The Wave Pictures – Strawberry Cables

The Wave Pictures

The Wave Pictures have been quietly gigging as well as self-recording and releasing albums since the early part of the decade. This approach to their music is refreshingly old-fashioned – any other band may have sought out wider recognition long before now, or given up completely, but the band seem to have been content to just write songs, and have built up an impressive back catalogue as a result. Their albums look and sound like the work of just three men, while their songs are rooted in the strange, mundane reality of the 21st century.

This year’s If You Leave It Alone, released on Moshi Moshi Records, is perhaps their most accomplished release yet. The songs are punctuated by Stanley Brinks’ extra musical arrangements, though it is David Tattersall’s voice and lyrics that remain at the centre. Tattersall’s voice is distinctly ordinary, but his lyrics and delivery more than compensate and, after a while, it begins to feel right. Besides, musically the band are impressive, plucking styles and references from anywhere in music history between the Second World War and the present day for their songs.

‘Strawberry Cables’, the most recent single from If You Leave It Alone, is a bittersweet song about childhood, full of the odd, seemingly random, remembered events that everyone seems to hold on to. In the verses, David’s “keeping my friends close/my enemies closer/my parents even closer than that”, while gorging himself on sweets and smashing windows. The chorus, with David and his friends singing, “You know I tried to find my way back to you”, puts it all into perspective though.

‘Strawberry Cables’ is backed with the brighter ‘Three Songs Called Louise’, which sees the band continue to work with relatively more expansive production – guitar lines positively glimmer as a girl takes a lonely flight from Berlin, her thoughts filled with memories of the city. Tattersall’s skill with combining storytelling and melody is at its peak here, and suggests that new-found recognition hasn’t blighted their creative instinct. Fans of Belle and Sebastian, The Modern Lovers, or just pop music in general, take note – here is your new favourite band.

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