Don't you say you want me to stay now
You've got to get away

As someone who's had to blow up a very productive collaboration because he felt it was the only way to go, and threaten a long-standing friendship in the process, I deeply sympathize with Kevin Whelan's decision to finally give up on waiting for his bandmate. But I'm sad that we'll probably never get more music from The Wrens.

The account by Hugo Lindgren in the NYTimes of The Wrens' (almost certain) breakup story is a must-read for anyone with a passing interest in collaborative creation. It's also gut-wrenching for anyone who had been waiting for decades for the follow-up to "The Meadowlands" (I remember tweeing excitedly at the band when they announced its completion... back in 2014). This story manages to be both very rock-n-roll (creative differences!, royalties!) and the opposite of rock'n'roll (Kevin Whelan's LinkedIn profile might have the most corporate headline you'll read this year). In a way, it's a fitting end note for a band that had never been quite like others.

The good news is that, while the half of the album we got from three-fourth under the name Aeon Station isn't quite The Meadowlands it contains at least 4 or 5 really great rock songs. Plenty enough to make you wonder what could have been. But also plenty enough to enjoy in their own right.