Back on Form

One should be honoured and excited at the prospect of casting an opinion to the public on a Charlatans album.

This is one of the most important and consistently excellent bands to come out of Britain in the past two decades, and they deserve our ultimate respect for even still being here, after an often torrid ride which has taken in addiction, varying sales, and worst of all the untimely death of a founder member, keyboardist Rob Collins in 1996.

But this is a band who seem genuinely to love making music, and this 10th studio effort You Cross My Path is surely testament to that. The trouble is, that in spite of their longevity and past brilliance, they have a great deal to prove this time around. Their last album, 2006’s Simpatico, was not far short of woeful - with the exception of album opener Blackened Blue Eyes, it was a turgid take on dub reggae. No further explanation required on its shortfalls. So could The Charlatans regain form and, with it, that hard earned respect they’d rightly accrued?

In short, yes. This is a vastly superior record in every way. This band has always pushed themselves to create new sounds, and more often than not the gamble has paid off - Simpatico was an exception. This time, they have borrowed the spirit of late 80s nights at the Hacienda and dragged them into the now with a flair that most bands would kill for.

Joy Division/New Order are represented on a grand scale, with driving drums and subtle synths forging massive tunes that are built for the live stage, like The Misbegotten and the outstanding Bad Days. Tim Burgess’s vocal talents are showcased perfectly too - such is the uniqueness of his tones, that the band could play anything, and it would still be unmistakeably The Charlatans. It’s a great performance, and it’s backed by a band at the very top of their game.

An indubitable return to form. Thank goodness for that.