We all have them. Albums bought on the wave of a trend. While trends appear to come and go, these albums remain; gathering dust on our shelves, nestled at the bottom of the stack, whilst the current vogue is on repeat in your CD player. Once in a while, you tire of this year's releases, and yearn for a touch of nostalgia; a chance to remember what you liked about a particular record, and wonder if it has stood the test of time. Has it reawakened your enthusiasm, or have you finally got closure to a part of naive youth and calmly moved on?
This feature will give us an opportunity to find out. To begin, my first choice some would argue is a particularly unfashionable one in the current climate.
1. Del Amitri - Some other Suckers Parade
Once described by Steve Wright on TOTP2 as "Looking like University Lecturers"; The Dels did not really trouble the charts with last album "Can you do me good?" despite having a belter of a first single in the Chirelles inspired "Just
Picture the time. Simon Mayo still on Radio 1. OK Computer, The Colour and The Shape and Urban Hymns (OK, maybe the last one's a bad example) all broke to eventually become the respective bands' best albums, and TFI was still entertaining before it descended where TOTP and anything involved with Simon Cowell now dominates. SOSP was the follow up to the Dels' americanised "Twisted", which had some decent radio-friendly songs. "Here and Now", "Roll to me" - their most played song on radio, among other uplifting tunes were packaged pristinely with the assistance of regimented, but successful producer Gil Norton, who was also responsible for production duties on Pixies records, and The Colour and The Shape, before working more recently on Feeder's most commercially successful albums.
So listening to it again, does it still hold up, and am I glad I bought it? It begins nicely enough with first single "Not where it's at"; boasted a Crossroads intro (the motel, not the Britney Spears flick) and then rocked unceremoniously, but characteristically Dels, as Justin Currie laments he is not fashionable for his former squeeze. His last hurrah as the Scottish Phil Lynott and still a great tune. At the time, it went in the singles chart at no. 19. They fared less well with the title track. Written as a sermon of Justin's atheism, it was mimed on Jack Docherty's show on Channel 5, and that was it. Not played on radio, and refused entry into the top 40. Medicine suffered the same treatment - catchy enough, but followed the same pattern as the first track, as did the title track and "Won't make it better".
Finally, in Track 4 we see Currie's softer side. After wrenching out the Blues on the first three tracks, "What I think she sees" is a showcase for Currie's classic lyrics. It has your heart melting; offering the first sympathetic ahhh of the album, and the perfect riposte to "Not where it's at", but without the ferocity. The Celtic Blues don't always work on this album. "High Times", "Cruel Light of Day" and "Funny way to win" echo that belief; the latter coming off like a duff version of 'Sweet Home Alabama.'
With the ballads, their better. Mother Nature's Writing, No Family Man and Through all that nothing make Currie's and lead guitarist Iain Harvie's harmonies the star. The Stylistics soul starts to seep in, that would eventually engulf the band on the under-rated "Just Before you Leave" four years later.
We then finish with arguably the three best tracks on the album. Just edging the first track, "Life is Full" is the most light-hearted negative song you are likely to hear, with a unison outro crying to be emulated by McFly (with greater success the more likely and saddening outcome). It could easily have been the Theme tune to the Scottish version of Friends, had a series ever been commissioned. Our first foray into C & W produces the shining star of the album. "Lucky Guy" allows you to step in the shoes of the suitor to your girl. You debate why your bird has gone off to have an affair with a married man; a cheating husband with the nice wife, and nice kids but wants more. Anger, frustration tears and sympathy came out first time I heard this song, and it still reaches on many levels. Final track, "Make it always be too late" is a dark twisted portrayal. A brooding, want-away desire to be isolated away from all the trappings of success. The PR attention, media celebrity and price paid of TV coverage obliterated from your life. Allowing yourself to dictate life at your own pace again. It succeeds where the darker parts of Travis' "12 memories" just about come off.
As an album, it sold fairly well in the charts. This was a period for them when they produced some real pearlers, not least the B-sides. "Sleep instead of Teardrops" was a touching precursor to the equally solemn but hopeful World Cup song, "Don't come home to soon". It made it as a single in Australia, but was just a B-side here. "Before the evening steals the afternoon" was also a prime example of class Dels' harmonies, gliding over a melodic piano part temporarily replacing the edgy guitars.
Well, as an album it may not be the most fashionable thing to listen to at present, but for good songwriting, there aren't many out there that still sound this good.
Craig Aston.
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