I don’t really like posting up links to songs that are relatively new – and by that I tend to think of as having been released in the previous 12 months – but for this occasional and temporary series, I’m going to make exceptions on the grounds that the mp3s will be low-res and if anyone giving them a listen happens to like then, then there’s every possibility that they will go out of their way to make a purchase.
If, like me, you’re already beginning to think of some items to put on a list for Santa to leave in your stocking on the morning of 25 December, then I’ll be offering up a few suggestions for your consideration, consisting of albums that have been released during 2021. Oh, and it’s a series that I really want to open to guest contributors who themselves might have some brilliant ideas.
You really shouldn’t be all that surprised to find that The Wedding Present are first up.
It was back in February that Locked Down And Stripped Back was made available.
It’s an album recorded during lock-down in the summer of 2020, with each band member playing, and indeed, filming their parts at home under the restrictions in place at the time. David Gedge has said that the recording process was far from easy, but ultimately proved to be rewarding.
The album consists of 12 tracks, of which ten are re-recordings of classic Wedding Present tracks of old, along with two completely new songs. The project began with long time band member Terry De Castro heavily involved, sending her guitar contributions over from her Los Angeles home, before everyone reluctantly accepted how particularly difficult it was to co-ordinate and arrange. David Gedge then asked an old friend, Jon Stewart, formerly of Sleeper, to come on board. The finished album has four songs on which Terry plays and eight which feature Jon.
More than that, however, is that Jon Stewart has got involved in the songwriting process, with one of the new songs, You’re Just A Habit That I’m Trying To Break, being credited to Gedge/Stewart/Howard/Hardwick, with Melanie Howard being the bassist/keyboardist/vocalist throughout the project, and Chris Hardwick being the drummer.
The other new song is credited to Wener/MacLure/Stewart. In other words, it’s a song written by Sleeper, one which was fairly new, being included on This Time Tomorrow, an album released in December 2020.
mp3: The Wedding Present – We Should Be Together
And yup, Louise Wener has come on board for a guest co-vocal, and in doing so, helped to create one of my favourite musical moments of recent years. This is pop, and perfect pop at that.
As if having the opportunity to hear some wonderful new versions of songs such as A Million Miles, California, Blonde, Crawl, You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends and My Favourite Dress wasn’t a good enough reason to want to pick up a copy of Locked Down And Stripped Back, then surely having the ability to put the needle into the groove of We Should Be Together should be the clincher.
Interestingly, The Wedding Present are not, currently, offering the album via their own website, and instead are encouraging would-be purchasers to do so from a local record shop.
You know the script……………………….
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
A worthy recommendation. And if they release the second lockdown sessions with the extraordinary version of “Octopussy” (find it on YouTube) get that too.
Great record – I bought it as soon as it came out. The Wener duet is excellent.
A real lockdown highlight, this album.
Here’s another Gedge-related Christmas idea for you – to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their Hit Parade “single a month”, they’re doing it again for 2022. Called 24 Songs, you can subscribe and get a lovely shiny 7-inch in the post every month for a year, plus a hand-numbered box to store them all in. Details here: http://www.24songs.scopitones.co.uk
Yup….I saw that the other day, Martin and wondered about adding it as a PS to the post, so many thanks.
I already have 24 Songs on pre-order – it’s a no-brainer to me. Some of the Stripped Back versions are excellent, but a few also just lack something. Of the new songs, We Should Be Together is an obvious highlight, though it’s not actually that new. It was apparently written just before Sleeper broke up. Louise considered recording it for a solo record, but it remained shelved until the Weddoes and Sleeper both revived it last year. A new version has been recorded for the 24 Songs series.
This is one of my records of the year. And it comes on nice orange vinyl too!