The Album Review Club - Week #145 - (page 1923) - Tellin' Stories - The Charlatans

Bit of an odd one for me this. I was expecting to really really like this but it didn't quite click for me. There is a literacy to much of the song writing and the quality is apparent as is the foundations laid for other bands to come. The playing is enjoyable and the production is ok, but more of that in a moment. So I'm not that sure why it didn't fully hit the mark and why I even found it a bit pedestrian at times.

The vocals are not exactly in my wheelhouse but they are not so anathema that that is a big problem though I do agree with Gornik that they are more exposed on some tracks. Don't get me wrong I did really like songs such as O My Soul, Back Of A Car, She's a Mover and September Gurls. I just felt that as an album at times it ran out of energy. I wonder if the bands that have since build on this template have, through technology, been able to put more of a 'sparkle' on this type of music that wasn't available in 1974 and therefore it suffers slightly in comparison?

Though I had many similar feelings about it to Rob I think there's enough in there for me to justify a 7/10.

More importantly for me, though I'd heard the name Alex Chiltern I wasn't really familiar and I've now had a bit of a
wander around some of his other stuff which I'll continue to explore. It nearly tempted me to score this even higher but that's cheating.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
So a subjective "like" is one thing for sure. But novelty and the importance of innovation and influence is another.

The best combo is when they work together, but I am willing to give extra points to records that did things first whether I "like" them as much as other records or not. That will be the case here. Makes me definitely want to review Wire's "Pink Flag" even though many here would howl in anguish!

But granted one could call my wisdom received if I am pre-disposed to like something because I know it was a major influence on what came later.

That said, my abhorrence of Radiohead also would tend to say I can be coldly objective when the aesthetic grates on me and/or when I feel other artists have been malevolently influenced by cynics (or the "influence" was actually copied from another band before them -- i.e. Pink Floyd -- and isn't in the least original).

Yes, I am trying to bait you fuckers into nominating R-head!! :)
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I think originality and innovation is an entirely legit basis for adding points, sometimes it's hard to drop out of the present and try and put yourself back in the time and place when something was new. This is a good case it point, there were multiple moments where I thought , ah that reminds me of a less shiny version of xyz, but trying to remember and recognise that it's the other way is hard.
 
threespires said:
I think originality and innovation is an entirely legit basis for adding points, sometimes it's hard to drop out of the present and try and put yourself back in the time and place when something was new. This is a good case it point, there were multiple moments where I thought , ah that reminds me of a less shiny version of xyz, but trying to remember and recognise that it's the other way is hard.
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It is difficult, but if we take it to it's logical conclusion, we ought to be out searching for the group of cavemen who first banged two sticks together and set all musicians on their current pathway.

(Feel free to insert your own Status Quo-related joke here).
 
RobMCFC said:
It is difficult, but if we take it to it's logical conclusion, we ought to be out searching for the group of cavemen who first banged two sticks together and set all musicians on their current pathway.

(Feel free to insert your own Status Quo-related joke here).
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You now have me wondering which came first as a form of proto-music..some form of vocalising that wasn't simply for practical communication or some form of percussive activity or something completely different from either?
 
threespires said:
I think originality and innovation is an entirely legit basis for adding points, sometimes it's hard to drop out of the present and try and put yourself back in the time and place when something was new. This is a good case it point, there were multiple moments where I thought , ah that reminds me of a less shiny version of xyz, but trying to remember and recognise that it's the other way is hard.
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Totally. A few albums that blew me away at the time, and were like nothing I'd heard before, now just don't have the same effect, on anyone listening to it for the first time.
 
While I can understand how some might find this a bit off-putting for a power pop record, and an influential one at that, it’s the off-kilter-ness and tempo changes and faux sardonic lyrical bent that gradually becomes more and more honest and bare as the record goes on that makes it unique. To me this is one of those unusual records that gets better as it goes on.

Paradoxically, I am a fan both of 1) records which bounce around from style to style and tempo to tempo, or 2) which are consistent song to song in their groove and hooks because the artist knows how to produce one/them. This record falls more in camp 1, and I can understand the complaints about the some of the tempos being a little too slow.

That said, I didn’t especially love the Grateful Deadiness of “O, My Soul” the way some of you did, but I will brook absolutely NO dissing of “I’m In Love With A Girl”, which is a masterpiece that invites comparisons with “Blackbird” as an acoustic number and should have been double its length (a cynic might argue this means Chilton doesn't know his own strengths I guess).

On the remainder, I think we can agree more -- “September Gurls” is an absolutely wonderful song. A gem even. I also really liked “You Get What You Deserve” and “Back of a Car”, and ex-the throwaway of “Morpha Too”, I found all the remainder quirky and enjoyable enough that I happily dove back in repeatedly over the course of the week. But I found myself gradually moving to “Gurls” and “Girl” over and over at the expense of others.

How does this compare to “No. 1 Record”? Well, it’s definitely quirkier and more doleful, but deeper and more realiz(s)ed too. I think the best songs here are better but “No. 1” more sprightly.

