"Suddenly It's Tuesday" - Part 4 (181-190)

 

33 songs in, and I've been quite surprised by the general agreement with the rankings so far. Not that there haven't been some specific disputes, of course, but there has yet to be any significant controversy and there have been a fair number of 'can't argue with that' comments. I think (although of course this is just postulation on my part) that this might be due to a couple of factors. 

Firstly, many of the songs at the bottom of the list are cover versions. Whilst most TWP fans recognise that the band turned out a range of interesting (if hit and miss) covers over the years, Gedge's songwriting is at the heart of their love for the Wedding Present; as such (with a few exceptions) they aren't overly bothered about the covers being ranked at the bottom end.

Secondly, most of those tracks in the bottom 33 that aren't covers are b-sides or one-off recordings for compilations, etc. Although a few groups (The Fall most readily spring to mind) frequently bury hidden treasure in these areas, TWP generally reserve their strongest tracks for their albums. Not that there aren't some Gedge gems lurking on b-sides, but I think we'll run into more controversy once we get into mainly album material....

190 Step Into Christmas

(B-side of No Christmas, 1992)

Yet another of those so-so covers. The original is just about bearable; the WP version is exactly what you might expect. Not too bad, but not especially memorable either.

189 Project Cenzo

(B-side of Montreal, 1997)

Fast-paced, vigorous if rather forgettable rocker. Gedge's spoken word bit towards the end is taken from The Parallel, a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone. 

188 Pain Perdu

(4 Songs EP, 2012)

The literal translation of 'pain perdu' is 'lost bread'; it refers to French toast (or 'eggy bread' as I knew it in my childhood). The song is not unpleasant, but - apart from the somewhat awkward middle eight - rather predictable, and contains a lyrical low point: 'I wonder if you still cry when you read some soppy book / I wonder if you still laugh when your grandmother says: "F*ck"'.

187 Greenland

(Going, Going..., 2016)

Going, Going... took the bold step of opening with four instrumentals, and it was really challenging to place all of them on this list. They provide an intriguing and unusual opening to the album that works really well, and when I saw them play the album in its entirety (at Cardiff Tramshed) it totally made sense. Taken in isolation, however, 'Greenland' doesn't hold up strongly as a song in its own right. There's still something evocatively strange about its fractured rhythm and dispassionate spoken vocal (contributed by ex-Fall vocalist / guitarist Brix Smith Start) that I rather enjoy.

186 White Horses

(The Complete Peel Sessions, 2007)

Recorded as part of TWP's twelfth Peel session in 2004, 'White Horses' is a cover of the theme tune to the 60s TV show of the same name. The original was recorded by Irish singer Jackie Lee, and was a top ten hit in 1968. Several other artists have recorded the tune, including Cerys Matthews. 

Although it's dreadfully kitsch ('the clouds are made of candyfloss'), the WP slow-burn version just about works, although it feels a little cloying in places.

185 Pleasant Valley Sunday

A Goffin/King song that mocks the pretensions of middle-class suburban life, it was a hit for The Monkees in 1967. The WP cover is robust and industrious, but it's yet another that flattens out some of the original's nuances.

184 The Girl With The Curious Smile

(B-side of I'm From Further North Than You, 2005)

A strangely disjointed mix of light-touch ballad and epic grandiosity, in places dominated by that sweeping strings effect that Gedge was very fond of in the Take Fountain era. Lines like 'things aren’t always that clear cut, she tells you when to smirk' are a bit forced and stilted and the whole thing has an 'off-cuts from the album' feel. Not bad, but unspectacular.

183 Pinch, Twist, Pull, Release

(How The West Was Won, 2008)

The title is a bit of a mystery to me. I could find no reference to the phrase online other than the song itself; the only things that were vaguely close were techniques for balloon modelling and Chinese massage, as well as a strategy for dealing with intimate male itching. The only possible clue in the lyric, in which the narrator protagonist walks away from an unsuccessful relationship ('I try to be in love with you but I can’t') is the phrase about 'playing some stupid tug-of-war', although even then, that pursuit involves just pulling rather than the other three verbs. Gedge obviously liked the line 'The closer I get to you, you see / the further away I get from me', as he recycled it four years later on 'End Credits'.

'Pinch' ambles along amiably enough, and it works hard at a soaring chorus, but overall it feels rather TWP-by-numbers. 

182 Hulk Loves Betty

(How The West Was Won, 2008)

My knowledge of the world of comic books is limited to what I manage to glean from the Marvel films that my kids drag me to see from time to time. (They have developed a 'silent Dad' rule, owing to my tendency to ask 'stupid questions' during the film; in fact, with the last couple of Avengers movies, I have been forced to watch the previous one the day before as revision in order to avoid this scenario.) As a result, I had to look up who 'Betty' is.

Gedge, of course, is a bit of an aficionado of the genre. Since 2012 Scopitones has been publishing a series of biographical Wedding Present comic books, which have recently been collected into hardback book form as Tales From The Wedding Present - Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy! 

'Hulk' is a decent enough if rather forgettable mid-tempo track. The plain, simple lyric concerns a couple that have grown apart; the fact that the narrator feels as though he is 'being crushed by juggernauts' presumably explains the reference to the big green fella.

181 Peek-a-Boo

One of the most obscure TWP tracks (I should thank Robert Negri aka Fulham Bob for providing me with it). An El Rey outtake, it appeared on a 2011 compilation called Anything For Progress. It's a little twee and flimsy, which is emphasised by the rather trite rhymes ('oh, peek-a-boo / I thought it was you / how strange that we should meet / here on the street') but the chorus melody is fairly uplifting,

Thanks for reading. I signed off the last post with 'see you next Tuesday' - it was pointed out to me via the WP Facebook page that this is sometimes used as a euphemism for a very rude word. Therefore, I shall in future restrict myself to see you next week!

Main Page