Cinerama

He may try to avoid it with his Cinerama project, but it's hard to talk about David Gedge without mentioning the Wedding Present. "I have to be an ex-something, At least it's not ex-Hootie and the Blowfish," he jokes. Disco Volante is Cinerama's second full-length album and it continues to develop Gedge's obsession with film soundtracks and TV themes. While their first album was a huge departure from his Wedding Present days, there are moments on Disco Volante where the differences aren't well defined. "I was so adamant that Va Va Voom shouldn't just sound like another Wedding Present record, I went out of my way to make it as different as I could. But in retrospect, I saw that this kind of compromised the project, so this time I've just done exactly what I've wanted," Gedge explains. The addition of Wedding Present guitarist Simon Cleave is a contributing factor; the sound is most obvious on "Wow‚" featuring those buzzing guitars that haven't been heard for so long and that might be in part due to Steve Albini's engineering involvement. "I enjoyed working with him on Seamonsters and I felt that he could add something to the sound. And when people started telling me that an Albini/Cinerama collaboration would never work, I became even more determined to try. I think those bigger sounds work well within the cinematic context." Gedge has always been an underrated songwriter, with a knack for spinning a yarn that pulled you in, even within the span of a few minutes. "At the risk of sounding a bit arrogant, I don't think there have been many people ever, who write pop music the way I do." That is still very much the case, especially on songs like "Apres Ski" and "Let's Pretend‚" but the stories are not only tales of unrequited love these days. Is it a case of maturity coming with age? "I hate that word! I think pop music's immature almost by definition. In my writing I'm covering the whole range of human emotions, so sometimes the ending's happy, sometimes it's not." Disco Volante feels like a more complete and accomplished piece of work than its predecessor - quite a feat in itself - and as more and more levels reveal themselves with subsequent listens, it is clear that this could be the pinnacle of Gedge's musical career so far. Until the next album comes along and proves me wrong.