The ex Pipettes-Singer Rose Elinor Dougall and Blur-Guitarist Graham Coxon are now a couple both privately and musically: The Waeve. Now, following half a dozen singles, the debut album follows.
The parents of one daughter share inspiration for the self-titled debut album The Waeve the love to Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, King Crimson‘s In the Court of the Crimson King, Gong’s Camembert Electrique, Irma Thomas’s The Soul Queen of New Orleans, Van der Graaf Generator’s Still Life and Martin Carthy’s Right of Passage; or Broadcast’s Tender Buttons, Fairport Convention’s Unhalfbricking, Young Marble Giants’s Colossal Youth and Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s Signs of Life – also albums by Roxy Music or New Order should be on the list published by the duo to frame the duo’s smooth, latently progressive art rock style, which (in a somewhat too long season) mostly feeds on quieter duets or alternating solo efforts.
Only the schizoid, jazzed-up trumpeting Kill Me Again with its driven dark wave electro downbeat, which emphasizes a melodic superstructure from the grumbling rhythm section around the distinctive bass to the laid-back post punk catchy tune and the robot-like chanted synth train Someone Up There constantly tighten the screws slightly over their entire length.
Nurtures in the eclectic flow of herbaceous, unconventionally intertwined ideas The Weave his New Wave tendencies with the bittersweet melancholy of Dream Pop now and then with latent chamber music kitsch and elegiac saxophone damage; it thus creates an idiosyncratic appeal that shows great synergy. Coxon always has to bend a bit towards harmony in the higher parts of the joint singing, but that also contributes to the charm of a record on which the two partners complement each other wonderfully in a reserved way and the subversive power of their songwriting with almost routine energy – Leverage class in a coherent whole.
There’s an immediate attraction when Can I Call You slowly and solemnly rippling on the piano with a contemplative beat and a loose guitar that invites thoughtful flowing, later the events suddenly pick up momentum with jogging modulated loops and thus develop an almost hypnotic dynamic that is not defined by immediacy or frontal tempi. Over and Over is pleasantly swaying, warm and soft and beautiful spreading its wistful nostalgia and gentle longing almost too comfortably across the verbose space, meanwhile Sleepwalking symphonically raised, calmly begins to run, in its discreet spirit of optimism vague optimism, takes an organ and sizzling guitars with it to become more and more flat and to have no goal apart from the structural increase or compression.
Drowning (aka the full Here Comes the WAEVE) is a dreamy, sparkling contemplation under the starry sky, whose electrified harmonica howls in front of the subtly roughened textures, orchestrally bathes in a suspicious grandeur, and this mask then takes off with rocking coolness in the darkness: the range of the record carries as well as the aesthetically assimilated instruments contribute to sustainability – sometimes perhaps just a touch too little.
All Along without breaking ranks, intimately and fragilely veering off to acoustic folk (which constantly breeds a drone in the background) and Undine contemplates his withdrawn loneliness in two episodes of gently floating romance, with strings and modulated loop, before the grandiose finale elevates the impression of raw sentimentality even more clearly than it counteracts it: Alone And Free really settles into the opulent, always so song-serving and atmospheric arrangements, meanwhile You’re All I Want to Know cultivates a timeless oldie flair in a forgiving, pleasing and comforting way, which is consistently carried away by its vintage magic.
A really fine conclusion to the best Coxon-Non-Blur-Company that already indicates that it fell short in the final evaluation here – the only reason why the points were not upgraded was because the absolute overwhelming or ingenious highlights that surpass the strong level are missing. (Nevertheless: Although the failure-free The Waeve a little distillation might have unfolded its potential even more effectively, as already mentioned, but you are only too happy to optionally take the equally successful numbers of the Deluxe Edition as well as the standalone single Something Pretty with. ).
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