Valerie and The Week of Wonders is a good name for a band. It is now and it was way back then when this band was nearly on the next bus to the charts. However, fate, as she always has been, was a fickle mistress and they became yet another band who never got to their desired destination but, in their here and now of bus passes, Valerie and The Week Of Wonders are once more taking us on a journey with their album “Rhythm of Lies”.
Back in those days when their native Coatbridge was rather less of an advert for dereliction than it is now, Valerie and The Week of Wonders displayed that curiously Scottish talent for taking whatever musical style happened to be popular at the time – post punk in their case – and respraying it in their own colours. As that statement might well imply, there is a certain art school sensibility evident that persists even into their songs of today and that edginess that comes with youthful expression of discontent has, with the onset of maturity, been neatly polished into eleven songs that, whilst more jingle jangle than angular, still sound like they could be children borne of the rose tinted world of yesterday.
Those who fondly remember those halcyon days of questionable haircuts and mandatory attitude will surely find much in this album that will invoke memories of long lost glories whilst those whose ears are younger than yesterday will find evidence to remind them, once more, that music existed long before the computer did and, back then, said music could be found on any street. Even on the streets of Coatbridge.