Take Fountain
Somewhere it’s raining, and a heartbroken teenager listens to the Wedding Present on headphones while staring out at the raindrops sploshing against the earth outside. Formed in Leeds in the mid ‘80s, this "miserabilist" pop band was huge in the U.K. back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, though they never approached the charts here. In 2005, the Wedding Present is David Gedge plus whoever he wants in the band. In fact,Take Fountain, the first WP album in 8 years, allegedly started out as a new record by his post-WP orchestral pop act,Cinerama. Gedge has always demonstrated very Catholic indie-rock taste. His band coveredPavement’s "Box Elder" -- a song off their first single -- before most knew who they were. And here he re-enlists versatile veteranSteve Fiskas the producer. There are poppy mid-tempo dirges ("Don’t Touch that Dial") and vaguely detuned, mopey but not emo anthems ("Mars Sparkles Down on Me"). The now-Seattle-based Gedge has made another Wedding Present album filled with pretty songs that gracefully shout to the heavens, "Woe is me!"--Mike McGonigal