A Certain Evening Light

A Certain Evening Light seemingly strives to be Trembling Blue Stars' Louder Than Bombs, but unlike that great Smiths collection, Robert Wratten and company's stab at B-side glory suffers in comparison to their traditional releases. What makes it most clear that these 17 songs are B-sides is that a number of them linger in extended instrumental closings. Furthermore, not every track feels complete or polished enough for album inclusion. Still, the band's inherent atmospheric charm fills many a gap, leaving less room for complaint, particularly since the album's purpose is merely to collect the band's rare and increasingly hard to find singles. If these aren't the band's finest moments, the album certainly has a sense of cohesion that holds it together. Wratten's songwriting depends so much on mood that it would have been nearly impossible for a B-side collection not to gel. But with this reliance on mood, if too many of his songs get stuck in a cumbersome groove or a boring tempo, they can bring an album as a whole down, something that's rarely the case in the band's discography. Sadly, it's the case here. Though it is a cohesive release with its own merit and occasional songs that peak through the clouds, newcomers should still seek out all the albums in Trembling Blue Stars' back catalog before delving into this collection. Die-hard fans will appreciate having all of these B-sides on one platter, but it would be a rare occasion that they'd choose A Certain Evening Light over anything in Wratten's discography for a desert island disc.