Basement - WIRED Review
In some people’s books, eight years is a long time to leave between releasing new music but as the saying goes, good things come to those that wait. It’s something that rings entirely true when it comes to Basement’s new album WIRED. A return to Run For Cover, the label that launched their career, these are 12 songs that are the act of a group redefining themselves and finally making something that feels truly ‘them’.
Over the years, the five piece have become known for frenzied guitar driven melodies and a general feeling of angst present in both Andrew Fisher’s delivery and lyrics but for the most part, the songs that make up this album are a push outside of what they’re comfortable with and what fans have kind of come to expect. Sure, there are elements of classic Basement here like on opener ‘Time Waster’ and ‘Deadweight’ where these features are taken and ramped up to a level beyond what they’ve done previously but never to a level where they feel too polished or interfered with whilst the title track is the most urgent the five piece has ever sounded.
Working with producer John Congleton really opened up space for the five piece to experiment with what they wanted out of this record and also allowed them to get to a point where they were really comfortable collaborating not just as friends but as artists with their own individual, creative vision. With active encouragement from Congleton, each layer that makes up the tracks here were given time to be sifted through and refined into something everybody was happy with. No longer confined to the made up societal rules of how an album defined under a particular genre should sound, the group had fun with what they were making and dipped their toes into incorporating aspects of other genres. ‘Head Alight’ is perhaps the most notable here, it feels particularly dubby with its reverb dowsed prolonged chords.
Even with the sonic shift, the biggest change sits within Fisher’s songwriting. Where previously he has opted to be more self-depricating and less open within his lyricism, this time things are different. There’s no commentary on anything particular, no political statements, just someone writing from a vulnerable place as they navigate through the highs and lows the band have experienced as well as in their personal life too. ‘The Way I Feel’ finds its protagonist facing the moment just before you make a really important decision and wondering if you have the courage to stand up for yourself whilst simultaneously asking for forgiveness and to be understood. ‘Broken By Design’ is up there as one of the more emotionally weighted tracks on WIRED as it sees Fisher grapple with the idea of giving your all to a relationship that is destined to fail. Nostalgia for an easier time takes hold until by the end of the track, where there’s a sense of gratitude for the lessons that period of time brought with it.
‘Summer’s End’ is a dreamy closer, yet another track that centres on wanting to feel seen, it perfectly encapsulates everything that Basement wanted WIRED to be when they started out on the long, complicated journey toward having a fifth album out in the world. WIRED teaches a powerful lesson about the importance of staying authentic to yourself and the art you want to create.