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The Charlatans' 11th studio album, 20 years on from their classic
debut Some Friendly (which they performed live earlier this year), reveals a
band that has lost its way.
Although Who We Touch is a bit better than their hugely disappointing
previous album You Cross My Path (2008), it still falls well short of their
earlier output which made The Charlatans one of the top bands of the
'90s. A string of strong albums in which they reinvented their sound
several times, from their original Madchester Hammond organ days to more
rootsy Rolling Stones-like guitar rock, Bob Dylan-esque folk, soul and even
reggae, showed the way to experiment without losing consistency. Now it
seems they've finally run out of ideas.
The muscular single Love Is Ending is a misleading opener as it promises
a harder-edged sound which never materializes. Beginning and ending with a
thrash of metal and featuring Sex Pistols-style guitar chords, this
punk rocker about a terminal relationship ripples with anger, but proves to
be a one-off on an album which is more mellow than menacing.
With its softer, more conciliatory mood, My Foolish Pride is a Motown
soul-tinged pop song with a catchy chorus and pizzicato strings, while Your
Pure Soul is downright self-condemning as the singer confesses "I'm tired of
myself trying to control your pure soul", amidst laid-back string- and
organ-accompanied melodies.
The aggressive lyrics of Smash The System are echoed by the insistently
hard drum beat, though what the singer is annoyed about is obscure as he
moans, "I don't belong here in your garden, I should be up there on your
throne". The repetitive, slightly funky beat of Intimacy drones on with
front man Tim Burgess just about managing to stretch his voice from a low
throatiness to soaring falsetto.
The excellent Sincerity is a bit of a return to The Charlatans' earlier
Hammond-driven style with a punchy, shouted out chorus, even though the
tedious succession of rhymes with "sincerity" includes such ridiculous lines
as "I find atrocity in your monotony". However, Trust In Desire and When I
Wonder are both instantly forgettable.
Oh! stands out from the other tracks on the album, with its moodily
atmospheric circular guitar and electric piano motifs and an unexpected
lurch near the end into Kurt Weill-like fairground music. Plus Burgess gives
his most expressive vocal performance as he romantically warbles, "But we
don't know how to say goodbye/Sighing lightly underneath blue skies/But in
my dream we are invincible". But the Brian Eno-esque You Can Swim,
with its ambient waves of distorted sound, washes over you so gently as to
be soporific.
The 'secret' extra track I Sing The Body Eclectic features the singer
from anarchist punk band Crass and performance poet Penny Rimbaud. Its
spaced out music and lyrics are weirdly unsettling, as much to do with
Rimbaud's apocalyptic tones as the cryptic content of the words: "Oh, those
magical moments of mind/Conjuring ideas of space/That we might wander as
entities/Every bit as much disturbing as disturbed." Sorry?
Though the band sound in reasonably good form and the album shows how
much Burgess has developed as a singer over the years, overall the songs
themselves are just not strong enough. The Charlatans don't touch us this
time.
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