The Charlatans
1990 - 1997, can't fault that. Sniffed at by many but in reality one of the best UK bands of the 1990s, right?
- Relevant artist taggings:
- None
Thread not appearing correctly? Click here to rebuild | Report this
- In Photos: Pigeon Detectives @ The Leadmill, Sheffield
- In Photos: Hadouken! @ Electric Ballroom, London
- DiS does Primavera 2013 - Who To See?
- armchair dancefloor 39: Mount Kimbie interview, Bobby Browser, Powell, Move D, Leon Vynehall...
- Wild Nothing - Empty Estate
- Adult. - The Way Things Fall
- Thought Forms - Ghost Mountain
- In Photos: Bearded Theory Festival 2013 @ Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
Great band
and an awesome live act to. And they've released some great work since 1997 too - Us & Us Only and You Cross My Path are fantastic albums. And Tim Burgess is a lovely fella, had a piss next to him at Glastonbury in 1995 followed by a good chinwag.
*too
Id take issue with "sniffed at by many" - I don't think I've ever heard anyone say a bad word about them.
yeah they're great
and A Man Needs To Be Told is as good and surprising a single by a band more than a decade into their career as i've ever heard in my life. still recall hearing it for the first time and just staring at the radio open mouthed.
I hate Man Needs to be Told
But Charlatans are one of my favourite bands. That tune was just a step too far though. I can't figure out what i hate about it.
No, not really
cos you Brits were still on your A-game in the 90s. Lots of great, better Brit bands then.
OK, maybe not "lots". Charlatans were "merely" really good. But I shall re-visit a couple of records/songs to see if I need to revise this post.
I remember seeing them live
back in 1990, just before The Only One I Know came out, & it was already clear then that they were far more than just Madchester bandwagon jumpers - they already had the groove, the charisma and a shitload of great tunes. They've released a couple of duff albums - Up at the Lake & Who We Touch are both pretty ropey - but overall their quality level has been remarkably high for such a long-established band.
OK while we're at it, let's rank their albums shall we:
Tellin' Stories
Us & Us Only
Between 10th & 11th
Some Friendly
The Charlatans
You Cross My Path
Up to our Hips
Wonderland
Up at the Lake
Simpatico
Who We Touch
Saw them live in 96, not expecting much really.
They were absolutely fantastic.
So did I.
I lived in Austin, Tx at the time, and just stumbled upon their gig while roaming around downtown one night. They really were great - and they closed with Sproston Green, which is one of my favorites from Some Friendly.
had a bit of a Charlies phase this year
the magic of the internet led me to some awelome live boots i'd not heard before...around '95 - '97 they were sounding immense
Up at the lake
Gets a regular listening, love that record. Really enjoying oh no I love you.
Still a brilliant live band
Wonderland was their last great album for me, although there have been good moments on the other more recent records.
there's something on their wikipedia page about them wanting to record their next album on the International Space Station
Melting Pot got me into them
One of those best-ofs that makes you think, wow, these guys have put out some tunes over the years. Certainly one the great UK bands of the 90s, and it's easy to forget how popular they were - they had three #1 albums, I think - for a band who fly under the radar now.
Ratings:
Tellin' Stories
Up To Our Hips
Between 10th & 11th
Some Friendly = Us And Us Only
Wonderland
(haven't heard the later ones)
s/t is a lost classic.
it's an absolute blinder.
overshadowed by tellin' stories, which had bigger singles on, but doesn't have the groove of s/t.
i thought that the only one i know would age badly. but it still stands proud in the untouchable indie disco holy trinity alongside there's no other way and fool's gold.
probably one of the most underrated bands of all time.
Fantastic band
Us & Us Only is their best for me, but that only narrowly edges out Tellin Stories & Wonderland. Think it'd go summink like this...
Us & Us Only
Tellin' Stories
Wonderland = You Cross My Path
The Charlatans
Some Friendly
Between 10th & 11th
Simpatico
Up At The Lake
Up To Our Hips
Who We Touch
But, aside from the top 2, maybe 3, that could change on a whim..
Self titled is brilliant
Bullet Comes and Feeling Holy are among their best tunes.
wonderland
is still in my top ten albums of all time
had a massive gap in seeing them live at the bierkellar when they were selling the loking for the orange one t shirts & had nothing out & seeing them again on the last album tour
no idea why left it so long between times
singles
quick mention of the between album singles:
Me in Time and Over Rising.
