The Italian Job

If there's a more genuine man than David Gedge in the music business, I've never met him. He's modest, affable and down-to earth enough to man his own t-shirt stall before and after his gigs, and there are a lot of band members who've sold a lot less records than Gedge who'd find that all a little beneath them. And if he thought I was an idiot when he waited patiently for me to say something to him as I stood dumbfounded and awestruck in his presence once, he never let on. Like I said, a nice guy.

But when Gedge disbanded The Wedding Present to form Cinerama with his partner Sally Murrell, I kinda drifted away from his music. The reviews were respectable, the gigs were fine, but ultimately the loud guitars were a big part of what I liked about The Wedding Present, and the new image of 'chic, cinematic pop' felt a little too uncomfortably close to Weller's The Style Council for my liking.

But rumours of a return to form, a darker more guitar-oriented sound and Steve Albini helping out on production tempted me to try out Cinerama's third album 'Torino' and I glad I did. It's basically The Wedding Present 'with strings attached' and the guitar squall on tracks like 'Starry Eyed' could have come off 'Seamonsters' (hmm...now there's an album that merits inclusion in my soon-to-be-resumed Lest Ye Forget series).

Lyrically Gedge's scope has broadened however, he only gets dumped three times during the course of the thirteen tracks, and even finds time for a few extra-marital one-night stands himself. But with the strength of tunes like 'Quick Before It Melts'; 'And When She Was Bad' and 'Health & Efficiency' this is a record you'll feel comfortable developing a long-term relationship with.

NB. The official Cinerama site includes 30 second audio excerpts and full lyrics to all 13 tracks off the album.

PS. According to a text message I received while posting this, Gedge is on fine form at Dingwalls tonight. Bah.