Cinerama Holiday

They Say...

Review by Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

Along with a new album every other year, David Gedge's Cinerama has released a steady of flow of singles featuring B-sides that often rate favorably with a bulk of the album material -- anyone who has followed Gedge's career is familiar with the value he places on the increasingly neglected format. Cinerama Holiday succeeds This Is Cinerama as the second compilation dedicated to keeping all the band's non-album material available, with everything from the band's fifth through eighth singles contained. "Wow," "Lollobrigida," "Your Charms," and "Superman" -- all originally released on the Scopitones label -- were released in support of 2000's Disco Volante, which saw the band slightly toughen up its sound from the lush Va Va Voom. Again, some of the B-sides here would do nothing to dilute a good "proper" album. The closest the band gets to doing something it wouldn't ordinarily do -- a common B-side practice for many bands throughout the ages -- is the cover of the Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More." Even this song isn't too much of a departure, though Gedge is more likely to be nostalgic about a tryst than the love songs being recalled here. The rest of the songs feature the typical Cinerama fare: infatuation, lust, romance, deception, heartbreak. With many of the same characteristics popping up in each song, from lyrical content to instrumental ornamentation, it's become somewhat difficult to tell several songs apart from each other. But these are B-sides, and the type of people who hunt down B-sides tend to want more of the same, so in that respect, the disc comes through. When this was released in mid-2003, Cinerama was only one single away from having its third batch of four singles out, so another compilation like this one can't be too far down the road.