History and transformation are, understandably, recurring themes in the new lyrics on Change Becomes Us, and it's a treat to have this missing link in the Wire story repaired
Change Becomes Us is, in some ways, the representative Wire record, bringing together the band’s three periods into one very neat release.
“Re-Invent Your Second Wheel”, in particular, and Change Becomes You, in general, prove that a band like Wire isn’t about repeating history, but making more of it.
While revisiting old material is often seen as a sign of artistic death -- especially for a band as innovative as Wire -- they handle it creatively on Change Becomes Us.
As process-oriented as Marcel Duchamp, they've turned creaky blueprints into jumping-off points for wholly re-imagined pop tunes.
Because they write interesting but still enjoyable songs, as they do consistently on Change Becomes Us, they make their music worth coming back to again and again.
By tying together new ideas with some old string, Change Becomes Us builds on the band’s iconoclastic tradition, further ensuring that the energy it’s put into producing one of the most challenging, curious, and appealing catalogs in the underground rock cannon hasn’t been for naught.
The songs are for the most part excellent, with a few tracks genuinely worthy of inclusion on their incendiary debut releases Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154; in several cases it's a wonder why this wasn’t attempted earlier.
Overall ‘Change…’ lacks Wire’s usual focus.
Wire’s Change Becomes Us is yet another very weird LP from the group. It utilizes some of their much older sounds to produce a strangely modern sounding album. It’s definitely one of their most eccentric releases in its styles. The instrumentation certainly isn’t anything new at all, but it’s still enjoyable. I personally don’t quite understand the themes and such thrown here and about in this series of tracks, but it’s cool and I definitely can respect the ... read more
It's not exactly a comeback, and it's not really a collection of lost tracks. It uses old material, certainly, but somehow the songs feel fresh and vibrant. It feels like an album that could have come out in the late 70's or 2013, honestly. There are a lot of spellbinding moments, and a few that don't leave a huge impression at first, but overall, this is a very good piece of work.
#34 | / | The Quietus |