Dead Flowers – Midnight At The Wheel Club

I’ve always had a problem in that a customer would buy The Savings and Loan album and come back wanting “something as good”. I would give them the Star Wheel Press album and they would come back again. Sometimes it would be the other way round but always at that point I had nothing in a similar vein “as good”. Lots of great albums but I knew what they meant. 

Finally I have a third album. Lyrically as strong as its two predecessors and if there is a flaw it is that the vocals are pretty much an exact cross between Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. No bad thing but it does seem to be getting picked up by the press.

Musically it ileans more towards Americana and Star Wheel Press but lyrically it evokes a feeling very much like The Savings and Loan do so well.  There is a back story a la Bon Iver with songwriter and vocalist Ian Williams starting writing in the winter of 2011 underneath Coney Island’s Wonderwheel, an ancient ferris wheel which still spins to this day, and working his way up the east coast eventually reaching Montreal where he spent long nights at The Wheel Club “until the spring came and the snow melted”. 

I came to this via a tip from Ed Jupp of 17 seconds and you can listen to the album here http://17seconds.co.uk/blog/