Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
Peel Sessions [CD-single] [Import]
Songs for Silent Movies [Enhanced] [Import]
Rock and Roll With Piano, Vol. 9
Myths And Hymns (1998 Off-Broadway Cast, Originally Saturn Returns) [Cast Recording]
Los 100 Mejores Boleros de la Historia V [Import]
Amazon.com
Quavering Hammond organ? Check. Sixties-throwback guitar riffs? Check. Climbing bass lines? Check. Ecstasy-blessed dreamscape that branded nearly all music coming out of Manchester, England, in the early '90s? Check again. With each new album, the Charlatans peel away the layers of hypnotic haze that enveloped their landmark debut, Some Friendly. Us and Us Only, their sixth studio release, reveals the core of the band's influences with greatest clarity. The opening track, "Forever," lives up to its name, an epic seven-and-a-half-minute free-wheeling tributary of free-association psychedelia. But after that, the jams are lifted nearly verbatim out of the Rolling Stones' proverbial songbook. The reigning "Madchester" champs don roots-rocker hats, as lead singer Tim Burgess occasionally works in his best Bob Dylan impression, the wah-wah gives way to twangy hooks, and piano and harmonica fill out melodies. Us and Us Only is an archetypically derivative album; but the honesty in its production has resulted in the Charlatans' most enduring collection. --Beth Massa