Catenary Wires – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

BONUS POST : MY FAVOURITE ALBUM (so far) OF 2025

It was back in 2021 when I last gave a mention to The Catenary Wires, during which I admitted it had taken me a long time to actually pick up on their very existence while professing a great deal of love for what was then their new album, Birling Gap.

For those of you needing a gentle reminder or quick refresher course, the band formed in 2014, initially as a duo of Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (ex-Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research and Tender Trap). By 2019, The Catenary Wires had expanded and now included Ian Button (ex-Thrashing Doves/Death In Vegas) on drums and Fay Hallam (ex-Makin’ Time) on keyboards.

Birling Gap was the band’s third album, and it proved to be one of the best things I came across in the year of its release, offering up a gentle musical experience, almost pastoral or chamber pop in places with hints of XTC, The Divine Comedy, Pulp, Luke Haines, the Go-Betweens, 60s west coast pop, 70s English folk and the gentler side of The Kinks dotted throughout its ten tracks.

It has taken four years for the next album to be released, mainly thanks to Amanda and Rob keeping very busy with their other band, Swansea Sound, along with what has been a very popular and successful comeback for Heavenly. Determined not to miss out, I’ve long been signed up to the mailing list, and a few months back, I received this:-

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires release ‘Sounds Made By Humans’, a new album of song-poems : Release date: 9 May 2025

Thankfully, the press release told me a bit more about Brian Bilston, as he wasn’t a name with which I had any familiarity. He is a poet, one with a huge on-line presence (more than half a million followers) who has written a number of best-selling volumes, some of which were aimed specifically at the children. It turned out that Brian had been spotted wearing a Heavenly t-shirt at one of his shows, after which Amelia and Rob got in touch. They soon discovered they were something of kindred spirits, and the friendship developed to the extent that an idea was hatched to work together.

The outcome is Sounds Made By Humans, for which Rob took thirteen of Brian’s poems and created melodies and arrangements, to be played by The Catenary Wires. Sometimes the words of the poems are sung by Amelia or Rob. Sometimes they are spoken by Brian. Sometimes both these things happen at once. It really is, as the PR blurb claims, a pop album where the poetry and the music are equal partners: sounds made by humans in perfect artistic alignment.

The end result is not some bloke standing in front of a mic reading some rhyming couplets while musicians noodle away in the background. Instead, it is a magnificent collection of songs, with the tunes representing the very best that indie-pop has to offer, with verses and choruses emerging from Brian’s delightful, insightful, witty and, on occasion, incredibly moving words.

Two of the songs already have accompanying promo videos:-

There’s not a duff track across the collection, and with titles such as To Do List, 31 Rules For Midlife Rebellion, As I Grow Old I Will March Not Shuffle and Thou Shalt Not Commit Adulting, you can perhaps begin to see why I’ve come to regard it as the perfect manifesto for my advancing years.

Other highlights include She’d Dance, a bittersweet number just two minutes in length about old age and memories, and Compilation Cassette, whose words will surely strike a chord with every single one of us as we all have – and you can’t deny it – pulled together C60s or C90s in an effort to impress someone to whom we find ourselves attracted, while closing track Customers Who Bought This Record Also Bought… is a genuinely laugh out loud number – a sort of more gentle form of anger and bemusement (and cultural references) of the type you find in Half Man Half Biscuit songs.

Trust me on this one. Sounds Made By Humans is a fabulous work of art. It can be bought at many fine independent record stores as well as being available via this bandcamp link.

JC

Catenary Wires

SOME IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS 2021 (#2)

I really get a kick out of stumbling across something, taking a punt on it, and discovering that it has a real ‘wow’ factor.

It was one of the regular updates from the Monorail store here in Glasgow that alerted me, some seven years after I should have known about such things, to the very existence of The Catenary Wires, drawing attention to a new album of theirs called Birling Gap. For those of you who are perhaps scratching your heads, then let me quote from the band’s own website:-

The Catenary Wires’ third album, Birling Gap was released on 18 June 2021, preceded by 7″ single Mirrorball (a love song inspired by eighties discos). Both are released on Shelflife Records (US) and Skep Wax Records (UK and rest of world). The album is now available for pre-order from good record shops and via Bandcamp.

Birling Gap is a significant place. On the South Coast of England, it’s where steep chalk cliffs resist the rough seas of the English Channel. It’s where iconic images of England are created and re-created. On Birling Gap, the Catenary Wires have listened to the songs and stories England has comforted itself with over the decades and re-imagined them.

The Catenary Wires formed in 2014, initially as a duo. Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey had previously been in Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research and Tender Trap. The first Catenary Wires album Red Red Skies (Elefant/Matinée Recordings, 2015) was a marked departure from the fuzzy girl-group pop of their earlier bands. It was sparse, emotive and melancholy. A one-off 7″ single What About The Rings? followed (WIAIWYA, 2018).

With the release of their second album Til The Morning (Tapete, 2019), the band expanded to include contributions from Andy Lewis on bass (ex-Spearmint/Weller Band), Fay Hallam on keyboards and backing vocals (ex-Makin’ Time) and Ian Button on drums (ex-Thrashing Doves/Death In Vegas). The sound was getting bigger, although the core of the band remained the dual vocals of Amelia and Rob. With the third album, everyone is involved and The Catenary Wires are a fully-fledged five-piece band.

The band’s name refers to the chain of curves made by the overhead cables seen suspended from pylons or above electric trains, cables that can seem to lead you off to somewhere different and unknown.

It was the mention of Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey that intrigued me. I put in an order for Birling Gap and it arrived a few days later, on white vinyl and complete with a postcard that had been signed by the two of them.

I’ll cut to the chase. It wasn’t anything along the lines of what I was expecting, which was, of course, some 21st century update on the C86 stuff. To be fair to Amelia, that’s readily available if you go to bandcamp and listen to the rather excellent Swansea Sound, the band she and Rob are part of along with Huw Williams, formerly of Pooh Sticks.

The Catenary Wires are an altogether gentler musical experience, almost pastoral or chamber pop in places. There are hints of XTC, The Divine Comedy, Pulp, Luke Haines, the Go-Betweens, 60s west coast pop, 70s English folk and the gentler side of The Kinks dotted throughout its ten tracks. Birling Gap arrived at the height of the summer and seemed to be the perfect soundtrack for those hot days when I was out wandering through the parks and green spaces of the city.

Eventually, I sat down at home and gave the album a listen along with the lyric sheet (I’d have looked quite stupid carrying that around with me outside!). There is a real sense of Englishness to many of the songs, but with a knowing nod to the state of the nation and indeed national identity in the 21st Century. Other songs reflect that Amelia and Rob, like the rest of us, are not quite as young and vibrant as we used to be, but not in any dark or depressing way. They even find time to take the piss out of their old selves on Mirrorball, a song celebrating how a couple meet in a cheesy 80s-theme disco, and which pulls off the magic trick of a rhyming couplet including the words ‘Jason’ ‘Kylie’ ‘Wah! Heat!’ and ‘Wylie’.

The opening line of the review over at Louder Than War sums it all up way better than I’m capable of:-

This is unexpectedly fabulous. An album of the year for 50-Somethings with Attitude but sensible shoes.

Here’s the opening track:-

mp3: The Catenary Wires – Face On The Rail Line

Oh, and our dear friend Brian from Linear Tracking Lives was saying great things about the album when it was released back in June…..and we all know he is a man of impeccable taste.

Here’s the link to bandcamp where you can get digital or physical copies of this wonderful album. It’s likely also available, or can be ordered, through any of the independent record stores close to your home.