WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE: “All the songs sound the same”, the band once self-knowingly t-shirted… And, yes, all of the reassuringly familiar Wedding Present signatures are present, here. Cyclical chord structures play off against so-loud and not-quite-so-loud dynamics, underpinning further variations on the usual nicely turned, chewed and spat-out romantic and anti-romantic invective. YOU’RE DEAD is a highlight, on account of not only the use of the word “shebang”, but a precisely weighted arrangement – all warmly rumbling tom-toms and comfortingly abrasive off-beat guitars. Like pub-brawl bruised and swollen lips being kissed better, The Wedding Present are the Saturday night Velvet Underground.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: Gedge continues his single-minded development of The Wedding Present’s sound, from late-80s gristly meat-pie on a chip-tray to a heartier model – meat-pie with minted mushy peas and crinkle-cut chips. There’s even gravy, in the form of double-drumming…
GOES WELL WITH… …a sneer, a shoulder-shrug, a bottom-of-the-fifth-glass middle-aged take on early-20s chip-on-the-shoulder romantic disillusionment.
MIGHT SUIT PEOPLE WHO LIKE… …the idea of Status Quo and The Velvet Underground downing jackets and going at it down some grim Northern alleyway, with Mark E Smith as Card Girl.

YOU’RE DEAD