The inevitable danger of writing a song about or informed by technology — especially one through a satirical or socio-political lens — is the possibility that it’s going to sound just as dated as the technology it indicts. So it’s even stranger that Wire — who long avoided such traps in the past — should begin their 15th album with a song called “Blogging,” which references “Google star maps,” “Amazon wishlists,” and “BlackBerry hedge funds.” On one hand, Colin Newman is just having fun with language, much like he did in a song like “Kidney Bingos,” but it still feels a bit jarring. Wire have mostly (there are only a few exceptions) felt both timeless and ageless throughout their career, so why put a halt to that now?

It’s not that “Blogging” is a bad song — it’s just a bit silly, which is a well that Wire are increasingly willing to dip into, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a loose feel to Wire’s self-titled album, which in turn makes it more approachable than some of their weirder, if stronger releases. But it’s also solid; the album picks up a considerable amount of steam as it goes along, surging into a dreamily immediate pop sound in the standout “In Manchester,” descending into a sinister and tense dirge on the seven-minute “Sleep-Walking,” and knocking down another excellent punk-pop number in a brief, streamlined two minutes in “Joust & Jostle.” Wire cover a fair amount of ground here — at least as much as they have on their last two albums — and do so while mostly sticking to a simple, pop-forward approach. That might not be that exciting when held against their most innovative records, but considering Wire spent so much of their career avoiding playing pop music, there’s something kind of refreshing about hearing them take to it so readily.