The Wave Pictures – City Forgiveness

Wave Pictures penned this two disc album whilst out on the road, touring around America in 2012, taking almost a full year for the album to get produced. The album consists of 20 songs which all highlight some point of the journey and the destinations they reached.

However, the album doesn’t really stir any attention. Upon first listen I found it quite boring and tedious, managing only to make it to track nine before I had to go and do something else and come back to it. From opening track All My Friends with its droning guitar and somewhat mopey sounding lyrics, you pretty much know what to expect from the rest of the tracks. It sounds as though they have hired Jimi Hendrix to riff all their guitar solos and each track contains the same sort of guitar solos.

Although they do redeem themselves on Narrow Lane which has a more upbeat feel to it meaning that you don’t want to turn it off after 20 seconds. Golden Syrup can be praised for the beauty of the lyrics, sounding somewhat like an old memory being retold with a soft acoustic guitar in the background; it gives itself an extremely humble feel and the way the words have been written means the song flows smoothly and recalls fond childhood memories.

The Yellow Roses is extremely relaxing and soft with the constant guitar riff in the background which eases its way in throughout the song which creates an amazing build up with the introduction of the drumbeat and then the electric guitar. It gives the song a developing feel and is one of the high points on the album.

Although the album holds the odd couple of songs which stand out, the rest of the album cannot help but be bland and, in all honesty, extremely boring. It is the kind of album you may put on in the background at a dinner party whilst friends chatted over the top of it. Although it is sophisticated in a musical sense it is also very easy to forget about once the songs have ended.

www.thewavepictures.com