WIRE: Chairs Missing Vinyl LP

The record where Wire proved Pink Flag wasn't a fluke -- and started pulling apart what punk could mean.

Chairs Missing (1978) keeps the songcraft of the debut but opens up the arrangements, bringing in synths, longer song lengths, and a colder, more deliberate sense of menace. "Outdoor Miner" is the closest thing to a hit single Wire ever wrote -- a gorgeous, almost weightless pop song buried inside a record otherwise full of clipped aggression and dread. It's the hinge between the band's punk origins and the more abstract, art-rock territory of 154.