The Distractions were the great lost band of the new wave era. Factory single legends, one rated and feted album, a batch of classic songs and an awful lot of “Whatever happened to?” And now they’re back. It’s been a while and there have been hints. Some unreleased songs from the 1990s, a definitive and definite first-time reissue of their back catalogue – but now this. The first all-new record from The Distractions since the back end of time. Three brand new songs, guitars by Steve Perrin, vocals by Mike Finney.
There’s Lost, a Perrin classic. Steve describes it as “a real toe-tapper with a lyric in which a bloke contemplates the pointlessness of his existence.” There’s Nicole, a majestic song about a girl in the great Distractions tradition of majestic songs about girls. And there’s the only non-Perrin/Finney song here, Nick Halliwell’s Oil Painting, a song that nevertheless continues that old “Nobody’s Perfect” feel.
“When the planning started for the possible new single", says Steve Perrin, “Mike and I had a discussion, the gist of which was that the Distractions in 2010 could sound any way that he and I wanted.” And that sound, brilliantly, is the sound of the 2010 Distractions – guitars and vocals from men who have worked the popface long and hard, but losing none of the soul and vitality that they brought to their earliest work. With Liverpool production and California mixing by Nick Garside, Come Home is only the second Distractions 12” EP, but is very unlikely to be the last. With the Nothing compilation on the slipway and a new album being planned, The Distractions have not so much come home as been indoors, scrubbed up and got ready to go out again. The Distractions are here again, and Come Home is only the beginning.
David Quantick, 2010
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