The Delgados C/D

New album Universal Audio out end Sep. Anyone heard it yet?

Where's the information on this? Allmusic.com has naught, and the Mantra website gives nothing either. New label? Website? What now?

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), September 25th, 2003.

Partially to see if this opinion held up, I downloaded a slew of Delgados stuffage recently and have been listening to things as I go through all the other things I've got to hand to hear. Some earlier effort of theirs bounced off with little memory other than guitars, but I'm listening to Hate...and honestly I still don't think much of them except/because of the fact that when the first song started I immediately thought, "Did Dave Fridmann produce this?"

And of course he did. I'm not sure whether this means Fridmann's sound is now utterly generic or that the Delgados are generic or both. (But I adore the new Low so there we are.) That the song "Hate" makes me further think of "Evil Will Prevail" is maybe another point again.

Still, good Mr. Swygart is absolutely OTMFM on this point -- this beats the shit out of the fucking Polyphonic Spree. I don't know if I'll ever need to hear Hate again but at least I'm listening to it straight through.

"Hate" was overproduced and it SOUNDED overproduced (this is not a criticism, btw). Every second of the album was a second spent thinking "wow, this string section is really slapping me across the face". OTOH, "TGE" was also overproduced but it managed to not sound overproduced most of the time. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but perhaps it does to those who are familiar with both albums.

I realize this band's important to a lot of people, especially good Mr. Swygart, scholar and gent. But basically a lot (not all, but a lot) of it just immediately made me think of late period Mercury Rev (Deserter's Songs is really where they end for me) meets the MASSIVELY overrated Godspeed. Everything sounds midpaced, trudging, drama-by-rote...not feeling it, sorry, and the two singers leave little impression with me (to pick a not entirely random contrast, Chris and Carla in the Walkabouts -- a band that I think have experimented with orchestrations with far more success for me -- have much stronger, more distinct voices first and foremost).

The most positive thing I can say is that had this record come out back in, say, the mid-nineties, I might have been more inclined to like it -- whether that says something about my state of mind then or how the tropes they use have already become overfamiliar I don't know. But it didn't and hearing it in 2005 is too little, too late. I'll listen to that new one as it's in the queue as well but I have no hopes.

Please, make it so...

Imagining Sugababes covering "The Drowning Years". Actually, "Girls Of Valour" would probably work!

Ned, did you ever hear Universal Audio? I didn't really gel with the Fridmann-y orchestrations on The Great Eastern or Hate (and like you also mentioned, loved The Great Destroyer unreservedly and still do), yet I think Universal Audio was the best record the Delgados ever did make -- more or less, it was their straightforward 'pop' album, and a top-ten of 2004 album in retrospect.

so, whaddya think of it?

I probably heard it in that binge of listening a couple of years back. And as I didn't comment on it I must have thought little of it to even talk about it!

'Coming In From The Cold'======oNE OF MY FAVE SONGS.

I've got a love/hate relationship with the Great Eastern / Hate axis; on one hand I think (most of) the songs on each are terrific, with Emma particularly on form, and the arrangements are greatm stirring, etc. On the other, Friddman.

Stephen OTM, "Universal Audio" was the best Delgados album.

it was and they knew it, and the fact it didn't make them megastars was the reason they split up iirc; to put so much energy and innovation into making their best album, by a country mile, which was also their most accessible album by far, only to be met with public indifference must have been most dispiriting.

"American Trilogy" has absolutely gorgeous verses---oh, that melody! oh, the "no one, I mean no one" part, and the way it paints the melody stepping down (yes I am being impressionistic). But the chorus isn't up to the verses' standard. Fridmann is not the problem, really, although the drum sound annoys; I'd be interested in hearing the song in a different mix to be sure. The chorus doesn't soar as it ought; it doesn't resolve any of the verses' tension, nor does it set up new tensions (I'm talking about the music; I'm not sure what the lyrics are going on about---what is the American trilogy in question? who knows, who cares). But I can't get the verses out of my head.

Hi everyone--I'm a longtime ILM lurker who finally decided to register in order to share an interview I recently conducted with Paul Savage, former drummer for The Delgados. Hopefully fellow Delgados fans will find it interesting:

http://lightoflostwords.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/an-interview-with-paul-savage-of-the-delgados/

(You may also like the long appreciation I wrote of the band's music: http://lightoflostwords.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/peloton-the-great-eastern-and-hate/)

Let me know what you think...

Best,
SCP