Wire - "You Hung Your Lights in the Trees/A Craftsman's Touch"

This ten-minute epic is Wire's ultimate artistic achievement; in the thirty-four years since its release, they've created nothing that surpasses it. Graham Lewis's lyric refers to the (probably legendary) practice of 18th- and 19th-century Bahamian wreckers deliberately luring ships to destruction, but in emotional terms the song seems to embody some grander, more abstract human tragedy, perhaps the end of a civilization and the dim hope of resurrection: "For those who could not flee / Belief in a promised release."

Robert Grey notes the track's strange resonance: "Untypical Wire song, has insistent and hypnotic rhythm, melancholy tone, mysterious story. What is this crime? Who came to grief? Who is betrayed? Only the lights in the trees are left to tell us how many."

Graham Lewis - vocal (primary) & various instruments
Colin Newman - vocal (secondary) & various instruments
Bruce Gilbert - various instruments
Robert Grey (Gotobed) - drum machine programming

From the album MANSCAPE (Mute, 1990). Produced by David M. Allen; composed by Wire.

(Photo: yujeong Huh)