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Wive – PVLL (Exile On Mainstream)

1/5

By: Stephen Maughan

Wive are a band with a range of musical experience under their belt, from classical and pop to avant garde and minimalist elements, all put together by Matt Irwin, with the help of his wife Meghan. Listening to PVLL again this morning, I am trying to work out what can be said of a band that seems to exist only for dinner parties, as background music, and cosy fireplace talks with your partner over a good bottle of red wine.

For Wive excel in creating the kind of music to which we can all nod our heads, mutter the word “interesting” in our best beatnik voice, while deep down hoping the damn record would just get going. Alas, PVLL contains 9 overlong tracks that meander without actually going anywhere – with the exception of one amazing song in the middle (we'll come to that) which is almost worth the cost of the record in itself.

Harsh? Well, let's back up. ‘Dinner party music’ is an offensive term, I know, and my sympathies do lie with Massive Attack who topped a recent poll of the most popular band to play at dinner parties, but at least Massive Attack are/were (depending on your view) a brilliant band. Wive just try a bit too hard to bring all their musical skills to the forefront, and sure, they seem perfectly skilled and able to play, but nine songs where nothing happens can be a challenging experience.

The irony of all this is that what my wife and I decided last night over a good bottle of red wine is that Wive have obviously “tried hard” (my wife’s words), and we’re agreed that there are some really good ideas here, particularly on the brilliant 'Lazarvs and Dives' which shows the potential of this band with a quite spectacular backdrop of an astonishing, sublime musical presence with haunting lyrics echoing the beauty of the song. Still, it’s all over before you know it, leaving us with the dull shoegaze of ‘Attrition’, and you may still be awake by the time the time the tear jerking ‘The Day Bvrnt to Death’ comes on.  And to be honest, if the latter was playing at a dinner party, half the guests would gloomily talk about the end of civilisation as we know it, and the other half would quickly make their excuses and leave.

I hate dismissing an album like this, especially when it's created by obviously talented people who might be utterly charming party guests themselves.  It’s even more of a shame because if every track on PVLL was as great as 'Lazarvs and Dives', it would be worth 5 stars.  As it is I'm afraid, it's bestowed far less.

Artists in this article: Wive

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