It’s been a somewhat staggering thirty-five or so years since This Is Our Music, Galaxie 500’s third and final studio record, first appeared. In the subsequent stages of his career, singer and guitarist Dean Wareham has amassed a sizeable, diverse and reliably consistent body of work – with Luna, as half of Dean And Britta, under his own name and via various side-projects.
Consequently, the collection is a confluence of many things that Wareham has explored over the best part of four decades in his chosen trade, subtly framed and augmented by Kramer’s sonic toolbox, along with the input of Gabe Noel (cello), Roger Brogan (drums) and Anthony LaMarca (drums) and the ever-adaptable Britta Phillips (bass / vocals). Collectively, the gathered contributors help yield ten tracks — consisting of eight new originals and two typically well-chosen covers — that are wide-angled yet intimate and layered but uncluttered. The outcomes are sumptuous and elevating, in varying combinations.
Hence, we’re lifted right from the start with the chiming languor of “You Were the Ones I Had to Betray”, before gliding through the rest of proceedings. Along the way, this leads us across the dreamy harmony-soaked meanderings of “Mystery Guest”; the soaringly majestic highlight of “New World Julie”; the waltzing warmth of “We’re Not Finished Yet”; the spaced-out ruminations of “Yesterday’s Hero”; the gently rueful and rhythmical title track; an utterly lovely take on Nico’s lesser-known “Reich der Träume”; and the lush symphonically-tinged finale of “The Cloud Is Coming”.
-Adrian-