Review:

on 2011-03-02 CharlesMartel Said:

The Wedding Present's second/third album (depending on which way you look at it), "Bizarro", was always going to somewhat difficult, given the freshness and vitality of their debut, "George Best" and complete anonymity of "Tommy". "George Best" marked a transition stage between the post-punk of the early eighties and the jangle pop which was coming to the fore at the time. The sound was a successful combination of ultra-fast jangly guitar riffs and lyrics which sprung as if from the heart of a hapless young man, struggling and failing to come to terms with the complexities of love, rejection, infidelity and disappointment. At the time it was something unique and was always going to be a hard act to follow.

The first thing that strikes you about "Bizarro" is the song titles. Gone (well, almost) are the long, somewhat tongue-in-cheek titles such as "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft", "What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?" and "Give My Love to Kevin". Instead, the band have become much more laconic in their titling and resorted to snappy titles like "No", "Crushed" and "Thanks". Yet when you hear these songs for the first time, you realise these changes are merely cosmetic - "No" could have just as easily have been titled "Why Didn't You Just Say No" but for some reason the band decided to be more sparse with their words.

Beyond that, at least one part of the combination which had made "George Best" such a success, is still present. The lyrics still tell of the same things - of broken relationships and the frustrations of ordinary everyday people in coming to terms with changes to their comfort zone due to factors seemingly beyond their control. David Gedge has not lost the art of writing a pertinent lyric:

"And if it didn't mean that much
And you wanted him to go.
And if you're as sorry as you say
Why didn't you just say no"

is a reaction which must be familiar to us all when faced with infidelity - an attempt to seek rational answers to something which is usually totally irrational in its intention and its effect.

What has changed is the guitar sound. In a sense, the fast-paced jangly sound is still there. Listen to the long extended playout, almost like a jam session, on "Take Me" and you can hear it there. But what has happened to that sound. The sparkly clarity of the original album has gone, instead replaced by a much denser and layered sound. The result is that the album comes across as heavier than "George Best". The problem with this is that it tends to bury the lyrics, rendering them sometimes indistinct and cloudy. And without being able to understand the lyrics, the songs, you cannot feel that chord strike in you when you hear them. And without that, the Wedding Present have lost what made them truly unique. OK, it may be appropriate to the almost punk-revival style cover of Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual", but that is one track on the whole album - and that one didn't even feature on the original album.

To be fair, the production (for that is where the fault lies) is not as heavy-handed as it was with their subsequent album, "Seamonsters", but then that latter work was executed by the master of noise, Steve Albini. But it nevertheless does detract from what would be an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable album.

I understand, appreciate and generally welcome the fact that artists have to develop their sound. But there are positive and negative developments. And the move away from jangly guitars to layered ones is definitely, in my book, a negative development for the Wedding Present. This album could have been so much better - it could have rivalled "George Best". But in the end it falls short and does so in a way that could have been avoided with a little more thought put into what it was that made their debut album such a wonderful gem.
Rating: 7/10