106: One True Pairing - Frozen Food Centre
Since Wld Beasts called it a day back in 2017, both their two lead voices have crafted out solo careers, with Hayden Thorpe releasing under his own name and Tom Fleming sharing now three full-length efforts under his One True Pairing moniker.
Led by his distinctive and unruly baritone, Fleming always added a dense and enigmatic sense of drama to Wild Beast's songs, and his bewitching depictions of strange scenes from strange towns remains an ever-present thematic vein through the beating heart of his growing solo catalogue.
His latest album, released last week, is Endless Rain and it offers a darkly skewed and beautifully composed version of his aforementioned signature sound. Recorded in Dublin with producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy (Lankum, black midi, Caroline), Endless Rain weaves a rich tapestry of instrumentation, awash with strings, trad influences, bountiful melodies and moments of sweeping grandeur that might well be his most engrossing work to-date.
The stand-out moment is the hypnotic seven-minutes of Frozen Food Centre, a monumental song that feels at once both delicately intimate and richly extensive. With its roots in early Wild Beasts material, while also touching upon the romantic but downtrodden works from the likes of The Blue Nile, early Elbow, and even the lamplit loneliness of an Edward Hopper painting.
With tender, poetic references to reservoirs and airports, old paths down new roads, the ghosts in the aisles of the frozen food centre, it depicts the feeling of torn nostalgia, of trying to get back somewhere that no longer exists, in ways that feel as moving as any of the myriad songs that have gnawed away at similar themes over the years.
Here, under Fleming's wisened and watchful eyes, the result is remarkable. Steeped in atmosphere, weighted down by the intensity of the sentiment, it's both stirring and deeply affecting; a lonely walk through midnight mist, back past the places you once called home.
The spaces between things grow ever bigger
Faces in puddles, reflecting forever
Under bright white lights,
we do what we have to
Endless Rain is out now, via Domino
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