I'm thinking of buying the last 2 albums and noticed some of the tracks seem to overlap with EP's. Are all the songs from EP's on the albums, they don't seem to be. If so, are they the same versions?
PS: In the discography it would be nice if there was a little overview of what the record is.
Around half of the tracks from Send had already been released on the first two Read & Burn EPs. I think they are the same versions, possibly different edits. To confuse matters further, several tracks from R&B 1 and 2 didn't make it to Send. All are well worth having so you could always cherry pick these from the download shop. Object 47 doesn't have any tracks from Read & Burn 3.
The old Wireviews site is still online and has notes on each record up to Send, http://www.wireviews.com/reviews/index.html and is handy for navigating your way around the discography.
Frankly, I'd recommend getting Object 47 and all the Read & Burns and skipping Send. The tracks omitted from Send are superior to the new trio on that album, and you're not really missing much by not having Half Eaten, Being Watched and You Can't Leave Now.
Mr Marx's Table is one of the strongest songs in Wire's whole catalogue and it's great to see it's still part of the live set. And the live version from the Metro in Chicago is stunning.
Taken as a whole, the Read & Burn 01 & 02 EP's are far superior to Send, but I still consider "Mr. Marx's Table" & "You Can't Leave Now" to be essential additions to that period. As many have brought up, the live renditions are far more interesting than the studio versions. I think this is mainly because the drums on the studio recordings sound overly processed and remove a lot of the character that makes Robert's drumming interesting in the first place.
While "The Scottish Play" is a good live document, I'm surprised that there has been no mention of the free bonus Live At The Metro CD that came with Send. I consider that to be a much more powerful sounding recording and far more representative of what seeing a Send-era show was like.
As I suggested, stevethehouse, Live at the Metro is an astonishingly powerful recording. As well as Mr Marx's Table, the live version of Spent wipes the floor with the Send version. I quite often play them back to back in my iTunes library and it's no contest. But I'd hate to think we're offending the band by suggesting that a live recording is superior to the studio version they probably sweated blood over to perfect!
It was a limited edition for the first 2000 copies of Send. Not really sure if it's available anywhere else... perhaps it could be added to the Pink Flag digital shop like the other OOP releases?
Any opinions about Send Redux? Seems like a "for completists only" kind of release. I'll probably get it sooner or later, but I'm curious if anyone regards it as a sooner rather than later.