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| Track list: 1. Go Go Dancer 2. Sports Car 3. Kansas 4. 2, 3, Go 5. Bewitched 6. Venus 7. Loveslave 8. Real Thing 9. Drive 10. Montreal 11. Come Play with Me 12. Brassneck 13. Crawl Running time: 44 minutes Released: 2007 |
OK, so the final part of the Peel Sessions box set now. It's been a long time since the first disc almost blew my head off since I haven't managed to maintain any consistency of posting. That makes this marathon of The Wedding Present more like a series of middle-distance ambles. Crap analogies out of the way, how does this last live stuff sound?
There is a brief introduction before the band launch into Go Go Dancer, and it is a launch. A few taps of the drum sticks and its 0-60 in an instant with insanely fast drums and guitar to keep pace with. The sound is a little muted, but the essential energy of a Wedding Present tune is there all the same, peppy and two-speed, the vocal seeming to be in a different time to the backing.
It's now May, and I started this six-disc box set in January. That's shocking, even allowing for a few insertions, but life gets in the way sometimes. This is a hobby project, but it has been relegated underneath the need to maintain some kind of equilibrium. The plaintive voice on this rendition of Sports Car reminds me of how I have felt over the last bit... on edge, at my limit. It's the Friday of a week off, and I am only just beginning to feel like I haven't been working, it's taken this long.
There is something very weird about hearing a middle-aged man sing the lyrics of Kansas. I don't want to elaborate, because I don't want to think about it any more than I have.
I am feeling lost for words this morning. A few things to do today, not much going on upstairs as I find myself content to just hear tracks out without comment. It's a sign of comfort in one sense, and enjoyment in another. This listen is an oasis of calm before I have to rush out and shop for two people, do someone else's washing and other chores. Then, when I get home I have to home the bright morning is turning into a bright afternoon so I can motivate myself to do some essential outdoor work, else it's more spring cleaning. With that in mind there is reassurance in the constant guitar chords and familiar rhythms here, I don't need to think too hard about them.
Even the "new" (yeah, that doesn't mean much on an old live recording) songs are familiar, though apparently I have heard Venus just once before. The familiarity is by pattern, not specifics. Of course, then Loveslave starts and it breaks the rules. Slow pace that in some ways sits more easily with David Gedge's vocal style, which is expanded here to include imploring cries in the chorus. I'm not a huge fan of the track if I'm honest. The familiarity factor has been pulled away in that one track though and it doesn't immediately return which is a little disconcerting.
After a brief digression about a puppet (!) we're back onto firmer, more recognisable ground with Drive. When the pace drops I feel The Wedding Present lose their USP. It is the contrast between the busy guitars and bustling drums and the vocals that really sets them up. Having said that, Montreal creates more space and time and works really well, something about the melodics, and when it segues into Come Play With Me and maintains that lower pace I find my preconceptions challenged again until the closing of the second track brings its familiar refrains, and I think my favourite repeated loops (vocal and otherwise) in TWP's catalogue. It's over indeed.
Brassneck sounds very different, and I'm not sure if this is because they've changed the score or because it's not the song I thought it was. Probably the latter, but then songs do evolve from time to time. I really like the ringing on the guitar parts on the final number, Crawl. It's richer and lighter, and it feels like a good way to end the set on a positive sound even if the last lyrical utterance is a threat.
So, then... no more Wedding Presents for me for a while. On to other things...
There is a brief introduction before the band launch into Go Go Dancer, and it is a launch. A few taps of the drum sticks and its 0-60 in an instant with insanely fast drums and guitar to keep pace with. The sound is a little muted, but the essential energy of a Wedding Present tune is there all the same, peppy and two-speed, the vocal seeming to be in a different time to the backing.
It's now May, and I started this six-disc box set in January. That's shocking, even allowing for a few insertions, but life gets in the way sometimes. This is a hobby project, but it has been relegated underneath the need to maintain some kind of equilibrium. The plaintive voice on this rendition of Sports Car reminds me of how I have felt over the last bit... on edge, at my limit. It's the Friday of a week off, and I am only just beginning to feel like I haven't been working, it's taken this long.
There is something very weird about hearing a middle-aged man sing the lyrics of Kansas. I don't want to elaborate, because I don't want to think about it any more than I have.
I am feeling lost for words this morning. A few things to do today, not much going on upstairs as I find myself content to just hear tracks out without comment. It's a sign of comfort in one sense, and enjoyment in another. This listen is an oasis of calm before I have to rush out and shop for two people, do someone else's washing and other chores. Then, when I get home I have to home the bright morning is turning into a bright afternoon so I can motivate myself to do some essential outdoor work, else it's more spring cleaning. With that in mind there is reassurance in the constant guitar chords and familiar rhythms here, I don't need to think too hard about them.
Even the "new" (yeah, that doesn't mean much on an old live recording) songs are familiar, though apparently I have heard Venus just once before. The familiarity is by pattern, not specifics. Of course, then Loveslave starts and it breaks the rules. Slow pace that in some ways sits more easily with David Gedge's vocal style, which is expanded here to include imploring cries in the chorus. I'm not a huge fan of the track if I'm honest. The familiarity factor has been pulled away in that one track though and it doesn't immediately return which is a little disconcerting.
After a brief digression about a puppet (!) we're back onto firmer, more recognisable ground with Drive. When the pace drops I feel The Wedding Present lose their USP. It is the contrast between the busy guitars and bustling drums and the vocals that really sets them up. Having said that, Montreal creates more space and time and works really well, something about the melodics, and when it segues into Come Play With Me and maintains that lower pace I find my preconceptions challenged again until the closing of the second track brings its familiar refrains, and I think my favourite repeated loops (vocal and otherwise) in TWP's catalogue. It's over indeed.
Brassneck sounds very different, and I'm not sure if this is because they've changed the score or because it's not the song I thought it was. Probably the latter, but then songs do evolve from time to time. I really like the ringing on the guitar parts on the final number, Crawl. It's richer and lighter, and it feels like a good way to end the set on a positive sound even if the last lyrical utterance is a threat.
So, then... no more Wedding Presents for me for a while. On to other things...
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