Week That Was - Week That Was

  by Mark Rowland

published: 9 / 10 / 2008

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Review

The tom-heavy intro to opener 'Learn to Learn' takes The Week That Was, the latest project of Field Music's Peter Brewis, firmly into Genesis territory. It turns out that this is a really good thing, as the eight, dense, complex songs on their self-titled first album are incredibly strong and, thankfully, not too long. 'The Good Life' also starts with a thumping drum intro, before the verse kicks in. The track jerks forward, driven by the bassline, while piano and synths add stabbing chords that appear sporadically. The chorus is suitably big, bringing everything together. The jerking rhythms are a constant on the album, from the string-augmented 'The Story Waits for No-one' to the lurching stutter of a beat that propels 'The Airport Line' to its sweeping chorus. The rolling, tom-led drums are almost a constant throughout, but are put to one side for the erratically bouncing synth and xylophone-based 'It's All Gone Quiet', which comes across like one of the more interesting ballads of the early 80's. The drums are also noticably absent for most of 'Come Home', which features the kind of melody and piano playing present on Paul McCartney's best work in the late 60's, albeit with a fairly Prog rock arrangement. At the album's centre is the epic 'Yesterday's Paper', which clocks in at just over seven minutes. The track shifts between dramatic piano and guitar parts, with some synths and strings in between. It's over the top, like the rest of the album, but Brewis is a good enough song writer to pull it off.

Track Listing:-

1 Learn To Learn
2 The Good Life
3 The Story Waits For No One
4 It's All Gone Quiet
5 The Airport Line
6 Yesterday's Paper
7 Come Home
8 Scratch The Surface

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