Two Lone Swordsmen - Wrong Meetings CD

Tracklist
1 Patient Saints
2 Rattlesnake Daddy
3 No Girl In My Plan
4 Puritan Fist
5 Nevermore (That Just Enough)
6 Wrong Meeting
7 Evangeline
8 Work At Night
9 Get Out Of My Kingdom

Wrong Meeting' is, as Andrew Weatherall puts it, an 'extension' of the Two Lone Swordsmen’s last album, 'From the Double Gone Chapel'. 'Extension of certain parts' would perhaps be a better way of putting it. In the three years between the releases, Weatherall & Tenniswood’s interest has swung towards the sung voice and live drums and guitar at the expense of electronic beats. In more fully embracing the guitar (which Weatherall has played since he was a wee nipper), TLS have also embraced much of the iconography and classic themes of rock n roll. Out goes most of the brooding fuzzy and effects ridden tracks that made up much of 'From the…'. In come songs built around lyrics about pale riders, devilish temptresses and one way rides to Satanville. The problem is there's no impact or, in the words of The Kills, no wow. It’s partly because each way you turn there are artists who do what they are trying to do, only a lot better. If you want tales of morality and death from the American West then Johnny Cash is your man. If you want dirge-like sleaze then The Jesus and Mary Chain win hands down. Even Sons and Daughters rock better than the fast tracks such as 'No Girl in my Plan'. 'Wrong Meeting', unfortunately, sits somewhere in between them all - and doesn't better any of them. The most loveable track on the album is the last one, 'Get out of my Kingdom', and a large part of that is because it sounds like TLS are enjoying themselves. For the first time on the album, Weatherall puts some humanity and joy into his voice, giving the track a knockabout charm that compliments Keith Tenniswood's melancholy guitar very well. 'Wrong Meeting' never really disproves the rule that bands formed by DJs aren’t as good as when they stay behind the mixing desk. David Holmes' Free Association, for example, never really hit the spot his compilations did. It's fitting, then, that TLS' best song, from their first album, is still 'Sex Beat' – a cover.