154 (album)

Release

154 reached number 39 on the UK Albums Chart, the band's highest charting position. The album first appeared on CD in 1987 via EMI Japan, and was reissued by Restless Records in 1989. Early vinyl copies included a bonus EP, whose tracks were added to the 1994 Harvest CD along with an extra bonus track. The 1996 remaster on Wire's Pinkflag label omitted extra tracks to preserve the original statements' conceptual clarity. A 2018 Pinkflag 3-CD special edition included the remastered album, 11 non-album tracks, and the 16-song 'Sixth' demo session.

Critical reception

In 1979, NME critic Nick Kent wrote that 154 makes most of the competition look feeble. Chris Westwood of Record Mirror stated that Wire were achieving things other more recognized names had been striving for. Melody Maker's Jon Savage called the album a musical tour de force. Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice in 1980, noted that predictions of the band turning into art-rockers no longer seemed cynical, and that while their gift for horrifying vignettes remained, slowing tempos and ventures toward orchestral textures did not enhance the vignettes' power.

Retrospectively, Steve Huey of AllMusic observed that 154 refines and expands Chairs Missing's innovations, with synthesizer effects playing a more integral role and little of Pink Flag's rawness remaining. Rolling Stone commented that the album continued to complicate Wire's sound with more elaborate arrangements and studio-enabled melodies. The Guardian's Dave Simpson called it an unexploded firework and a benchmark for unsettling adventures with guitars.

Influence and legacy

Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard has cited 154 as an influence, calling it a bolt of lightning and later stating in a 2014 Magnet interview that he considers it the greatest album of all time. The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr said the album provided a significant and long-lasting influence on his guitar playing, pointing away from blues-based guitar. R.E.M. lead vocalist Michael Stipe noted that the track 'The Other Window' gave him something to aspire to lyrically in the early 1980s. My Bloody Valentine, prior to reconvening in 2007, released a cover of 'Map Ref 41°N 93°W' for the Wire tribute Whore, which also included covers of other 154 tracks by Godflesh and Mike Watt. Fischerspooner covered 'The 15th' on their 2001 debut album. Treblezine listed 'The 15th' as an early and crucial example of shoegaze. In 2004, Pitchfork ranked 154 as the 85th best album of the 1970s.