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.

"[4] 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.

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.

[6] Graham Lewis dismissed such criticism:This is a fallacy… When [Wire's early albums] were released, they were considered more polished than other records at the time.