The Daily Sabbatical

David Gedge has been writing about leaving and being left, cheating and being cheated upon, and the various other vicissitudes of love and lust for as long as I’ve known what any of these things are. The Wedding Present has been his main vehicle since 1986, and at various points between then and now his band has been the best guitar pop band in the world. In recent years, his focus has seemed to be upon his newer band, Cinerama, which is a lighter, even more poppy affair, with every song sounding like it was composed during a champagne vacation on the French Riviera. The Wedding Present is back this year, however, with El Rey. While it doesn’t have the grit and punch of many earlier WP records, it has the layers of guitars we love with a little extra crunch from Steve Albini’s production. Nevertheless, on the first couple of listens, I was not terribly impressed. I liked the sound of the guitars, and I liked the basslines which are more interesting than they usually are for The Wedding Present, but somehow the songs never really caught fire. The lyrics and vocals seemed somehow less integrated with the music, floating above it but neither driving it or being driven by it, and the two-timing tales seemed a little contrived after all these years. On listen number three, however, I was singing along and getting excited by the tunes and some of the twists the band is throwing in to their song structure. Granted, I’m a diehard fan of these guys, but in the end I’ll bet I give this album a lot of play. They’re quite simply one of the funnest bands out there even after 20 years. El Rey isn’t even close to their best, but it still beats most of what is out there hands down.

Santa Ana Winds.mp3