Album · Wire
It’s Beginning to and Back Again by Wire
It’s Beginning to and Back Again is an album by Wire, released in 1989. 1 song from it has charted on rock radio countdowns, with 5 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Eardrum Buzz”, on 5 lists with a best position of #62.
It's Beginning to and Back Again, Wire's sixth album, came out in May 1989, and it's the art-punk veterans taking their own songs apart and rebuilding them from spare parts. Half the record reworks live performances of material from A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck, recorded in Chicago, Portugal and London, then dismantled and remixed by the band in the studio, with John Fryer producing.
Colin Newman and Graham Lewis share the vocals, Newman on guitar and Lewis on bass, with Bruce Gilbert on guitar and Robert Gotobed on drums, and the result is chilly, looping, machine-tooled post-punk. The title comes from a line in "German Shepherds". The unlikely payoff was "Eardrum Buzz", a wiry, maddeningly catchy single that became the most successful of their career, reaching No. 2 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart, while in Britain it got to No. 68.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from It’s Beginning to and Back Again on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eardrum Buzz | 5 | #62 | – | 1989–2023 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.