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The Wedding Present – Take Fountain
When David Gedge announced late last year that he was formally taking The Wedding Present out of mothballs, some reacted as though it was Moses coming down from the mountain while others wrote it off as a cynical jump onto the 80s reunion bandwagon. Neither of these judgements were fair, as the Gedge never actually stopped putting out music. After releasing Saturnalia in 1996, Gedge put the Wedding Present on hold to concentrate on Cinerama, his new band with girlfriend Sally Murrell. Cinerama started out leaning heavily on classic 60s orchestrated music, quite a far cry from the frantic strumminess of the Wedding Present, but over the course of three albums they drifted back towards the heavier guitar-based Weddoes sound.
But another reason for the change in band identity was the dissolution of Gedge’s relationship with Murrell. While specifics are obvious not public knowledge, the tone of Take Fountain does offer some clues as to how it went down. While Gedge has always been the patron saint of the romantic loser, the latest material has a much more personal and cathartic feel to it. Songs like “Interstate 5” and “Ringway To Seatac” contain some of his rawest and most wounded lyrics ever and you realize this time he’s not playing a character. There is some tradeoff in that the humour that defined much of the earlier Wedding Present material isn’t as prevelant, but the honest emotional content and simple sadness of the record more than compensates.
While Take Fountain started out as a Cinerama record, it’s hard to imagine these songs dressed up in the retro-style arrangements that were that band’s stock in trade. No, the churning, visceral guitar work of the Wedding Present is much more suitable. It doesn’t seem quite right to say “welcome back”, since they never really went anywhere, but a new record from the Gedge is always welcome.
The reconstituted Wedding Present plays Lee’s Palace on April 26, tickets $15.