The Wedding Present Cup: Stage 1, Group 6

    

Group 6

• Once Bitten
• Don't Touch That Dial
• Step Inside Love 
• Meet Cute
• White Riot
• Always The Quiet One
• Peek-a-boo
• Box Elder
• The Girl From the DDR
• Undercurrent
• Pinch, Twist, Pull, Release
• Ringway To Seatac
• Spangle
• We All Came From The Sea
• You Jane
• Birdsnest

The Results

'Box Elder' became only the fourth cover to make it into the next stage, getting decent marks from the majority of voters. This included a maximum 12 from Mike, who confessed that he didn't even know it was a cover when he first heard it. Keg had 'nostalgic affection' for the track, although he couldn't find it a point and declared the Pavement original to be superior. 

It was a familiar story with the remainder of the cover versions in this group, however, all of which found themselves towards the foot of the table. TWP's take on 'Undercurrent', a 1963 track by Richie Allen & the Pacific Surfers which appeared on a 7" flexi-disc in 1993, left the panel unimpressed. 'Filler' was Joanna's verdict; Harry thought it 'pretty pointless'; John described it as 'a plodding musical interlude.' 'Step Inside Love', despite a startling 10 points from Ali, attracted even more negative comments, including 'embarrassing' (Gav M), 'boring' (Kirk) and 'abysmal' (Harry). 'White Riot' provoked even stronger views: 'woeful, please make it stop' (Gav M); 'painful mess' (Gricey); 'just no!' (Mandy). Harry was a rare voice of positivity: 'This is one song that totally suits The Wedding Present cover version approach of heads down and guitars being played over the speed limit.'

'Peek-a-boo' (an El Rey outtake farmed out to a 2011 VA compilation) suffered the ignominy of becoming the lowest-scoring TWP original thus far. James, Harry and Keg didn't even remember hearing it before, with Keg commenting, 'flimsy fluff - one for completists only.' Johnny thought it 'almost a parody... with every TWP cliché thrown in for good (or bad) measure.'

The 24 Songs tracks have had mixed fortunes so far, and that continued here. 'We All Came From The Sea' got a decent handful of mid-range marks, with both Mike and John admiring its 'funky' qualities and Ian declaring it the best of last year's tracks 'by a country mile.' Johnny suggested that if it had been released in 1992 it would have had a drum loop added and become a 'dance floor epic.' There was considerably less love for 'Once Bitten'. The lyric came in for a bit of stick from a couple of people. Bob was typically abrupt: 'twice sh*te'.

Valentina is another album that generates mixed feelings. Of the three tracks from the LP in this group, 'The Girl From the DDR' received the most positive response. Gav M thought it 'a good, clever little song,' and both Mike and Harry described it a 'lovely.' Keg and Johnny expressed reservations about the apparent chronological incongruity of a mobile phone being mentioned in a song that references the fall of the Berlin Wall (although Gedge has defended this lyric). 'Meet Cute' and 'You Jane' did not fare as well. Keg thought the latter, with its film star references, sounded like 'a TWP song written by AI.'

In general, the judges have expressed positive views about Going Going as an album, but once again they struggled to find many points for a specific track, in this case 'Birdsnest'. Ian once again expressed the view that 'the individual tunes seem lost on their own.' Steve M liked the 'epic bass and the chorus' but was not keen on the 'awful merlot nonsense lyrics.' Johnny was also critical of the lyric, likening it to 'a Les Dawson monologue.'

The top of the table was dominated by songs from Take Fountain. 'Don't Touch That Dial', 'Ringway To Seatac' and 'Always The Quiet One' all received almost universal acclaim. (I won't quote the effusive praise here, leaving it for future rounds.) Despite the familiar arguments about whether the album or Peel version is superior, 'Spangle' was also part of a top four that scored notably higher than the rest.

Perhaps the most surprising qualifier was 'Pinch, Twist, Pull, Release'. Although Bob derided it as 'another example of Gedge liking a phrase and feeling the need to shoehorn the reference into a song,' both Gricey and Harry felt that it merited a slot on El Rey. Johnny thought it 'beautiful, a heartbreaker.'

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