Put all this in context though – for the early 70s, this was a morph between what and where the Beatles came from and America, with a teeny touch of “safe” Velvet Underground, and no hint of hippie (save the opener) or mega-stage rock or psychedelia. It’s not proto-punk, but you can see why it was so influential in post-punk circles.

In a lot ways, it reminded me of a follow-up of the more serious stuff on Todd Rundgren’s “Something/Anything?”, a magnificent record that I won’t post here solely because it’s a double. Alex Chilton and his mates aren’t as silly as Todd, but maybe had they stayed together and had a decent label, they could have put out more pop as good as or better than some of his rather than just a few tunes.

I am giving this an 8/10 because of its consistency, and because of the greatness of two tunes (with most of the rest at least good), and call it a bit above an 8 because of the novelty factor (but not enough for a 9). Great selection once again from @bennyboy!
 
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FogBlueInSanFran said:
While I can understand how some might find this a bit off-putting for a power pop record, and an influential one at that, it’s the off-kilter-ness and tempo changes and faux sardonic lyrical bent that gradually becomes more and more honest and bare as the record goes on that makes it unique. To me this is one of those unusual records that gets better as it goes on.

Paradoxically, I am a fan both of 1) records which bounce around from style to style and tempo to tempo, or 2) which are consistent song to song in their groove and hooks because the artist knows how to produce one/them. This record falls more in camp 1, and I can understand the complaints about the some of the tempos being a little too slow.

That said, I didn’t especially love the Grateful Deadiness of “O, My Soul” the way some of you did, and I will brook no dissing of “I’m In Love With A Girl”, which is an absolute masterpiece that invites comparisons with “Blackbird” as an acoustic number and should have been double its length (a cynic might argue this means Chilton doesn't know his own strengths I guess).

On the remainder, I think we can agree more -- “September Gurls” is an absolutely wonderful song. A gem even. I also really liked “You Get What You Deserve” and “Back of a Car”, and ex-the throwaway of “Morpha Too”, I found all the remainder quirky and enjoyable enough that I happily dove back in repeatedly over the course of the week. But I found myself gradually moving to “Gurls” and “Girl” over and over at the expense of others.

How does this compare to “No. 1 Record”? Well, it’s definitely quirkier and more doleful, but deeper and more realiz(s)ed too. I think the best songs here are better but “No. 1” more sprightly.

Put all this in context though – for the early 70s, this was a morph between what and where the Beatles came from and America, with a teeny touch of “safe” Velvet Underground, and no hint of hippie (save the opener) or mega-stage rock or psychedelia. It’s not proto-punk, but you can see why it was so influential in post-punk circles.

In a lot ways, it reminded me of a follow-up of the more serious stuff on Todd Rundgren’s “Something/Anything?”, a magnificent record that I won’t post here solely because it’s a double. Alex Chilton and his mates aren’t as silly as Todd, but maybe had they stayed together and had a decent label, they could have put out more pop as good as some of his rather than just a few tunes.

I am giving this an 8/10 because of its consistency, and because of the greatness of two tunes (with most of the rest at least good), and call it a bit above an 8 because of the novelty factor (but not enough for a 9). Great selection once again from @bennyboy!
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Really need to start making an effort to put my reviews up before you. Because you often leave me with little to say. Have a whole thing about albums that jump between moods!
 
I'm getting a bit tardy on submitting reviews here, apologies to anyone who thinks I don't do their picks justice. My 16 hours a week job seems to spill over a bit more than it should. So it goes I suppose...

I had to keep mentally checking, Big Star, haven't they got some sort of mythical status as a band whose flame shone very brightly for a short length of time. I think they've always been on my list to check out without ever having got round to it. I had in mind they were some sort of rock pioneers. So not what I expected. And a check on wikipedia suggests a slightly bigger catalogue and more longevity, just, than I had thought.

I was overall a bit underwhelmed with this but there's probably a lot of truth in whoever it was that was saying that if I'd heard it before a number of the bands they had influenced it might have sounded better. As it was coming to it as I did they could almost sound derivative as it is at worst and just another indie band. Either way they are better than that to be fair.

I did find the vocals not too compelling but some of the tunes very engaging. It's always a good sign when my wife asks "who is this" (in that interested rather than what the fuck sort of way) and she's more of a mover than I am and she certainly moved to some of this.

I can't bring to mind standout tracks, probably if I'd given myself time for another listen this morning and made notes it's at that stage of seeping into the consciousness where something will stick. But obviously there are some better than others. I'm likely to keep this and also to listen to the rest of their stuff, not as a great new discovery but certainly as someone I can put on when I'm in one of those not sure what to listen to sort of moods and know that this will be eminently listenable. Ask me again in a month or so when I randomly scroll through and out it on and hear it with "fresh yet familiar" ears and I think it might score higher, that is often the way with me but for now it's a 6, but probably one of the more promising 6s I've given out.
 
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