True lovers of indie pop, that of the saddest, most heartbreaking variety, know that a
Bobby Wratten
project is guaranteed to deliver all the tears and melancholic feels one poor soul can handle. The
Field Mice
,
Northern Picture Library
Trembling Blue Stars
...records by these groups rate among the finest sad pop ever made. After taking a break from breaking hearts for a few years,
Wratten
returned with
Lightning in a Twilight Hour
and it's plain at once from seeing the band's name that there isn't going to be a lot of laughs involved. After a typically lovely EP,
Slow Changes
, was released in early 2015,
and a very familiar crew (longtime engineer
Ian Catt
, former bandmates
Michael Hiscock
Anne Mari Barker-Davies
, and
Beth Arzy
) returned quickly with a full album,
Fragments of a Former Moon
, that only adds more luster to
's CV. Filled with the kind of desperately sad songs that almost revel in their bleakness yet offer the listener solace through the painfully tender melodies and words, the album is a reliably glorious bummer. After starting off almost sprightly with a couple songs that have some forward motion and have
's moping vocals offset by the light-as-air singing of
(who takes the lead on track two, the spy movie-influenced and almost cheerful "The Pattern Room" and "Night Traveller" later on), the record takes a turn for the gloomy with a string of slow, sad, love-lost songs and a trio of ambient instrumentals ("Fever Dreams of Emilia," "Taking the Figure Out of the Landscape," and "Starfields") that provide a perfect soundtrack for a day spent in bed with the covers pulled over your head. As with all his projects,
's brand of melancholy on
is warmly inviting, comforting, and intimate, like a kind word from an old friend or a smile from a stranger. It's too soon to tell if
will be the equal of
's other bands, but judging from the two releases so far, it seems pretty likely. ~ Tim Sendra