Basement with High Vis, Big Boy, First Day Back

Andrew Fisher (vocals) - Alex Henery (guitar) - Ronan Crix (guitar), Duncan Stewart (bass) James Fisher (drums) The fourth full-length from Basement, Beside Myself is an intimate look at the drawbacks of living in your own head, and the attempt to shake off everyday anxieties. “One of the things everyone in the band seems to struggle with is living fully in the present time,” says Andrew Fisher, who co-founded the Ipswich, England-bred five-piece in 2010. “We tend to look back on the past and think, ‘That was so much better than what’s going on now,’ or look toward the future and assume it’s going to be better than today. The title came from thinking about, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could stop yourself from doing that, and just appreciate the moment as it happens?’” But for all its intense introspection and confessions of self-consciousness, Beside Myself centers on a powerful, passionately charged sound that makes every track feel deeply cathartic. A relentless burst of pure vitality, the album expresses its unrest in the language of furious guitar riffs and visceral rhythms. And at the heart of Beside Myself are Basement’s indelible melodies, an element that lends an anthemic quality to even the most heavy-hearted songs. The follow-up to Promise Everything—a 2016 album whose re-release the following year marked Basement’s debut for Fueled by Ramen—Beside Myself was co-produced by the band and Colin Brittain, and mixed by Rich Costey (Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, Muse). In creating the album, Basement focused on channeling the raw energy of their live performance, adding little adornment beyond the occasional synth line or piano melody. But despite the stark simplicity of its sonic palette, Beside Myself emerges as the band’s most fully realized work to date. “We’d never been able to take this much time with something before,” says Fisher. “It was always this rushed writing process, rushed rehearsal, rushed recording. This was the complete opposite, and…