This article originally appeared on November 11, 2015 at the since-defunct Rake & Herald, out of Cornwall. I had conducted a group interview with the chaps of The Practical Lovers sometime prior at my old Lottery Party webzine, and had continued to follow their career as fan and long-distance ally (aren’t they all?). For all my more recent critical thinking applied against purveyors of the arts, theirs was and perhaps remains an example of the rare exception wot moved me aside from my own imaginary borders. In previous writings of lifetimes gone by I only dabbled in music journalism, but the wordplay to this honestly touched me when fate’s twisting of daggers brought it gurgling forth to mind. I am not remotely kin to promoting anyone or anything here, but I do think and feel that this band is worth more than all the folks who have asked me to use this space for flattery of any stripe, by neither asking for or expecting it.
Practical Lovers
By guest editor Richard Caldwell
There comes a point in just about every music aficionado’s life when they really ought to pull back and evaluate what the hell they are so flaming enthusiastic about.
Jack Wiles and Mark Connell, who together form Practical Lovers, care enough to make that self-awareness a visceral thing to uncover and behold.
GIGGING LIKE MADMEN
Now, while Practical Lovers have been around for some years, gigging like madmen around their day-jobs and the like, Wiles and Connell were each in other bands prior and are both in fact multi-instrumentalists, which is more than can be said for any American politician.
Together, they have created and crafted an audio ethos with aims of bringing truest Romanticism back into the modern spheres of bar-hopping meat markets and social networking break-ups.
Especially now through the release of Agony, their new full-length LP available through I’m Not From London Records.
Jack Wiles swings lead vox and keyboards, breathing life into sombre lyrics where listeners are wistfully compelled to dust themselves off and head back into that house party to give the one-who-got-away something to dance to.
Simon Gallup was the Mark Connell of his generation, with Practical Lovers’ man ‘o strings deftly out-classing pretty much everyone you will hear on the radio today.
A KNOWING INVOLVEMENT
Agony betrays the standard-bearer of corporate models, refusing to include any B-sides or filler material.
The songs thoughtfully and skillfully showcase a stunning breadth of adroit whimsy and many-layered nuance, covering virtually every aspect of the modern relationship, from first eye contact made to discerning whether or not to attend the funeral.
But while much of the album’s content can be on the morose side of things, it is a knowing involvement, in fullest appreciation of what could have been and what should have been and what in truth always was and that’s actually fine after all is said and done.
This is a soundtrack for embracing memories, for laughing at them and crying over them and for grabbing a new dance partner and willfully beginning the whole crusade of a charade anew.
For the creation of new memories.
Because sex is easy, whereas finding a real partner in crime is positively not.
Learn more via Bandcamp and to really whet your whistle, check out this morbidly happy-go-lucky music vid for Inside Job, the first single from Agony.