| A Bell Is a Cup… Until It Is Struck | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Wire |
| Cover: | WireABellIsACup.jpg |
| Released: | May 1988 |
| Recorded: | December 1987 Live tracks recorded 1 December 1987 at the Town and Country Club, London, with the Manor Mobile |
| Studio: | Preußen Tonstudio, Berlin, West Germany |
| Length: | 44:11 (LP) 70:19 (CD) |
| Label: | Mute, Enigma |
| Producer: | Gareth Jones |
| Chronology: | Wire studio album |
| Prev Title: | The Ideal Copy |
| Prev Year: | 1987 |
| Next Title: | It's Beginning To And Back Again |
| Next Year: | 1989 |
A Bell Is a Cup... Until It Is Struck is the fifth studio album by the British post-punk group Wire.
In 1989, the Trouser Press Record Guide described the album as "a stylized set of dreamscapes and consciousness streams… It's arguably Wire's most ruminative album, and while immersion in it won't, as 'Silk Skin Paws' suggests, 'wring your senses' – that's more a job for Chairs Missing – it will twirl your lobes a time or two."[1] However, in a later edition, Trouser Press held a more critical view, writing "Wire stayed the dance-pop course with diminishing results on A Bell Is a Cup."[2]
At the time of the album's release, Wire faced accusations that they had abandoned their earlier rough-edged sound for a softer, more refined style.[3] Graham Lewis dismissed such criticism:
AllMusic gave the album a laudatory review, describing the record as "arguably Wire's best album and certainly its most accessible… a work of modern rock genius."
The sculpture shown is the Selene horse from the Parthenon Marbles.
All tracks published by Stainless Music.The CD version appends the following tracks: