CINERAMA'S last album "Torino" was one of 2002's most overlooked gems: a record that showed (at least creatively) that indie veteran David Gedge was actually approaching the peak of his powers as a songwriter rather then shuffling off out to pasture.
Now,"John Peel Sessions: Season 2" reinforces this impression in spades, demonstrating admirably how far Gedge has come since fronting every terminal anorak's favourite band and having shoes thrown at him while he sang about being chucked by his girlfriend. Again.
"...Season 2" is a vintage selection of curvaceous pop songs by anyone's standards. It kicks off with four tracks recorded live in front of audience at London's Maida Vale studios and leaves you in doubt whatsoever that Cinerama are a force to be reckoned with.
A bouquet equal parts roses and barbed wire, these songs deal convincingly with matters of the heart and genitalia, with the enthusiastic first flush story "Your Charms" and the mature-woman-has-a-fumble tale "Apres Ski" (dig that "Forever Changes" trumpet!) threatening to take the blue riband before the orchestral delights of "Superman" ("I know what this is all about, the wine goes in and the truth comes out") sweep in as the titles come up.
The remainder of the album is made up from the eight tracks comprising Cinerama's most recent John Peel studio outings from September 2000 and May 2001, and the great news is that the quality control's again high.
The first one fizzes into action with Gedge and Sally Murrell bitching and romancing convincingly with "Because I'm Beautiful" and continues to keep the pulse racing with "Sly Curl" (minus Sean Hughes, sadly) and a surprisingly straight trawl through The Carpenters' MOR chestnut "Yesterday Once More". "Lollobrigida", meanwhile, gets the "Je T'Aime" French vocal treatment, but in honesty it was so salacious and seductive in its' mother tongue that Gedge's pidgin gallic angle only ultimately detracts.
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The May 2001 session, then, finds four tracks from "Torino" already sounding deliciously rounded and complete. "Get Smart" is a clinically framed portrait of the humiliation and betrayal people are willng to suffer in trying to keep a relationship together, while "Quick, Before It Melts" ("You haven't exactly got the kind of face that invites honesty") finds Gedge on familiar, temptation-fuelled ground and the haunting "Health & Efficiency" serenades us out slowly, sounding a note of caution and stern wisdom ("You don't realise the joy until you lose it") after all the ego games and stolen glances that have gone before.
Although this final session and "Torino" itself retain Gedge's orchestral leanings, they also provide something of a return to the visceral guitar immolation he was previously notable for, and with fiery musicians like guitarist Simon Cleave and bassist Terry De Castro on board, the next Cinerama album - likely to be recorded with Steve Albini in Chicago - looks set to continue this trend.
Until then, though, make a beeline for "John Peel Sessions: Season 2": it's smart, svelte, sexy and very sage indeed. Despite lugging heavy baggage from his past, David Gedge's muse has shrugged off the shackles and is running free into the future.
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