition to the illustrious Wire catalogue and a fitting way to celebrate 40 years in 'the biz'.

The production sounds very much like an extension to the Wire (2015) and Nocturnal Koreans (2016) releases. But since I'm only going on the basis of the lead-off track, the band could be deliberately wrong-footing us...so it will be interesting to hear how the whole album shapes up.

I've said this many times on this forum: we are lucky to have Wire still around and producing work comparable - or even better than - the excellent sound artifacts they've offered through the ages.

I sincerely hope this isn't their swansong (I have that deep-rooted fear every time a Wire product comes out!) and that they continue to give us sublime music and text for years to come.

If the right motives and inspiration are still ingrained in Wire there's no reason why we shouldn't enjoy another ten years (that's five albums AT LEAST) of this wondrous four-piece!

Hi
https://www.spincds.com/silver-lead-limited-book-cd

https://www.normanrecords.com/records/163418-wire-silverlead

Probably many more out there with similar offers

@Fabio: the special edition of Change Becomes Us is great and IMO this is the format everybody should have used for CDs the whole time. The cover looks better than on CD, there are pictures, a text on the album recording, and lyrics and the credits are printed in a font size one can actually read. the whole thing just makes sense. i hope the new one is a similar object.

@biccio: thank you, I have never seen that CBU Special Edition.
Yes, I wish more labels released CDs with better appearance. It's what I miss, as I said, compared to vinyls. "Regular" CD albums are really cheap to release (not sure in other countries, but here in Spain, I have collaborated in editions, factory duplicated with very good quality, and booklets with many pages, that were just 1 euro per unit). I guess more elaborated editions, with a better look, would help increasing sales of that format, I wouldn't mind to pay a little more for a CD release with a better format that, obviously, is more expensive to fabricate. So, in this case of this new Wire album, thumbs up for the Special Edition release, I'm now sure it's the one I'll buy.
Just anxious to listen to more songs!! If they are as good as this first one.....
One thing that I like so much is the difference in vocals with the latest albums (Wire-Nocturnal). Not sure what's the problem with those, but I didn't like how vocals sound. At times, it's like they were put through a harmonizer, I guess it's not a harmonizer but they sound so digital, not very pleasant to my ears. It doesn't sound like that on the new song, they sound more natural and crystalline.