Knowledge isnt always of value.
Pagan Wanderer Lu is a hell of a strange name and things around the man don’t seem to get any simpler. Hailed as an increasingly influential figure on the Cardiff music scene, its hard to know if this is a compliment or an insult so it was with a fairly open mind that the ‘Perfection R.I.P’ EP was listened to.
‘The Gentlemans Game’ sounds like Belle and Sebastian, and given that the Belles slipped in a few football references on their last album, it makes the comparison a bit more immediate, however, its more for the variety and range of melody that
Its hard to tell if 2007 is really the year to have a song about bodies under your lawn, as bad news stories of the year its probably only just behind children being kidnapped but I suppose bands are storytellers of the world around them and kudos for sticking with their lyrics. However, its not all positive on the lyrical front as ‘Tree of Knowledge’ features some howling moments none more so than “the tree of knowledge can fuck my apples”, which is repeated continuously throughout so clearly someone thinks it’s a good line, so if it works for some people, then fair play but it just seems quite pointless. And its clear that Pagan Wanderer Lu has plenty to say and if you take a scattergun approach to lyrics, some will work, some wont. ‘The Black Death’ has far better lines about the modern world and if you’re into bands having a social outlook, that’s the one to look out for.
The lyrics may be mainly working but what about the music, because if that wasn’t up to scratch, you’d be as well buying a book of poetry as opposed to a record. As the EP continued, it was hard to avoid the comparison to latter-day Boo Radleys or Martin Carr’s solo output of Brave Captain. Most memories of the Boos will revolve around the pop-goodness of ‘Wake Up’ but there was a darker side to the band and as the electronica whirls and whizzes in the background, the clash of cold bleeps but enjoyable melodies works quite well. Just like the lyrical approach, theres plenty of mud getting thrown at the wall and thankfully, most of it is sticking. It’s a record to be listened to over and over because there is too much to take in one listen.