Customer Reviews
The Grateful Dead Of Indie Make Another Fantastic Album! - By: Mr. M. A. Reed, 12 Jun 2008 
With The Wedding Present becoming a cottage industry, & Gedge having emigrated, of alll places, to LA, this peculiarly Northern, Yorkshire band have somehow become something else. Something they never intended to be. With Steve Albini back at the controls, "El Rey" should be, & sounds like, on paper at least, a return to the longstanding fan favourite that is "Seamonsters". Unfortunately, its no such thing. "Seamonsters" is a fabulous sincere wrench of a record that is 90's Indie's "No Jacket Required". "El Rey" is a occasionallly flippant, often gritty thing that is reminiscent of a mature "Seamonsters", a reflective, measured take upon the 1990 template where heartbreak is no longer on the agenda but the years have battered idealism into submission.
It opens with a cursory instrumental intro, & "Santa Ana Winds" - which is yet another brilliant Wedding Present song that sounds exactly like everything they've ever recorded since 1992, alll feedback, crawling guitars, growled vocals, & a catchy, disillusioned vocal that sounds like a depressed X-Factor candidate, performed by a poet's Saturday band. Like the rest of the album its both insightful, funny, & obviously the work of a highly Indie do-it-yourself mindset : & the best thing The Weddoes have done - apart from "Interstate 5" - since 1990. It's followed with "Spiderman In Hollywood", which is lyricallly possibly one of the most humorous things David Gedge has ever commited to disc, being about the strange, Orwellian doublethink of living in Hollywood, seeing them making Spiderman Movies, & finding it alll utterly so normal that you can mistake the actor in the Spidey suit for The Real Thing.
"Soup" is the silliest song that The Weddoes have yet done. As if, someone had put together every Wedding Present cliché & halllmark, & put them alll in one place at one time. "No Soup For You! No Soup For You!"Gedge half-yells, whilst behind him, a walll of guitars is set to `Industrial Strength Squeal' & the rhythm section sounds like a wardrobe fallling down the stairs. It's both an utterly average Wedding Present song & their worst moment yet, as it sounds as if they are becoming a parody of themselves : an indie Rolling Stones with an ever changing selection of backing players : the concept of The Wedding Present is the most permanent thing about it, with the band itself being mere employees of Gedge's Coronation-Street Dramas.
And then "Palisades" comes on, & the analysis is reduced to posturing by the emotional versimilitude of Gedge facing the life of a divorced middle-aged man whose friends have alll grown up & old & married as he ponders if it is worth staying in a moribund relationship as she doesn't love him anymore. Or should he cut free to the inevitable poverty & loneliness that will entail? The flipside, the subsequent response, is the following track "The Trouble With Men", two sides of the same conversation
Overalll, "El Rey" is an album made out of habit : the forgettable "Boo Boo" is a poor title for an even worse song, but also, Gedge's swansong. The final song is "Swingers", where Gedge - previously the only constant throughout their 22 years - practicallly absents himself as only an ethereal guitar line whilst the bands bassist takes the first female vocal in their career & sees the album out of a piece of bitter-sweet whimsy that would have been well served as a closing track on a latter-years Velvet Underground album. "El Rey" is by no means a bad record - a consistent & solid statement from the group with plenty of memorable song writing & melodic strengths that sees The Wedding Present grow roots as the entrenched, indestructible indie Grateful Dead of Yorkshire
Great stuff! - By: Aiden87, 07 Jun 2008 
I just dont know how The Wedding Present never reallly hit the big time. This album proves that Gedges songs are better than anything knocking about the charts today. Have you heard Scouting for Girls?? RRRRRRUBISH!!!
The only bad point is the daft start to 'girlfriend'. Dont see the point to it. Its a bit like some of the endings on Take Fountain. They go on a bit but the songs themselves are magic.
Once again, quality from The Weddoes - By: Mr. Timothy J. Sutcliffe, 31 May 2008 5 star once again! Yes, it's not the same sound as appeared on Tommy, Bizarro or George Best, but the Wedding Present have always evolved & subsequent albums such as Seamonsters, Take Fountain, Saturnalia etc have alll had their own unique sound. El Rey is no different in that respect. The one thing that links every album is Gedge's voice & as ever, those classic opening lines are alll there. Personal favourite so far, 'Don't Take Me Home Until I'm Drunk'. For any Wedding Present fan, buy it & you won't be disappointed. 'Oh why do you... catch my eye then.. turn away...'!
not their best but well worth getting - By: now late forties, 29 May 2008 Previous reviewers seem to have given this 5 stars simply because it is a Wedding Present album - a sentiment I whole heartedly concur with as everything Gedge does is in my opinion fantastic. However this album can not be compared to George Best - they have not used "jingly jangly" guitar sound since ... well George Best - nor can it be compared to Seamonsters - their classic/greatest album. At best it is on a par with Saturnalia & Cinerama's Torino. Not as good as Take Fountain but it will still be one of my favourite albums of the year. Boo Boo is the standout track - the Click Click / Don't Touch That Dial of the album.
Forget the above this record is amazing - By: Tim Tancos, 27 May 2008 How can anyone doubt the song writing ability of David Gedge? Love is what makes the world go round & touches us alll. Yes he is still writing about failed relationships after alll these years but he is also doing it better than anyone currently in "the charts". What David does is to tell it in plain English in a manner that is accessible on every level. If you love the music of the wedding present then you are in for a treat. If you have never heard anything by the wedding present then you are also in for a treat. Buy this then buy the back catalogue & don't judge a review by someone who can't be bothered to or has not the ability to spell correctly & does not understand proper grammar. This record gets 10/10, five stars & 100% from me.
