Red Barked Tree

{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox album | name = Red Barked Tree | type = studio | artist = Wire | cover = Red-barked-tree.jpg | alt = | released = 20 December 2010 | recorded = February–October 2010 | venue = | studio = Resident Studios, London<br>Press Play Studios, London<br>Swim Studio, London | genre = {{flatlist| *Post-punk *experimental rock }} | length = 39:03 | label = Pinkflag | producer = Colin Newman | prev_title = Object 47 | prev_year = 2008 | next_title = Change Becomes Us | next_year = 2013 }} '''''Red Barked Tree''''' is the twelfth studio album by the English post-punk band Wire, digitally released on 20 December 2010, and as a CD on 10 January 2011 on the Pinkflag label. Featuring eleven tracks covering a diverse range of musical styles, the record was well received by critics, who found the record representing "the essence of their best work",<ref name=QuietusCalvert /> covering "virtually all aspects of Wire's varied history" to create "a stylistic best-of composed of new material".<ref name=Kansas />

==Writing and recording== The departure of founding member Bruce Gilbert in 2006 left Wire as a trio composed of Colin Newman (vocals, guitar, various), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals, various) and Robert Grey (drums). Having released ''Object 47'' in 2008, the band had originally intended to record ''Red Barked Tree'' in December 2009 at Githead and Wire soundman Frankie Lievaart's studio in Rotterdam, but Lievaart proved unable to trace having left the country with Gogol Bordello. The only alternative would have been Newman's Swim studio, but as Newman explained to emusic.com, this would not have been suitable: "I can produce fairly decent-sounding mixes here [at Swim], but for physical recording, if you're going to record drums in a nice room, first of all you've got to have a nice room and someone who knows how to record drums. If you're going to record a whole band, you've got to have the right place to do it."<ref name=emusic>{{cite web | last = Adams | first = Sam | title = eMusic Q&A: Wire's Colin Newman | date = January 2011 | url = http://www.emusic.com/features/spotlight/2011_201101-qa-colin-newman-wire.html | publisher = emusic.com | accessdate= 20 March 2011}}</ref> With their preferred option not being available the band decided to book four days in a commercial studio in London, Resident Studios, which put the recording date back to February 2010.<ref name=emusic />

Newman had written some songs for the album. He said, "My method of writing songs, which I hadn't used for 30 years, is to write them on acoustic guitar. They take an average of five minutes each. If it's not written in five minutes, it's not going to get written. I'd sit on the couch, play a bit, if I had some words from Graham, jam 'em in, record it to my iPhone, then I'd present a bunch of songs to Rob and Graham. Rob said [derisively], 'It sounds like the '70s' and Graham said, 'I hate acoustic guitar,' so I knew we were onto a winner. That's so classic Wire."<ref name=emusic /> Lewis would contribute two compositions to the album, "Please Take" and "Bad Worn Thing".{{sfn|Neate|2013|p=378}}

However, one week before recording was due to start, a dearth of material became apparent: "I had four songs written, because that was all the lyrics I had from Graham. And I realized I wasn't getting any more words out of him. So I had to write a song a day so there was enough. Graham came with a couple of things but there was no way he would come with enough songs to fill out the rest of the record. So I took an instant editorial decision that was what was going to happen. Some of those words stayed, and some of those words got worked on by Graham and me. That was it, basically."<ref name=emusic /> The band worked on more than a dozen songs, dropping those that were not "working quite well enough".<ref name=emusic /> Many of the songs were recorded in a single take, the band playing as a threesome: "You have to understand, as a three-piece, we'd very rarely played together. [...] So [for ''Red Barked Tree'',] I thought, 'Let's see how it goes in the studio.' We worked with an engineer that we'd never worked with before, who was Irish. We did 'Moreover,' and after we were done playing, he came in and said, 'You make a big fookin' noise for three.'"<ref name=emusic /> The band felt vindicated.<ref name=emusic /> Newman then worked through spring at his Swim studio, putting the tracks together, and after a further two-day session in June at Press Play Studios in London,{{sfn|Neate|2013|pp=372–375}} the tracks were again worked on by Newman at Swim.<ref>{{cite news | author= Dimitris Antonopoulos | date= 28 February 2011 | title= Interview: Wire | work= Mix Grill | url=https://www.mixgrill.gr/ar68386en-interview-wire.html | accessdate= 2 February 2023}}</ref> By October, the mixing of the album was completed.<ref>{{cite web | author= Anthony Strutt | date= 5 November 2010 | title= Wire – Interview | publisher= Pennyblackmusic | url=https://pennyblackmusic.co.uk/Home/Details?id=18516 | access-date= 2 February 2023}}</ref>

