Does 70s Post punk band Wire album Chairs Missing kind of sound like Syd Barrett era Pink floyd

Even BBC has compared Wire 1978 album chairs missing to Syd barrett
BBC - Music - Review of Wire - Pink Flag/Chairs Missing/154

 

Not as much as Robyn Hitchcock's band The Soft Boys

 

There indeed are a couple of obvious early-PF moments on Chairs Missing, but it would be a stretch to suggest that the entire album sounds like Floyd. I'd say it's a couple of tips of a hat rather than a full-blown tribute.

 

Back in the late 70s everybody was compared to Pink Floyd. Magazine got derided as Punk Floyd just because they dared to house "2nd Hand Daylight" in a... gasp!.. gatefoldcover!

Short answer: The only way Wire sound like the Floyd is if you use "Pink Floyd" as metaphor for an expanding sonic palette.

 

I've never made that connection.

 

Ha! I've thought that for a long time, was just now thinking about how "Astronomy Domine" would fit right in on 154 or Chairs Missing, so I googled "Wire Syd Barrett" and ended up here. I think a lot of post punk was picking up where psychedelia left off.

 

Graham Lewis acknowledged an influence there, although I couldn't provide a link as I don't recall where I have seen it. But I am sure of it.

I can hear it some places, particularly "Mercy."

 

Outdoor Miner has a Syd Barrett vibe going on.

 

No, not for me.

 

And Colin Newman denied it. He said he'd never listened to Syd Barrett, with or without Floyd, until people started comparing this album to him/them. There's definitely a lot of psychedelia on this album, so, you know, psychedelia tinged material sung in noticeably Southern English voices, no great surprise it gets compared to Syd/Floyd. The influence could be second hand, through Eno's vocal albums, which have always struck as having Barrettesque elements, but I've always thought the fact that they were signed to Harvest and their first album was called "Pink Flag" was too much of a coincidence to ignore.

 

No. I never heard Syd in there. I'm not even sure what aspect of it could be called 'Syd-like'. The lyrics, the phrasing, the tune, the sound, the guitar? None of them strike me as Syd-like.

I imagine the syllogistic thought process goes like this. A sneering punk British accent. It's definitely British. Syd was British and sung with a British accent, therefore The Wire are Syd-like.

I'm always struck how like The Homosexuals they (Wire) sounded at times. Now Bruno of the The Homosexuals was influenced by Syd in places. You can also specifically hear it on his solo single Sir Aleck and The Phaser.

 

There's not that much sneering punk going on "Chairs Missing" to be fair. Musically, a lot of the chord sequences are quite unusual, not your average rock/blues progressions, also quirky and surreal lyrics.

 

Was just refering to the attitude in the voice. I can hear it there. To be equally fair. Not a comment on musical form or gesture.

Maybe 'whiny ' is a better adjective than 'sneering'?