You're All I Want To Know: A Review Of The Debut Album From The Waeve (Graham Coxon & Rose Elinor Dougall)

For anyone who's hung around this site in the last deccade or so, it's clear that I'm a fan of Rose Elinor Dougall. Back in 2010, Without Why dropped, and that review by me was a turning point, shifting this site's focus more towards music exclusively. So, yeah, I was primed for The Waeve, her new band with Graham Coxon (Blur). The duo's self-titled debut record, The Waeve, drops this week and, yeah, it's something unique indeed.

Wisely, the project sounds like the meeting of two minds, with each musician contributing ideas to each track. There's nothing here where a listener can say that one of the talents is dominating things, and that's a nice thing to report. Opener "Can I Call You" melds Rose's vocals with Graham's guitar-lines to great effect, while "Kill Me Again" has an undercurrent which makes it sound oddly like both Dougall's earlier efforts on her own, and a few select Blur tracks. That it's also got a Roxy Music-ish sax is another plus. Elsewhere, the hypnotic "Drowning" begins with Rose's crystalline voice, before multiple instruments enter the mix. With the addition of Graham's voice, the track seems a perfect sample of the power of The Waeve, as it's a tune that would be good on its own as a Rose or Graham solo track, but when coming from both of them, is even better.

The sway of "Undine" is languid and understated, offering a nice juxtaposition to the brash New Wave-y business of "Someone Up There", a harder highlight here. Whatever path this duo pursues, they seem to be working as a team. That's corny to say, I think, but I'm so thankful, as a fan of each of these players, that neither ego overshadowed the whole thing. I suppose that the lovely closer "You're All I Want to Know" could be described in terms of Rose's voice and delivery as being the center elements of the composition, but I suspect, given the way the rest of the album works, that the mix of instruments swelling behind her voice is equal parts Graham and Rose.

A blur of genres, a set of concise compositions with enough variety to please fans of each member of this duo, The Waeve by The Waeve is here in February to leap forward as one of the best releases of 2023. The melodic heft and warm electronic textures of many of these tracks are things to be celebrated and embraced by listeners. Highly, highly recommended.

The Waeve by The Waeve is out on Friday. Details here.

[Photo: Steve Gullick]