The Colin Newman led rock band Wire have released a new song titled “Prime & Ready,” from their upcoming album, Mind Hive, which will be released on January 24th via the band’s own label pinkflag. This will be the band’s 17th studio album, and will highlight what the band has to offer in their over 40 year career.

“Prime & Ready” is a straight-ahead post-punk track with simple yet heavy guitar chords and a dark and gritty vocal delivery from Newman. This track serves as a throwback to the band’s proto-post-punk sound, which they helped pioneer, with its minimal instrumentation brooding tone and lyrics.

“’Primed & Ready’ was the easiest song to write on the album, written in less time than it takes to play it,” Newman explained in a press release.”There’s nothing remotely “clever” about the chord sequence / structure and there’s only three chords, 2 in the verse & 1 in the chorus. As in all things Wire ‘less is more.'”

Mind Hive was announced last year alongside the release of the project’s lead single and music video titled “Cactused.” Another project from the group titled Pink Flag, Chairs Missing & 154 Reissues was released back in 2018 and showcased some of the band’s most memorable moments throughout their decades spanning career.

“Wire represents a feature in punk culture that is often forgotten in modern day interpretations – the idea of being different. In the current state of the genre and in its past where punk bands often sound similar to their forefathers, Wire represents an ethos that punk was born from and these three records showcase that differentiation and innovation for the genre,” mxdwn reviewer Christopher Fastiggi explained.