pink flag

Feeling rather nervous right now. In a few hours Arsenal will play Portsmouth, and on Tuesday it's Juventus at Highbury. In truth I'm rather skeptical of our chances in the Champions League, despite people raving about our European showings. It may be true that in Europe we're given a lot of more space to play, but the fact is, and this is a fact I'm ashamed of, I've sacrificed our progress to the semis for passing an exam I had about two weeks ago. I'm incredibly superstitious/irrational/stupid when it comes to these things. Hence me feeling incredibly nervous because if Arsenal were to lose on Tuesday it'll be my fault.

Anyway, this nervousness led me to play Pink Flag by Wire non stop for the last 3 hours. The sheer aggressiveness just overloads my senses, and thus renders me unable to mull over Arsenal. What really gets me though, is, despite the undeniably punk feel of the records, you can't help marveling at how different they all sound. The record itself was released in 1977, the year zero of indie music if you will, but they sound nothing like the Sex Pistolses or the Clasheses that made up the punk scene at that time ( not that I don't like them, mind you). I honestly thought Pink Wire was a eighties post punk album. As it turns out they started hardcore punk before the term was even coined!

The cohesiveness of Pink Flag is just amazing. The songs are short and straight to the point, with the longest one clocking at 3:47 and the shortest at 28 seconds. Boasting 21 tracks, they never lost their focus, and never bothered to repeat themselves. Every track is memorable, highlights includes Reuters, Three Girl Rumba, and my personal favorite, Champs. It's music stripped down to their very core. Awe inspiring and baffling in its simplicity. Definitely one of my favorite album ever. And one to help me get over yet another crisis in my short life.