Throughout 2022, The Wedding Present’s ‘24 Songs’ series saw the legendary indie band release two new tracks a month as double A sided 7”s, ultimately creating a much-sought-after box set. David Gedge has now re-curated full-length versions of all twenty-four tracks for a new compilation album that will also comprise five bonus recordings including one featuring The Wedding Present’s first guitarist, Peter Solowka.
‘24 Songs’ was a doff of the cap to The Wedding Present’s ‘Hit Parade’ project of 30 years previous. That series proved to be a real milestone for the band with them becoming only the second-ever artist to achieve twelve Official UK Top 40 hits in a calendar year – at the time something that only Elvis had achieved!
David Gedge says: “When it came to compiling the ‘24 Songs’ album, I decided not to sequence the tracks in chronological order. With six sides of vinyl, you have six ‘beginnings’ and six ‘ends’ to play with, and I felt that the opportunity to build some kind of a musical journey was too good to miss! Listening back to this collection, I have to say that I genuinely believe that, for this project, The Wedding Present have recorded some of the best tracks in our history. I loved releasing the singles, but it’s satisfying to have them all rounded up together.”
“The idea of releasing another collection of twenty-four tracks did initially seem quite daunting,” admits David Gedge in the deluxe-CD sleeve notes but, with Jon Stewart (also of Sleeper) having joined the band at the end of 2019 and their subsequent writing partnership flourishing, he began to feel confident that they would be able to produce a year’s worth of music. And, with one of the UK’s most influential independent record labels by their side in Clue, a key partner to EMI North who will be distributing the record - there was no looking back.
The Wedding Present - 24 Songs
24 Songs
1. I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You
2. Memento Mori
3. That Would Only Happen In A Movie
4. We Interrupt Our Programme
5. We Should Be Together
6. Strike!
7. Science Fiction
8. Summer
9. Each Time You Open Your Eyes
10. We All Came From The Sea
11. Monochrome
12. Kerplunk!
13. Don’t Give Up Without A Fight
14. X Marks The Spot
15. You’re Just A Habit That I’m Trying To Break
16. Plot Twist
17. Whodunnit
18. A Song From Under The Floorboards
19. Telemark
20. Astronomic
21. Go Go Go
22. Once Bitten
23. La La La
24. The Loneliest Time Of Year
5 Songs
1. White Riot
2. Panama
3. Jump In, The Water’s Fine [Japanese Edit]
4. We All Came From The Sea [Utah Saints Remix]
5. Teper My Hovorymo