The title of Wire’s latest album refers to its position as the 47th item in the British art-punks’ catalog, an unwise designation considering it reminds us how much peripheral material the band has released since its initial LP trio of 1977’s Pink Flag, 1978’s Chairs Missing and 1979’s 154. Though moments of brilliance have been sprinkled among what has followed—principally on 1988’s A Bell Is a Cup … Until It Is Struck and 2003’s Send—fair assessors of Wire’s output would surely agree that the three ’70s full-lengths remain the only truly seminal releases.

Object 47 carries on that worth-hearing-but-not-nearly-essential tradition. Though several individual songs, such as bouncy, bassy opener “One of Us” and the high-speed chase scene-worthy “Perspex Icon” (the manic twin of “The 15th” off 154 if ever there was one), demand repeated spins, the majority of the 35-minute disc glides by without particular distinction. It’s simply more of what we’ve come to expect from post-Chairs Wire—the electro-tinged, lyrically opaque, timeworn-yet-strangely-futuristic sound of post-punk Great Britain.

It might be easy to chalk Object’s shortcomings up to the recent departure of founding guitarist Bruce Gilbert, but while the absence of his noisy vision might explain the cleaner overall sound, he’s been onboard for plenty of spotty efforts in the past. Don’t give up on a Wire renaissance just yet, though; sneering closing cut “All Fours” hints all the way back to Pink Flag, and ahead to a next chapter that, as always, will at least merit our attention.

The bottom line: ***