The Wedding Present Announce New Album 'Locked Down And Stripped Back', Share Reworking Of Crawl
Friday, 20 November 2020
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Jessica McMillan
The Wedding Present have announced a new album.
'Locked Down And Stripped Back' is set to land on February 19 via Scopitones and presents twelve reworked and stripped back home recordings of the band's hits, alongside two previously unreleased tracks; You're Just A Habit That I'm Trying To Break and We Should Be Together.
As the title suggests, the LP was recorded remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Band leader David Gedge said:
"As the summer of 2020 wore on it became increasingly obvious that At The Edge of The Sea – my annual festival in Brighton – was sadly going the way of other live music events. Following its cancellation, I decided to replace it with an online version, presented live from my own living room and featuring home-recorded videos from many of the artists that had appeared at the festival over the years.
"For The Wedding Present's contribution, we picked twelve tracks to re-work in a semi-acoustic style, and it was fascinating to see how stripped-back arrangements brought out different aspects of the songs. The 'Seamonsters' track Blonde was a prime example of this, with a just-two-guitars approach resulting in a naïve and moving interpretation."
The announcement arrives with a reinterpretation of Crawl, a song from the group's 1990 '3 Songs' EP. Its accompanying lockdown video is available on the Wedding Present's YouTube channel along with the record's other 11 songs. Discussing the new version, which is slightly less driving than its original, Gedge added:
"People are always telling me that Crawl is one of their favourite songs. So why didn’t we put it on an album? Well, in Wedding Present world we've never had throwaway songs that we bury on b-sides and this is a case in point. We wanted to make our '3 Songs EP' [RCA, 1990] as strong as possible and so we just put it on there. I think the interplay between the electric guitar and bass works really well. I played acoustic guitar on both the original, at the Chicago Recording Company, and on this stripped back version – 30 years later – in my spare room at home!"
The band will drop a compilation of James Bond theme covers titled 'Not From Where I’m Standing' on December 4, with all profits going to CALM.
'Locked Down And Stripped Back' tracklist:
1. A Million Mile (originally appeared on 'George Best')
2. California (originally appeared on 'The Hit Parade')
3. Starry Eyed (originally appeared on 'Cinerama’s Torino')
4. We Should Be Together ft. Louise Wener (previously unreleased)
5. You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends (originally released as a single)
6. Granadaland (originally appeared on 'Bizarro')
7. You’re Just A Habit That I’m Trying To Break (previously unreleased)
8. Crawl (originally appeared on '3 Songs' EP)
9. Sports Car (originally appeared on 'Mini')
10. Deer Caught In The Headlights (originally appeared on 'Valentina')
11. Blonde (originally appeared on 'Seamonsters')
12. My Favourite Dress (originally appeared on 'George Best')
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