Here's the Come Home EP review from last months' excellent Mick Middles piece in the Quietus:
Does Mike Finney own the great lost voice of modern music?
The second EP, Come Home furthers that outrageous claim. Here Perrin's song-writing has gained the depth of age. The downside is that this comes at the expense of that lovely old naiveté but, well, that's nothing if not a perfectly natural progression. 'Lost' is a pure pop gem, written by Perrin under the New Zealand sun. Again there are huge blocks of silence built into the production. If only 'Nobody's Perfect' had been gifted such treatment. The lyric will take you nowhere in particular – is a simple existential expression – but you can forgive that and ruminate on the fact that almost nobody is making pop music like this any more. At least in 'Nicole', a girl is ushered swiftly to the spotlight. Only in the glorious sprawl of Nick Halliwell's 'Oil Painting' are the realities of the band's advancing years appear to be approached. "You may not be an oil painting..." sings Finney which, I strongly suggest is not something anyone wishing to retain manhood status should ever say to a lady of any age and, frankly, all is not retrieved by Finney's level admission "...and neither am I." Nevertheless, and at the risk of encouraging the wrath of Steve Perrin, it is my personal favourite of the six songs on these two remarkable EPs.
For Mancunians of a certain age, witnessing the unlikely return of The Distractions will provide a touch of unexpected hope. The fact that, despite the band being scattered around the globe, they have appeared in better shape than even warped nostalgia might allow, is simply stunning.
The hope is that Occultation can succeed where Island failed. That is – to state the obvious – to link this to the audience that yearns for the touch, the warmth and, as we began, for the soul in the darkness of punk. The great lost band of Manchester are back.
(c) Mick Middles at the Quietus
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