==Release== The album was released digitally on 20 December 2010,<ref>{{cite web | title=Pinkflag.com – the official Wire website – Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Robert Grey | url=http://www.pinkflag.com/ | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> and in CD format on 10 January 2011, on the band's Pinkflag label.<ref name=BBC /> It was Wire's twelfth studio album, their third since the turn of the millennium, and the second since the departure of Gilbert.<ref name=lastfm>{{cite web | url=http://www.last.fm/music/Wire/Red+Barked+Tree|title=Red Barked Tree by Wire|publisher= Last.fm | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref><ref name=pitch /> The Wire website, pinkflag.com, announced that the first 2,000 mail order customers for ''Red Barked Tree'' would also receive a free copy of ''Strays'', a bonus EP featuring new studio recordings of the songs "Underwater Experiences", "He Knows", "German Shepherds" and "Boiling Boy".<ref name=pinkflagnews>{{cite web | title=Pinkflag.com – the official Wire website – Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Robert Grey: News Archive | url=http://www.pinkflag.com/news.php | accessdate= 14 February 2011}}</ref> In 2020, the four tracks were included on the ''10:20'' album.<ref>{{cite web | author= Jared Dix | date= 19 June 2020 | title= Review: Wire – 10:20 | publisher= Echoes and Dust | url=https://echoesanddust.com/2020/06/wire-1020/ | access-date= 2 February 2023}}</ref>

While it had taken the band three months to come up with a title for their previous album, ''Object 47'', they almost immediately agreed on naming the current record ''Red Barked Tree''.<ref name=anotherthequietusinterview>{{cite news | author= Tim Burrows | date= 14 January 2011 | title= Seeing Red & Still Barking: Wire Interviewed | work= The Quietus | url=http://thequietus.com/articles/05547-wire-interview-red-barked-tree | accessdate= 11 February 2011}}</ref> According to Lewis, the cover artwork by Jon Wozencroft – based on a photograph showing a detail of an untitled work by Arte Povera artist Jannis Kounellis – reflects the idea of alchemy as a quest for knowledge.<ref name=anotherthequietusinterview />

==Style== A press release announcing the album stated that it "rekindles a lyricism sometimes absent from Wire's previous work and reconnects with the live energy of performance, harnessed and channeled from extensive touring over the past few years." Featuring songs that "range from the hymnal 'Adapt' to the barking sledgehammer art-punk of 'Two Minutes', the album encompasses the full palette of style and nuance that has always endeared Wire to pastel-tinged pop aficionados and bleeding-edge avant-rockers alike."<ref name=lastfm />

{{Listen |pos = left |filename = Two Minutes.ogg |title = "Two Minutes" |description = Described in the ''New Zealand Herald'' as "mad but disciplined guitar thrash".<ref name=Zea /> Robert Grey said about the lyrics: "I did think the words were very strange until Colin told me that he'd collected them from random texts."<ref name=quietusinterview /> |filename2 = Down To This.ogg |title2 = "Down To This" |description2 = "A manifesto lamenting contemporary discontents," the ''Kansas City Star'' said.<ref name=Kansas /> Graham Lewis stated, "It projects a creeping sense of doom: urban malfunction ..."<ref name=quietusinterview /> |filename3 = Red Barked Trees.ogg |title3 = "Red Barked Trees" |description3 = Colin Newman was particularly pleased with this track: "There's nothing in our catalogue that sounds anything like it, and that pleases me immensely."<ref name=quietusinterview /> }}

A guitar-dominated album, its musical styles range from thrash, art pop and power pop to psychedelic folk featuring acoustic guitar.<ref name=pitch /><ref name=musicOMH /> ''Pitchfork'' described ''Red Barked Tree'' as "a shrewdly sequenced album," a necessity arising from the variety of different styles represented on it. "Its 11 songs are more or less positioned along a logical arc, where a sense of ominous unease gives way to violent release before simmering into a peaceful comedown."<ref name=pitch /> Grey stated in an interview with ''The Quietus'', "I was asked to propose a track sequence for the album, and I found it difficult initially. Then I realised that if I thought of the tracks as a series of scenes in a play or a film, it made it easier. I like the idea of the tracks telling a story: the story was the album from beginning to end."<ref name=quietusinterview>{{cite news | author= Wilson Neate | date= 8 December 2010 | title= Wire's Track-By-Track Guide To Red Barked Tree | work= The Quietus | url=http://thequietus.com/articles/05417-wire-red-barked-tree | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref>

