Change Becomes Us

Adding touring guitarist Matthew Sims to Wire's studio adventure ensured that Change Becomes Us is among the most sonically rewarding albums in the band's catalog. The walls of sound are dense and packed with subtle variations hiding in the chaos. Never shy on strategy, Wire entered Rockfield Studios in Wales in the spring of 2012 to review the bits and pieces of unresolved songs it had often played at live shows back in 1979 and 1980; subsequent sessions at Colin Newman's Swim Studios broke open the codes. A rambunctious shout-out celebration from Wire's February 1980 concert at the Electric Ballroom in Camden called "Zegk Hoqp" morphed into the careful and beautiful "Re-Invent Your Second Wheel." "Love Bends" stems from an exercise Wire fans know as "Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)"; both early songs appeared on the live album Document and Eyewitness. Change Becomes Us isn't a conceptual art project; it's a fully executed new album jammed with the melodic ideas that made Wire's first trio of albums stone classics, but the sound here ("As We Go," "& Much Besides") is beyond lush and detailed.