Shed Seven, The Centre of My Everything: Single Review

Opening with a string figure evoking that riff from The Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ being fed through George Martin’s 1969 mixing desk, Shed Seven’s latest single ‘The Centre of My Everything’ (taken from their eponymous seventh album, out in January) sets out its unashamedly nostalgic and anthemic stall from the first bar. Frontman Rick Witter’s vocal delivery has lost none of the unadorned clarity of the band’s golden days but at least some of the more thoughtful and understated youthful swagger that distinguished him from his contemporaries of that era has now given way to a self-knowing melancholy and maturity redolent of Ian McCulloch.

Lush, cinematic orchestration, celestial harmonies and straight-to-the-point indie guitar breaks accompany the uncluttered ‘love is all’ message and, if you added a handful of smouldering brass lines to its unhurried and brooding 4 minutes 41 seconds, you wouldn’t be thought unbalanced for including it on a Bond theme playlist.