Monday, April 28, 2014

Song of the Day # 101 -The Charlatans

'What are you sad about,  everyday you make the sun come out,
even in the pouring rain,  I'll come to see you
and I'll save you, I'll save you.'
 
Not typical of the stuff I generally post on here but I have good memories of this. With all the fuss about anniversaries of Britpop in the media recently it's been a bit shocking to revisit some of those records. I made the mistake of listening to thirty seconds of The Seahorses' Law of the Land yesterday. The Charlatans were British and were releasing records but weren't really at that particular party, they don't get a single mention in John Harris's book about the scene. Perhaps they do well not to be thrown in with it all. Most of it hasn't aged well.
 
I very much like this, and a lot of the album it comes from, Tellin' Stories though I haven't listened to either for years. It has a hard won swagger. Quite beautiful guitar break. The band had lost keyboardist Rob Collins during the sessions for the album. It's title tips it's cap to Dylan and musically it seems much more immersed in American influences than British ones. The video shows them wandering round New York. They mooch around a corner store for a minute or so for no apparent reason. Tim Burgess moves throughout in the way only musicians from around the Manchester area seem to move. It seems to be about male friendship as much as anything else.

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