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| Track list: 1. You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends 2. It's What You Want That Matters 3. This Boy Can Wait 4. Felicity 5. All About Eve 6. Don't Laugh 7. Never Said 8. Don't Be So Hard 9. Hopak 10. Give My Love to Kevin 11. Something and Nothing 12. A Million Miles 13. Getting Nowhere Fast 14. Katrusya 15. Svitit Misyats 16. Tiutiunyk 17. Yikhav Kozak Za Dunai 18. Hude Dnipro Hude Running time: 46 minutes Released: 2007 |
The first of a big box set now. A former friend got me into The Wedding Present, a big favourite of the late legendary DJ John Peel, and as a result I picked up this compilation of sessions the band recorded for Peel's show. There are 6 discs in total... that could take me a while.
Thankfully this first disc is a packed one, 16 in 46, and it kicks us off with a number which sets a tone I expect to be kept. All frantic guitars, northern vocals and pacy tempo. The title is a little rebuke, too. I'm not good at keeping in touch with anyone, friend or otherwise.
I feel a little like there is a time and a place for this sort of guitar band, and that time and place doesn't really feel like mid-afternoon on a Sunday in January when I have other things to do, but I am squeezing this in to try to keep some kind of rhythm up. My weeks have been so tiring that finding space for more than one listen in 7 days is unlikely at the moment. If I can stick to one a week I'll be doing alright in general. That aside, I am dissing the music a bit that sentiment... I have never been a big fan of guitar for the sake of guitar, which is what a whole load of indie bands feel like to me. There is more to The Wedding Present than that - David Gedge's lyrics and vocals are a real touchpoint - but when crunching a lot of these tunes into a short period of time it does get a little overbearing.
The super-fast nature of the playing gives a level of intricacy that I struggle to follow, so I am left with a more generic sense of tone and pace that becomes a bit wearing after a while. There is a sort of similarity with the hardcore of, say, the Minor Threat discography I listened to recently in terms of the dominant feeling, but there are a couple of key differences. One, these tracks go on a little longer, and two the edge is a little less. This means that each track has a less powerful impact and also has just long enough to tick over into trying. This makes a complete works like this quite punishing.
I suspect that, too, it catches me in a bad frame of mind for this up-tempo, slightly downtrodden but spangly combo. I really feel like I need space and time right now, and these claustrophobic guitars are a polar opposite of that. I like the songs better when the guitar work recedes to play second fiddle to the vocal, it feels a little as though the balance isn't quite right elsewhere. Part of it is that the guitars are really stark and harsh, a metallic spangle that rattles around in my head, echoing off the inside of my skull and causing my temples to flare. I suspect this might be something that is less of an obstacle on their studio albums, when post-production may have toned down some of the rougher edges. At points here and there I find snatches of more refined sound that I really like, but that burning itch of annoyance at the harsher sounds is not going away.
It must sound like I hate this, right?
Well, that's not entirely true. I think it's fair to say that I don't like consuming it like this - my problem is the concentration of tracks not the songs themselves. I would never choose to take this disc and play it in a scenario like this one, where I have to listen to the tracks in order again, but remove the persistence and things look a lot nicer. A single track or really fast and busy guitars supporting that distinctive melancholic half-spoken vocal? Much more appealing. Likewise the rhythms - it's all a little one-paced (express!) to be consumed like this.
Every time the guitar is toned down a bit - its harsher edge tempered or the volume lowered, either one - the songs come alive for me. A Million Miles (yeah, we've got that far without a single tune being called out by name after the first) is a really nice track, the guitars are still urgent, fast and incessant, but they are flattened so that they don't feel like someone is rattling my head around. That carries over to Getting Nowhere Fast, too. These tracks have all the energy and attitude of the earlier numbers but tempered, the instrumentation lacking the piercing qualities that have made enjoying this tough.
We then dive into the Ukrainian folk songs. I don't really know anything of the story about how a northern English indie band ended up playing folk tunes from the eastern edge of Europe. I suppose I could and should Google it. I immediately find myself relating to this though. Sure, it's a little cheesy and conforming to stereotypes in places, but there is a sense of fun and joy in these tunes that the original Wedding Present material didn't quite share, despite some common characteristics. These tunes also lack the vocals (for the most part), not surprisingly. I am as surprised as anyone else at how when you take away the bit I most enjoyed from the earlier tracks you end up with tunes I enjoy more... but of course there are other changes. Here the forms that are being followed are more respectful of space and time than the frenetic indie tracks, the sounds are more dictated by tradition than individual vision.
