''It Seems'' is the fifth studio album by

Colin Newman Colin John Newman (born 16 September 1954) is an English musician, record producer and record label owner. He is best known as the primary vocalist and songwriter for the post-punk band Wire. Early life Newman was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire ...

, lead singer of

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

band

Wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is c ...

. It was released in 1988 by

Crammed Discs Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released around 375 albums and 275 ...

. ''It Seems'' built on the reflective and highly orchestrated of his 1986 album '' Commercial Suicide'', albeit with far more use of

sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

s – something Newman would continue to work with for a number of years. Both ''Commercial Suicide'' and ''It Seems'' featured

Malka Spigel Malka Spigel (Hebrew: מלכה שפיגל, born 19 July 1954) is a London-based Israeli musician and artist. She was founding member of the Israeli-Belgian rock band Minimal Compact. She has also worked as a solo musician and as a visual artist, ...

, who married Newman in 1986, and who has been included in all subsequent solo and collaborative work.

Critical reception

The album received positive reviews.

Jim Derogatis James Peter DeRogatis (born September 2, 1964) is an American music critic and co-host of ''Sound Opinions''. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as ''Rolling Stone'', '' Spin'', ''Guitar World'' and ''Modern Drummer'', and for 15 ...

and Wilson Neate, writing in ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'', said that ''It Seems'' built on what they called the "spacious, minimalist approach" of Newman's 1986 album '' Commercial Suicide'', saying that ''It Seems'' "refines this sound and has several songs ('Quite Unrehearsed,' 'Round & Round' and the title track) that are as striking as anything Wire recorded." Neate, writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, noted the album's "serene, reflective quality" and said that it "laid the foundation" for Newman's subsequent exploration of electronic music. '' Option'' magazine called it "dreamily beautiful."

Track listing

Personnel

* Colin Newman – instruments, vocals *

– instruments, vocals * John Bonnar – instruments, vocals *

Robert Gotobed Robert Grey (born 21 April 1951) is an English musician best known as the drummer for Wire. He is sometimes credited as Robert Gotobed. Career In 1973, Grey joined his first band, an R&B group called the Snakes, as vocalist. The Snakes released ...

– drums * Luc van Lieshout – trumpet * Rino Christ – French horn * Jean-Paul Danhier – trombone * Marc Hollander – clarinet * Engineered by Giles Martin * Produced by Colin Newman and Giles Martin

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:It Seems 1988 albums Colin Newman albums Post-punk albums by English artists Crammed Discs albums