‘All The Pretty Flowers’ is the magnificent lead single from the hotly tipped Whales in Cubicles forthcoming debt album ‘Death In The Evening.’ The album itself is out on 10th February 2014 via CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH records with the single arriving a week before, on 3rd February.
On this track there’s a hint of Stephen Malkmus combined with the poetic storytelling of Evan Dando. It’s a song that addresses feelings of emotional disengagement, of observing the world as an outsider. Lines such as “….Friday mornings 9 am/ along the narrow street/ all the actors in the world are slamming doors behind them” and “in the night the kids are screaming/ and all the prostitutes are kneeling down for the love… of men” lend an almost ‘Catcher In The Rye ‘ quality to proceedings. A tangible sense of trying to find meaning amongst fake emotions, apathy and phoney actions. Yet despite the haze of beautiful melancholia it’s a tune that is not completely devoid of hope, although the songs narrator states “I could sit down for hours/look at all the pretty flowers fade away/I could watch it from a distance/ could erase myself from existence” it’s delivered in such a way to suggest that redemption may yet be attained, that all is not yet lost.
Then again it could merely be a song about Monty Don’s continuing disillusionment with Alan Ticthmarsh’s baffling popularity. You decide, or better still, get a long to a gig below and ask the band yourself.
Gigs
01/02/2014 – Night & Day, Manchester
05/02/2014 – Cookie Jar, Leicester
06/02/2014 – Moles, Bath
07/02/2014 – The Prince Albert, Brighton
13/02/2014 – Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, London
14/02/2014 – Sixty Million Postcards, Bournemouth
15/02/2014 – Start The Bus, Bristol
17/02/2014 – The Joiners, Southampton