Wire was post-punk when there was still barely a punk to be post- about. Simple, yes—at times so stringently they sounded less like a rock band than monks ascetically scraping away at whatever they deemed unnecessary until an essence emerged. Even as they ventured into more self-consciously arty territory in the '80s—electronics, dissonance, ambient of a sort—their music retained a sense of anxiety and restraint that was instantly identifiable, the sound of a body twitching in its own skin. Make no mistake about their seriousness: Wire is serious. But they aren’t averse to being catchy, either—if anything, some of their best tracks had a perversely sing-along quality, like art music made into pub chants. Some bands experiment until they find a lane to settle in. Wire did, too. Then they experimented again. More than 40 years later, they remain restless, vital, and here.