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Album Reviews
Album Review: The Wave Pictures – If You Leave It Alone (Moshi Moshi)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 4 May 2009
Having dragged their feet around the toilet circuit for over a decade, The Wave Pictures have finally got their act together with their first proper label-released LP. ‘If You Leave It Alone’ is essentially a collection of forlorn, depressive moans about haircuts, hypnosis, ladies and generally, how rubbish life has turned out to be. Stay with me though, because David Tattersall’s caustic wit transforms the despair into a sort of musical ‘Withnail & I’. To be honest, they had me at “The world might hate me but it revolves around me now”. In addition to being a dab hand with a pen, Tattersall performs lead vocal duties, sounding as if a turbo-melodramatic, English Neil Hannon and ye-olde court minstrel share his vocal chords. He is sparsely, but tastefully accompanied by percussion, guitar and the occasional smattering of brass on these tracks, the melodies the theme tunes of the self-involved and sunken shouldered, on the nicest day of the summer, as they trudge despondently past the brass players performing on the bandstand in the park. A satisfying listen ‘If You Leave It Alone’ is not, in fact it did at times, invoke my own despair, what with all the sombre discontent with life on display. Yet, somewhere, in the midst of all of the comic wretchedness, there is a glimmer of hope, and their maudlin style becomes refreshing. The Wave Pictures are essential listening for miserablists everywhere. MB
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