The Wake
's second album is so much better than their first, 1982's
Harmony
, that the earlier album may safely be forgotten, or at least thought of as a painful growing lesson.
Here Comes Everybody
, which, like the Glasgow quartet's name, is derived from
James Joyce
's Finnegans Wake, is a lost treasure of mid-'80s U.K. indie pop. Bandleader
Gerard "Caesar" McInulty
's
Byrds
-via-
Bunnymen
guitar is pushed more to the forefront than ever before, even as his breathy voice is pushed so far back into the mix that his melancholy lyrics are difficult to distinguish.
Steven Allen
's drums and
Alex MacPherson
's bass are equally low-key, finally allowing the band to once and for all escape the
Joy Division
-wannabe tag that had plagued them ever since their first single, "On Our Honeymoon." Dark-hued but not gloomy, the eight songs on
are musically varied enough to keep from sounding too samey. The wistful "Melancholy Man," with its gliding melody, artless vocals, and jangling guitars, sounds like a template for
Sarah Records
, the influential U.K. indie label
the Wake
would eventually sign with; the summery, melodica-driven "A World of Her Own" recalls early
Prefab Sprout
with its rare duet vocal by keyboardist
Carolyn Allen
. However, it's the closing title track that's a particular standout. A seven-minute epic with a hypnotic guitar riff and an air of quiet menace, "Here Comes Everybody" is a brooding meditation on lost love with a tightly wound, contents-under-pressure edge that threatens to explode but never quite does. It's a most impressive end to a surprisingly excellent album. ~ Stewart Mason