Album Review: Wire - Change Becomes Us
- Written by Rob Barker
It’s been two years since the release of Red Barked Tree, and Wire are back with the aptly named Change Becomes Us and it’s really pretty good. For the uninitiated, Wire formed back in 1976 during the first wave of punk, a style they took on board with their widely acclaimed 1977 debut Pink Flag, before adding their own abrasive, atmospheric sound, with some synths and guitar effects thrown in for good measure. Their idiosyncratic edge would eventually establish a singular take on the clamour that was going on around them, separating them from their post-punk contemporaries and becoming highly influential on the bands that proceeded them. Fast forward to Change Becomes Us' predecessor (that was an incredible condensed band history) and the band had progressed to a more rock focused aesthetic, with less emphasis on their previous experimentation.
The 'trick' with Change Becomes Us is that it seems as though Wire have made a massive leap from Red Barked Tree and yet it's not in the direction you'd expect. The jump has in fact been backwards, to revisit ideas from the late Seventies that only ever existed as quickly prepared sketches for one-off performances, but didn't effectively weld to music at the time. Here and now though each track has its own spark, catching your attention and drawing you in, as fresh as works wholly written in that gap since the last album. The opener, ‘Doubles & Trebles’, has an almost Pixies-like tone but with monotone, synthetic sounding vocals that also seem to reference the Borg, you really can’t go wrong with that combination.
One of the most enjoyable things about Change Becomes Us is the sheer amount of variety on offer, the album title seemingly referring to the change from one song to the next, as well as the marked difference from its predecessor. ‘Stealth Of A Stork’ is straight-up punk - the drum beat, the almost surf-like guitars used by greats such as Dead Kennedys - the vocal delivery, it’s all here. One track later on ‘B/W Silence’ and you’re met with acoustic guitars and string sections, tasteful bass and sparkling vocals.
It’s usually the given thing to name one album track the standout, either to give an example of the band’s sound as a whole, or to mark it above the rest in some way. This really isn't possible with Change Becomes Us: each track is so different from the last that they could all easily be from different records, yet they fit perfectly together, like a meticulously crafted mixtape - it just works.
If you've never heard Wire before, Change Becomes Us is in some ways a great place to start: it epitomizes much of the band’s sound, a sound that they've tinkered with for decades, giving you a look in on the various avenues of creativity that they have access to.With this much variety, and such a selection of songs that are frankly triumphant, it’s hard to see where Wire will go next to avoid taking a step backwards. With close to 40 years of experience under their belts and showing no signs of slowing down, it looks as though Wire will continue to surprise into, and past the half-century mark.
Change Becomes Us is out now and available from amazon