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Album Review

Decoration
See You After The War 13 B Sides Records

Article written by Ged M - Oct 12, 2008

Decoration: See You After The War

"If I was the multi-millionaire I wish I was, I'd sign these boys and record them."

So said John Peel back in 2004 when he played their debut and only session for the programme six months before his death. Decoration are a classic Peel band in some ways; literate and poetic (wordy, even), anthemically downbeat, a frontman who hides his innate romanticism beneath a sneer of Northern disdain and a band who build towers of tender melancholy on a foundation of clashing guitars. They were number 24 in the Festive Fifty of 2004, three spots behind Ballboy, 12 places ahead of the Wedding Present and that seemed to sum up their position in the indie firmament.

Fast forward four years and their second album could fit the same bill. Same thoughtfulness, same sense of doomed romance with inappropriate people (‘Dutch Elm’), same battles to get back what seems to be yours (‘Somewhere In The Western Approaches’), same anthems, same guitar slinging indiepop. And vocally, the singer is of the same bloodline as David Gedge and Gordon McIntyre. In short, it’s classic indie with contemporary touches. There’s a bit more sensitivity (the spoken word ‘Erm’), more strange locations for these romantic entanglements like canal banks, mountainsides and running tracks, a little more electronica and more post-rock arrangements where guitars and keyboards go spiralling off like rogue fireworks. If Peel were still here playing records at the wrong speed, he’d be delighted by ‘See You After the War’.

Links:
http://www.decorationmusic.co.uk/
http://www.13bsides.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/firepop