Charlatans(UK) C/D

i don't really care for their output after that one, haven't really bothered with later albums at all. classic rock does not fit them well, imo.

tim burgess solo is odd. linus of hollywood is a genius soft-pop dude from l.a. it's not really country as it's more or less a countrified millennium or the free design.

This album is EASILY on my top 100 of all time, probably in the top 10.

How great a line is "Have you seen my polar bear? / It's that white one over there"?

Tim Burgess has always been my favorite singer to come out of that scene, though -- even more than Ian Brown. I'm sort of anxious to hear his solo record if it's ever finished.

every hayta has to download 'a man needs to be told' at once !
only then can you say you definitely dont like them.

So, Classic.

Of course, like most people in this country, I have only heard all the singles, but they're still great pop singles.

d.

same here dan.

well if you wanna like post-dylan cobblers then fine mista perry.

You know the person at work who *always* comes out with the most *obvious* jokes, always parrots the standard line on the issue of day, always gives you 'fun' advice like 'don't do anything *I* wouldn't do'? They're not hateful, quite amiable even, but ultimately.....you'd rather do anything than have to converse with them. Well that's the Charlatans. Standard issue. Ordinary. Does What It Says On The Tin. Fuck them.

the Charlatans are nothing like that Dr C, you're thinking of Travis or Athlete perhaps.

ah re-assurance and reliability...

This is a context/ubiquity issue, isn't it? The Charlatans were never shoved down our throats over here and we weren't inundated with 800 bands doing the same thing unless we wanted to be, ergo some of us in the US have developed very different attitudes towards "the obvious targets".

Also, I think I can count the number of Happy Mondays album tracks that I've liked on two fingers, only I don't actually have any recollection of them. For a good long while Primal Scream and Happy Mondays were duking it out for Most Overrated Singles Band In The UK in my mind, but then I realized that outside of "Slip Inside This House" I thought that _Screamadelica_-era PS was irredeemable shit across the board.

the one charlatans fan i met was a very nice guy. he liked ocean colour scene, paul weller and so on but i conversed with him though i lost touch after college...for me its not to do with the fans but the music just relies so much on that organ and i never feel the others are contributing too much to the sound (this is from listening to a handful of singles, which after listening to them neevr encouraged me to go any further with it).

No, I'm thinking of the Charlatans.

I think it is a context thing, Dan, but not an ubiquity thing. Certainly a very useless thing.I mean they're not vile like Primal Scream, they're just not....anything. A bit baggy, a bit Roses-y THEN whooo! Timmy discovers Blonde on Blonde and Sticky Fingers and we get a youth club version of The fucking Rolling Stones fronted by Booby Zimmertwat. I mean did we ever need them? Why aren't people more fucking critical? They didn't even come from Manchester properly. Hell - even the Inspiral Carpets were better.

It's my way of weeding out the wheat from the chaff. The 'classic or dud' conundrum is how I have always viewed music. Snap decisions, good or bad, in or out. I don't want 'average'. I'll come down harder on 'average' than 'crap'. It's just my way - it's of no importance what I think anyway.

I was at an upscale bar tonight that I didn't willfully choose to be in with some people I wasn't particularly interested in knowing and I managed to identify after a long period of thought that the song I heard played over the PA in there was one of their absolutely classic b-sides "Occupation H. Monster". Unbelievable. Thank goodness it was finally released on CD years later in the US otherwise...

theme from the wish!

I did hear "Weirdo" a couple of weeks ago and felt inexplicably happy.

Up To Our Hips sounds awfully fresh lately. I think I underrated it upthread.

'flower' is a terrific song

Do you know why I don't have the Some Friendly album anymore? BECAUSE I AM A DUMBASS, that's why!

No! I'm wrong! I just found it in my CD stacks!!!!! WOOOHOO! POLAR BEAR IS FIRST!!

Charlie Howard is OTM.

Whoa

Download the new Charlatans album for free

Yikes, four songs in and feeling like this is gonna be worse than Simpatico.

Ned you promised to change Norwich to Northwich 5 years ago. sorry to nag and all that :-)

It's a shame the Charlatans haven't produced a truly great album - or at least one that is worthy of the accolade and reissue treatment that some of their 90s contemporaries have received.

But as others have said, they were more than just a good singles band. Most of their albums are patchy but have more good tunes on them than just the single releases.

Can't imagine there's much inspiration left in them now...but always good fun live

This album isn't bad at all, though it doesn't much sound like any particular band (i.e. it's a little bit genericly "English" sounding). Was worth the download, and includes a couple of semi-memorable tracks.

