The Wedding Present Cup: Stage 1, Group 14

            

Group 14

• No Christmas
• Be Honest
• Fifty-Six
• Jump In, The Water's Fine
• Happy Birthday
• Step Into Christmas
• X Marks The Spot
• Sprague
• Silver Shorts
• Rachel
• Northern Ireland
• It's For You
• All About Eve 
• Santa Ana Winds
• Kennedy

The Results

Opinions were divided as to the overall merits of this set of songs, which, if you average the rankings from my blog, comes out as the sixth-strongest one. Joanna considered it a 'great group'; Gav M, however, thought it a 'woeful' one. Kirk's comment was, 'I could easily have given 10 zeros this round so a few songs have been lucky to get points'; whereas James said that he could have given points to every track.

Only five non-originals have qualified thus far, and the two covers here continued the general trend. Despite my dislike of Altered Images, I actually find TWP's version of 'Happy Birthday' moderately engaging - enough to warrant a single point, at least. Keg thought that TWP 'carry it off with exuberance.' Kirk begged to differ: 'This wouldn’t make me happy on my birthday.' He also disapproved of 'Step Into Christmas', apparently channelling Bob with his comment of 'step into a big pile of steamy sh*t.' Gricey and Johnny described it as 'fun' and Mike said that it put a smile on his face, but despite this, none of them gave it any points. The track's biggest fan was Keg, who gave it a whopping eight points: 'A track I look forward to hearing again each Christmas when I crack open my festive mp3 playlist.'

There was only moderate support for instrumental 'Northern Ireland'. 'Harmless enough, but ultimately unnecessary,' thought Bob. 'X Marks The Spot', like the majority of 24 Songs tracks, didn't attract much enthusiasm, although Bob enjoyed the 'almost Pixies-esque guitar riff.' 'Lyrically,' mused Johnny, 'it just feels like he is running low on ideas.' 2019 single 'Jump In, The Water's Fine' made it to number 82 in my blog ('A variety of guitar tones are subtly balanced, there's a crafty, athletic bass line lurking in the background, and the harmonies on the chorus are frankly gorgeous'), but the majority of the panel were unimpressed, especially with Gedge's falsetto vocals. Johnny felt that it had, 'sway but no swagger... it does feel quite listless.'

Mid-table, there were four songs that battled it out for the last two qualifying spots right to the very end: with just a couple of votes left to come in, there were only six points separating them. 

In the end, it was 'Sprague' and early b-side 'All About Eve' that missed out. The latter was appreciated by Ali ('pure jangly noise') and Ian ('it has the sound that captured me as a fan from the off') - but it also got a zero from a substantial minority of the panel. As for 'Sprague', it was always going to be a challenge to rate the four (largely) instrumental tracks that open Going Going alongside the more typical fare, and while several of the panel had kind words for the track (Bob, Kirk and James all used the word 'lovely'; Mike thought it had 'a beautiful melody'), there were a few comments similar to this from James: 'I mean, is it really TWP? Does it count?'

Ian thought that 'Fifty-Six' was 'one of weakest tunes on Going Going', whereas Kirk's description was, 'thumping intro, great chorus and then the drums, guitar and organ battle it off before the whole thing cleverly winds back to finish as it started - magnificent.' Both Gricey and Gav M considered 'Santa Ana Winds' a strong opener for El Rey, the latter finding it another that brought back happy personal memories. Even Ian - notably not a fan of the album - discovered that it was 'better on record than I remembered it.' Kirk thought that 'the menacing intro promises much but ultimately... it doesn’t deliver.' Johnny also had mixed feelings: 'Musically captivating, lyrically leaving a fair bit to be desired.' John was not a fan at all: 'A bit of a dirge.'

The top two were separated by the slimmest margin possible. 'Kennedy' and 'Silver Shorts' tied on total points, with the win going to the former 9-8 on head-to-head votes. The April 1992 Hit Parade single received strong support from all but a handful of the judges, with Ali enthusing that, 'this feels like live music... makes me feel like I’m in the middle of a gig having a shared experience.' Bob felt that the song was 'somewhat sullied' by an experience he and I shared at a TWP gig at Shepherd's Bush, involving a dubious gentleman emerging from a toilet cubicle clutching a copy of the single.

'Kennedy' suffers from the same problem as 'Brassneck' - overfamiliarity. Johnny, in typical style, captured perfectly the reservations many of us have about the song:

'The opening ding-ding-ding-da-dinks herald the worst few minutes of any modern day live outing as the fat, balding oafs arrive from the back, clutching flimsy glasses of cheap, fizzy lager to slam their amble bellies into the merry throng, absorbing all in the vicinity into their sweaty musk and misguided belief that they are still 18 years old and a mere 65 kilos.'

 'So, you go all in with a 12 or go the other way with a big fat zero or do you sit on the fence with a 6?' pondered Kirk. Gav M went for the zero route, but others were prepared to forgive its ubiquity. Ian was one of them:

'You have to travel mentally back to a time when you had not heard this a gazillion times and had people at gigs talking over newer tunes, waiting for this, or Dalliance, or My Favourite Dress. In the final analysis it’s an iconic TWP song. Perhaps the most iconic. Any casual indie fan will know this tune.'

'It's For You' was only a point behind the top two, its bass line in particular attracting much praise, even if Bob found Gedge's 'shouting' to be 'quite annoying.' 'No Christmas' was neck-and-neck with the top three until zeros from Keg and Johnny ensured it stayed in fourth place. It was a notably divisive track - the first one to finish fourth despite getting five zeros. Given that his username on the TWP forum is 'No Christmas', it was no surprise to see Kirk giving the track maximum marks. Gav M, however, thought it 'one of the weakest Hit Parade songs'; the other Gav was an ever bigger crtitic: 'a largely tuneless dirge that sounds like they forgot to spend a single penny on production.' Johnny was just as disparaging: 'It's riddled with fatigue like a middle aged middle manager staggering over the line at the end of his charity marathon.'

'Rachel' also divided opinion. I love the song (number 31 on the blog) and had allies in Gav M ('laden with perfect poppy hooks') and Keg ('a gorgeous melody'). However, both Bob and Kirk described it as 'cheesy.' 'Be Honest' received similarly mixed views. Ali loved its 'bitter, hurt and angry' lyrics; Johnny delighted in 'a perfect little album closer that... brings you back home all calm and content.' On the other hand, Gav M found it 'a bit of weird, flat ending to Bizarro' and Kirk dismissed it as 'filler.' Nonetheless, both qualified with relative comfort.

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