Charming is not a word I use in album reviews, it\u2019s best reserved for cotillions and books about castles. But in listening to Long Black Cars, the latest effort from English trio The Wave Pictures, charming kept lunging at me with every hand clap and low-fi guitar solo. Maybe nostalgia is the better word \u2014 the album took me back to a day in 1984 when I heard the Violent Femmes for the first time, reading the liner notes while Gordon Gano\u2019s nasal tone shouted \u201c10 10 10 10 for EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING\u201d from my tiny speakers.<\/p>\n
For a band that\u2019s been around nearly 15 years, you have to appreciate The Wave Pictures\u2019 ability to stay current while eliciting the American no wave sound of the early \u201980s. No doubt Long Black Cars found inspiration from the first Femmes album as well as Jonathan Richman, whose proto-punk DNA is scattered throughout these 12 fine tracks. Like the Femmes (with a nod to their countrymen The Smiths), the band\u2019s lyrics are as intriguing as the music, making Long Black Cars buoyant from start to finish.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cStay Here & Take Care of The Chickens\u201d takes no time getting the fun started, a jaunty acoustic guitar and happy bass line are quickly joined by up-tempo tambourine taps. Singer\/guitarist Dave Tattersall\u2019s voice is bright and clear but contains small cracks like imperfect diamonds, which gives it an added warmth. Tattersall rips into a striking guitar solo midway through which through its precision gives the song an unexpected boost.<\/p>\n
These little surprises are abundant throughout. Drummer Jonny Helm takes the lead on \u201cEskimo Kiss,\u201d serving as a nice counter to Tattersall, who erupts into a churning solo akin to the Femmes \u201cTo The Kill\u201d. Bassist Franic Rozycki is the star of \u201cNever Go Home Again,\u201d his ranging finger work keeps the song alluring despite a cheesy, almost tropical guitar arrangement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Head Gets Screwed On Tighter Every Year,\u201d a song about sibling rivalry, is punctuated with Tattersall\u2019s gleaming chords amidst entertaining lyrics. \u201cRattling away like a hail storm, you work your way under my skin,\u201d he sings of his brother. \u201cMy heart bounces around like a basketball in a gym.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not all innovative \u2014 \u201cSpaghetti,\u201d the album\u2019s longest song, comes off too western and feels out of place aside the others, and \u201cSeagulls\u201d is too playful for it\u2019s own good, a song you\u2019d hear in the restaurant lounge of a Holiday Inn.<\/p>\n
But the quiet and engaging \u201cCome Home Tessa Buckman\u201d wipes away any doubts, as Tattersall strums a simple acoustic guitar while rap\/singing about a lost love. I must have replayed it four or five times.<\/p>\n
Long Black Cars is The Wave Pictures fifth album, and it shows a band hitting a sure stride. Confident as it is clever, the record marries old and new in ways I haven\u2019t heard in a while. Charming, indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Charming is not a word I use in album reviews, it\u2019s best reserved for cotillions and books about castles. But in listening to Long Black Cars, the latest effort from English trio The Wave Pictures, charming kept lunging at me with every hand clap and low-fi guitar solo. Maybe nostalgia is the better word \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[329,330],"class_list":["post-1249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-long-black-cars","tag-the-wave-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}