“While the dvd overall is a fun accessory for the obsessive, it’s hard to imagine the person who could really need a close-up of Gedge (in Interstate 5) lamenting “But I have this nagging fear that sex was all you needed” while looking exactly like your boss telling you off for poor timekeeping. ”
“While the dvd overall is a fun accessory for the obsessive, it’s hard to imagine the person who could really need a close-up of Gedge (in Interstate 5) lamenting “But I have this nagging fear that sex was all you needed” while looking exactly like your boss telling you off for poor timekeeping. ”
The Wedding Present – Search For Paradise – Singles 2004-5
This compilation of Wedding Present singles and b-sides since their comeback is not a nostalgiafest, unless you’re nostalgic for the misty flashback days of 2005. In fact it bears more resemblance to David Gedge’s more recent project Cinerama than anything else; possibly because it’s largely the same band. A cynical person may speculate that Gedge has rebranded Cinerama as the Wedding Present in order to mop up the survivors of the first wave of indie-kid divorces; all those heartbroken middle aged men emerge, blinking, from their years of domesticism and – hey presto! Here comes the good old Wedding Present to share their heartbreak, like an old girlfriend off Friends Reunited. The stars of this album are obviously the singles: though each of the b-sides has its own moments of charm (“did I really shave my legs just for this?”). I’m From Further North Than You is instantly identifiable as the jangly, yearning direct descendant of lost moments close to the Weddoes fan’s heart, but the familiar themes of loss and regret have taken on a new sophistication and awareness that smoothes off the rough edges and leaves us with something deeper and more reflective. This is the sound that grownups make – surprisingly complex, thoughtful compositions like the first single, Interstate 5, despite being apparently about a girl who was “just seeing me as a chance of getting laid” show a need to be taken seriously, and to show off the virtuosity that seeps into even three-chord indie shoutmeisters over the years. It’s almost impossible to tell what Gedge has been listening to in the last few years – it sounds just like the Wedding Present, only, well, more musicianly. And that means much more than a collection of new Cinerama songs. The playfulness, the bluntness and the wit are creeping back into the spotlight. As for the accompanying dvd, the videos for the singles are all enjoyable enough films, leaning heavily towards the “art-drenched performance shots of the band” hemisphere of the promo world, apart from the sweetly ham-fisted Just 17 photo-story of Further North. While the dvd overall is a fun accessory for the obsessive, it’s hard to imagine the person who could really need a close-up of Gedge (in Interstate 5) lamenting “But I have this nagging fear that sex was all you needed” while looking exactly like your boss telling you off for poor timekeeping. You do get a largely unintelligible “making of” featurette, mind. As all the singles were taken from the “proper” album Take Fountain, and the b-sides are available on, well, on the singles, the unique selling points of this album can only be the somewhat pointless Klee remix of I’m from Further North Than You, and the acoustic versions of the three a-sides. The main beauty of all this acousticness is that the lyrics are much clearer (oh, it’s a “red bikini”! Oh!), and it shines up the faintly trad-country flavour of Ringway to Seatac nicely. It’d be a hardcore fan who felt the urge to play these over and over again though. This is an album that defines its own target market. If you’ve got Take Fountain and all the singles, you’ll probably buy it anyway. If you haven’t, it’s a neat summary of Gedge’s attempt to give the 80s lovelorn another chance.
Words: Sinned.