10 Greatest Bands Who Mixed Music Genres

There’s a strong argument to be made that Wire’s debut Pink Flag is the best punk album ever made. In true punk spirit, the group tears through 21 tracks in 35 minutes, taking shots at the government, the record business, poseurs, and more oblique matters. The immensely influential record proved their mettle, and they could have trotted out the same album again and again for years to come.

Instead, they immediately tore up the blueprint and started again. Sophomore effort Chairs Missing is every bit as good, but with a stretched, avant garde sound on the jittery “Heartbeat”, a space rock vibe on “I Am The Fly” and even a genuinely pretty pop track, “Outdoor Miner”.

Wire have reinvented themselves time and again in the interim. 1979’s 154 is more experimental still. Later they’d embrace electronic music, most notably on A Bell Is A Cup, the finest of their mid period albums.

As elder statesmen of punk and beyond, they remain in a state of flux, equally at home releasing restrained rock as bursts of noise. They’re unclassifiable, basically, which is probably just how they like it.