As described by ''Pitchfork'', the album's lyrics address "the emotional and environmental costs of modernity run amok".<ref name=pitch /> "Red Barked Trees", the track that inspired the album title, was said by Lewis to be "about dismay and hope, and the wonder of technology versus the ancient knowledge of alchemy. Will we destroy rare invaluable flora and fauna before we can research and exploit their unique properties? In the end, is it going to be the red-barked tree that's going to hold the cure for cancer?"<ref name=quietusinterview /> Newman stated about the song, "It's got an open-eyed beauty to it, looking at the world as a mysterious place. It's more like Pentangle than Wire! Wire have never made a track anything like it: it's in ¾ time, with acoustic guitars, bouzouki and organ. It's an innovative track for Wire – perhaps the most different. There's nothing in our catalogue that sounds anything like it, and that pleases me immensely."<ref name=quietusinterview /> Newman revealed that the track "Two Minutes" is "a kind of construct lyrically," a set of tweets he collected that were "completely abstracted out."<ref>{{cite web|last=Opipari|first=Ben|date=7 January 2011|title=Colin Newman, Wire|url=https://www.songwritersonprocess.com/blog/2011/01/07/colin-newman-wire|access-date=2 February 2023|website=Songwriters on Process}}</ref>

==Reception== {{Album ratings | title = | subtitle = | state = <!-- Reviewers --> | MC = 77/100<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/red-barked-tree/wire|title = Red Barked Tree by Wire|publisher = Metacritic}}</ref> | rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref name=AllMusic>{{cite news | author= j. poet | title=Red Barked Tree – Wire – Review | date = January 2011 | url=https://allmusic.com/album/red-barked-tree-r2082649/review | publisher= AllMusic | accessdate= 21 February 2011}}</ref> | rev2 = BBC | rev2Score = (favourable)<ref name=BBC /> | rev3 = Robert Christgau | rev3score = {{Rating-Christgau|hm2}}<ref name="Robert Christgau">{{cite web |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Wire |title=Wire |author=Robert Christgau |author-link=Robert Christgau |publisher=robertchristgau.com |accessdate=5 September 2013}}</ref> | rev4 =musicOMH | rev4Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name=musicOMH>{{cite news | author= Helen Clarke | title=Wire – Red Barked Tree | date = January 2011 | url=http://www.musicomh.com/albums/wire_0111.htm | publisher= MusicOMH | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> | rev5 =''New Zealand Herald'' | rev5Score = (4/5)<ref name=Zea /> | rev6 =''NME'' | rev6Score = (8/10)<ref name=NME>{{cite news | author= Luke Turner | title=Album Review: Wire – Red Barked Tree (Pink Flag). The cult concern's 12th record is unrelenting, witty pop | date = 17 January 2011 | url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/wire/11793 | work= NME | accessdate= 14 February 2011}}</ref> | rev7 =''Pitchfork'' | rev7Score = (8.0/10)<ref name=pitch /> | rev8 =PopMatters | rev8Score = {{Rating|8|10}}<ref name=PopM /> | rev9 =''Rave Magazine'' | rev9Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name=Rave>{{cite news | author = Matt Thrower | title = WIRE – Red Barked Tree | date = 1 February 2011 | url = http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/25037/180/ | work = Rave Magazine | accessdate = 14 February 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110301192644/http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/25037/180/ | archive-date = 1 March 2011 | url-status = dead }}</ref> | rev10 =''The Independent'' | rev10Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name=Indep>{{cite news | author = Andy Gill | title = Album: WIRE, Red Barked Tree (Pink Flag) | date = 7 January 2011 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-wireed-barked-tree-pink-flag-2177857.html | work = The Independent | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> }} The album has been well received by critics. The BBC review by Garry Mulholland described the record as "40 minutes of gorgeous nothings, full of intricate curlicues of sparkling Colin Newman guitar and synth given beef by the surging rhythms of Robert Grey aka Gotobed and Graham Lewis [...] if you love alternative guitar music, you will love this, because Wire play alternative guitar music better than any young British band you can name."<ref name=BBC>{{cite news | author=Garry Mulholland | title = Wire Red Barked Tree Review | date = 6 January 2011 | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/8z3q | publisher = BBC Music | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> PopMatters rated ''Red Barked Tree'' 8 out of 10, stating, "Selecting a standout track is no easy feat when there's so much to sink one's teeth into. [...] Over 11 tracks of fantastically unapproachable guitars and vocals, of deceivingly simple rhythms and unswerving purpose, Wire sound perfectly comfortable in their own skin and sense of history on ''Red Barked Tree''."<ref name=PopM>{{cite news | author = Crispin Kott | title = Wire: Red Barked Tree | date = 11 January 2011 | url=https://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/135632-wire-red-barked-tree/ | publisher = PopMatters | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> ''The Quietus'' described the record as "a Wire album, through and through [...] ''Red Barked Tree'' reclaims the essence of their best work – the irreverence, the serene self-assuredness and the melody, but it's their lesser recognized attribute – a gamely grace – that eclipses all else here [...] as products of the post-punk generation their songs are full of contradictions: simultaneously friendly and unfamiliar; arithmetical but rolling; and rabble-rousing but vaguely neutral. The overall outcome is a sound much like a summer cold – woebegone and chilled but caressed with ripples of tingly heat, valanced by Newman's nacreous rhythm guitar that twirls through the wet, refined production beautifying everything it touches."<ref name=QuietusCalvert>{{cite news | author = John Calvert | title = Wire – Red Barked Tree | date = 21 January 2011 | work= The Quietus | url=http://thequietus.com/articles/05578-wire-red-barked-tree-review | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> The ''Pitchfork'' review by Stuart Berman noted the presence of acoustic guitars in three tracks and the record's "impulsive stylistic shifts – from mechanized thrash to psychedelic folk to nervy power-pop – mirror[ing] the 'age of fragmentation' that Colin Newman is railing against. [...] Wire have successfully reinvented themselves, this time as wise elder statesmen cautioning against a world where over-reliance on GPS systems has replaced the basic survivalist skill of knowing your map references."<ref name=pitch>{{cite news | author = Stuart Berman | title = Wire – Red Barked Tree | date = 13 January 2011 | url= https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14950-red-barked-tree/ | work = Pitchfork| accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref>

