THE CHARLATANS 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: ***B-STOCK: Slight surface marks ***


The Charlatans self-titled fourth album gets a lovely yellow make over for this reissue on Beggars Arkive. It's the first time for over 20 years new copies of this landmark album have been pressed, and Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road has taken care of the excellent mastering. The original release date was in 1995, and the album was the most ambitious of the band's career with plenty of number ones included along the way. The most successful of these of course was 'Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over'. It's a real piece of classic 90s indie that will always sound good.

Review: If there's ever a way to get up close, or perhaps just personal with a band it's through a rarities album, which arrives 30 years after they landed on the common conscience. A Head Full of Ideas is that record from The Charlatans. A heady brew of jangly-but-heavy rollers, for the uninitiated it clarifies what a gig would entail, for the disciples it only proves their point. This was and still is one of the most vital acts of the Britpop era, and you don't need 'One To Another', and it's rallying calls to action, to prove that.

Kicking off in 1990, the work here doesn't so much progress as evolve, and at the same time stays reassuringly familiar. The sort of rock and roll music that tells you what it is up front, and then proceeds to defy expectations. A fitting album title, it delivers blow after blow of exceptional UK indie made at the peak of the scene, and makes it clear The Charlatans were never, ever fucking about.

Review: The Charlatans self-titled fourth album gets a lovely yellow make over for this reissue on Beggars Arkive. It's the first time for over 20 years new copies of this landmark album have been pressed, and Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road has taken care of the excellent mastering. The original release date was in 1995, and the album was the most ambitious of the band's career with plenty of number ones included along the way. The most successful of these of course was 'Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over'. It's a real piece of classic 90s indie that will always sound good.

Review: Between 10th and 11th, the second album by The Charlatans, was s certified classic at the time and has fared well over the years. Beggars Arkive's newly expanded reissue contains the original full length plus remastered tracks from the frequently bootlegged live show the band played in Chicago in 1991. It is a real Holy Grail amongst fans and next to the original record, which landed in 1992 with huge and standout singles like UK Top 20 hit "Weirdos" plus other singles "Tremolo Song" and "I Don't Want To See The Sights", it is a vital purchase for fans old and new.

Review: Far from a band happy to play to the gallery and appease their still-enormous and loyal fanbase, The Charlatans remain a band intent on moving forwards rather than harking back to baggy glories past. 'Different Days' may be bolstered by a starry list of guest contributors, including Johnny Marr, Paul Weller and members of New Order, yet what comes through clearest is this band's vivacious spirit, leading them through dreamily melancholic songcraft, effervescent grooves and melodic curlicues imbued with timeless and buoyant spirit. A band with a portrait in the attic in extremis, volleying forth with their finest work in all of two decades.

Review: Having battled through a variety of trials and tribulations in recent times, including the loss of drummer Jon Brooks to cancer in 2013, The Charlatans sound both reflective and re-invigorated on Modern Nature, an album that manages to both underline their status as am outfit both possessed of a unique charisma and more than capable of surprises. The mood may be melancholy on occasion, but Tim Burgess' vocals have rarely sounded more heavy-lidded and charming, nor the band more vibrant and effervescent. Far removed from the baggy or Britpop tags that have dogged the band over the years, Modern Nature is a spirited and warmly-hued modern psychedelic masterclass. (Gatefold 2LP edition includes CD of album)