Both excellent.
One To Another is one of the greatest songs ever recorded
It's an absolute monster.
One of many of their songs that are guaranteed to put a massive smile on my face every time I hear the intro.
We-ow we-ow we-ow we-ow woo
Dun-duh-DUH duh-dun-dun, duh-dun-dun-duh-der
Be my spiderwoman
I'll be your spiderman!
It's hard to knock yer
It's good to ROCK yer
Tellin' Stories
the song and the album, are both great. Honestly not really heard much beyond Tellin' Stories but I will check out some more.
I have a really irrational hatred of Tim Burgess
and i just can't work out why i dislike him so much. Maybe it's because of his consistently terrible haircuts.
he always comes across as a massive plum in interviews.
his autobiog is supposed to be quite good tho..
This lot used to be my favourite band when I was 12
Massive tunes. I have all their singles on CD - went on a bit of a shopping spree and bought all of them with saved pocket money in 1997, apart from a special edition version of Tremolo Song which I almost paid £60 for on one of those classic turn of the century 2nd hand record sites. Quite glad I didn't now, but yeah I've been getting back into the 90s records a lot recently.
I'd have to say this is my order of preference, but its all pretty close...
The Charlatans
Tellin' Stories
Up To Our Hips
Between 10th and 11th
Some Friendly
Us & Us Only
Up At The Lake
Wonderland
Not sure after this, kind of lost touch with what they were doing. Think I saw them live around 2003/4 and it was nowhere near as good as I remembered them and gave up. Are any of the newer albums worth hearing?
Also big shout out to Jon Brookes
Massively underrated drummer, one of my favourites, and a big influence on my drumming style. Hope he's over his health issues now.
Can't be overstated.
You Cross My Path
is absolutely superb. Simpatico & Who We Touch are patchy but still hold their own. A post-Tellin' Stories 'Melting Pot' would be a match for for any best ofs I reckon.
And this should be good...
http://www.nme.com/news/the-charlatans/67817
Yeah, great band
I lost touch after the self-titled, but those first four albums were quality.
Yep
And Between 10th and 11th is one hell of a minor key classic. Feels a bit like the forgotten album, so good to see people rating it so highly.
yeah
I think i once read that the Charlatans themselves don't like that one, but its lovely.
also
I was very much hoping, after they did their 20-year some friendly gigs, that they'd do a 20 year between 10th and 11th gig.
They didn't.
Sucks.
theres a great boot of them touring this in japan in '92
tim sounds very drunk!
Saw them on the 10th & 11th tour
in Lille. French friend of mine was in the support band. Charlatans were completely off their tits but it was a great gig.
But yes it is an odd album
A little bit overproduced (no idea why anyone thought Flood would be a good fit) and, apart from Weirdo, not as many memorable tunes as their debut, but it's a real grower and in my opinion one of the great lost albums of the 90s.
Listening to it now
Imagining "I Don't Want to See the Sights" self-produced, would be a shitload better. The drum sound is shit.
maybe but the sonics of it are what makes it such a unique record
lyrically pretty dark too..
Tremelo Song!!!
I never expected so much love for The Charlatans on here
I quite like them. I always felt their timing of coming to prominence was a little bit unlucky. They were a bit late for Madchester but a bit early for Britpop
The way I remember it
After a (commercially) dodgy period 1992-94 they came back with a couple of stronger singles perfectly timed for Britpop hitting the charts and mainstream. Had some Chemical Brothers remixes which hit the big beat zeitgeist as well!
One of my favourite bands
In order:
Some Friendly
You Cross My Path
Between 10th & 11th
Wonderland
Us & Us Only
Up To Our Hips
The Charlatans
Simpatico
Who We Touch
Up At The Lake
Tim's autobiography is a great read if anyone's not read it yet.
Tellin Stories
forever is a monster tune as well.
I really will have to check out some of their later period albums.
I loved Some Friendly, thought Between 10th & 11th and Up to Our Hips were okay, and I did like Us and Us Only, but that's about all I've heard. I honestly don't think I've ever listened to any of the between-album singles or any of their b-sides. Now might be a good time to revisit these guys. Can anyone recommend b-sides that I should absolutely listen to?