There’s been an awful lot of good stuff coming out recently – maybe it’s something to do with the age of isolation – but the new single ‘The Perfect Scene’ by Sydney’s The Wednesday Night has ever so gently nudged its way forward to take its place as one of my favourite releases of the year so far.
There is undeniably a sweet, melancholic reverie about the single, but it also seems to perfectly capture an air of the swinging sixties – Emma Peel, John Steed (the real Avengers), thick black mascara, tweed jackets, E-type Jaguars and a chilled Martini. With a superglue-like melody and an air of studied insouciance, this is an absolute delight. Listing influences as diverse as the Ronettes, The Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett and Iberian folk (I must look that up), The Wednesday Night have captured celestial, ethereal shoegaze/dream pop perfection on ‘The Perfect Scene’.
The accompanying video, directed by Andrew Lancaster, is a nod to Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ as a crime is carried out with a wickedly dark sense of humour and a great deal of panache. The video is expressly marked as being filmed during the Australian Covid-19 lockdown whilst adhering to social distancing regulations. It’s the new ‘No Animals Were Harmed’ label for the times:
The song ends in an unresolved outro which leaves you suspended, like a classic sixties TV series cliff hanger, which serves only to increase your desire to begin the track again from the start. And so on ad infinitum. It just deliciously shimmers from beginning to end.
You can get the single through all the usual download sites or direct from the band below:
The Wednesday Night are duo Laura Murdoch and Rob Young and the single is put out by Half A Cow Records – a very much adored institution in the Australian music scene for as long as I can remember.
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