I came to the realization a couple albums ago that The Charlatans haven't been any good at all since Rob Collins died. I don't know if that's a causal link, but it definitely makes sense.

I don't think anyone is going to agree, but I find myself playing "You Cross My Path" with surprising frequency. It's not great or anything, but is pretty solid all the way through and makes for a good default play when I'm sick of all my usual favorites. Faint praise maybe, but the play count is mounting. Possibly the closest to classic rock (in terms of consistency, etc.) that I've been able to find of late. Definitely a lot of New Order in the genes.

So I'm utterly burned out on the whole "play your album complete" schtick, but I'd would like really like to see this one.

The Charlatans have announced they will play their debut album Some Friendly in its entirety later this year.

The band will perform at The Roundhouse on May 31 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the LP's release.

Tickets will be available from February 5.

man I love Some Friendly a lot

Like, there are some obviously awesome songs here (the singles, "Sproston Green"), and then there are tracks like "Opportunity" and "Flower" that just sneak up on me with awesomeness every time I come back to them.

Most of the time you are happy – you're a weirdo.

Like the earliest two, LOVE the middle three, HATE everything that came after those.

I came to the realization a couple albums ago that The Charlatans haven't been any good at all since Rob Collins died. I don't know if that's a causal link, but it definitely makes sense.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, March 4, 2008 3:16 PM (2 years ago)

I still stand by this.

I think they were good through Up To Our Hips, then they went shit.

But I absolutely love the first 2 albums.

I consistently forget about the song "Weirdo", because I never got the second album.

"Then" is great too! I can do without two or three of the songs on it but o/w I like the album a lot.

I listened to the 2-disk Some Friendly recently, and the alt. tracks were nothing special. Also seems weird that there is a special edition of this album.

The second album is the only one I owned, and it's pretty colorless.

"Then" is a full-on monster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anHPUP7O6pc

"most shaggable band"

Really dug these guys a lot circa 97-01, and I would rep for all the albums up to Wonderland. I do think "Some Friendly" is underrated - I like it the most out of the first four records. "Tellin' Stories" is brilliant though. I once had "Rob's Theme" on loop for like a half-hour.

I'm by no means a huge fan of the band: love Some Friendly and Up To Our Hips. But you know, You Cross My Path is sneakily very very good. Easy to overlook, and doesn't break any new ground, but very solid.

Kind of wonder how the new one is? I never hear about them in the news, so have to remember to check websites...

Martin Blunt = incredibly underrated bass player. For all that's deservedly written about Rob Collins, it's Blunt and drummer Jon Brookes that I love most about the Charlatans.

i like to love their first six albums including Tellin' Stories. their self titled and debut album both have excellent singles and the best album tracks "Feeling Holy," "White Shirt," "Toothache" and "Sproston Green."

Not my favourite ever, but this band were always relegated to "second-tier drab Northern band" status by the British press when in fact they were a lot more exciting than this. I love "Weirdo" (especially that organ break), "Then", "The Only One I Know" and th Us & Us Only album which I really should dig out again soon.

this band were always relegated to "second-tier drab Northern band" status by the British press when in fact they were a lot more exciting than this.

nah, that's about right

New single sounds really promising (to me, at least).

y/n?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwO6H9rTfMg

That new single is great, the best they've done since A Man Needs to be Told.

I always think I don't like this band that much but I always end getting their latest albums somehow. You Cross My Path was a bit over the top with the New Order influence but had a few great moments especially Bird/Reprise. Wonderland was their last really good album, I never get bored of him singing in that ridiculous high voice.

Overall The Charlatans is my favourite album of theirs, they've never come close to topping Crashin' in.

Yeah, I love the s/t one as well. It's probably a tie between that and Up to Our Hips for me.

that new song sounds like Sloan.

http://cdn0.virgin.com/uploads/images/story/The-Charlatans-album-review-Who-We-Touch-8740-cropped.jpg

From Amazon:
With a career that has already spanned two decades, The Charlatans - Martin Blunt (bass), Jon Brookes (drums), Tim Burgess (vocals), Mark Collins (guitar) and Tony Rogers (keyboards) - release their new album Who We Touch, on September 6th 2010. Their eleventh studio album, Who We Touch was produced by Youth (Paul McCartney, Primal Scream and The Verve) and was recorded at Britannia Row in London, on the desk that New Order's 'Blue Monday' was recorded on. Featuring eleven tracks, the album must surely rank as their boldest to date radically broadening, in places, their aesthetic remit. It is, says Burgess, "a soulful voyage", a journey through moods uplifting and profound, dark and delirious, ultimately concluding in blissful optimism. Its sound is inspired by many heroes, yet always sounds like no-one other than The Charlatans themselves. Opener, 'Love Is Ending', is the first single to be taken from the album, released on August 2nd. 'Oh!' is a beautiful song of reconciliation, as complex as its shifting time signatures (one section is in 3/4 waltz time), and then 'You Can Swim', an exquisite ooze of ambience, reminiscent of 'Another Green World'-era Eno, with whose creative ideas the album began. Lurking at the end of the album is hidden track 'I Sing The Body Eclectic' featuring Crass's Penny Rimbauld on vocals. Gee Vaucher who did the iconic artwork for all of Crass's releases, also provides Who We Touch with it's eerie collaged cover image.

