bad.squirrel presents...

Trembling Blue Stars - "Her Handwriting"

Whoever said "It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" was probably a poet. Actually it may have been Cyrano De Bergerac. However, it could just as well have been a songwriter, for nothing stirs the heart to song like the longing love one has for another ... and which is usually unrequited. So it appears that Bob Wratten's pop career has somehow come full circle, one complete orbit by a lonesome star against a heaven of indifferent celestial bodies. During that time we have heard so many wonderful love songs of his, really sincere, touching, beautiful. These are songs you either adore with all your heart or despise as soppy and sentimental. No matter because when I'm alone with this music, nothing else is important since these songs make you look inwards, to dwell on what might have been, a past that is beyond your reach. From Emma's House to this new LP is not an almighty leap; Bob still sounds like Bob during his Field Mice days and still desperate for the love that eludes him.

The guitars still jangle and the melodies are as arresting as ever. Has he mellowed? I wouldn't have noticed but that's a compliment. Bands always feel they have to go somewhere, evolve from a perfect crystalline conception only to metamorphosise into some enormous, ugly entity. Why do bands have to change at all? How many totally crap second LPs have there been because of this? Even I began to lose faith when Bob and Co became Northern Picture Library, the focus was gone as is often the case when you have nothing in mind to sing about. And so to the Trembling Blue Stars, a name that ought to make you sigh with wonderment ... the artwork on the CD case is truly seductive, little clocks and arrows through hearts and sailing ships and stars. The title her handwriting is so perfect. The songs themselves are exquisite, gentle, understated in their translucent beauty with subtle percussion and melodic simplicity. And the words? So reflective, so melancholic, so desperately lonesome. The music could almost be described as easy listening only for the fact that this will leave you emotionally exhausted.

This is seriously heartbreaking stuff that's being dished out here but I love it. Which reminds me, someone also once said you can only write songs when you're out of love. Probably another poet.

Released on Shinkansen, 1996 (3CD).

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