• Band Name: Wire
  • Record Label: Pinkflag
  • Release Date: Jun 25, 2002
Read & Burn 01 [EP] Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 4 Ratings

  • Summary: The groundbreaking English four-piece art-punk band has reunited (25 years after their debut) to record this 6-track EP, representing their first new studio output together since 1990's 'Manscape.'
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 12
  2. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. It's a still-thrilling combo, even if these new songs lack the tuneful pop smarts that made Pink Flag tracks like "Field Day for the Sundays" classics. [Review of EPs 01 and 02, 21 Oct 2002]
  2. Read & Burn is still Wire, and without even retreading the past.
  3. In this slim volume of three-chord thrashing there's proof that while punk may reside in middle age, in some quarters its vital signs have never shown more strongly.
  4. 60
    An unusually exciting attempt to revitalise past glories. [Oct 2002, p.111]

See all 12 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. ChemicalScum
    10
    I have been bored lately nothing seemed to quite set me on fire untill I heard Read and Burn 01. Warning his music is dangerous to drive on - you will speed and try to carve up every other vehicle on the road. The ultimate kick ass noise rock - Old punks just get better and better. Expand
  2. PaulK.
    10
    Wire's coldly distainful wit has allowed them to carry their bite into the '00s. These guys will forever kick anyone's ass.
  3. AlanK.
    6
    Not truly awful, inspite of the praise others have heaped, Read & Burn sound standard, formulaic hard rock. Sure, it's energetic and sometimes compelling, but everything here's been done better by other artists. There are hooks, but there mostly formulaic. I've listened to it several times, it doesn't stick. This is the first time Wire has ever sound generic, and in a way that's worse than a failed experiment: Taking a chance and failing (as Wire often did in the 80s) is more respectable than unambitious mediocrity (ie Read & Burn). Expand