Disc: 1
1. Love is Ending
2. My Foolish Pride
3. You're Pure Soul
4. Smash The System
5. Intimacy
6. Sincerity
7. Trust In Desire
8. When I Wonder
9. Oh
10. You Can Swim
11. On The Threshold (Hidden Track)
12. Sing The Body Electric (Hidden Track)

Disc: 2
1. Love Is Ending (Early Version)
2. Intimacy (Early Version)
3. Smash The System (Early Version)
4. These Things (Studio Out-take)
5. Your Pure Soul (Early Version)
6. Sincerity (Early Instrumental Version)
7. Trust In Desire (Alternate Take)
8. My Foolish Pride (Early Version)
9. Lips That Would Kiss (Early Version)
10. Who We Touch Don't Mind (Early Version)
11. Don't Know Where Or When (Studio Out-take)
12. Intimacy (Alternate Mix)
13. Throbbing Genesis (Studio Out-take)

this is actually going to come out in America one week later. it will be released on September 14, 2010 on The End Records, both the single and two disc set.

Is that a Durutti Column cover on disc 2?

Guessing the desk "Blue Monday" was recorded on is probably well-drained of hit-making nectar.

Listening to this now. Unexpectedly great... "Love Is Ending" could be a Prisoners/Thee Milkshakes track.

Yeah I just finished playing this, first impressions are this might be their best album in a very long time. I'm just addicted to Love is Ending but there isn't really a bad track.

I love the Crass connections going on -- I remember Burgess talking about being a fan of theirs back in interviews from 1990/91 so talk about flying the flag still!

Yeah, I love the s/t one as well. It's probably a tie between that and Up to Our Hips for me.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 20 July 2010 05:20 (1 month ago) Bookmark

Yeah

It's been bugging me over the last 24 hours what the second track My Foolish Pride reminds me of and it just hit me, the verse where he sings "I wander streets belonging but to no one" sounds exactly like the verse of Open your heart by The Human League. Anyone else noticed this?

I have been playing this a lot and I can't help but think it might be their best album since the self titled one. I really didn't have much interest in this album until Johnny Fever put up the new single earlier in the thread but I'm so glad I bought it, great production, songs and Tim's voice has never sounded better.

Pete Salisbury fills in

The Verve drummer Pete Salisbury has joined The Charlatans as a temporary replacement for brain tumour victim Jon Brookes.

Brookes collapsed onstage during the band's Philadelphia gig earlier this month (September 15), and has now flown back to the UK to receive further treatment for a brain tumour.

Speaking to NME, frontman Tim Burgess said Brookes's ordeal had been "a lot to take in" for the band.

"We were having the best American tour we've done for a long, long time and it was going so well and then this happened," he explained.

The band play their first show with Salisbury to launch Oxfam's Oxjam festival on Monday (September 27) at a charity shop in London. He will also perform with them on their forthcoming UK tour.

Yeesh, sad news (but good guy to have fill in). Wanted to go to the Tuesday night show down here but a cold has tripped me up this week.

i almost went Tuesday night as well. the problem was i only found out about it on Tuesday and wasn't able to get everything organized and ready to go in time.

i do hope to see these guys soon as i have had fun at their gigs.

Yah, I was going to go to the Wednesday show at the El Rey. Hope they can reschedule the west coast dates eventually

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5053/5533599301_f3a62cf5b5_z.jpg

Yes, that's Kevin Shields.

Cool.

That's Tim on the mic, right? My eyes are telling me that doesn't look a bit like him.

Yes, his hair was long and tied back. He came out on stage wearing sunglasses and looked disturbingly like late-stage Michael Jackson until he took them off.

The weirdest Charlatans-related story you'll read this week: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/kellogg-creates-totes-amazeballs-cereal-response-single-tweet-138447

Meanwhile R. Stevie Moore just posted this photo:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/521979_3322458393280_1622962720_2755191_877804424_n.jpg

I listened to Up To Our Hips for the first time in at least ten years the other day.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/59751000/jpg/_59751041_burgess_getty.jpg

I'm definitely not digging David Cross's new wig.

