Wire
reaped rich creative rewards in the 2010s by revisiting and reinventing their past. On 2013's
Change Becomes Us
, the band gave a batch of songs from 1979 and 1980 the studio treatment with results that balanced their art-punk heyday and their more contemplative 21st century sound brilliantly.
don't look back quite as far on the mini-album
Nocturnal Koreans
, but their (re)inventive spirit serves them well once again. They developed these songs while working on 2015's
, setting them aside to add more elaborate sonics, or as the band put it, "studio trickery." Sometimes this trickery is subtle: "Nocturnal Koreans" takes
's whispery intensity in a slightly lusher direction, serving as a bridge between that album and more elaborate tracks like "Internal Exile," which incorporates lap steel and trumpet -- two instruments not usually associated with the band's palette -- into an anthem of futility that imbues
's 2010s malaise with a more organic, affecting feel. While
may be more embellished, there's no filler within its 26 minutes. Interestingly, it's also more immediate than its more straightforward predecessor.
's songs were so cohesive that they took several listens to penetrate fully, but hearing the band widen its sounds and moods -- and subvert expectations -- offers instant gratification. The jabbing riffs on "Numbered"'s verses (as well as lyrics like "You think I'm a number/Still willing to rhumba") are classic
, and are soon overtaken by a galloping Krautrock beat and droning electronics. Meanwhile, "Still"'s doubled drums and major chords give it a swagger that nevertheless feels of a piece with the band's incisive, questioning attitude.
also finds
expressing that attitude with more emotional range than they have in a while, whether on the haunting "Forward Position," where
Colin Newman
intones "I am black box, I remember/Every promise that you broke," or on the surreal "Fishes Bones," where
Graham Lewis
' declamatory vocals lead the rest of the band into increasingly psychedelic territory. Even if
' sound isn't always textbook
, its imagery and wit most certainly are, making the album much more than the collection of leftovers its origins might have suggested. ~ Heather Phares