A Bell Is a Cup... Until It Is Struck

Infobox Album | Name = A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck
Type = Album
Artist = Wire


Released = May 1988
Recorded = 1987
Genre = Post-punk/Electronic
Length = 70:20
Label = Mute Records
Producer = Gareth Jones
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:oko7gjvrj6iw~T0 link]
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|4|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/wire/albums/album/129933/review/5946218/a_bell_is_a_cup_until_it_is_struck link]
*Robert Christgau (B+) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=wire link]

Last album = "The Ideal Copy"
(1987)
This album = "A Bell Is A Cup...Until It Is Struck"
(1988)
Next album = "It's Beginning To And Back Again"
(1989) |

"A Bell Is a Cup ... Until It Is Struck" is a 1988 album by the British art punk/electronic group Wire.

Critical response

In 1989, the "Trouser Press Record Guide" described the album as "a stylized set of dreamscapes and consciousness streams.... It's arguably Wire's most ruminative album, and while immersion in it won't, as 'Silk Skin Paws' suggests, 'wring your senses' – that's more a job for "Chairs Missing" – it will twirl your lobes a time or two." [cite book|last=Green|first=Jim|editor=Ira A. Robbins|title=The Trouser Press Record Guide|edition=third edition|year=1989|publisher=Collier Books|location=New York|isbn=0-02-036370-2|pages=p. 632|chapter=Wire] However, in a later edition, "Trouser Press" held a more critical view, writing that "Wire stayed the dance-pop course with diminishing results on "A Bell Is a Cup"." [cite web|url=http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=wire|title=Wire|accessmonthday=June 5|accessyear=2007|last=DeRogatis|first=Jim|authorlink=Jim DeRogatis|coauthors=Wilson Neate|work=Trouser Press|publisher=Trouser Press LLC]

At the time of the album's release, Wire faced accusations that they had abandoned their earlier rough-edged sound for a softer, more refined style.Citation|last=Balfour|first=Brad|month=August|year=1988|title=Wire|periodical=Reflex Magazine|volume=1|issue=6|pages=p. 33] Graham Lewis dismissed such criticism: "This is a fallacy.... When [Wire's early albums] were released, they were considered more polished than other records at the time. Every record that's been made, the same criticism of being less abrasive has been leveled at it. The abrasion is actually in the content – both lyrics and sound."

"Allmusic" gave the album a laudatory review, describing the record as "arguably Wire's best album and certainly its most accessible" and "a work of modern rock genius." [Allmusicguide|id=10:3bfpxqu5ldse~T1|label=Review]

Track listing

All titles by Wire, published by Stainless Music.
# "Silk Skin Paws"
# "The Finest Drops"
# "The Queen of Ur and the King of Um"
# "Free Falling Divisions"
# "It's a Boy"
# "Boiling Boy"
# "Kidney Bingos"
# "Come Back In Two Halves"
# "Follow the Locust"
# "A Public Place"The CD version appends the following tracks:

11. "The Queen of Ur and the King of Um" (alternative version)
12. "Pieta"
13. "Over Theirs" (live)
14. "Drill" (live)

Musicians

*Bruce Gilbert
*Robert Gotobed
*Graham Lewis (credited as "Lewis")
*Colin Newman

References