Anyone hear Tim Burgess's version of Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)? He hits the notes pretty well IMO.

one for the sticker

hah

"one for the sticker" remains one of my favorite snarks of all-time, I don't think there's a context where it isn't hilarious

so, at last we begin to learn about the long-term effects of ecstasy

wait, is that last picture actually not David Cross in a wig? i swear i've only just realised

yeah the David Cross thing is kind of uncanny

odd, acoustic versions of North Country Boy and The only one I know

but with new tunes

on Sky's coverage on the IOW festival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6F1cl5pwN0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj-24V1txtQ

Well this sucks. RIP Jon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23682282

Very sad.

Totally sad.
Did an instore with them a week or so before the Philly gig where he collapsed - was a nice fella. Fine drummer too.

Yeah, a damn shame. He was just the drummer for the band, great player, a little flair, never steamrolled over the band but worked with everyone just so.

At first I was like "that's sad" and now it keeps nagging at me and I'm starting to get really down about his death. Gonna listen to some more Charlatans and work through it, I guess. Rest in piece.

urm, PEACE.

Yeah it's really sad, I've read a few things now from people that met him and said he was a great guy.

I decided to throw on a few of their albums today. Started with Between 10th and 11th and will go for the self titled next (probably my favourite) The first five albums are a great and totally underrated run of albums.

Up to Our Hips and the s/t are my favorites, and Between 10th and 11th is up there as well, but I've never spent as much time with Some Friendly. I'm doing that now.

I find Some Friendly a bit more dated in places but still a really enjoyable album. It's all about Sonic and Sprosten Green at the end, two of my favourite songs of theirs.

gah RIP

always been partial to Us & Us Only, some great drum parts on there

Kinda love this photo of him.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2013/8/13/1376393627155/Charlatans-drummer-Jon-Br-008.jpg

still amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoNbrkCQfcs

Yes! I should have added earlier Wonderland is another one of their great albums and A Man Needs to be Told is the highlight, it should have been a huge hit for them.

this is sad news, RIP.

going to play their self titled tomorrow, my favorite of theirs. just counted and i actually own nine albums and a few singles by them.

the new album is dope.

God, I didn't hear a whisper about the album. Was just revisiting "Oh Vanity" (which is utterly great) and then found Modern Nature sitting on Spotify, like a forgotten Christmas present that suddenly turns up mid-year. Did anyone in the US write anything at all about this?

Tried to but my various pitches were turned down. Tim Burgess ended up following me on Twitter a while back -- very flattered, not sure why he did! -- so I've followed him in return and it seems like they've had a very good year of it.

Can't stop won't stop

https://thecharlatans.lnk.to/DifferentDaysPR

The Charlatans have released their new single "Plastic Machinery," available now for download and streaming. The song is from the band's thirteenth album entitled Different Days, due out May 26, 2017 via BMG. Co-produced by Jim Spencer, the album was recorded at the band’s studio in Cheshire and features contributions from an array of friends... from Paul Weller and Johnny Marr to crime writer Ian Rankin and writer/actress Sharon Horgan.

Fuckin' hell, this band are still going!?

The longest time they've ever been between albums has been three years. Most times it's been two, sometimes one.

https://i.imgur.com/APuBgLk.jpg

as you can see from the above pic i'm seeing these lads tonight. i have not paid any attention to them since the 90s ended. i just did some research and they now have 13 albums, that blows my mind. that they somehow have kept it together and are still releasing new music every few years. i have seen them in the past and had a blast dancing my ass off, so i'm hoping for a fun show tonight as one of my old friend talked me into going to the heart of Los Angeles tonight.

I met a boyfriend because of Up to Our Hips. I am old. Take pics.

https://i.imgur.com/4SxquT8.jpg

i had a blast for a band that is just okay. my friend was joking that the band was really tight but they need a new singer, cracked me up. the audience
was great as we were all there trying to relive the early 90s all over again. "Sproston Green" is still the best song they have done. i do wish they played more from The Charlatans as "Just When You Thinkin; Things Over" was an obvious highlight and stood out.

i looked these guys up and did you know that they now have 13 albums? good for them for keeping it going.

Yeah I am surprised they have that many albums as well.

Their last couple albums are pretty decent...

The great survivors of their scene, really. Would have seen them last Saturday but other stuff came up.

Does any 90s album by a major act, on a major label, which was a major success (a UK No. 2), have as cheap-looking an album cover as Us and Us Only?

