Stream City Forgiveness, the new album from The Wave Pictures

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“Once I dreamt I saw your face on a carton of milk”, opens the new LP from Leicestershire rock outfit The Wave Pictures , a sprawling 2-CD testament to “the way that travel excites the imagination”, conceived over six months spent driving across America. ”Once I dreamt I spilled the milk all down my shirt”, it wryly continues.

Available to be streamed below ahead of its 21 October release, it’s in lines like this that The Wave Pictures continue to find their niche, supported by the loose guitars and percussion that let lyricist Dave Tattersall’s kitchen sink dramas breathe – albeit, this time, with a transatlantic backdrop.

“We visited Hank Williams’ house and Billy The Kid’s grave”, Tattersall says of the trip that triggered the writing process, spent travelling across the States with Allo Darlin’. ”We watched the Golden Gate bridge disappear into the clouds, and had our frisbee confiscated by a cop. We played some great shows together, and we became good friends, and we drove and we drove and we drove and we drove.”

The title came to Tattersall in a dream, he says, and reminds him of City Lights – both the Charlie Chaplin romantic comedy and, fittingly for an album to arise from a U.S. road trip, the LA company that published Allen Ginsberg’s Howl.

With all the wit and verve of last year’s Long Black Cars musically and lyrically transposed to an American setting, you can stream the excellent new effort in full below.

City Forgiveness drops 21 October on Moshi Moshi.

The Wave Pictures are playing London’s Jazz Café on 13 November, with tickets available here.