Album Review : Wild Nothing - Gemini
- Written by Jim Merrett
Openers can be tricky. Typically, it pays to be confident, ballsy and begin with a statement of intent, not to shuffle in offering some sort of apology. And yet the fade-in that ushers in ‘Live in Dreams’, the first track off Wild Nothing’s Gemini, sets the tone perfectly. It’s understated and a bit groggy, but it tells you that like the bespectacled geek at school, this is an album that will always grow up to be more interesting than the popular kids.
Indeed, Gemini hangs heavy with the funk of a lone man in his bedroom, and that man would be 21-year-old Jack Tatum, the face behind the “band”. You can imagine some well-meaning friend or family member telling Tatum he should get out more without realising he’s exactly where he needs to be. The place where most of us are happy to sleep or, um, get intimate is instead a factory where he’s knuckled down and churned out this softly-spoken gem of an album.
And his dedication to the meat and potatoes of his art means he’s had little time for all the distractions that usually come with this business. For a start, there’s no social networking – his web presence is minimal. You might stumble upon his makeshift MySpace page, but you’re more likely to find a Wikipedia entry on a retired NFL player with the same name.
Once part of outfits Jack and the Whale and Facepaint, you could deem Wild Nothing to be a side project, although it feels nothing of the sort. Tatum has clearly thrown his lot into this, but while being left to his own devices could have him headed down that pesky singer/songwriter path, this is more like the work of a one-man band.
Belonging to a generation of American souls lost in a dense fog of miserablist 1980s British guitar music, here you’ll find the odd Johnny Marr-like twang and the self-esteem issues that repeated listens to The Cure can bring. There’s also something of The Shins at work, only stripped of their sense of humour and quirkiness – this is played deadpan, straight down the line. Even his much-lauded version of Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’ is covered with tenderness and sincerity. Tatum isn’t in this for laughs.
You imagine that this otherwise low-key release has received more than it’s fair share of attention because it comes off the back of a string of recent releases that have plugged into that C86 vibe. But stuck in his own bubble, Tatum seems oblivious to passing trends, making this is an album that really stands out.