The Wedding Present

Breakups are a bitch, but sometimes they’re easier to swallow when you’ve got a backup plan. Dave Gedge — the perennially heart-wounded Englishman with the nifty wit and magnetic croon — went through a double-bummer recently when he split with longtime girlfriend Sally Murrell, who also just happened to be the keyboardist in Gedge’s most recent outfit, Cinerama. Because Gedge wasn’t down with some kinda weird Fleetwood Mac deal, he was forced to pull the plug on Cinerama. But the good news is that he has reformed the Wedding Present, the band that established his reputation as one of indie rock’s most consistently brilliant songwriters during its initial 1985-1997 run. The Present’s new album, Take Fountain, essentially splits the difference between its careening guitar pop and the slinky, John Barry-inspired elegance of the Cinerama years, and a recent tour stop proved the group to be in fantastic live form. Gedge may have moved on (or back) in name, but there’s enough breakuppery in the new material to keep those Loveline guys busy for years.