BASEMENT - Wired

Basement, the Ipswich outfit, had accustomed us to a very different pace, releasing no fewer than four albums between 2011 and 2018, practically one every two years. Enough to make us think they'd called it quits; after all, that's what happens to so many indie cult bands that never truly break through.
And yet here they are, back after a full eight years, with what will very likely be remembered as their best record. Because on this "Wired", the most American band in the UK has managed to channel its mix of chunky grunge riffs, post-hardcore explosions and emo outbursts worthy of Sunny Day Real Estate into the catchiest, most exciting collection of songs they've ever pulled off.
It's easy to get carried away and make bold claims, but among these twelve new songs, all heart-in-throat urgency and guitars, there are at least four tracks that, had they come out at the right time, say fifteen years ago, we'd still be singing along to in packed arenas. But there are also a couple of formidable ballads and a few decent pit-starting gut-punches.

With their instantly catchy choruses - so instant they feel already familiar - and their punchy guitars, "Time Waster", "Wired" and "Satisfy" sound like classics to blast with the windows down, speeding off toward a holiday escape from the suburbs.
Vocalist Andrew Fisher's downcast fatalism takes the shape of a midwest-emo-inspired ballad on "Broken By Design". But "Wired" is a record of moods that shift with the wind, so just one track later, on the overexcited "Pick Up The Pieces", we're already picking up the pieces amid screaming guitars.
The pairing of "Embrace"/"Sever" follows the same pattern, with the first track flooding us with Nineties nostalgia and the second shaking us up with a seismic rhythm section.

There's no telling whether this unexpected return by the five-piece from Suffolk will grow their following, which would be only fair. What is certain is that their most devoted fans, who never stopped hoping for new music, now find themselves with the best material the band has ever made.

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16/07/2026