The ''New Zealand Herald'' gave the record four stars out of five, stating that "aside from disconcerting lyrics throughout which are droll and sometimes sharply witty – there are blasts of their more recent musical menace here too: 'Two Minutes' is a mad but disciplined guitar thrash; 'Moreover' and 'Smash' are crafted Erasehead-grind metallic pop; the brooding 'Down to This' rides on electrostatic and repeated guitar and keyboard phrases. Smart, sharp, approachable and economic, Wire again give art-rock a very good name."<ref name=Zea>{{cite news | author = Graham Reid | title = Album Review: Wire Red Barked Tree | date = 27 January 2011 | url= http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment-reviews/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502967&objectid=10702188 | work = The New Zealand Herald | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> The ''Kansas City Star'' commented, "virtually all aspects of Wire's varied history are covered, creating a stylistic best-of composed of new material. It may be the band's best work since 1979's ''154''. [...] If influence were sufficient currency to buy one's way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Wire would be a contender. You can count bands as diverse as R.E.M., Guided By Voices, the Manic Street Preachers, Minor Threat and the Cure as among those who confess a fondness for Wire that extends to inspiration. ''Red Barked Tree'' demonstrates that Wire can be a sustained influence; it's a most worthy addition to the band's estimable catalog."<ref name=Kansas>{{cite news | author = Steve Wilson | title = Wire stays true to form on new album, 'Red Barked Tree' | date = 12 January 2011 | url = http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/12/2577460/new-audio-releases.html | work = Kansas City Star | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> ''The Independent'' gave the album a 4-star rating, stating that "on this showing, the feral rage of [Wire's] punk youth has matured into a pleasingly poised disaffection, with no loss of acuity,"<ref name=Indep /> while ''The Guardian'', reviewing a live performance, concluded that ''Red Barked Tree'' sees Wire "operating at full strength. Theirs are succinct and eloquent songs; in a long career Wire continue to deal in short, sharp shocks."<ref>{{ cite news | author = JR | title = This week's new live music: Wire, London | date = 8 January 2011 | url= https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jan/08/this-weeks-new-live-music | work = The Guardian | accessdate= 8 February 2011}}</ref> The review by Tim Klingbiel on Australian music website FasterLouder noted that from "seething political references to prophetic statements about the environment. ''Red Barked Tree'' deals with a range of subjects in a magnificently compelling and thought provoking way", adding that the record "serves as an indication that Wire have returned to form in a massive way, and remain just as relevant today as they were 35 years ago".<ref name=SQ>{{ cite news | author = Tim Klingbiel (SlowerQuieter) | title = Wire – Red Barked Tree | date = 10 January 2011 | url= http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/reviews/music/27387/Wire--Red-Barked-Tree | publisher = FasterLouder | accessdate= 23 February 2011}}</ref> By contrast, longtime music critic Robert Christgau remarked in a two-star review, "Even formalists get the grays, well – especially formalists."<ref name="Robert Christgau"/> AllMusic reviewer "j. poet" considered the album "another strong effort", but commented, "While Wire is still making music that shatters expectations, after 30 years they're sounding a lot like the mainstream rockers they once despised."<ref name="AllMusic"/> ''Mojo'' placed the album at number 48 on its list of the "Top 50 Albums of 2011".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://stereogum.com/894362/mojos-top-50-albums-of-2011/list/ | title=MOJO's Top 50 Albums of 2011 | publisher=Stereogum | date=2 December 2011 | accessdate=16 December 2011}}</ref> ''Classic Rock'' reviewer John Doran awarded the album 8 points out of 10 and defined it as "yet another post-80s success of Wire."<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Doran| first1 = John |title = Classic Rock | chapter= Wire – Red Barked Tree| volume = 154 | date = February 2011 | page = 87}}</ref>

