“Ahead” by Wire

"Ahead" was the single pulled from The Ideal Copy, the fourth studio album Wire put out on Mute in April 1987 and their first full-length since the 1980–1985 hiatus. Colin Newman, Bruce Gilbert, Graham Lewis and Robert Gotobed wrote it together and play it, Newman and Gilbert on guitars, Lewis on bass and Gotobed on drums, with Gareth Jones producing.

Back from the break, Wire leaned harder into sequencers, synths and drum machines, and the New Order comparisons followed. One critic, Kirk Fillmore, heard Peter Hook in Lewis's bass on "Ahead", never mind that Lewis had played that way on earlier Wire records. Journalist Richard Grabel had the better point: New Order and plenty of other synth-and-guitar bands had taken their cues from late-'70s Wire in the first place, so the wheel had simply come all the way round.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.