Always On My Mind: A Brief Review Of Birling Gap, The New Album From The Catenary Wires (Heavenly, Marine Research, Swansea Sound)

Birling Gap exists in reality between Eastbourne and Brighton. In our imaginations it's where Robert Smith twirled in that "Just Like Heaven" video. In our ears, it's where these sounds must have been born. I'm talking about the new album from The Catenary Wires, the project featuring Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (Heavenly, Marine Research, etc.), along with Fay Hallam, Ian Button (Papernut Cambridge, Thrashing Doves), and Andy Lewis (Louis Phillippe, Paul Weller). Birling Gap is the name of the record, and it's every bit as good as the last one from this lot. Maybe better.

While opener "Face on the Rail Line" sets an introspective mood, "Always on My Mind" is altogether more energetic. A wildly catchy number that's pitched somewhere between Lawrence in his Denim mode and late period Heavenly ('natch), a listener would have to be an ogre not to crack a grin, or tap a foot to this one. Recent single "Mirrorball" follows next, and its mix of humorous reflection, and timeless effervesence still moves an aging fan of British indie. It helps that the tune's a corker, of course. Speaking of indie, there's more than one track here that made me think of The House of Love, oddly, especially "Cinematic" near the album's close. Elsehwere, "Liminal" is like Black Box Recorder with a Peter Hook bass. LouderThanWar.com beat me to the punch in drawing in a Luke Haines comparision, and it's a fair one, though only to late Nineties Haines, when his bite had been tempered with an affection for pop.

And while lots of Birling Gap is brighter and sleeker than the band's last album, there's still something richer about "Canterbury Lanes". The cut's construction mirrors an approach favored by Ray Davies, which is to say it's an acknowledgement of the limits of being English, both a celebration and a bit of a reckoning. Given the grimly spectacular failures of the current government in the U.K., I'm surprised more arists are not grappling with identity this way. But, as a long-time fan would expect, Fletcher and Pursey are adept enough to make this go down easily, while retaining a seriousness (in spots) that seems warranted. And precious few outside this lot could write lyrics like this here: "The schools and churches of our birth / Tower over us, say what we're worth / And all the beauty and the bells won't set us free..." Still, the two and the rest of the band are making an indie-pop record here, and things never get too heavy. The bittersweet "Like the Rain" and "The Overall Effect" wrap things up neatly, simply, and quietly. The notes sounded here provide moments of reflection, melodic bliss, and a reminder of the charming nature of nearly anything touched by Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey in their many guises the last few decades. And more than ever, Birling Gap reveals a new awareness of how to blend their influences, and the genres they favor, into one style. And it's a style that no one else in 2021 can touch.

Birling Gap is out in the States via Shelflife.

More details on The Catenary Wires via the band's official website, or their Facebook page.

[Photo: The Catenary Wires / Crashing Through Publicity]