==Track listing== {{Track listing | all_writing = Wire | title1 = Please Take | length1 = 3:50 | title2 = Now Was | length2 = 2:23 | title3 = Adapt | length3 = 2:51 | title4 = Two Minutes | length4 = 2:00 | title5 = Clay | length5 = 3:12 | title6 = Bad Worn Thing | length6 = 3:33 | title7 = Moreover | length7 = 4:34 | title8 = A Flat Tent | length8 = 2:15 | title9 = Smash | length9 = 3:55 | title10 = Down to This | length10 = 4:56 | title11 = Red Barked Trees | length11 = 5:34 }}

;Bonus EP ''Strays'' {{Track listing | title1 = Boiling Boy | note1 = original studio version from ''A Bell Is a Cup... Until It Is Struck'', 1988 | length1 = 6:23 | title2 = German Shepherds | note2 = original studio version from ''It's Beginning To And Back Again'', 1989 | length2 = 4:31 | title3 = He Knows | note3 = previously unrecorded | length3 = 4:42 | title4 = Underwater Experiences | note4 = a live recording was included on the ''Document and Eyewitness'' live album, 1981 | length4 = 2:16 }} ''Strays'' was recorded in November 2010 at Resident Studios in London and performed by Wire, augmented by guitarists Matthew Simms and Margaret Fiedler McGinnis.{{sfn|Neate|2013|p=386}}

==Personnel== Adapted from the album liner notes.<ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=Red Barked Tree |others=Wire |year=2011 |type=album liner notes |publisher=Pinkflag |id=PF 18}}</ref>

{{Col-begin}} {{Col-break}} ;Wire * Colin Newman – vocals, guitar, various, mixing * Graham Lewis – bass, vocals, various * Robert Grey – drums {{Col-break}} ;Production * Sean Douglas – engineer (at Resident Studios) * Andy Ramsay – engineer (at Press Play Studios) * Denis Blackham – mastering * Jon Wozencroft – art direction, photography * Jannis Kounellis – cover image (''Untitled'', 2010) {{col-end}}

==Charts== {| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:center" |- ! scope="col"| Chart (2011) ! scope="col"| Peak<br/>position |- {{album chart|BillboardHeatseekers|49|artist=Wire|rowheader=true|accessdate=15 April 2016}} |- |}

==References== {{Reflist}}

===Sources=== * {{cite book |first=Wilson |last=Neate |year=2013 |title=Read and Burn: A Book About Wire |publisher=Jawbone |location=London |isbn=978-1-908279-33-0}}

==External links== * [http://www.pinkflag.com/read/discography/red-barked-tree.php Red Barked Tree] – Lyrics and reviews on pinkflag.com * [http://thequietus.com/articles/05417-wire-red-barked-tree "Wire's Track-By-Track Guide To Red Barked Tree"], ''The Quietus'' (interview by Wilson Neate with Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Grey) * [http://thequietus.com/articles/05547-wire-interview-red-barked-tree "Seeing Red & Still Barking: Wire Interviewed"], ''The Quietus'' (interview by Tim Burrows with Wire) * {{Discogs master |master=301836 |name=Red Barked Tree |type=album }}

{{Wire}}

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Category:2011 albums Category:Self-released albums Category:Wire (band) albums