Things You Need to Hear Vol.1 • Pink Flag by WIRE

Pink Flag is the first album by the band Wire, released in 1977. Upon its release, Robert Christgau called it a “punk suite” and praised its “simultaneous rawness and detachment” and detected a rock-and-roll irony similar to but “much grimmer and more frightening” than the Ramones. Trouser Press called it “a brilliant 21-song suite” in which the band “manipulated classic rock song structure by condensing them into brief, intense explosions of attitude and energy, coming up with a collection of unforgettable tunes”. Although the album was released to critical acclaim, it was not a big seller. Today the album is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest albums of all time. Music journalist, Stuart Maconie, described it as “by the standards of the time it was extraordinary. But I now realise that by the standards of any time, it’s extraordinary”. The album was listed at number 410 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003.

The sleeve concept is credited to B.C. Gilbert and Graham Lewis. The cover is a photo by Annette Green of a flagless flagpole with the pink flag painted on.