The Wave Pictures' David Tattersall gives track by track guide to new album

If You Leave It Alone the new album by The Wave Pictures was released on Monday (4th May) via Moshi Moshi. The speedy follow up to last years remarkable debut Instant Coffee Baby was reviewed here on TLOBF a couple of weeks ago by Simon Tyers. Here, David Tattersall – the bands frontman and lyricist guides us track-by-track through the new record.

1) IF YOU LEAVE IT ALONE – “The title track is also the first track, and it’s a good, long, sad song in which, amongst other things, I describe the contents of my fridge.”

2) CANARY WHARF – “I once went and sat in Canary Wharf underneath the big screen with the stocks and shares on it, and made notes. A simple, little two-chord minor key song. It’s almost more of a doodle than a song, Toby Goodshank is a special guest on this recording; his harmony vocal part makes the chorus seem more like a chorus, which makes the song seem more like a song.”

3) MY KISS – “This is a re-recording of an ancient Wave Pictures song. I really love this song. I think it ought to be really famous and popular, but I suspect it won’t happen.”

4) I THOUGHT OF YOU AGAIN – “A true, long song about a far away friend, which I wrote when we were on tour in Spain and then Sweden. I wrote loads of rubbish, anything that popped into my head, on serviettes that I had taken from gas stations. We had these really long van rides on that tour. Anyway, when I got back to London I edited them down to make a song.”

5) TINY CRATERS IN THE SAND – “The idea of this song is that it is impossible to be in a long-term monogamous relationship without going insane, no matter how much love you start out with. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with that idea… It’s a kind of a marriage proposal song. It’s quite romantic! Let’s go crazy together!”

6) BUMBLE BEE – “A song about depression or about not wanting to get out of bed. It is a re-write of an old folk song called ”Froggy Went A Courtin”. It is deceptively happy sounding. It has some friendly animals in it who offer advice and criticism.”

7) COME ON DANIEL – “I have no idea what is going on here, I can’t remember writing this. When I hear it, I quite like it, but it’s more like listening to some other band….”

8) TOO MANY QUESTIONS – “One of two songs on the album that are written in the first person as someone else… They probably don’t know about this song… Anyway, I’m singing this song as a girl to tell you the truth. When my parents saw me sing this in concert, they thought that I had come out of the closet live on stage.”

9) BYE BYE BUBBLE BELLY – “The chorus and title come from an advert for a type of yoghurt which is meant to relieve middle-aged women of their constipation. The rest of it is completely made up.”

10) SOFTLY YOU, SOFTLY ME - “This song is very sad to me. I was trying to write an early 60s type Bob Dylan song, but found it quite hard to do. I ended up with this though, so it wasn’t a wasted afternoon. I love the sound Clemence Freschard got on this one, all the little picky, percussive things. This album owes everything to her.”

11) STRAWBERRY CABLES – “This is also very sad. Nice horns by Stanley Brinks. One of the key influences on the horn arrangements for this album was a Lou Reed song called ‘New York City Man’. It’s from one of my favourite Lou Reed albums, ‘Set The Twilight Reeling’.”

12) NOTHING CAN CHANGE THIS LOVE – “It’s nice to do a cover every now and then. Sam Cooke songs are very satisfying to play. So simple and elegant. It’s a nice little goodbye for the album.”

The Wave Pictures on MySpace