When a cult band has been around as long as The Wave Pictures, and they have been bringing us music for nearly three decades now, you can be sure that the lack of wider acclaim they experience in the present moment will be counterbalanced by the cult longevity retained long after they are gone. They might even receive some Nick Drake-esque posthumous elevation, making good on my theory that the good stuff does rise to the top eventually. They belong to a very small but, in its own way, enviable club; like The Fall whose legend has only grown after Mark E Smith’s passing or Half Man Half Biscuit, who are never in nor out of vogue but maintain an audience and a special niche with their idiosyncratic writing style. It is harder to pinpoint exactly what sets The Wave Pictures apart. They make infectious, often catchy, songs built around introspective urban kitchen sink drama without the grandeur of Morrissey; they play dirty garage rock but appear like sensibly attired young men beloved of their partners mothers; they have a guitar hero lead who could riff most of his peers into the ground but would rather boil a kettle than pose like a rock god; they give an on stage impression of being the lads gang you would want to belong to and yet are, in every way, the antithesis of laddism. Whatever it is about them, and no matter how appealing their modest stature might appear, they absolutely deserve to be a lot more successful than they have been thus far; this latest album release puts even more weight behind that claim.

Still with the core trio of David Tattersall on guitar and vocals, Franic Rozycki on bass and Jonny Helm on drums, they laid this record down in early 2024 at Rochester’s Ranscombe Studios with their old collaborator Jim Riley at the controls, capturing that live in the room sound they prefer. Launching with some instantly inviting pot-boiling guitar licks on ‘Alice’ which, despite its immediacy and an instrumental break both melodically progressive and threatening to push the dial into the red, has a very dreamy refrain. This is surely deliberate, for the song was inspired by the William Burroughs book ‘My Education’ and we are dazed by imaginings of a kind of antechamber between life and death, a place where it is said that there would be ice cream. This band can work on both a basic and a deeper level, which is beyond doubt and so it is with the lolling ‘Sure And Steady.’ This one is at first glance a song about memories, as Tattersall sings “I don’t remember yesterday but I remember when I was eight years old” things feel relatable and yet, as the memories home in on finer feelings, the space between the past and present blurs. That said, if you asked The Wave Pictures what this is about, I suspect they would say it is about flapjacks. That same timelessness and weightlessness is felt vividly in ‘Past The House Painted Blue,’ here it is a peak into the ever-changing watercolour inside Tattersall’s head while musically, he treats us to some of his finest West African sounding guitar sorcery.

‘You’re My Patient Now’ plugs into the scuzzy, growling electric prowl that decorates this band with a whole other, far darker dimension. Here there is, and elsewhere across the record, another female voice heard in the mix which gives the piece a mild horror texture, although the song is actually prompted by the detective fiction of Raymond Chandler. ‘Sparklers’ returns to the domestic, inspired partially by the poetic wording on a tin of golden syrup. Themes of memory and passing time are an ever present across ‘Gained Lost,’ the title track evoking thoughts musically of the Rolling Stones ‘Exile On Main Street,’ which is a reference point also signposted by the cover art design. For all those comparisons, the Stones could never have been this ingloriously winsome. ‘Faded Wave Pictures T-Shirt’ tugs on many key elements of this bands appeal; indie-culture sartorial references, a sense of longing and nostalgia inflected reverie, thoughts of beaches blessed by a surf tremolo sound and some beautifully expressive guitars that chart a direct path back to the Velvet Underground at their most beautiful.

‘Samuel’ has a burst of instrumental colour with some keys and a scraping violin entering the mix. If experiencing this album is like walking through an art exhibition, this one would have you rooted to the spot a little longer, scratching your head trying to work out what is going on as the nightmarish refrain repeats “even the phone is dead, do you hear that, Samuel?” ‘The Past Comes Back To Haunt Me’ revisits a chugging, conveyor belt-like revolving sound that resonates like the Modern Lovers; long term Wave Pictures fans might remember them locking this groove on ‘The Woods’ earlier last decade. In a rare drop of pace, the penultimate tune ‘Orange Fire’ meditates on the idea of photographs and the notion of catching a ghost in the frame. This is another one where David expresses freely on a stunning guitar solo, playing the track to its end, it shows the pay back achievable when capturing this band in a comfortable situation and just letting them play. ‘Worry Anymore’ closes a glorious set with an overwhelming downpouring of feelings and thoughts that have been amassed along the way, even the ice cream sung about at the beginning makes a re-appearance. The Wave Pictures may not break any new ground with this album, but they do better than that. ‘Gained Lost’ is the work of a band at peace with all their strengths, including the ability to write a cohesive suite of compatible songs, and playing to those abilities with confidence, conviction, and flare. What more can I say? It is another brilliant Wave Pictures album.

The Wave Pictures album ‘Gained / Lost’ is out now and can be purchased here: https://amzn.to/4120AlD

Danny Neill