Around Spring last year, I reviewed the most recent album by The Wave Pictures – Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon, in a fairly positive light. I gave it three and a half stars out of five but noted that the band had been “frustratingly inconsistent” over the years while acknowledging that their new long player was probably their best. Shortly afterwards, a reader called Mauro Gestoso called me out on it, pointing out that, if you listen to a CD-R from over a decade ago, the quality never dipped. I went back and listened to the old stuff and it turns out that Mauro was spot on. I still think the aforementioned album is their best, though, and I found myself playing it regularly even as late as December, as one of the top releases of 2015.
This new collection of songs – a vinyl special – is a far less rowdy bunch than the Billy Childish charged garage feel of GBFBM, but the stripped back acoustic nuance of A Season In Hull means it’s easier to fully immerse yourself in the wonderful lyrical content, and as a result, this is a record you just want to hug close to your chest over and over again.
It brims over with charm, from the affectionate “I love you, you idiot,” lyric on the superb ‘Thin Lizzy Live And Dangerous‘, through the amusing mockneyism of ‘A Letter From Hull‘ – which is part Ray Davies and part Dick Van Dyke – right through to the pretty jangle of ‘David In A Field Of Pumpkins‘. ‘Remains’ is arguably a favourite, beginning with the words “I love the poems that you wrote for James/Especially the one that you named ‘Remains’. More even than that/I like the chain of events that brought you before me“. It’s easy when faced with such splendid prose, to underestimate the considerable talents of frontman David Tattersall on guitar, but he truly is the Marr to his own Morrissey, while at other times it feels like John Fahey has nipped round for a pop tart.
I am certainly guilty, in the past, of viewing The Wave Pictures as a kind of “comedy band”, but whilst their songs contain an undeniable amount of humour, tracks like ‘Coaster In Santa Cruz‘ and ‘Hot Rain Riding On The Salt Lake‘ prove there is so much more to their canon, the latter number sounding something like a murder ballad from Violent Femmes‘ Hallowed Ground album.
As easily palatable as the music is, though, it is the near perfect poetry of A Season In Hull which sets it apart from the rest of the pack. The Wave Pictures are no longer just one of the best bands from Leicester. Hell, no. They’re one of the best bands in the country.
A Season In Hull is released on 5th February 2016 through Wymeswold Records
