The Wedding Present, Take Fountain (4 x 4 review)

Artist: Wedding Present, The
Title: Take Fountain
Label: Scorpitones / Manifesto (2005)
Genre: Rock
Rotation: Heavy

This is the first new album by much-loved The Wedding Present in 8 years, as frontman David Gedge was off doing things with his other project, Cinerama.

Gedge broke up with his girlfriend (and Cinerama co-conspirator) and moved to Seattle, so what we have here is a collection of songs about disappointed love that sound a bit more “American” than some of the earlier TWP releases were wont to do--or at least the lyrics are a little more decipherable.

Longtime fans can rejoice, as Gedge sounds almost exactly the same, and Take Fountain keeps that good old fast-jangling TWP guitar on enough of the tracks to make it feel familiar, but that guitar is mixed with some fancier instrumental work and some classy string arrangements.

“Larry’s” (8) is a slowdance number; I’m picturing a high school gym with a disco ball—in a good way. “Interstate 5” (1) is very long, but has especially lovely strings and horns toward the end, if you can stick it out. That song, bookending the album with the strings on “Queen Anne” (9) and “Perfect Blue” (10), remind us that, despite some of the necessarily emo content of a break-up record herein, this is the mature work of professionals. It is thoroughly heartening that a band can still be serious and important after 20 years of doing its job.

All clean. Recommended Tracks: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10