Wire’s career, up to the early ’00s at least, was defined by extended periods of creativity followed by several years of inactivity. Though the hiatus years outnumbered the active ones, once they put the effort into recording again, they did it at an annual clip, sometimes putting out two releases in the same year. But that all slowed down a bit on their third go-round, as Bruce Gilbert quit after a disagreement about the band’s business practices. Ultimately, the group decided to continue recording their next album as a trio — while enlisting Laika’s Margaret Fiedler as a touring guitarist — and, five years after 2003’s Send, emerged with the 47th item in their catalog, appropriately titled Object 47.

Something certainly seems missing on Object 47, though it’s hard to point directly to Bruce Gilbert as being that element. It sure sounds like Wire, in some kind of middle ground between Send’s aggressive industrial punk and The Ideal Copy’s art-pop gloss, but much more straightforward. It’s not a stretch to say that this is the most normal sounding album from a band interested in being anything but. What’s missing is the abstract and artful twist that made Wire’s early post-punk records unique among a fertile landscape of melodic expressionists. And yet, the album is perfectly enjoyable on its own; divorced from the context of what came before, Object 47 is actually pretty good. It’s certainly one of their catchiest hours, and though early singles like “Ex Lion Tamer” and “I Am the Fly” proved the band capable of sing-along accessibility, they’ve never sounded quite so polished or radio-friendly as they do here. Save for some of the feedback squalls provided by Helmet’s Page Hamilton, there are few truly challenging moments. And that’s something a band like Wire can get away with from time to time — just so long as they don’t make a habit out of it.