I don't know, when was Bloodflowers released

It's from February 2000 but I had that on my mind before I posted.

If nothing else the Bloodflowers aesthetic would turn up all over the place around 2016-2020

tbf it's hard to think about these lads without the words "Happy Shopper" springing to mind

I'm not sure how it came up randomly on YouTube, but I heard "The End of Everything" for the first time in thirty years. Sounded fab.

whoa them vibes flowing from somewhere— i truly threw on dwsts because i am self teaching me some guitar and want to figure that opening guitar patch, then I immed by chance hit SNA and this thread was revived.

now on to “the sound of everything” which i cannot recall ?

also i scanned this thread and sweet jeesus 22 UK top 40s?? i need to remove my _obscure cvs singles_ posting on them

The Charlatans are definitely obscure in Centennial, CO hell it's obscure here in the Los Angeles area.

...love those first four, five, six Charlatans albums...

― Bee OK, Wednesday, February 21, 2024 10:00 PM (two days ago)

Hell of a run if you ask me, even if they are just an average band.

Some Friendly (1990)
Between 10th and 11th (1992)
Up to Our Hips (1994)
The Charlatans (1995)
Tellin' Stories (1997)
Us and Us Only (1999)

The Charlatans are definitely obscure in Centennial, CO hell it's obscure here in the Los Angeles area.

They were obscure even when Tim Burgess was living here and DJ'ing at Goldfinger's every week!

i saw them here about year ago with ride, they were p good. he looked great, pretty spry. not sure who was there for which band, but show seemed v well attended.

Funny, “The Only One I Know” just popped up on one of my Spotify mixes today. Guess they’re in the air.

These guys were a damn good band. Listening to the self titled (a big teen fave of mine) a lot lately. Tellin' Stories is really good too.

Telling Stories is GREAT, such a badass rhythm section

Still going! First track from the new album (their 14th! I marvel anew that they were the real lifers from that time/place).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9ks7jyMRE0

That video definitely has 14th album energy.
(does "Official Visualizer" mean that it was the record label who fed the 3 press photos into the iPhone Photos app to see what it could spit out?)

Pleasantly surprised by this new one! Probably my favorite since Up At the Lake.

https://thecharlatans.net/#natour

THE CHARLATANS (UK) – 2026 TOUR DATES

Apr 24, 2026 – Norwich, UK – UEA
Apr 25, 2026 – Brighton, UK – Dome
Apr 26, 2026 – Bournemouth, UK – O2 Academy
Apr 28, 2026 – Cardiff, UK – Tramshed
Apr 29, 2026 – Nottingham, UK – Rock City
May 1, 2026 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy
May 2, 2026 – Sheffield, UK – Octagon Centre
May 3, 2026 – Newcastle, UK – O2 City Hall
May 5, 2026 – Aberdeen, UK – Music Hall
May 6, 2026 – Edinburgh, UK – Corn Exchange
May 15–16, 2026 – Granada, Spain – Degusta Fest Armilla †
Jul 24, 2026 – Emo, Ireland – Forest Fest Music Festival †
Aug 6, 2026 – Herefordshire, UK – Lakefest †
Aug 29, 2026 – Wellingborough, UK – Roseshire Festival †

US:

Sep 3, 2026 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory ^
Sep 4, 2026 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium ^
Sep 5, 2026 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
Sep 7, 2026 – San Francisco, CA – The Castro Theatre
Sep 10, 2026 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
Sep 11, 2026 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
Sep 12, 2026 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
Sep 16, 2026 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
Sep 17, 2026 – Chicago, IL – Park West
Sep 19, 2026 – Detroit, MI – El Club
Sep 20, 2026 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall
Sep 21, 2026 – Montreal, QC – Fairmount Theatre
Sep 22, 2026 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
Sep 23, 2026 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
Sep 25, 2026 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore Silver Spring
Sep 26, 2026 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel

† Festival Appearance
^ w/ The Dandy Warhols and Special Guests TBA

The lifer status of these guys still impresses me, honestly. Hoping I can make the SF show.

Pete Salisbury of The Verve has been playing drums for them for awhile now. Going to try to make that Santa Ana show

That seems like it would be a great fit, Pete definitely can get that baggy breakbeat feel for instance

He was solid with them live when I last caught them three years back.

I bought tickets and am psyched

Good to see them kicking off with a hometown gig.

I saw The Charlatans with The Dandy Warhols at the Fillmore in San Francisco around '97, so the Tellin' Stories tour. Zia McCabe went top less that night and I was totally transfixed. Couldn't keep my eyes off of her, such beauty.