It's to his credit then that Only A Boy sounds as far from the Northwich boys as possible. This is a lovely, uplifting single that skates along in a similar manner to Badly Drawn Boy's Disillusion, with a clipped guitar sound and brass section giving the song a nicely sunny feel for these dark winter months.

Burgess' falsetto, which was so successful on the Wonderland album, does become a bit irritating here, but overall this stands head and shoulders with the best of The Charlatans' output. The ill-advised venture into reggae on the B-side track Wait 'Till The Sun Shines Irie is rather less successful though.