As the final number begins, starting at a stately pace, but promising to speed up - quickly delivered - I am left wondering what to make of this disc. It is just one sixth of the peel sessions. It was tough going for me to being with - the latter half has been very pleasing. I do like the combination of high energy and blue emotion that characterize the band, but those strings need tempering to become something I can truly appreciate. Tempted to scrap a large part of this, but I will hold off for now to see how the rest of the box set goes.
Thankfully this first disc is a packed one, 16 in 46, and it kicks us off with a number which sets a tone I expect to be kept. All frantic guitars, northern vocals and pacy tempo. The title is a little rebuke, too. I'm not good at keeping in touch with anyone, friend or otherwise.
I feel a little like there is a time and a place for this sort of guitar band, and that time and place doesn't really feel like mid-afternoon on a Sunday in January when I have other things to do, but I am squeezing this in to try to keep some kind of rhythm up. My weeks have been so tiring that finding space for more than one listen in 7 days is unlikely at the moment. If I can stick to one a week I'll be doing alright in general. That aside, I am dissing the music a bit that sentiment... I have never been a big fan of guitar for the sake of guitar, which is what a whole load of indie bands feel like to me. There is more to The Wedding Present than that - David Gedge's lyrics and vocals are a real touchpoint - but when crunching a lot of these tunes into a short period of time it does get a little overbearing.
The super-fast nature of the playing gives a level of intricacy that I struggle to follow, so I am left with a more generic sense of tone and pace that becomes a bit wearing after a while. There is a sort of similarity with the hardcore of, say, the Minor Threat discography I listened to recently in terms of the dominant feeling, but there are a couple of key differences. One, these tracks go on a little longer, and two the edge is a little less. This means that each track has a less powerful impact and also has just long enough to tick over into trying. This makes a complete works like this quite punishing.
I suspect that, too, it catches me in a bad frame of mind for this up-tempo, slightly downtrodden but spangly combo. I really feel like I need space and time right now, and these claustrophobic guitars are a polar opposite of that. I like the songs better when the guitar work recedes to play second fiddle to the vocal, it feels a little as though the balance isn't quite right elsewhere. Part of it is that the guitars are really stark and harsh, a metallic spangle that rattles around in my head, echoing off the inside of my skull and causing my temples to flare. I suspect this might be something that is less of an obstacle on their studio albums, when post-production may have toned down some of the rougher edges. At points here and there I find snatches of more refined sound that I really like, but that burning itch of annoyance at the harsher sounds is not going away.
It must sound like I hate this, right?
Well, that's not entirely true. I think it's fair to say that I don't like consuming it like this - my problem is the concentration of tracks not the songs themselves. I would never choose to take this disc and play it in a scenario like this one, where I have to listen to the tracks in order again, but remove the persistence and things look a lot nicer. A single track or really fast and busy guitars supporting that distinctive melancholic half-spoken vocal? Much more appealing. Likewise the rhythms - it's all a little one-paced (express!) to be consumed like this.
Every time the guitar is toned down a bit - its harsher edge tempered or the volume lowered, either one - the songs come alive for me. A Million Miles (yeah, we've got that far without a single tune being called out by name after the first) is a really nice track, the guitars are still urgent, fast and incessant, but they are flattened so that they don't feel like someone is rattling my head around. That carries over to Getting Nowhere Fast, too. These tracks have all the energy and attitude of the earlier numbers but tempered, the instrumentation lacking the piercing qualities that have made enjoying this tough.
We then dive into the Ukrainian folk songs. I don't really know anything of the story about how a northern English indie band ended up playing folk tunes from the eastern edge of Europe. I suppose I could and should Google it. I immediately find myself relating to this though. Sure, it's a little cheesy and conforming to stereotypes in places, but there is a sense of fun and joy in these tunes that the original Wedding Present material didn't quite share, despite some common characteristics. These tunes also lack the vocals (for the most part), not surprisingly. I am as surprised as anyone else at how when you take away the bit I most enjoyed from the earlier tracks you end up with tunes I enjoy more... but of course there are other changes. Here the forms that are being followed are more respectful of space and time than the frenetic indie tracks, the sounds are more dictated by tradition than individual vision.
As the final number begins, starting at a stately pace, but promising to speed up - quickly delivered - I am left wondering what to make of this disc. It is just one sixth of the peel sessions. It was tough going for me to being with - the latter half has been very pleasing. I do like the combination of high energy and blue emotion that characterize the band, but those strings need tempering to become something I can truly appreciate. Tempted to scrap a large part of this, but I will hold off for now to see how the rest of the box set goes.
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