Acclaimed comeback album given Record Store Day vinyl release
9/10
Once again, the rush to finalize and release a special limited edition Record Store Day release is very much on. Major labels kid themselves (and us) that they give a damn with expensive vinyl represses of albums that ought to be available 52 weeks of the year, while smaller cottage labels attempt to generate genuine interest with what they can afford to knock out.
The newly revived Factory Benelux imprint is perfectly tailored for such an exercise, as demonstrated by recent reissues of The Names' Swimming album (on double vinyl) and Blurt's tasty Live in Berlin on a 10"/7" package. Here, in a rather more straightforward format, 12" vinyl, is The Wake's really rather pretty 2012 album A Light Far Out, which appeared on sister-label LTM.
Although just eight songs long, there is much to savour here if melancholic pop is your bent. And what better place to start than Stockport? The opening track's title hides a lyric that bemoans 'towns all look the same' and 'it could be so much more', which one could interpret as an observation, not just at the forgotten Cheshire metropolis at the foot of Manchester's borders, but the entire roll-call of British towns. Frankly, it is a classic and a great way to herald the return of a band whose last album, Tidal Wave of Hype, appeared in 1994 on Sarah.
The fidgety electro murmurings of If The Ravens Leave bears all the hallmarks of classic Wake songwriting - simple lyrical imagery, melancholic synth-hooks and little in the way of pomp and ceremony. Methodist is even more stripped back, sounding a little like Air or the Pet Shop Boys. And older song Back of Beyond rears its head again with lyrics and as an obvious choice as a single - if only singles were still fashionable.
Side two is more of a test - the instrumental Faintness has an element of yearning about it, while the lengthy title-track is unbelievably dreamy, particularly the final instrumental flourish, before the slow-tempo of the desolate The Sands passes by without so much as a riff or a change of pace - it doesn't need either, to be honest.
This Record Store Day vinyl version of just 500 copies features the standard album and sleeve, as well as an inner-sleeve with lyrics. Seek it out.
Go here for the original CD review of A Light Far Out on Allgigs (as well as live Wake shows).
9/10
The newly revived Factory Benelux imprint is perfectly tailored for such an exercise, as demonstrated by recent reissues of The Names' Swimming album (on double vinyl) and Blurt's tasty Live in Berlin on a 10"/7" package. Here, in a rather more straightforward format, 12" vinyl, is The Wake's really rather pretty 2012 album A Light Far Out, which appeared on sister-label LTM.
Although just eight songs long, there is much to savour here if melancholic pop is your bent. And what better place to start than Stockport? The opening track's title hides a lyric that bemoans 'towns all look the same' and 'it could be so much more', which one could interpret as an observation, not just at the forgotten Cheshire metropolis at the foot of Manchester's borders, but the entire roll-call of British towns. Frankly, it is a classic and a great way to herald the return of a band whose last album, Tidal Wave of Hype, appeared in 1994 on Sarah.
The fidgety electro murmurings of If The Ravens Leave bears all the hallmarks of classic Wake songwriting - simple lyrical imagery, melancholic synth-hooks and little in the way of pomp and ceremony. Methodist is even more stripped back, sounding a little like Air or the Pet Shop Boys. And older song Back of Beyond rears its head again with lyrics and as an obvious choice as a single - if only singles were still fashionable.
Side two is more of a test - the instrumental Faintness has an element of yearning about it, while the lengthy title-track is unbelievably dreamy, particularly the final instrumental flourish, before the slow-tempo of the desolate The Sands passes by without so much as a riff or a change of pace - it doesn't need either, to be honest.
This Record Store Day vinyl version of just 500 copies features the standard album and sleeve, as well as an inner-sleeve with lyrics. Seek it out.
Go here for the original CD review of A Light Far Out on Allgigs (as well as live Wake shows).