REVIEW: Basement - Wired
- Amber Brooks
- May 11
- 3 min read
BASEMENT is the tried-and-true example of letting their music speak for them. Returning to the heavy scene back in March with their first music in eight years, the British alt-rockers released dual tracks, Wired and Broken By Design. A statement piece of contradictions, shifting violently between elation and suffocation, the tracks complement each other in their own controlled chaos - as one agitates deeply, the other seeks to soothe and find compromise. Pushed together, they charter a course of complex human tenderness, showcasing the beginning of their most heartfelt and ambitious project yet.
Their new record - also called Wired - is a nostalgia trip, heavy with deep-set fuzz akin to JIMMY EAT WORLD’s Bleed American. At times, it veers into their signature shoegaze sound, cautious to remind fans where the band came from, though it is met with a cacophony of well-placed genre twinges that move through the landscape just as much as the band does. Sometimes, they move so far that tracks like scene-stealer Pick Up The Pieces, their firecracker indie-rock anthem, do not sound like BASEMENT at all.
From the encroaching guitars that spur the beginning of opener Time Waster, this record starts as it means to go on - loud and unpredictable. A lot can be learned from the space the band have created, it’s lingering guilt, but aspiring need to live in the moment. As it flows into the headbanger single Wired, it feels like a band on the edge, on the cusp of spinning out of control.
We are clearly met with an older, more experienced BASEMENT. There’s still a complexity to how the record produces feeling, but it's mature and kinder to itself. It still rolls with the punches, but it's uplifting resilience that runs through Wired. As Deadweight offers deep-set grunge that can linger on their shoegaze roots, there’s no escape from those iconic piledriver guitars that dive headfirst into all-encompassing choruses. All with those conflicting moments of refrain that sweep up the record into a frenzy. There is so much to take in with this record that a review wouldn't do it justice.
Aside from how far away from what a listener would want a new BASEMENT record to feel, this has the same guts and ingenuity as the smalltown band from Ipswich releasing 2011’s I Wish I Could Stay Here. Reinvention is the best thing about this record. With pangs of these introspective guitar motifs that dance through the record, sauntering through reggaeton and indie to give it a timeless feel. There are multiple layers added with great care, oozing with self-confidence.
This is also a record of reflections, the first rejoining their original label, Run For Cover Records. In the summer, they returned to the BEC Arena to reheadline Outbreak after a showstopping performance in 2024. Guitarist Alex Henery’s continued work providing visuals for the TURNSTILE tour moved into a supporting slot with them in Australia and New Zealand, alongside the release of two LPs with shoegaze supergroup FIDDLEHEAD. In all the time the band have been away from new music, they’ve been pushing a new path, choosing exactly what they want to be, and this sentiment is a blazing Hail Mary throughout Wired.
And still, when they are met with their hometown crowds in the UK, playing some of the new record during their tour last year, there is a fantastic moment of elation and release - not just through the seismic resurgence of Covet that blossomed on TikTok ten years after it was released, but in the desire for music that reflects the maturing audience that has grown up with them. Wired is the record that their audience needs it to be.
Rating: 9/10
Words: Amber Brooks
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