The Charlatans:
Different Days:
BMG:
LP/CD/DD:
Out Now:
The poignancy of the title tells just part of the story - since The Charlatans burst onto the local Manchester scene in the late '80s with the often overlooked Indian Rope single. Times changed a year later when The Only One I Know earned them a hit and an instant career in music.
Given recent events in their home-city and the gradual dissipation of the physical side of the music-industry in the past twenty years or so, these are indeed Different Days. But it's a testament to Tim Burgess and co that through the thick, the thin and the heartbreaks, The Charlatans can celebrate 28 years in existence with another (their 13th) solid album.
It would be too lazy to describe Different Days as a bleach-blonde summertime album but the opening Hey Sunrise is the musical equivalent of a new start, a new day and a cocksure stroll along a warm sandy beach in the Balaerics. Languid and unmistakably woozy with psychedelia, Hey Sunrise is a great start to an album that by turns misses out on propulsive anthems like Weirdo but is triumphantly jammed with the sort of laid-back winners that have peppered albums like Wonderland or 2015's Modern Nature.
The title-track is gorgeous and, along with Not Forgotten and the perky Plastic Machinery, belong in the band's own hall of fame. What sets Different Days apart from previous Charlatans albums is the inclusion of short interludes and vignettes that glue the set together like a story, to be listened to as a whole rather than extrapolating tracks as highlights or playlist choices. If I was forced to single out a single, the elative Let's Go Together has all the wide-eyed hope and optimism we need in these (difficult) different days.
Perhaps the band's most accomplished LP since Wonderland, Tim's reached another peak with the contemplative yet stellar Different Days.
9/10
Different Days:
BMG:
LP/CD/DD:
Out Now:
Given recent events in their home-city and the gradual dissipation of the physical side of the music-industry in the past twenty years or so, these are indeed Different Days. But it's a testament to Tim Burgess and co that through the thick, the thin and the heartbreaks, The Charlatans can celebrate 28 years in existence with another (their 13th) solid album.
It would be too lazy to describe Different Days as a bleach-blonde summertime album but the opening Hey Sunrise is the musical equivalent of a new start, a new day and a cocksure stroll along a warm sandy beach in the Balaerics. Languid and unmistakably woozy with psychedelia, Hey Sunrise is a great start to an album that by turns misses out on propulsive anthems like Weirdo but is triumphantly jammed with the sort of laid-back winners that have peppered albums like Wonderland or 2015's Modern Nature.
The title-track is gorgeous and, along with Not Forgotten and the perky Plastic Machinery, belong in the band's own hall of fame. What sets Different Days apart from previous Charlatans albums is the inclusion of short interludes and vignettes that glue the set together like a story, to be listened to as a whole rather than extrapolating tracks as highlights or playlist choices. If I was forced to single out a single, the elative Let's Go Together has all the wide-eyed hope and optimism we need in these (difficult) different days.
Perhaps the band's most accomplished LP since Wonderland, Tim's reached another peak with the contemplative yet stellar Different Days.
9/10