The Wedding Present 'Crawl' (RCA, 1990) (mp3)

The Wedding Present are probably the band I've seen live more than any other over my gig-go-ing career, driven mainly by adolescent proximity to their adopted home town of Leeds.

Even though they went off the boil afterwards (IMHO), the run of albums from 'George Best' to 'The Hit Parade' will always be special to me. Above all, it's the achievement of 'Seamonsters' which I hold in the highest esteem. Guitar-mangling skree replaces the look-how-fast-I-can-strum approach to great effect and it's an expressive record with a real sonic range.

The EPs around the time were all-killer-no-filler too. On the '3 Songs' EP (lead track 'Corduroy') was 'Crawl' which leads with a crystalline acoustic guitar strum. Light and airy, it's anchored by a dirty bass part before the chorus layers in the distortion and ups the momentum.

David Gedge delivers a restrained, almost muttered vocal and the track has a nice balance of sweetness and menace that puts it up there with the likes of Buffalo Tom, Dinosaur Jr and the best of the US indie-rock-ers of the time.

Download The Wedding Present 'Crawl' (mp3) (Mediafire)