wedding present: going, going...

Going, Going..., the ninth studio album from UK indie darlings The Wedding Present, tells the story of a road trip across the USA, revealed across a collection of twenty "linked" songs, each with an accompanying short film. As David Gedge points out, work began soon after the 2012 album Valentina (SCOPITONE 037CD), "I'd already decided by then that I didn't want to make the next release just 'another album' and so I came up with the idea of twenty 'interconnected' pieces of music. In the summer 2014, I traveled across the USA with photographer Jessica McMillan and we made some atmospheric short films to accompany the tracks. Since then it's been a case of progressing through the music, trying all sorts of ideas, seeing how they work set against the visuals." Uncharacteristically, the album opens with four hauntingly beautiful instrumental songs, including the cinematic "Sprague" and the captivating "Marblehead". Going, Going... then takes a head-long dash through tracks such as "Two Bridges", "Birdsnest", "Kill Devil Hills" and "Broken Bow", all perfectly executed in classic Wedding Present fashion; a jangle of clanging guitars, a squeal of feedback and a rush of adrenaline. With "Little Silver", "Bear", "Lead" and "Rachel" he proves yet again that he is a virtuoso when it comes to the bittersweet love song; his knack for a simple turn of phrase perfectly articulating the banalities and ecstasies of a relationship. Whilst they are the undoubted masters of frenetic indie-pop, The Wedding Present re-route momentarily on "Emporia" and "Wales" before ultimately immersing the listener in an epic album finale with "Santa Monica". Throughout this enchanting album, ambient soundscapes and orchestral pop arrangements jostle for position with layers of feedback drenched guitars, pummeling drums and a truly massive bass sound as the band plays some of the heaviest material they have ever recorded. The films that accompany each track are a mesmerizing collection of moving photographs. The rippling water in "Marblehead" delicately draws us into the melody while "Two Bridges" takes us onto a Manhattan street corner and exudes New York City in the summertime. The feeling of a road trip is present throughout with the rivers and lakes of the mid-west and the deserts of the south-west before the album ends with the sun setting over the Santa Monica mountains.