simonh

I was under the mistaken impression that The Charlatans were just another Manchester band hastily thrown together during the Madchester supernova of the early ’90s.

How wrong could I be?

Firstly, they formed in the West Midlands before later becoming associated with the Madchester scene. Secondly, they’d been around since the ’80s.

OK, some of the tracks here still have that Madchester sound, but by this point they were clearly broader than that. These are properly constructed songs, with plenty of layers and some excellent musicianship, all held together by that great Hammond organ bubbling away underneath.

Rich and heavy in places, melodic in others, this is a fine album.

The vocal reminded me a little of Marc Bolan in places, but that’s about as far as the comparison goes.

Everything here feels incredibly basic — the songwriting, the arrangements, even the performances. Most of the tracks seem to follow the same sparse formula, and after a while it starts to feel less like a finished album and more like someone sitting down with a guitar and making it up as they go along.

There’s a certain charm to that kind of simplicity, but for me it wore thin very quickly.

I couldn’t wait for it to end.
1½

More like palatable telephone hold music than something I’d want to actively listen to.

I happily played it through twice while I was working and hardly noticed it was there. Totally inoffensive. Barely registers.

I've heard of them.
I recognised a track.
Everything else was a reasonable listen.
Perfectly adequate.

One of the granddaddies of what the press would soon insist on calling Britpop (although I have no idea why).

And it was a pretty strong firstborn.